Happy New Year!

Here is to a great 2013. Sorry I have been MIA for a few days, I went out to the farm for a break. It was great I did not do any work on my thesis and I did not do any beading even! I spent my time crocheting a baby blanket for a friend, although at this rate I will be giving this blanket to her next kid! and working on a cute dinosaur cross-stitch. So now I am back in Jozi and feeling fresh! (Wonder how long that will last ;)
Resolutions: Finish thesis, like I have any other option  LOL!
  and start looking for shops and other platforms for the jewellery.
   Also get my act together in finishing pieces and orders in good time - I say this every couple of months!

So to get us into the spirit of things here is some pieces I made at the end of last year:

Firstly I took this cool carved bone 'shark tooth' and simply strung it on a piece of fine chain, simple but kinda fun

I had this string of soft smoky quarts beads and I just couldnt bear to separate the beads so I strung them as a short strand with fine chain.

This necklace consists of a strand of hot pink pearls with this polymer clay flower sitting asymmetrically on the neck.

The wooden rings and wrapped green beads give this bold necklace a strong African feel.

And finally some fun cocktail rings

The base of the flower is smaller than the head of the ring so I stuck a piece of green ultrasuede to the ring base and attached the flower to the ultrasuede. I also put a bead edging around the ultrasuede just to finish the whole thing off.

Finally I made this cocktail ring after my trip to the Drakensberg a few weeks ago. Just got home and sat down at my desk and got started. I have never been keen on just making up a ring and gluing it to a ring back, glues can fail and rings tend to get knocked about, especially on my hands LOL.  So for this I beaded the stone onto lacy's stiff stuff with a peyote bezel. I then cut a piece of ultrasuede to the right size. I attached the ring backing to the loose ultrasuede with both glue and some stitches to make it nice and secure, and then I attached the ultrasuede to the Lacy's  I think it came out quite neat. A really nice ring, just the right size. Only down side is I am not sure what stone this is. I think its probably an agate of some kind, maybe moss agate (?) but I just dont know. That can be the problem with bead suppliers, often they cant tell you much about some of their products.
Anyway these rings were nice quick projects so I am thinking of creating tutorials or kits of them for the Centurion Craft Show later this year, where I will be doing some workshops.

Ok far too much talking, have a great first week of 2013...