Christmas Decorations

So I got the melt pot out for the last time before Christmas - sadly the day job has taken over at the moment!! Obviously some of the things I have made are surprise presents so you won't be seeing those until after the Big Day but I have made a whole rainbow of stars for family and friends for their trees.

I used a large star mould that I bought from Jewellery Maker TV which is just thick enough for a good pour but not so thick that it takes ages to cool and harden

 First I mixed a small amount of white with clear UTEE and a tiny pinch of  blue mica powder and poured a star, you really do only need a small amount of the white - it goes a very long way. Then I added a little more mica and some aquamarine to pour a marbled second star. After that I gradually added more and  more aquamarine topping up with clear when necessary and poured a colour gradation of stars that will match my wreath and colour scheme

After cleaning out the melt pot I used Cosmic Shimmer Light Gold  with a small amount of clear which gave a sumptuous colour and poured a complete set of stars in all the same colour I loved it so much

 Another clean out of the melt pot and this time I used clear UTEE with some Cosmic Shimmer ink to give this glorious green. I poured a few stars in green and then began to add a second green ink which is much more of a teal and created a colour gradation through to almost turquoise
 these stars have a rich gem like quality and look amazing with light shining through










Then I melted some left over transparent ruby  to make just a few glowing red stars

I had already experimented with the star idea when I made my small Christmas wreath for my daughter. There will be a picture of that in a later blog!  Her colour scheme is purple, red and gold so I added some glitter and gold embossing texture to her stars

 I liked the embossed effect so dug out my stamps and detail embossing powder to add some texture to my first set.

Here is a close up so that you can see the finished product

Finally I gathered all my efforts together for a curtain call

A rainbow of stars for Christmas

All that was needed was to melt holes in each one with a variable temperature soldering iron on 160 degrees and thread with shimmery cord ready to hang on the tree

Christmas present exchange

One of the Facebook groups that I belong to decided to have a Secret Santa gift exchange where we would all make for each other.
I have been extremely lucky to be the recipient of a wonderful piece by a very talented wireworker Rachel Norris. This is the piece she has made for me - he is a cute 5cm tall copper pusscat brooch with twinkly eyes and pert whiskers. I am thrilled with him

 I made this fully loaded charm bracelet for my friend Tina who loves jangly things and dragonflies.
I used gunmetal findings and chain

The purple/blue beads are handmade from UTEE jewel enamel with mother of pearl rounds, faceted shell pearls and dragonfly charms.

To create the colour for the beads I used two colours blue sapphire and amethyst purple and clear, gently mixed and swirled to give a tanzanite blue

the beads are made using a headpin and adding layers of UTEE in what is called a Leandra bead

I then rolled down the headpin to create charms which I added to the bracelet.

I also made a focal bead for a pendant and some simple earrings - although by this time the colour had gone quite dark and looked more like Iolite

I decided to make the focal bead into a charm necklace

I'm happy with the results and very pleased that Tina really loves it.

a close up of the bracelet