Colourful Czech bead creations

It was a boiling hot day yesterday, but we decided to slap on some suncream and a hat and walk most of the way into town, admiring the art nouveau buildings along the way, to visit the new bead shop that just opened in Brno. Koralky is bright and modern inside with a great selection of Czech beads hanging neatly in little bags on wall racks. I personally prefer boxes of beads that you can dip your fingers into, but still, it was a nice shop and also had a great range of beading books and magazines in Czech and English.

Lovely beads and equipment from www.koralky.cz

I treated myself to a bead board and went a bit '90s with a selection of matte rocaille beads. I also picked up some blue nylon and some silvery elements for some earrings.

I got up early this morning to do some crafting (just like last week, as I found it works well to avoid the heat which pours in my craft room window) and in not much time at all, had made myself a nice, colourful, ethnic-looking jewellery set.

I am particularly pleased with my earrings. They are a nice length and not at all heavy.

It's so much nicer making your own jewellery than buying mass-produced stuff from a shop, don't you think? :)

I have shared this post on Handmade Monday. Why not pop over and take a look?

Fimo, coral and wooden bead necklace with charms

After a creative slump during the last week or so, I finally got myself into gear and made the long necklace I have been planning.

I found a really good bead shop in Brno and bought some charms which I customised with tassles for an ethnic vibe and also got a few coral and semi-precious stone beads.

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I also recycled some beads from old earrings and used up some wooden beads that I have had hanging around for at least 15 years in my bead box! The long tube beads I made myself out of Fimo. I followed the  faux bone technique in my polymer clay bead book that I got for Christmas. It took ages to make them and the polishing was hard work, but I like the final effect.

The necklace is just what I wanted to go with my jumper and a new brown top I got and better still it didn't cost me hardly anything :)

1980s nostalgia

Last year, I ordered some nice flowers for my Mum for Mother's Day, but I wanted to make something this year in keeping with my handmade drive. It has to be postable, so that limits my options. I was going to do a painting, as the one I did for my Dad went down really well, but in the end I plumped for a bracelet. I'm pleased with the final result.

Family memories - 1980.

I'm especially pleased that I finally got to use these "magnifying cabochons". I bought them back in 2007 and had all sorts of ideas of what I could do with them, but it never quite worked. I picked them up from my favourite French haberdasher's/bead shop, La Droguerie (if you are ever in a French city that has one - go there!) and they refer to them as loups. I decided to scan and print some photos of me and my Dad from 1980 and put them in the cabochons. I then added some charms and used some pearls recycled from a broken necklace. I think my Mum will like it.

Happy Mother's Day to all the mums out there!

Roll it, bake it, wear it!

I  suddenly felt the need this week to make myself a necklace. I wear a lot of grey, but also really like bright colours and thought that a necklace with muted shades and a pop of colour could be just the thing to wear for work this winter. I'm getting a bit of an 80s vibe from this design ;)

Using Fimo, I made a selection of round beads in grey, black, black mixed with pearlescent, granite, marble and  two larger beads - one fuschia mixed with pearlescent and a bright yellow one. I also rolled a couple of beads in silver leaf. It sticks really well to the modelling clay and you can bake it no problems. Once the Fimo had been rolled into balls I pierced them with cocktail sticks and put them on a baking tray ready to go into the oven. I think they look like funny olives on sticks!

The great thing about Fimo is that it only takes 30 minutes to bake and not that long to cool down, so fairly soon after I could start stringing my beads.

I put small silver beads in between each Fimo bead and finished it off with a silver catch.

My finished necklace. Can't wait to wear it out somewhere! :D