Christmas Goodies

One of my Facebook groups loves doing gift exchanges and of course we couldn't ignore Christmas.
This time I was to make for  Bev who made me that stunning seed bead trinket box and earrings that I shared with you a few months ago.
I was really pleased to get her because I would be able to say a real thank you through my gift BUT Bev is a stunningly talented lady and does so many crafts that at first I was a bit stumped what to create.
The group is basically a jewellery making one but lots of us do other crafts and so the gift exchange has grown from being just jewellery to all hand made goodies which is brilliant because you often get something in a craft or medium you have not tried at all.

I decided to knit something for Bev and originally was going to make her a pair of my snuggle socks but on a trip to the NEC to the Hobbycrafts show in November I came across some stunning yarn and knew that I wanted to make her an infinity scarf.
The jewel like colours in the yarn glow and the piece grows quickly as it is made on HUGE needles ( size 10mm).  Once finished the two ends are sewn together with a mobius twist ( hence  infinity ) so you can wear it like a piece of jewellery or as a scarf. It is incredibly lightweight and yet warm. I had enough yarn to make one for myself - bonus!

I have just acquired some seasonal moulds for soap so using bright jewel colours I have poured a whole set of snowflake and bauble soaps - some of which went to Bev.

I also wanted to make Bev something in jewel enamel because she doesn't use this medium. However I thought with it being Christmas I would make her some stars and baubles as Christmas decorations. I had made some for family last year and they were so well received that I thought it would be something a little different.

I decided to use traditional seasonal colours - green, gold, red and deep blue in transparent finishing with embedded glitter. Once cold I used a solderng iron to melt a good sized hole and threaded with gold satin cord

I added a hand  made card as a final touch

Bev took this picture of her pressies

I hope she enjoys her presents from me.

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