Playing Around With Metal Pieces

I created a new line of chunky jewelry designs for my fall collection last year by combining large metal charms with snap bases.  These were not only fun to create but are so much fun to wear.  There is a snap base for interchanging the decorative snaps and the entire piece clips off the cord for interchanging onto different necklace chains or cords.

This year I decided to kick it up a notch and finally had some time to play around more with these large metal charms. There are so many things that can be done with them.  Here are just a few examples of which I will be sharing some tips on a little later.

Creating faux gemstones with resin:

Or filling in with a faux enamel look:

Adding smaller Swarovski crystals or rhinestones to the small bezels in the pieces.

For another look, back-filling the pieces with polymer clay.

And finally, creating a mold or texture -- then creating your polymer clay pieces from it.

I find the metal charms quite appealing but I am more drawn to color over the plain silver.  Working the design into clay completely transforms it!  And the sky is the limit to how you want to create.

I have a selection of these large charms available in my online store under the DIY supplies section.  Over the next week I will be sharing some tips on how to work with these beautiful pieces using various materials like polymer clay, resin and inclusions.

Charms for Post Earrings

I now have more of the stainless steel post earrings in stock.  These are so cool to wear and fun to create with.  You can read about them on my last post here.

I really prefer earrings that dangle but also love wearing these posts so I created some fun charms to hang behind the ear by adding them to the stoppers.  These are pretty easy to make and all you need are some chain, jump rings and little charms or crystals.

And if you prefer earrings that hang from ear wires, we now have some metal bezels for those as well!  These are stainless steel bezels with a loop at the top for adding ear wires.

The blanks are now available in our online store in our Jewelry Supply section.  If you are looking for earrings that are already made, we now have some listed in our Earring section.

Lots of New Scarf Jewelry for Fall

Over the past few months we have been working overtime to create some new scarf jewelry for fall.  I have been teaching Linda, our assistant, how to make them with me in a sort of production process and so we were able to create a wide range of designs and have some fun at the same time!  These take a fair bit of work to make but is one of my favorite items to create.  The bails are handcrafted from clay and then we hand-shape sets of clay beads to match.  After baking and finishing all the pieces, they are put together with unique charms and beautiful beads to create a balanced necklace.

Our scarf jewelry is one of our most popular selling items.  We have had a difficult time listing them online as they would sell so quickly.  This time we managed to document and photograph these latest pieces before we take them to our Christmas show coming up in less than 2 weeks.  We will be at the Kamloops Craft-A-Fair at the Sandman Centre on Sunday, November 5th.  We will be in the same location as past years (on the concourse - turn left at the main entrance and down a bit on the left hand side).  If you are not able to attend, we have a wide selection listed in our online store and also adding some select designs to our Etsy shop.

Our new classic collection is in a wide range of fall colors.  You can add one to your own favorite scarf or they can be purchased with one of our soft and luxurious linen scarves in your color choice.

Vintage Style Jewel-tone Flowers

We have been making lots of "Vintage Flowers" in a variety of jewel-tone colors.  We create the flowers and bake them so they are ready to be used when needed.

The "vintage-like" centres are not metal but polymer clay.  They were created from a mould we made from a vintage button.  A Swarovski crystal is embedded into the centre and they are then accented with mica powders and baked.  We will generally make up a whole batch in different colors at a time so they are ready to use.

We like to use our vintage style flowers in various ways:

Shawl/Hair Sticks:

Brooch Stick Shawl Pins:

Scarf Charms:

  And Jewelry:

Ladies Hat and Dress Brooch Pins

We had a nice time in Sicamous last Saturday at the Classic Car Show & Shine.  The weather was nice and warm and was perfect for enjoying the outdoors and viewing all the fabulous cars on display.  I managed to capture a few photos of some of my favorites.  Dave said I took some pictures of a few of his as well, although we had to take turns so that one of us was at our booth in the craft fair all the time.

This was my favorite car with the matching camping trailer.  I loved all the cool details right down to the cabinets in the back.

Along with the sweater guards in our display, our ladies hat and dress brooch pins were also a big attraction.

I had come across these little clothes hanger charms and decided a little dress had to go on them and they were then added to the kilt brooch pins.

Buttons and Zipper Charms

I haven't had time to blog this past week as we have been super busy filling button orders for our stores. This year we have made a variety of zipper charms to coordinate with many of our button designs.  We are still listing some of them on our website but here are a few to show you:

We are pretty much caught up and can now focus more on our upcoming Christmas shows.