Vintage Inspired Bead Embroidery - The Beginning!

I made a bead embroidery piece a couple of weeks ago for a feature in a magazine (Coming soon!) and decided that I fancied making another in a similar style.

I found a cabochon from a broken piece of jewellery which was a small portrait of a girl in sepia tones decoupaged onto acrylic.

I found a piece of board to use as my backing stiffener. It's a piece of hardboard whcih was the base of a jewellery stand I bought on ebay. When the stand arrived in the post it was smashed to bits bit I managed to salvage the unbroken base.

Next step was sketching out a rough design.

And choosing a colour palette.

Then getting started!

More to follow when I've got some more completed! I still haven't decided what the final item will turn out to be. Any ideas?

Challenge Bracelets #13 and #14

Beige Recycled Button Cuff Bracelet

I still haven't forgotten about my challenge to make and document a bracelet a week in 2012. I am a little behind on taking photos though as I'm also trying to get up to 100 items in my Etsy shop too. (71 so far!)

I've got a couple of craft fairs coming up, the next one being at an Eco centre, so I thought I'd make a few more obviously recycled items.

Pale Turquoise and Peach Recycled Cuff Bracelet

And I'm part way through a free pattern tutorial for these too which hopefully I'll get posted in the next week or so.

Busy Times! - Craft Fairs, Paperwork and Other Stuff

I can't believe it's a week since I updated my blog! Where does time go to? 

Well, there's been lots of form filling in going on around here. Insurance forms, craft fair applications, phone calls to book stall spaces.

And I've been on a needle felting course which was great fun. I'm playing around with different techniques to see how I can incorporate it into the work that I already do. I've got some great samples which I'll share when they have a bit more work done on them.

My next Craft fair is on April 14th and 15th at the Derby Eco centre. It's their Spring fair and wool festival which sounds like it could be a great weekend. With all this bad weather over the last couple of days, I'm glad I paid extra money to be indoors!

But with craft fair imminent, I'm doing all of those getting ready for a craft fair jobs. All my jewellery needs boxing up whether I've listed it on Etsy or not, I need to made a few extra pieces of stock where there are gaps in my product lines, and a few extra pieces which will hopefully appeal to my audience at the fair I'm going to. I'm going to make a few more heavily recycled jewellery pieces, and some yarn inspired earrings. Maybe even some of my new needle felted items will make an appearance.

And I'm also waiting for a couple of shipments to come in. A box of recycled cabochons from vintage jewellery, and a secret surprise parcel for a magazine project. I hoe they arrive today so I can play with them over the bank holiday weekend!