Happy December

Happy December!

This year have been very challenging in many ways and just before Christmas I find myself hustling around and I have long "To Do" - list. Between all this hustling, I try to take some time for myself. Usually I do yoga. I´ve been practicing yoga past 20 years more or less and now more frequently as my job is very physical especially during Winter. Yoga and crocheting are my ways to relax.

I was happy that this year arranged local Christmas craft sale event where I was last Sunday. It also gonna be two consecutive Sundays so have to make something special for there too. People were admired my crochet earrings. Couple people said that in order to make those need nifty fingers and very small hook. It was so fun to be there and show my jewelry.

I was participated Beadtober challenge in October and here´s what I made and post in my social media channel from week 3.

Day 15 - Falling Leaves

Since this day´s challenge was falling leaves I thought to share my wooden leaf necklaces that comes in total 8 different colors. They don´t show so well in photo collage but pink one was the photo that I post on Instagram that day. If you´re interested of my leaf necklace, visit my Etsy shop.

Day 16 - Favorite Technique

Second row begins with my beaded earrings that I made few years ago. These earrings were bit challenging to make. I try to learn how to do brick stitch with beads and have bad tutorial video. I rewind it several times back and forth and trying to figure out how I´m suppose to get the bead straight up by pulling the thread. I remember to learn this technique two days and I even think it in my dreams. I try to look other tutorial videos too but each tutorial maker have slightly different style to do this brick stitch. In the end, when I finally figured this technique out, it wasn´t so hard at all but if you´re just getting started beading your own jewelry, I would not recommend to start with brick stitch.

Day 17 - Czech Glass

This day´s challenge was all about Czech glass so I thought to share my dragonfly earrings that all have matching Czech glass bead above the dragonfly. These earrings have gold plated smooth backs and very detailed front side. These earrings are my favorite from all BlueBell´s jewelry and so perfect for Spring and Summer time. 

Day 18 - Orange & Black

Final photo from second row, I made bracelet set in orange and black color. For these bracelets I used memory wire, seed beads and got few beautifully glistening orange glass beads that I used in the middle. 

Day 19 - Necklaces

Last row, in middle photo is my necklace that I made. I love to make choker necklaces from seed beads and this black seed bead choker necklace have unique cat pendant what I made without any mold from polymer clay. There´s photo of my cat who act as an inspiration for this pendant. 

Day 20 - Spooky Spooky Skeletons

First photo from last row show my skeleton earrings that I made from polymer clay and cotton yarn. I learned to make own tassels few years ago and they are pretty simple to do. Skeleton heads I molded from orange color polymer clay. I took from web inspiration photo in order to mold these skeletons. I forgot to add eye pins before I put these polymer clay work in oven so had to add small screw for both side so I can attached the earring hooks and tassels what I made. These earrings are unique pair and it´s available on Facebook shop and Etsy too.

 

Day 21 - Boo! Beads!

Last photo of all is showing my favorite beads. I chose Swarovski crystal beads since I love everything sparkle and these beads shines so gorgeously that makes me happy and they gives me creative boost. Local bead supplier said to me once that it´s completely own hobby to just watch how different beads shines 😂 I bet this is very common among jewelry makers.

~ Minna

Happy November

Can´t believe it´s November already! Time, days and weeks really flies or at least we Finnish people said that way when time goes by so fast.

As some of you may or may not know that I was participated in October IG challenge which hosted by Artbeads and in this blog post I wanted to share some of my creations from week 2. The challenge itself was fun although I was time to time little behind from posting daily task. My original plan was to create cool things from seed beads that I have but many times I ended up using polymer clay since Halloween theme creation was so much easier to make than beading.

If you haven´t read my first week post from this challenge, you can quickly read it here.

In the second week of the challenge we shared e.g. our favorite creations from this year, Halloween crafts, bead storage and trick or treat creation.

First photo shows my favorite creation from this year. It was bit hard to choose just one but eventually I eneded up with my newest addition - Crocheted anklet that I made this Summer. The anklet project was fun to make, I never had crocheted with beads so that was completely new thing to me. I thought that crocheting beads would be difficult but surprisingly it wasn´t. I enjoyed to make these anklet from Toho seed beads which I love to use in my beading projects. These beads have beautiful milky effect surface with silver lined inside. Toho beads are high quality glass seed beads and they also consistent quality so you will get clean and nice beaded jewelry.

