Craftiness by Soft n’ Shiny!

I have been lacking in blog posts, but I have been productive in the craft area!

Here are some pictures of what I’ve been up to!

Garnet & Moonstone Earrings

Green Camouflage Fuzzy Ladies Scarf

3 Crystal Sterling Silver Wire Wrapped Ring

Red Crystal & Freshwater Pearl Antique Bronze Earrings

Cafe Au Lait Fuzzy Ladies Hat

Cafe Au Lait Fuzzy Ladies Scarf

I did finish this piece a couple of days ago but every time I tried to take pictures of this piece, the pictures turned out horrible!

I’ve been wanting to get my hands on some Moonstone for a while now, and finally I have some.  I chose the diamond shaped ones (they are squares that are diagonally drilled) and some garnet to go along with the silver chain I have, and thought that these items together would make a nice dainty necklace.  Because of the tiers, it wound up shorter than I was expecting, approximately 16-17″ wearable length, so I added on a 2.5″ long extender to help with that.

I absolutely adore this necklace!  I think it turned out well, especially for my first attempt at a piece like this.  I hope you like it too!

Just a short entry today.  I have been creating this piece using a really pretty blue diamond-shaped Crystal and wire wrapping.  There’s also a few different sized faceted cube-shaped crystals and bicone crystals, along with some aquamarine in the cluster, and then a ton of aquamarine around the chain.  It’s approximately 19″ long, and has a 2″ long extender.

I feel this piece is a little different than other things I’ve made but I really like the way it turned out despite being slightly iffy on it initially.   Unfortunately the pictures aren’t the best of this piece but I don’t know when I will be able to take better ones.  I picked the wrong book off of the shelf and didn’t really notice exactly WHAT was on the page until after I was cropping them… I picked a political book that probably should not have been used to showcase a piece of fun jewelry.  Oh um… I was going for the contrast, that’s it!  Fun vs Serious! Yeah…

Testing out posting from my iPod touch. I have been AWOL from blogging but I have been getting some crafting done although not as much as I would prefer.

I have a scarf 95% done for my hubby, my first ever 3-tiered necklace using some garnets and moonstone, and I have started on another necklace using a neat diamond shaped blue crystal that I am hoping to finish up tomorrow!

I want to get a couple of lampwork pieces done as well and then I want to focus a bit on the softer side of things for a while as I do not have much save for baby hats in that department currently.

One day, one project at a time!!

Well, technically it could be considered aubergine! It’s a nice dark purple crystal!

Yesterday was the first day this year I didn’t create anything.  I have been trying to organize my mess of beads, and I swear it feels as though they are multiplying!

One thing I did accomplish was making a listing for the Blue/Crystal set that I’ve been making!  I reshot a bunch of pictures for them and I think they turned out really pretty.  If you’d like to see them, they are here at my store! Can you identify the book that I used as a prop?

Today’s accomplishment is rather small but it’s very cute.  I got my ring mandrel in finally, so I can make some rings! This ring is using a Rondelle Aubergine*Crystal bead and non-tarnish silver tone wrapping wire.  It is size 7.5.  The pictures are NOT very good for this, as it’s late and I was in cramped quarters while I tried to take the photos.  I really like this ring, though! I may have to make myself one with every colour of crystal I have in this style!

* snicker! If you are a friend of mine on Facebook you might know why I’m snickering about that!

My christmas present from my husband was that I was allowed to place a nice order at an online vendor for beading supplies.  I was so excited, and my box arrived today!

Many of my plans for the day got derailed by this, and I did not expect to create anything at all but I was able to pop out another pair of earrings because I simply had to make something with these cube crystals right away.

I’m tired and it is late, so these are not the best photos but it’s the best I could do tonight!

I picked up a new lamp today, in the hopes that a different type of light might help my pictures a bit, while I await either a new camera or get my old camera fixed.  Please forgive my indulgence as I’ve taken way too many photos of this bracelet, which will be my only completed creation today as I want to begin a crochet project that will in no way be able to be completed tonight.

