Strawberries and Cream - a Summer Project

Strawberries and Cream - a summer project

As part of a summer challenge for a Facebook jewellery making group I decided to create a fully loaded bracelet and charm pendant representing summer strawberries.

I have two lovely strawberry moulds and numerous leaf moulds which work well and I wanted to create hand made dipped beads in a clotted cream colour.

a home made mould

this is a Martha Stewart mould

To create the berry colour I used  Diamond Clear with two reds - Cosmic Shimmer's Berry Red and Crafty Notions Ruby Red

because it was quite time consuming to create a batch of charms I needed to keep turning down the heat to stop the mix going too orange

the small mould poured 

finished small berries

    I also poured the large strawberry

the finished strawberries

Next I created the leaves using Crafty Notions Peridot and Diamond Clear

Martha Stewart moulds

completed leaves

To make the beads I colour mixed a clotted cream colour using Diamond Clear with a small amount of Ranger's UTEE white and a sprinkle of Cosmic Shimmer's Light Gold

colour mix for beads

I played around with this until I got a slightly lighter colour than I needed - knowing it would darken with the heat

To make hand dipped beads you need a head or eye pin and then dip the finding in repeatedly, building up layers. You need to gently rotate the pin to make a round shape although the slightly imperfect ones have an organic feel. To make sure the colour is consistent I dipped each pin in turn with each layer building rather than making  a complete bead each time. 

just dipping the end of the eye pin into the mix

swirling gently to get a good shape

third dip

all lined up ready for the final dip

completed beads

the completed bracelet elements

the finished pendant elements

Finally I assembled the charm bracelet and created the charm pendant 

a close up of the bracelet

I think this has a real feel of those long summer days!

Suncatcher UTEE jewel enamel tutorial

Translucent UTEE jewel enamel is wonderful when the sun shines through it so I decided to create a suncatcher for my bedroom. The colour scheme is Santorini..so rich blues, sea greens and turquoise.

I wanted to create lots of discs with texture but thin enough to gently turn in the air.

I had heard that pouring UTEE straight into a cutter could be done as long as you use some sort of release  agent so I decided to try Versamark and pushed the cutters into the pad to coat the metal.

This method is easier than pouring onto a texture tread and then cutting out as it gives a sharper, cleaner edge and means you pour the mix less often so you can keep random swirl effects and of course you don't have to keep re-melting. I wanted three different sizes and was able to pour all three each time plus they cooled very quickly enough to carefully remove the cutter and do another pour before totally set. Very efficient!

choosing a part of the pattern

pour into the cutters

the cutter removes very easily

ready to take of the mat

I had some deep blue transparent left over from a previous project and a couple of pieces of a turquoise so I broke pieces off and added to clear then using a cocktail stick dabbed small spots of melt ink into the mix trying not to mix too much. It was a bit of a compromise because I didn't want too solid a colour and I also wanted good swirls.

I used blue, chartreuse and Paris green melt inks

Sometimes it worked others not so much!

this one is lovely

I poured the lovely deep blue separately as that is pure Santorini.

Finally I used a large bezel to create the  heavier central disc and used a texture tread to "stamp" onto the UTEE when still soft. Once cold I removed the disc from the bezel.

I love the way that the texture tread creates some parts matte and others shiny. I used the heat gun to enhance the gloss.

now all I have to do is create the actual mobile

Large Wreath

I have so enjoyed making and using my little Autumn wreath that I decided to create a larger one for the Christmas season.
I bought a large vine ring from Hobbycraft and a couple of chocolate moulds with a Christmas theme.

The colour scheme of my decorations is smoky blue and silver leaning towards a turquoise in the dining room.
I used both of my Ranger melt pots - one with a light silver and the other with a mix of aquamarine and sapphire blue.

I added small amounts of mica powder in silver and blue to create the variations in colour.
The multiple chocolate moulds meant I could pour quite a few in one go. I added a fine silver craft glitter to the moulds before pouring for that added bling!
The large Christmas trees are from a themed  mould bought from Jewellery Maker TV

The final touch is a three coloured bow.

here is a close up of the different pieces

I'm quite pleased with the result

More Summer Brights

In my last post I was wondering if there was scope to create a matching necklace to the juicy charm bracelet. 
Often when I am pouring I try to recreate a certain colour or mixture and get frustrated because I just can't quite get it right.
This time because I had used pretty much unmixed colours apart from a tiny bit of clear to make everything a little less dense in colour and a touch of mica powder to add a shimmer I was able to reproduce virtually the same colours.

So I poured just a couple of the periwinkle flower and three large leaves, then I realised that the mould had a tiny leaf which I thought would really balance a necklace.

I did think was going to be hard to pour without spilling everywhere because it was so small - UTEE is not the easiest medium to control but apart from one reject I was able to pour quite a few tiny leaves to complete the set.

I then had a rummage in my stash for some purple toning beads and found some lovely blackberry coloured faceted glass in a deeper purple. Perfect!

I added a matching silver toned chain and here it is......

a close up shows the detail

here are the two pieces together