hobbies – Page 2 – BRIDGE JEWELLERY

ALL CHOKED UP – part 1: setting my intentions

I’m feeling very excited and inspired! I’m starting a new project! Something bloody spectacular. But I’m going to take a few moments to tell you about it first.

Right, so, I was all ready to start a blog post about Christmas and what theme I’m going for this year, when out popped my old friend executive dysfunction, and I opened Twitter. What did I see? This:

Image Source: Twitter, via Hell’s Belle Designs*

It stopped me mid-scroll. And not only because it’s a tweet from March last year. I just want it. And it seems like the perfect time to get it. It’s October now. Hallowe’en is only a few weeks away.

Now, I didn’t grow up with Hallowe’en being “a thing”. Not saying that was everyone’s experience; people celebrated it, but it didn’t seem like it was that big of a deal. Plus, Bonfire Night is only a few days after. May as well save up your excitement for that! Does Hallowe’en come with fireworks? Exactly. And anyway, Christmas is the end-of-year celebration I truly love. But I really do want that necklace. Choker, really.

Even if all I end up doing for Hallowe’en is sit about on the sofa, drinking Bloody Marys, I will have that necklace on while I do it. Being honest, though, the original is out of my price range. And international shipping wouldn’t guarantee I could have it ready for 31 October.

So I’m going to make my own version. I will be documenting the process week by week as I go – with Part 2 coming up on 8 October – so please keep your fingers crossed for me and stick around to see how I do!

Should we look at it one more time before I go? Okay:

* [Author’s Note 05.10.2021: since originally posting this on 1 October, I’ve learned that the choker design is based on a Dior SS06 look, and has been reproduced many, many times since then.

Christian Dior Spring/Summer ’06 collection

Don’t know how I managed to miss/forget about this. Then again, it was 16 years ago! But I will still refer to the Hell’s Belle necklace in future posts. Because, I have to be honest, I just like it more.]

That’s all for now. Thanks so much for popping in and having a read. Have a lovely rest of your day!

There’s lots more to come as this project develops and while I work out a more consistent schedule for this blog, so please subscribe if you don’t want to miss future posts. And of course, likes and comments are muchly appreciated.

If you’d like to see more from me, you can find me on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, and of course, you can support me and treat yourself in my Shop!

MIXED & MATCHED

Something that helps me to relax is sorting out the various bits and bobs in my jewellery making stash. The neat and tidy end result – seeing all the findings, wires and beads in their little stacking pots – is about as satisfying as putting all the jumbled bits into little groups.

It also gives me the chance to think of new design ideas. One of the few times I’m not doing something else completely unrelated when inspiration strikes, and can actually get started on it right then and there.

The last lot of beads I added to my ever-growing stash were some lovely strands of heishi beads, made from polymer clay. I bought them rather than making them myself, as polymer clay is something I’m yet to work with. Maybe I’ll get round to that one day; it looks quite versatile, and it would be a great excuse to buy new tools!

I was surprised at how light and bendy the beads are. Well, I say ‘bendy’; you couldn’t exactly roll or scrunch them up and expect them to return to normal, but being clay I assumed they would be quite delicate and brittle, especially in these thin disc shapes. But there’s definitely a bit of give in them. That explains the ‘polymer’ in ‘polymer clay’, I suppose.

Anyway, some of the bead strands were solid colours, but my favourites had a whole mix. However, an idea I’d had in the back of my mind only needed a few of the colours, so I had to take those beads out to get working on it.

So, I removed the beads from the strand, and sifted through the pile to find the colours I wanted. And then I realise I wanted them all. They all looked so great together that I’m saving my original idea for later (and it’ll have to be much later, unfortunately; as I write up this blog post, I realise I’ve forgotten what the original idea even was! Whoops!), and this will now be a colour block necklace. So I carried on until all the colours were separated, and threaded them back onto a length of beading thread, securing the ends ready for a clasp to finish it all off.

Now I have brand new, colourful necklace to wear! And all it took was a willingness to sit patiently for a few hours, hunched over a pile of literally hundreds of tiny discs, making sure I’d not confused about 4 different shades of off-white for any other. I had. And I was almost halfway through re-stranding when I noticed. But it’s not weird that I’d happily do it all again though, right? Right?

That’s all for now. Thanks so much for popping in and having a read. Have a lovely rest of your day!

This blog is still very new so there’s lots more to come as I work out a more consistent schedule. Feel free to subscribe so you don’t miss future posts. And of course, likes and comments are muchly appreciated.

If you’d like to see more from me, you can find me on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, and of course, you can support me and treat yourself in my Shop!