Second photo shows day 9 task which was Fiber Fun. I chose beautiful yellow tassel earrings which I made while ago. For these earrings I learned to make tassels and used 100% cotton yarn to make the tassels. These earrings comes in four different colors and each one I have combined with different colored wire which I have hand shaped. When I looked these earrings, they make me happy. These are statement looking earrings but still light as feather when you wear these.

Third photo shows my crocheted bracelet. I chose "Survivor" because October was breast cancer awareness month. This month remind me of my favorite Finnish singer whose fan I have been ever since I was 11 years old. My favorite singer had breast cancer about five years ago and  when I saw the news, it stopped me. I started to think why I liked her songs so much and how much fun I had in her gigs. She had brought me so much joy when my life was so depressing and I was experience hard times with my mom. I´m really happy that she survived from that cancer and looking forward her new album. I chose multicolored green yarn for this bracelet because green is color associated with vitality, nature, tranquility and health. I have more these kind bracelet in different affirmation ring such as "Happiness", "Joy" etc.

Fourth photo shows my Halloween crafts. For some reason I wanted to make skeleton heads. I originally planned to make the skulls from beads but couldn´t find nice tutorial in order to practice so I molded these heads from photo that I took from web. It was fun to work with polymer clay. If the work was ruined, you can always roll the clay in your hands and re-shaped it however you like. I´m pretty pleased with these skull heads that I made. I also made my very first pumpkin that day. I added small leaves. I have no clue which kind leaves pumpkins have but this little pumpkin have tiny ordinary leaves that I also hand shaped. I give my BIG Thank You to my dearest friend who guided me through my polymer clay creation. I couldn´t do them without her inside tips and advices 💕

Fift photo shows my "Withcy Vibes" earrings. Witchy vibes day task was bit hard for me since I couldn´t find classic witch hat beading tutorial that I would like to do and this day task came quickly and hadn´t any time to order missing supplies. I live in small town and there´s no craft store anymore. I usually order all my jewelry supplies from online and occasionally buy them craft store if I visit bigger city. So this day I though to share my tassel hoop earrings that have three faux suede leather tassels that I have attached into stainless steel hoop. These earrings goes well for modern witch.

Sixth photo shows my "doughnut earrings" that I made from polymer clay. Challenge was to create something for the National dessert day and my first idea was to make doughnuts. I thought they would be easier enough for me to make since I´m not so talented polymer clay artist. These doughnuts was fun to make though. My friend have perfect polymer clay color for the doughnuts that I used and I made orange icing with black sprinkles. I tried to make realistic looking icing by molding it freely with my fingers. It was bit difficult since icing needed to be thin as possible but too big for the doughnuts. Even placing the icing on the doughnuts had to make carefully since I didn´t wanted to ruined my texture that I made on the doughnuts.

Final three photos shows my bead stores where I keep all my jewelry supplies and beads. I bought long time ago two black boxes with two different sizes plastic drawers. These were actually sold as a toolboxes but as a jewelry maker I only saw how neatly I can storage all my jewelry supplies and I labelled each drawer so I can find more easily specific jewelry part what I need. These two boxes have served me well and they were also very affordable price to buy. Money saving tip: So next time when your husband or boyfriend goes to buy tools, go with them. Surprisingly many men´s tool fit also for jewelry making like side cutters, different tool boxes, hammers, files, sandpapers etc. which cost many times much more in jewelry supply store. 

Here was my second week update. Many jewelry that I made during this October challenge can´t be find on BlueBellJewelry´s Etsy shop yet but I´m working on to add them in the shop as soon as possible. Next time I will write about December´s birthstone "Turquoise" so stay tuned and have a wonderful Autumn.

~ Minna

Happy October

 Happy October my readers,

The Autumn has been very beautiful this year. It´s not my favorite season mainly because it´s so dark and rainy weather. I love candles and I light them every night. I also bought outdoor lights which have warm white light. Now my balcony look very cozy and warm. I actually enjoyed my very first outdoor hot chocolate other night with wrapped in soft blanket. It was very relaxing after end of the day.

This year´s Autumn colors have been very exceptional. Most of days I´ve been enjoyed to walk and jogging in the nature and admired the gorgeous color spectrum of nature. It feels like I´m getting color therapy at the same time no matter how down I might feel myself. It´s so uplifting energy that nature offers.

