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.

Definately Different Donuts!

A while ago I watched Debbie Bulford, guest designer for Jewellery Maker TV, use jewel enamel to add subtle colour to polymer clay.
I am not a user of polymer clay but I thought the technique definitely deserved trying out so I bought some translucent clay to have a go.

The clay has to be conditioned which means working it until it become really pliable and smooth. This took quite a bit longer than I was expecting but after a  little bit of work I had a thin smooth piece.
Then I sprinkled some jewel enamel onto the surface and worked it in adding extra in small amounts until I had a pale even colour. It was a bit like trying to work sugar into dense pastry, bits kept falling out but I presevered and eventually had an even coloured piece.
I started with a turquoise mix using aquamarine and apatite jewel enamel

once the jewel enamel granules were worked right through the polymer clay I divided it up and made small balls which I flattened and then using a straw cut a hole in the middle to create a donut

I then made some deep blue using Lapis Blue jewel enamel

and finally I made a subtle green using Apatite

I put all the donuts on a piece of baking paper and popped them into the oven at 120C for 15 minutes

At the end of this time I saw that the jewel enamel had not actually melted so I turned the oven up to 140C and returned the clay for another 5 minutes but watched carefully - I didn't want to burn the clay.

This time the jewel enamel had melted and the colour of the clay had darkened considerably.

The clay had a matte finish and looked a little like sea glass. However I decided to let it cool and apply a glaze which really brought out the colours

I have some suede cord and silver tribal spacer beads so I think I will make a necklace. Watch this space for the finished piece!!

New Venture

Well this is a bit of a momentous day........



Last week Jewellery Maker TV aired the last of their shows to feature jewel enamel which as my readers will know is my favourite medium to create with. It isn't their fault....Ranger, who make the melt pot,  have had to cease selling it because of an issue with the manufacturer and as the melt pot is really the essential tool for using jewel enamel this makes it hard to feature on a show because new viewers would be wanting to buy the pot.

Making jewellery this way is a slightly niche craft with many of us feeling our way in our designs and learning new techniques often by accident. So we need to gather together in some way which is why a few months ago I created a Facebook group for fellow crafters to share ideas, tips and inspiration and last week I realised  that we should make sure all our collective knowledge isn't lost.

I started gathering images into subject albums on our Facebook pages and that's when I saw that we needed more than just a few pictures with a brief description we needed proper tutorials with creative diary images.


In this modern age I think the best way to do that is to use a blog - so I have launched a team blog with a small group of admins and we will invite guest authors to share.
I love the fact that the blogging world is mostly public because this means anyone with a passing interest can drop in a have a browse.
There are some extremely talented people on the site so it is very exciting wondering what they will come up with.



I have quickly earned that I need to make sure I photograph everything during the making stage as well as the finished product because that is what people need to see....photo tutorials and diaries.

So for any of  my readers who would like to pop over, here is the link
www.jewelenamelgems.blogspot.co.uk

I will still be writing this blog and postimg more of my adventures in creativity and hopefully there will be more advances in skills as I learn from my fellow bloggers

Using up scrap and exploring Stellar Flash

I am going to a Bead Meet on Saturday and leading a session on UTEE jewel enamel using the melt pot so I have been playing with a few different techniques.
I always end up with quite a large pot of scrap enamel in a gunge colour and have been wondering how to use it up. I also have a new cabochon mould with a variety of different sized cabochons so I thought I would try out the mould and see if I could use up the scrap.
First of all I wanted to try out a new texture sheet so I poured the mix into a leaf shaped cutter laid onto the sheet. I rubbed Versamark onto the cutter as a release agent which works very well.

the scrap mix poured into a cutter on a texture sheet with added gleams

I have used stellar flash in the past but not really been impressed with the results however this time I decided to sprinkle to flash into the mould before pouring a dark colour over the top.

My scrap gunge colours ranged from a murky grey through to a red tinged brown with some dark steel thrown in too.  By adding some scrap to a larger amount of diamond clear and a small amount of navy blue alcohol ink I was able to produce a colour mix that was more translucent than the scrap with an even dark colour which showed up the stellar flash well.
I created a few cabochons including a dinky pair of earrings with a definite opal look about them.

I really like these earrings which are about 8mm

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I have also been playing with  a three hemisphere mould which has slits for headpins or wire and produces a pendant.

Here are three different pours using this mould - I have used the scrap and stellar flash mix  plus a faux lapis look with gold sprinkled on and then heat polished carefully and one of the black metallics with added bronze. I quite like the effects produced

I used up the last of the scrap mix with a lovely tear drop shaped mould

Easter gift exchange

A lovely Facebook group I belong to often does gift exchanges and we decided to do one for Easter. This is what I received from my friend Lizzy

I really love this set - it is so delicate and the lavender amethyst is very pretty

and this is what I made to send to my friend Jo. A deep swirling mix of a rich maroon and blue jewel enamel. A bracelet, ring and earring set

Cherry Ripe

A few weeks ago I bought some lovely little cherry charms in a gold colour. I knew I wanted to make a charm bracelet for spring but couldn't think what else to add.
Then I bought a great mould for lips - I was intending them for hair clips but realised they would be great fun as charms made from UTEE jewel enamel so it was time to get out the melt pot.

I needed to make a really bright red so used just a couple of drops of red melt ink in clear UTEE and for fun added bright red glitter

the lips mould is very flexible and makes four at once which speeds up the process

I embedded short gold ball headpins to roll down

when I carefully heat polished the lips the glitter became even more BLING making the lips look quite juicy

I hand made a two by two chain for the bracelet and added the charms

I decided that it needed a contrast colour so found some flat black onyx faceted discs

I had three lips left and did think about earrings but finally decided on a long chain with a fully loaded dangle on the end

cherry lips charm bracelet and necklace

I had some jewel enamel left and had left it to solidify in the melt pot.  I returned to the pot and heated it up to try a couple of experiments.  I had bought some vintage steam punk effect keys and clock faces quite a while ago and not really thought of a project. I decided to see what they would look like with UTEE poured over the back surface to show through. 

I managed to pour just to cover the clock face but the key spread a bit so before it got too cold I used a sharp blade to cut off the excess and then carefully used the heat gun to neaten it up.

the final small bit of red I used in one of my lovely figured heart moulds and when cold used gold gleam wax which I buffed up once set.

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

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.