Special Gift for Fathers Day

Hello everyone,

Bit of a crazy week this week, have had to make myself scarce at home as the house is on the market & we are having a fair amount of viewings.

I just wanted to remind you that Sunday 19^th June is Fathers Day & if you are stuck for gift ideas then why not a pair of cufflinks?  You can go for my classic fused glass style, or for something a bit more personal then how about these fun letter cufflinks?   

Made from Vintage Scrabble Tiles you can choose the initials to make a personalised set.  The scrabble cufflinks are just £10 and come gift wrapped in a pillow box.  Letters are subject to availability … there are only so many letters tiles in a set of scrabble!

Have a lovely week

Kendra x

www.spellboundjewellery.co.uk

Chiyogami Pendants

Hello everyone,

How's your week been?  I'm getting through one day at a time, it's all I can do.

Last weekend I managed to make some pendants I've been longing to make for a while.  The inspiration was from an american artist a friend of mine found on the internet & I instantly fell in love with her artwork.  On her website she sells jewellery of her artwork, glass tiles with the artwork image, after speaking by e-mail with the wonderful artist, Rebecca Sinz (Elvenstar Art), she told me how it was done after I explained I made jewellery & loved fusing glass & it was much simpler than I originally thought it was.


It's taken me just over a year to find a supplier of the glass tiles, but then I don't have any wonderful artwork to reproduce for the jewellery, so my idea was to use some beautiful chiyogami origami paper I found when I was clearing out Dad's house.  Chiyogami is used to describe one type of Japanese paper. These are hand-silk screened mulberry papers many of which are embellished and consist of repeated patterns. Chiyogami/Yuzen patterns are based on traditional designs, including flowers, plants, butterflies, birds or geometric patterns.

I adore the colours & the patterns, not all of them worked out as pendants so I've made some cute little badge sized ones.  These should be available soon on my Misi Store.

That's all for this week, see you soon

Kendra x
www.spellboundjewellery.co.uk

Weekend At Bernies

Hi everyone,
sorry it's been a couple of weeks since I last posted, but I seem to be having a spate of very bad personal luck at the moment, I thought things would look up after the passing of Dad but it turns out I was wrong & I feel like my world has collapsed in on itself.  Obviously I don't want to go into it here as it's a far too public forum, but I'm happy when I'm creating but I can only create when I'm happy so I've not made much jewellery recently.

I thought I would share with you today what I have managed to make using my new kiln, Bernie.  He's been very good at baking glass for me since he arrived, I need to do a bit of tinkering with the tack fuse setting but I'm very pleased with his hard work.

This is the glass I've cut & laid out on the kiln shelf with Bullseye Thinfire paper to protect the shelf.

This is the kiln shelf after firing, notice the nice rounded edges on the larger pieces, the layers of glass all deliciously fused together & the smaller pieces are now nice little rounds for cufflinks.

These are the fused glass pieces all nicely attached to their blank components to make colourful pendants, dashing cufflinks & fabulous rings.  As always the rings are sterling silver & stamped with 925.

Hopefully I'll post again soon with more adventures in beading, see you then.

Kendra x
www.spellboundjewellery.co.uk

How You Doing?

Hello everyone,

How are you all doing?  It feels like ages since I last wrote, but looking it was just 2 weeks ago.  I've not had a lot of opportunity to make much in the way of jewellery recently, my excuses are that I had my wrist operated on to remove the metal plate when when I broke my arm last year & my other excuse is that the past 2 weekends we ... when I say we I actually mean my beloved boyfriend ... have been doing some decorating & home improvements & I've been staying safely out of the way, which normally would be a good time to keep myself occupied in the ways of beading but to be honest there wasn't much space to work in without getting in the way.

I have had an opportunity to have a go at my New Year Resolutions, if you remember I targeted myself with 3 & I'm very proud to say I've achieved 2 out of the 3 ...ok so they were the easier two, but still two out of three ... whoohoo!
 
My first resolution was to try at least one thing in Kirstie's Homemade Home book, & I can report that I have actually tried making 2 things from the book, I've made Lavendar Bags & I've had a go at Fabric Decoupage which was marvellously messy & using the PVA glue brought back memories of making at mess with it at middle school.

Today I'm going to share with you the Lavendar Bags, because in making these I managed to acheive resolution number three, to learn to use my mum's sewing machine.  Well it's more of a twist on this resolution, my mother in law actually took my mum's sewing machine for me, it was perfect for what she wanted & for me it was a bit too big for what I needed, so I brought a new one from John Lewis!