This is a matching bracelet for the Blue Czech glass necklace and earrings I’ve made over the last couple of days.  I wanted to also make a bracelet for the helix crystals but that will most likely wait until tomorrow.

The chain on both the necklace and the bracelet was the most time consuming.  It consists of two pieces of chain, 3 links long, connected with a small jump ring.  Like the necklace, the bracelet also has an extender, this one being approximately 1.5″ in length, probably just under that, and the rest of the bracelet is approximately 7″ long.

I think the quality of photos is a little better! I’m going to go through and re-do all of the photos on my Artfire page once I get the hang of this a little more.

Whew.

Late last night, I began to make a necklace to match the helix earrings I posted yesterday.

I was able to vanish and finish that necklace, amongst dealings with my children, and I also was able to finish up a necklace to match the blue czech glass earrings from yesterday as well.

While making that, I managed to slice open the palm of my hand with my pliers somehow.  I have no clue how I managed to do that, but dayum!!

The Blue Czech Glass & AB Bicone Swarovski Elements necklace was put together using quite a bit of silver plated chain and findings.  This necklace took a lot of time, and quite literally, blood sweat and tears!  I’ve attempted to take some prettier pictures of these tonight, but the results aren’t as nice as I’d hoped, given the difficulty with my camera and lighting. The necklace is approximately 18″ in length, along with a 2″ necklace extender that has one of the smaller blue beads and the smaller bicone.

The Helix Crystal necklace is accented with small crystal bicones, and I used the same three different colours as I did in the earrings.  It is using antique brass chain and findings.   This is a much more simple necklace than the Blue Czech Glass necklace, but I really like it.  It’s approximately 18″ in length.

I didn’t keep track during my crazy holiday rush of making gifts for my friends, which I inevitably always end up leaving until last minute, but I know I was creating like mad during that time.  I still intend on doing some crochet this evening, but I know that I won’t *complete* a crochet project before midnight as that tends to be more time consuming, and I spent WAY too much time on the internet today…

So 9pm rolled around and when I realized I had nothing tangible created on the day, I decided to somewhat cop-out and make some earrings.  I wound up making 2 pairs, which is pretty good, and they took longer than I expected after I had a slight battle with my pliers (and was really grateful that my best friend has loaned me a pair of safety goggles after my Eyeball-Plier relationship has scared her on a couple of occasions).

I eventually won the war, although a few wires were sacrificed in the process of creating some pretty, shiny objects.  I really need to remember to get my other camera fixed, hopefully I’ll get it in the mail this week, and see if that can help my picture-taking-noobness, as I wish these could show to you just how much these earrings sparkle!

This pair of earrings is using 3 different colours of helix-style crystals, as well as 1 4mm bicone crystal at the top, and I chose to make these using antique brass findings.  The helix crystals are faceted beautifully and as soon as the light hits them, the sparkle is… damn, I used “sparkle”.  Now all I can think of are “Twilight” references, so I’m going to distract myself by just showing the pictures.

The other pair of earrings I made tonight use oval faceted Czech glass bi-coloured beads in baby blue AB and silver, as well as Swarovski Crystallized Elements clear AB bicone beads, with silver-plated findings.  They turned out really cute!

I’ve been pondering making a hair stick for a while now, and have had the materials to do so for quite some time.  Over the last few days, however, the obsession with getting one created has been overwhelming, but finding the time and headspace to do so has been limited.

Finally the moon and the sun and the stars all aligned to allow me the ability to create one… or perhaps… my husband decided to play Tiger Woods 2010 on the Playstation 3 and so I vanished from the room and cleared a spot on the dining room table so I could try and do something tangible on the first day of the year!

I initially was wiring up some beads with the thought of making a necklace, but after a while they began to grow on me for the thought of making a dangly part on a hair stick.  I unearthed amongst my mess of jewelry supplies a pretty greenish-blue lampwork bead, and felt it would go well along with it.
I had some trouble with the glue aspect of making a hair stick, and I am hoping that it will hold up when I test it later on.

The end result! Yes, I know I need to improve my picture-taking skills… that will come with time (and possibly, a better camera!).