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