My First Commission!

I have finally received my first request to make a necklace for someone!  My cousin wants me to make something to match a shirt she bought, and she's already bought some beads she likes for it.  I haven't seen them yet, nor found out what she'd like it to look like, but I'm glad that someone's starting to trust me enough for this!  I hope I don't let her down!

I'll definitely take a picture and post it once it's done.

Startin' 'Em Young

We had Christmas at my place, and I broke out my kit during a quiet spell.  One of my cousins got interested in what I was doing and I let her help out.

I also let her pick out whichever beads she liked that I had on hand, and made her a pair of earrings.

Jewellery-Making Class, Take 2!

Durham College is offering their jewellery-making class again, so of course I signed up again.  It starts at the end of January, as long as enough people sign up for it.  Still, if it does get cancelled, there's another one in April, and there may be a better turn-out for that one since the weather will be better by then.

Necklace # 4

I finally did something with the filligreed pendant I have.  I was going to use the beads to make a bracelet since I originally thought they were too small for the pendant, but I found some oval metal beads with a flower pattern on them to break up the smaller ones, and the necklace came out nicely.

Idea Book

Last night I got a book chock-full of beading ideas for my birthday.  Didn't really look through it very well, but I suppose there are some nice designs in there.

It doesn't feel the same working from a plan that someone else designed, though, so if I do anything from the book, I'll probably change something up so it feels like it's my own thing instead of copying another person's idea.

What Next?

A little stuck on what I want to work on next.

I still have to work on that silvery pendant with the crystal in the middle, and I purchased a variety of clear and metal beads to go with it. After toying with them though, I think they're too small and I should buy bigger beads for it, and maybe use the smaller beads in a bracelet, maybe with some memory wire instead of a clasp.

Also, I have orange goldstone beads that I purchased around the same time I bought the snowflake obsidian ones, but I'd like to get a pendant to go with them, and that probably means another trip to Michaels, since Bead Rock, the bead store close to home doesn't have many.  I would probably need to get gold-toned beading wire and findings too, since it would look better with the stone, even though I don't like yellow-gold.

My LAST trip to Bead Rock gave me an idea to make rosaries too.  I'm not a religious person in any way shape or form, but my family members are, and I am sure I could give them away.  I bought 2 crucifixes and that little piece in the middle that connects the main string of beads, so it's a matter of reminding myself of how many beads I'll need, and picking them out.  I could go traditional, or I could even pick out some unconventional colours or patterns one wouldn't normally think of using.  I guess my lack of worry about offending the man in the sky would make me a little fearless in that sense.

Blue Goldstone & Blue Chalcedony Agate

Here's my latest.  It's a blue goldstone pendant I wanted to jazz up.  I bought it at the  local occult/magic/spirituality/don't know how else to explain it shop, and it came on a velvet cord.  I was unsure of which beads I was going to use on the strands until I stopped into the same local occult/magic/spirituality/don't know how else to explain it shop the other day, and found a few strands of blue goldstone chips.  I figured I may as well use the same stone as the pendant. 

I also saw some pretty blue chalcedony agate chips, and thought I would use it for something else, but the lady behind the counter thought I was going to use it for the same necklace.  That was a pretty good idea, as it broke up the darkness of the goldstone.  I should go back and show her what came of it.  

My mom said the pendant may be a bit small for all the busyness and angularity of the strands, and she may be right, but consider this:  I almost had 3 strands.  Luckily they didn't all fit into the crimp bead when I was making the clasp. 

Here's a picture.  I thought it would look worse than it did against a black background, but it came out okay.