For October, I also joined the ArtBeads challenge which has its own task for each day. The reason why I joined challenge like this is that I get something to post on Instagram and Facebook every day. I´m more attached to my other jewelry shop and that´s why I haven´t been so active with BlueBell. BlueBell have beautiful jewelry and I would love to develop BlueBell more so that Etsy sales would increase.

But like I said, I´m joined with October challeng that ArtBeads is hosting, I would like to write little bit how I feel it so far and my thoughts of this kind challenge.

First picture is one finished leaf after three hours and second photo is from next morning when I had finished the earrings. I usually favor the ear wires in my earrings but for these I wanted different so I chose gold plated studs where is tiny golden ball and loop where the leaf is attached

Day 1 - Fall Jewelry 

I wanted to make beaded leaf. I also wanted to challenge myself and do something different than usually I would do. I ended up with gorgeous beaded leaves that have different technique what I haven´t used before. I chose natural white and golden colored seed beads for this project. First one took me literally three hours to make since I wasn´t quite understand the technique that YouTube tutorial maker was using. I unraveled my bead work several times and watched the video over and over again to see where I went wrong. Finished piece is beautiful and at the next day  I made another pair. Somehow, I was processed the technique during my sleep so second one went so much faster and even enjoyed to make that leaf.

Pink jade earrings with rose gold wire.
Pink jade symblize love, peace, harmony and friendship.
It also have ability to remove toxins from the body.

Day 2 - Think Pink

This day´s challenge was to create something in pink because October is breast cancer awareness month and I thought long time what should I make. First I hadn´t any idea and I went to scrolling the Pinterest to get some inspire what I can make this day. I ended up using rose gold wire and pink jade beads what I have. I love working with wire and thought that rose gold wire is perfect for this day since it´s kind of pink too. Pink jade in turn ended up my being my choice because the stone symbolize love, peace, harmony and friendship. The gemstone also work as a healing stone and it can eliminate all toxins from your body.

This moon pendant is actually my second try, first one was too big and I wanted the moon be little smaller. I try to capture the beautiful blue goldstone so that you can see its gorgeous surface that this stone have. This stone is actually one of my favorite and I used it as bracelet what I made for my mom as a birthday gift.

Day 3 - Spooky Celestial

Day three task was bit difficult for me since I wasn´t quite sure should I share something star patterns or something else. I looked what other had shared this day in order to figure out what I can make. I ended up making moon from the silver plated wire and add the blue goldstone in the middle. The blue goldstone have beautiful deep blue color and surface looks like clear midnight sky with stars. 

Here´s my first ever made spider from wire. I used black and golden colored beads to make this spider. I named him as a "luxury spider" because of its color. He´s looking for new home so let me know if you like to adopt him.

Day 4 - Scary Statement

Fourth day´s challenge was to make something big and scary. First idea that came my mind was spider. I don´t really scare spiders but find them so unpleasant. I made my very first spider from beads and little bit wire. I actually have admire these kind earlier but thought that they were too difficult to make. If you think that too, don´t be scared to try. These are actually much more simplier to make than you would first thought.

I was so happy to find jewelry project where I can used these beautiful silver plated bead caps that I have so long to wait "the perfect" jewelry project. I used deep blue, yellow and green colored seed beads. Reason why I chose these colors is because I wanted to use this Autumn´s trend colors. Thanks my stylist friend who inform me this Autumn´s trend colors. These became so lovely earrings that I actually made second pair with different colors

Day 5 - Earrings

Fift day task was to create earrings. Earrings are actually one of favorite jewelry that I most often do. They are usually very simple and BlueBell have much more earrings than any other jewelry. I must correct that later and do more other jewelry too.

Creative people don´t have mess, this is creative mess which is entirely different thing than normal mess

Day 6 - Wip Wednesday

Wip Wednesday I took over our kitchen table and spread all my seed beads on the table. I tried to figure out colors I would use for my seed bead earrings. "Creative people don´t have mess, they have ideas lying around everywhere!"

First one is my favorite from all of these. I love its coloring in yellow, orange and red that fits so well in Autumn time. All of these necklaces are available in my Etsy shop

Day 7 - Simple and Quick

Seventh day task was to show off something simple and quick. I ended up showing my faux leather necklace that have few wooden beads. It´s simple necklace that comes total five different colors. Each necklace have different color faux leather teardrop pendant and matching wooden beads. This necklace I made under ten minutes so it´s totally quick jewelry project.

Here was one week of coverage of this challenge and if you want to join this challenge too, visit ArtBeads Instagram account and save yourself the #beadtober calendar.

~ Minna