I did it!

You know that great sense of satisfaction you get when you manage to do something you have been putting of and it is a success, well that happened to me a couple of days ago.

Last year I bought a Dremel. I needed something to clean the holes in my beads of bead release. I toyed with the idea of a battery powered one but the thought of the battery dying just when I needed it put me off. So I thought I'd get an electric one, but I would need one with a Flexi Shaft fitting as I would be using it near water - didn't want to get any nasty electric shocks. To use the Flexi Shaft you need to have a stand do that you can keep the wire straight.

I also had it in my head that I might like to be able to drill holes in metal for my jewellery making and saw that you could buy an attachment to turn your Dremel into a drill press so this is what I bought.

I use a diamond tipped drill bit to clean out the bead release from my glass beads and it works great and that's all it's been used for up until now. Here it is set up with the Flexi Shaft.

I had bought some tiny metal drill bits for it but when I went to use them discovered that my chuck was too big for them and I never got any further.

 
Then when I received this gorgeous focal from Sam Waghorn in my Bead Soup it didn't have any holes in it. What to do! Well, I thought I would just use my OH's drill with the metal drill bits I had but then he informed me that it didn't drill straight so that wasn't an option. Anyway I did some research online and found out that I needed to purchase a chuck, which I did from Ebay.


Please excuse the poor quality of my photos, they were taken as an afterthought so I could share my adventures in this post.

Well, the chuck arrived and all I could remember about attaching the Flexi Shaft to the Dremel in the first place was a pain, no decent instructions, so the thought of changing it back again was not appealing. Anyway, with a little bit of help from my OH (think it would have been quicker on my own!) I managed to change the dremel so that it would sit in the drill press ready to drill my holes.

Then I discovered another problem. How was I going to hold the piece steady whilst I drilled it. I wanted to drill some holes in the edge so that I could attach some chain and some dangly bits.

OH to to rescue, he had this vice in the garage which sat on the plate of the Dremel nicely.

The next problem was how to support the piece so that it would get marked so I cut up some pieces of wood to sandwich it. The first piece had to fit exactly inside the piece so that I could mark the holes with a braddle which I would be tapping with a hammer.

I marked where I wanted the holes to go with a sharpie and then went into the garage and put the piece in a vice. Lined up the braddle with the mark and then tapped away. Even though the wood was directly behind the metal still bent a little. No problem, I just turned it over when it was finished and tapped it back again.

Next I was ready to drill the holes. Here is the piece sandwiched between the wood and lined up under the drill ready to go.

It worked! Here is the piece with the holes drill in it. They were a little bit sharp on the back so I just filed with with one of my jewellery files.

It's such a pretty piece that Sam made, I can't wait to use it to make a necklace.

Thanks for looking.

Linda
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Customers bracelet

A while back I made some jewellery for my friend Teresa Hulley of Bo Hully Beads to say thankyou for all her help promoting my work. Teresa kindly posted a picture of the beads on her Facebook page and this resulted in an enquiry for a custom order from a lady called Christine School.

She wanted to make a bracelet to match this dress that she bought.

 

I can't find the orriginal photo of the beads that I made for her but they were like this is red with turquoise dots and vice versa

Here is the lovely bracelet she made using the beads.

She used a dragonfly bracelet bar from Bo Hulley Beads and one of my patinated toggle clasps. Did she do a lovely job?

If you have any of your jewellery that you have made with my beads I will be happy to show them on my blog.

Thanks for looking.

Linda
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Spring Fever Design Challenge 2014

Lesly Watt of Thea Elements, Caroline Dewison of Blueberribeads and Claire of Smitten Beads have all got together to run a Spring Fever Design Challenge and I was lucky enough to be chosen to be a participant.

These are the beads and ribbon I received, aren't I a lucky girl?

So I have been beavering away trying to get my pieces finished so that I can start work on my Bead Soup Blog Party Challenge. No rest for the wicked!

Reveal and blog hop is on Wednesday 16th April.

Thanks for looking.

Linda
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Bead Soups Arrived

Yay! My bead soup for SamWaghorn of Pale Moon Creations arrived yesterday, I was so excited and a little bit nervous at the same time. Would I like them, would I be able to come up with some designs using them? Anyone who is taking part will know how I feel.

