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!

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.