Charm Bracelet with hand made beads tutorial

I bought some lovely little bee charms and decided to make a simple charm bracelet with bumble bee coloured beads.
I mixed a golden colour using citrine, bright orange and clear. I also added some Flex to give extra strength and reduce brittleness.








I also used a jet black but added some clear and flex to give more depth to the bead.    When I am using black I use a project pan because cleaning out the melt pot is quite hard with black - even the slightest speck can change the colour of the next pour. So this way I keep the black separate.

any left over I let cool and keep in the pan

The method I use for these hand made beads is often called the Leandra bead - it is created by repeated dipping of a headpin to create a ball.  You can actually make lovely contrasting or matching headpins for a project by just dipping once.

You need the mix to be slightly thicker than normal so once the enamel is melted I turn the heat down just a little bit. I also use the lid to tilt the melt pot slightly so that I have a deeper pool to dip into.

I tend to dip all the headpins once and then go back to the beginning by which time they have cooled enough.

this ended up a strange shape because I didn't turn evenly

It is important to keep the pin moving after you've dipped to get a good round shape. A gentle turn works well - too fast and it all flies off the pin, too slow and it makes an odd shaped blob.
It only takes a few seconds for the enamel to become hard enough not to move.





I used the charms as a guide for how big I wanted the beads.

It is quite hard to make them all the same size and of course they don't always end up round but that is part of the uniqueness of the bead.

Once the beads are finished you can heat polish them if they need it - this also can be used to even up any odd shapes but you will need to develop a swirling technique to do this otherwise the enamel will just melt and blob off.

I also used simple ball studs with the loop cut off and dipped them into the mix to make matching stud earrings

Once they were all finished I cut off the excess headpin and made rolled loops. then I added the beads and charms to a simple chain with a clasp.

Experimenting with translucent colour

Last summer I created a bright flower and leaf necklace and bracelet set in purple and green.
I liked the design so decided to use it as part of an experiment with inks in clear UTEE jewel enamel.


Usually when I use inks I make sure the colour is totally mixed in but for this design I used a cocktail stick and dipped small amounts of colour which I mixed by tilting the melt pot rather than actually stirring.

This produced areas of intense colour within the almost clear.

I used a Martha Stewart flower and leaf mould.

I embedded a head pin in the back of each mould to create a rolled down loop.

I didn't want the beads of the necklace to detract from the subtle colouring of the flowers and leaves so I chose faceted smoky quartz and antique copper findings which will darken over time.

The result is a very subtle range of colours which have an inner glow in sunlight.

Home made moulds

I have treated myself to a large pack of some moulding putty - the two part sort.
So after choosing some interesting  shapes from earrings, brooches and buttons plus some cabochons I began to make moulds.
For anyone who has never done this - you take equal parts of each colour of the putty and quickly mix it together them mould around your shape. For pouring UTEE jewel enamel you need deep moulds so I made sure the sides were steep enough. I left them for about 10 minutes to cure and then released my objects.
This is a picture of the finished moulds

Over the holidays I had gone through all my odds and ends of poured UTEE and consolidated colours. So I decided to use this for trying out the moulds. First I dipped into my red, orange, copper and gold tub of bits. Melting some together but not stirring totally gave me an almost carnelian look which I poured into a cabochon shape and a little earring mould plus an unusual figured pear drop which I made from a large earring.

After cleaning out the pot and keeping leftovers - because I really like this colour - I turned to some gorgeous malachite green than I had leftover.

I melted it and poured a straight colour into a large flower button shape

Then I added some gold to one side of the melt pot

I really liked this effect but I know that adding too much gold can really muddy the colour mix so I sprinkled some gold jewel enamel powder into the mould and then poured.

Once cool I took the shape out of the mould and used the heat gun to melt the gold powder

I decided to try this effect again but using copper instead of gold into the mould before pouring

this is an amazingly rich result and quite controllable

I had a little bit left in the melt pot so added some clear to produce a sort of old recycled glass effect

I really like these moulds and together with the button moulds I think I have a great set of shapes for future experiments.  I tried out all the moulds, remelting those I didn't really like. One mould which I have had a go at and had a stunning result I wanted to show you all but sadly as I was positioning for photos I managed to drop it onto the kitchen floor and being UTEE of course it smashed. 

It is the cat mould....so watch this space......

UPDATE

Just thought you might like to see what I did with some of the pieces from these moulds

 

the green pendant is deep enough to be able to wire wrap and the little earrings which remind me of carnelian have just enough of a dangle and are so light you don't know you are wearing them

New Year Resolutions

Christmas seems to take over crafters. I spent lots of time making cards - which anyone who knows me will probably be rolling round laughing all over the floor about...you might even have received one...they were a bit like hen's teeth tho'!
I am not very good with shape and space as Maths teachers call it...I seem to be a bit 3D challenged and apparently I get it from my mum who also cannot open a packet, carton or paper bag to save her life. So you can see why card making is also a challenge but this year I did make about 25. And much blood sweat and tears was involved!!

I also received some treats......


plenty of friendly plastic to keep me going and to help me develop my skills

a resin starter kit 

a couple of new moulds

this one will make a super pendant

a filigree heart

and more jewel enamel than I have room for!!


So my resolutions for this year are:
1. to get much better at creating things with Friendly plastic and use it across a variety of media

2. To learn how to use and make jewellery with Resin

3. To be more inventive with the way I use UTEE jewel enamel.

As a way of making sure that I do expand my creativity I have been through my box of bits and bobs of odd pourings, extra pours and experimental pieces. I sorted by colour and realised that I make a vast amount of blue, usually leaning towards the teal end. I hardly ever use the metallics apart from as an accent and I rarely melt straight into a bezel. This is probably because I like using the bezels as moulds but I have so many other moulds now that I really do not need to do that so could afford to give away plenty more pendants created straight into the bezel itself.

a mix of blue and green with silver accents created straight into the bezel

Talking of giving away - I am going to approach a friend who creates cards for a local hospice and donate some of my makes to be sold. I cannot store anymore made up pieces so need some space and a hospice seems the ideal charity to support.