Jewellery Making

Jewellery making is something I have wanted to try for a while but I haven't had a clue where to start.

It was my lucky day when, on the way back from the craft and gift show, I stumbled upon a bead shop - right here in Brentwood! (apparently it's been there for several years but I don't often go to that part of the town).

When I walked in there were lots of lovely beads tempting me, so I signed up to a beginners workshop for the following Saturday.

In the workshop, there were two different types of necklace available to make and we had a pick of a large variety of beads. It turned out that the construction of the necklace itself is actually very straight forward, it's the designing of it that takes the most time.

The first necklace we made was this one:

 It was made using a length of tiger tail, folded in half. The majority of the beads are threaded onto one of the strands, but the other strand is used to thread one bead onto, with the design being held in place by a joiner bead threaded onto both strings. It's not as complicated as it looks and can be adapted in many different ways. However, it took us ages to decide on which beads to use - there were just too many on offer.

The next necklace was this one which is designed to be much longer:

Once you got the hang of how this one is constructed, it was very simple to build. Again, this design can be adapted and can be made smaller.

The Brentwood Bead Shop holds regular workshops from beginners to the more advanced. More information can be found on their website: www.brentwood-bead-shop.co.uk

Brentwood Craft and Gift Show

The last few months have been working towards the weekend just gone - to make things in order to sell them at the Brentwood Craft and Gift show.

This was a 2 day show and comprised of several different stalls selling various different crafts, gifts and foods as well. It was advertised as being the biggest of its kind in Essex and even some reindeers popped in on Sunday.

We worked hard to get the stall set up on Saturday and although it started off slowly, we had quite a good day - mainly due to several family members and friends paying the stall a visit and parting with their money.

There were several different items for sale including patchwork cushions, magnets, handmade cards and decorated candles:

 

 On the second day the heavens opened - so the hall was very busy. The stall had a bit of a change around to make some items more visible (and us - there was no hiding behind the card stands on day two.....)

The fleece baby blankets proved a very popular item, probably due to the cute animals printed onto some of them as well as the very soft feel of the snuggle fleece.

Although none of them sold, the mice pin cushions were also a big talking point, with lots of comments that they were cute. However, they are still sat on my shelf until they can find an owner:

I now have time to do more work on the blog. so over the next few weeks there will be several 'How to' guides showing various different techniques - so why not follow the blog so you get regular updates on the information and news.

I will also be putting some of the unsold stock onto my Etsy page shortly, or if you would like anything please leave a comment on this post.

Claire