Using the sewng machine

One lining bag & one decorative bag

Stuffing the lining bag with lavendar

Finished Lavendar Bags

 I'm going to be honest, I don't think I'll be able to achieve my second resolution, to attend a copperfoiling course.  I was left a bit of money from Dad as inheritence & with a very small part of it I brought a new kiln, but at the moment I'm still dealing with things from Dad's Estate, which is really horrible as I thought I was nearly done & it's a question of 1 step forward & 2 steps back, it's all rather upsetting.  So I want to make the absolute most of the kiln, we've named him Bernie.

Speaking of Bernie I put him to good use yesterday & I fused nearly everything I had cut ages ago, so this morning I want to cut some new glass that I brought & see what goodies he bakes me!  I hope to share more about Bernie next week, I also have a few other jewellery products in mind which again I hope to share soon!

Hope you're all enjoying the weekend.
Love
Kendra x
www.spellboundjewellery.co.uk

UK Handmade

Hello there,

just a short blog for you this week.  Did you watch the Royal Wedding yesterday?  I did & it was so lovely!  Had a wonderful chilled out day with friends & had a bbq in their garden, so nice & relaxing.

Just a little update to let you know I'm now proud to be a member of UK Handmade!  UK Handmade supports & promotes the best UK artists, designers & makers.  To represent this I've added their badge to my website & this blog.

You can find their website here:  www.ukhandmade.co.uk

"UK Handmade is a design led online magazine committed to showcasing and promoting the best creative talent the UK has to offer. The term 'handmade' is now an indicator of quality, care and professionalism that is second to none and something we at UK Handmade wish to encourage and celebrate."

I'm going to leave you to enjoy your long weekend, next week I hope to have more new jewellery to share & maybe an update on my New Year Resolutions!

Take care!

Kendra x

www.spellboundjewellery.co.uk

Best of British

Hello All,

As it's the Queens 85th Birthday today & the Royal Wedding in just about a week I thought that would be my theme for today.  I remember the Wedding of Prince Charles & Lady Diana Spencer in 1981, it was just after my 6th birthday & I went to a Street Party at Brampton Gardens in Hersham dressed as Little Bo Peep.  I also remember some awful young child trying to steal my toy sheep which I was less than pleased at.  We were all given commemorative coins, I still have mine!  I wish I could share with you the photo of me dressed up outside my parents front door where a poster of Charles & Di was placed with 2 Union Jack Flags, but all my old family photographs are being looked after by a friend of mine whilst I try to find space.

Best of British for me would have to be all about the music & 3 of the best for me would have to be David Bowie, Rolling Stones & Queen.

In honour of this special time I have created 2 bracelets with a Red, White & Blue theme the first is a charm braclet, I've not made a charm bracelet in such a long time.  This bracelet uses red and blue glass beads with heart shaped & crown shaped tibetan silver charms hung on a silver plated chain & secured with a lobster clasp.

The second braclet is simple strung beaded bracelet using red & blue indian glass beads & sparkly tibetan silver beads to represent the white.  I've also hung a heart shaped charm & 2 crown shaped charms & the bracelet is finished with a tibetan silver toggle clasp.

Both bracelets are available from my Misi Store.

That just leaves me to wish you a Happy Easter Weekend, I hope I don't eat too much chocolate, I still have chocolates left from Christmas!  Oh, in case you were wondering I'm typing better thank you, the consultant gave me the all clear yesterday so now it's down to physio, exercise & determination.

Kendra x

www.spellboundjewellery.co.uk

Hippity Hop, Here Comes The Easter Bunny

Hello All,

Please excuse me, this will probably be a short blog, I'm typing this slowly with my left hand as I had the titanium plate removed from my right wrist a week ago, so no driving, no work & certainly no beading for me.  I'm being a bad patient as I hate doing nothing!

Fortunately before I went into hospital I had the forsight to look for Easter themed components & I discovered some delightful Easter Bunny Charms, perfectly detailed on both sides.

I'd not worked with Swarovski Crystals for a while & the first thing I made with the rabbit charms was a pair of earrings, using Jonquille & Light Rose Swarovski Crystals, I was so happy with the combination of the shiny crystals with the cute charm that I made a matching bracelet.  I've listed this on my Misi store.

I could't leave the Easter Bunnies alone then & inspired by a rose quartz bracelet I'd made a week prior I selected some dyed jade beads & created this bracelet which is also available on my Misi Store.

So if you fancy a sweet treat for Easter, but without the calories, then remember my store for something a bit different, handmade & can be treasured for a long time!

Kendra x
www.spellboundjewellery.co.uk