Has it been quiet around here?

Hello fellow crafters! Bones here! I know, I know... Bones, you ask. Who's Bones?

Well, yes, I have been very, very, insanely quiet recently... but I have a good reason! And that reason is that I've been up to my eyebrows in crafting and networking and posting and selling my jewellery! Yep, that's right! In these times of economic difficulty and unemployment, I decided (with lots of help and good advice from good friends) to start Autumnal Skies, my jewellery persona, to start selling some of my crafting!

 

It's not been easy, and it's definitely been slow-going, but slowly and surely, I'm getting the word out there and people are looking at my work! I've been very lucky to meet some amazing people along the way too, and I'll be writing a 'Shop Spotlight' post every other week (in collaboration with Munchkin, who will be doing the other weeks!) about some of the fantastic people I've met so far!

 

You might also wonder, what's with all the photos?

 

Well, to make up for my lack of craft talk on here, I thought I would take the opportunity to bombard you with some of my work so far...

 

Most of which appears to be earrings...

 

Which is really bizarre as I don't wear earrings! But I seem to be able to make them more than anything else right now, so who says I can't!

 

I am trying to branch out more into necklaces and bracelets... slowly but surely, so watch this space!

 

I'm also hoping to do more work with semi-precious gemstones and sterling silver chain so that those of us that can't stand silver-plate because of the nasty reactions we have to it don't feel left out. But I do make sure that ALL of my earrings are on Sterling Silver earwires! No manky ears here please!

 

I've also recently gotten more interested in Polymer Clay jewellery and I'm currently experimenting with Millefiori cane techniques, so that's going to be another branch that I'll be getting into soon!

 

Other than that I've been promoting my work wherever I can...

 

All of my work is availiable for purchase on Etsy

 

You can also find me and my work on Facebook

 

I'm ALSO around on Twitter!

And if I've not scared you all off with all of that, then do feel free to swing by the website for Autumnal Skies here where I post updates every so often about my crafting and other items I want to share with people! Never fear, I'll still be around on here for general craftiness mischiefery though!

Goodness me! So... now you know why I've been so quiet! Is it any wonder...? Happy crafting!

All images are copyright of Autumnal Skies and may not be copied without my (Bones) written permission.

Starry earrings

Bones here! Long time no see! So, I thought it was about time I took back the spotlight ;)

Well what I bring before you tonight my fellow crafters are earrings I made for one of my housemates from university last Christmas.

For these you'll need:

- Earring hooks
- A length of fine chain
- Headpins
- Beads (I used a star bead, two smaller clear oval beads, and two rounded beads as you can see, but these can be anything you want to use - I'd tend to keep your 'accessory' beads (i.e. the oval ones) smaller than the 'main' bead (i.e. the star)
- A couple of what I would call 'spacers' - the silver bits below each star bead
- Jewellery pliers - I used round-nose and thin flat-nose pliers

First off, I measured the chain to each length I wanted. I decided to try and get each piece a different length so that the star bead would stay the main focus and be accentuated by the oval beads. This was fiddly, but if you can keep your patience it's worth while! You need to remeber as well that the beads will hang longer than the chain and will have a small drop from the actual ear (because of the hook!), so it's always a good idea to hold the chain up to your ear just to see how long it might end up!

When you have your 3 lengths (for one earring - 6 for both!) you'll need to start assembling your beads. On your longest piece you'll want your feature bead. Get a headpin and place one 'spacer', main bead and a round bead on it. Bend your headpin to create a hook and then place through the end link of the chain. Carefully keeping this link in your 'hook' bend the wire around your round-nose pliers to form a loop so that you have a couple of millimetres between the bottom of the loop and the top bead. Take the end of the wire around the bottom of the loop a couple of times to close this gap and cut off any excess. You should have a bead attached to the chain! Repeat this with the other beads and chains!

The next thing is to put the chains on the earring hooks. All this needs is for the end link to be separated and then placed onto the loop on the end of the earring hook. You'll want each oval bead to frame your feature bead, so put your feature bead chain on in the middle. Once you've attached these you're all done! All that's left is to wear them with pride!

Or in my case send them to someone else who will! ;)

I'll do another post soon with a pictoral step-by-step... I sent these off before I took photos! D'oh!

Anyway, enjoy and be crafty! ;)

Eazzy Bees

This is a really old bit of craft, but I haven't worn them for a while, and the sun is out today, so here are the bees!

I was having a bit of a go at freeform wirework two or three years ago, and not really concentrating when all of a sudden these two buzzed into life. Since it was so long ago, I can't remember the guage of the wire used, or where the beads came from, but I can remember that it was sliver plated jewellery wire, and that I probably got both guages from Hobbycraft.

I started off with a thicker guage wire (for argument's sake, let's say 1mm) and made the body of my bee. First, I made a tight ring around my smooth nosed pliers - both to hold my first beads in place and as a handing winding point for later on. I threaded a yellow and orange bead onto this bit and made a right angled bend in the wire, then another after about another centimetre. On went another bead or two - black this time - followed by two more right angled bends (the bit with the beads should look like a really blocky 's'); I threaded on three more yellow / orange beads and made one last right angled bend (this time going back over the 's'). Using the smooth nosed pliers, I shaped the wire into the back end of the bee - I found that a blocky, cartoon style worked for me - and shaped the wire around the bottom of the bee (under the blocky 's'). The wire was then pulled upwards in a fairly smooth curve to form the bees 'nose'; two more tight rings with the smooth nosed pliers to form the eyes and the body of the bee was complete.

Next, I took thinner wire (let's say 0.5mm) and tightened the joins on the body of the bee, particularly around the initial tight ring, the horizontal parts of the blocky 's' and the eyes. Then I attached a length of the thinner wire to the upper middle of the body (between the first two rows of beads) and formed two elongated loops for the wings; these were then wound around the upper body to secure them. Finally, I attached earring findings to the top of the wings; I chose to have my bees facing opposite directions, but it's really up to you.

I think it took me about an hour to finish them both, but I suspect it would have been quicker if I hadn't been gossiping with the fabulous girls at the UBU Society for Craftiness :) We were making stuff to sell at the May Carnival, but I didn't want to part with these beauties, and have been wearing them ever since! (Which is why they look a wee bit bashed).