So beautifully packaged !

and here's what I received

Aren't they gorgeous?

The gorgeous copper work is by Sam herself. Sam told me the focal, the cute little bead caps and the ring were made using deco emboss.

The green starfish pendant, beads and cream toggle flower came from Grubbi and the urchin beads from Blueberry Beads.

Rustic freshwater pearls, butter jade chips, vintage coral and puffed agate coins.

I am going to have so much fun with these, I already has some ideas going round my head.

This is what I sent to Sam

I hope she has fun with them!

You will have to wait now until the reveal on May 3rd.

Thanks for looking.

Linda
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Bead Soup Blog Party 2014

Yay! it's time for the Bead Soup Blog Party 2014. For those readers who haven't heard of it (surely not!) you can read all about it here http://lorianderson-beadsoupblogparty.blogspot.co.uk/p/what-is-bead-soup-blog-party.html.

I enjoyed last years very much and was teamed with a lady from Canada. This year I am teamed with Sam Waghorn of Pale Moon Creations from the UK. Sam hasn't been blogging for long, you will usually find her on her Facebook page.

Like me, Sam is still finding her 'style' so was up for a challenge and I definitely think she will get one with what I am sending her. I can't show you yet as she hasn't received them but I can show you the little parcels that are going in the post today.

Sam told me she got a bit of a shock when she found out who she was teamed up with, apparently she had bought some of my lampwork beads to send to her bead partner! I told I didn't mind getting them back as I always like to use my own beads in my pieces. We shall see......

Keep checking the blog for progress reports.

Thanks for looking.

Linda
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Torch fired Enameling.

For a while I have wanted to have a go at torch fired enameling. Well I have a torch and I have enamels for my lampworking so it seemed silly not to. I've have been unsuccessfully trying to torch fire some copper components I bought last year. I kept getting problems with the glass chipping off the edges and cracks appearing.

I bought the book Torch Fired Enamel Jewellery by Barbara Lewis and watched her videos online but I couldn't work out what I was doing wrong.

Very good book, by the way.

I can't remember how I came to the conclusion that firescale was the problem but I did some research and found out that If I used a flux as the first coat this should eliminate the problem and it worked!

So I torched fired a few components and then made this bracelet with them.

 

This bracelet has been made using a textile art fibre bead by Carolyn Saxby. I took some hand dyed sari silk and wrapped it around some wire and then wrapped that with some antique copper wire and seed beads in bronze. The next step was to create some chain by threading lots of little jump rings onto wire and winding this around the ribbon.
I  torched fired some copper flowers and headpins with enamel and attached them to the bracelet. Some more torched fired enamel flowers and a lampwork glass leaf was added as dangles next to the enamelled copper ring and hand painted patina toggle bar that makes the clasp and completes this bracelet. - See more at: http://www.earth-shine.co.uk/product/kazbah-antique-bronze-enamel-and-silk-ribbon-bracelet#sthash.ZYSRJeIs.dpuf

I made this bracelet using a textile art fibre bead by Carolyn Saxby. I took some hand dyed sari silk and wrapped it around some wire and then wrapped that with some antique copper wire and seed beads in bronze. The next step was to create some chain by threading lots of little jump rings onto wire and winding this around the ribbon.
I  torched fired some copper flowers and headpins with enamel and attached them to the bracelet. Some more torched fired enamel flowers and a lampwork glass leaf was added as dangles next to the enamelled copper ring and hand painted patina toggle bar that makes the clasp and completes this bracelet.

 

If you would like to buy this bracelet it's available for sale in my website store here: Kazbah

Thanks for looking.

Linda

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This bracelet has been made using a textile art fibre bead by Carolyn Saxby. I took some hand dyed sari silk and wrapped it around some wire and then wrapped that with some antique copper wire and seed beads in bronze. The next step was to create some chain by threading lots of little jump rings onto wire and winding this around the ribbon.
I  torched fired some copper flowers and headpins with enamel and attached them to the bracelet. Some more torched fired enamel flowers and a lampwork glass leaf was added as dangles next to the enamelled copper ring and hand painted patina toggle bar that makes the clasp and completes this bracelet. - See more at: http://www.earth-shine.co.uk/product/kazbah-antique-bronze-enamel-and-silk-ribbon-bracelet#sthash.ZYSRJeIs.dpuf