Making Jewellery

Yes I know, me making jewellery, something that requires time, patience and an eye for detail which I don't often have time for.  As you know I love art and creating new things but it's more rewarding and easier for me if there is a purpose to the art.

This time I am creating pieces for my wedding which is couple of years away, but who's counting?  I have seen so many wonderful hair vines on Instagram and on stalls at wedding shows and I though I'd  have a go myself.  It can't be that hard, can it?

These "vintage" pieces seem to command a £100 price tag which seems pretty crazy to me as it takes about £10 or less to make.  It does however take a lot of time and skill to get to that standard.

So I popped to hobby craft, got so wire and beads then set to work.  Of course I watched a few videos  on YouTube to get gist of it.

I got silver plated wire that seemed decent at £2.90, some pearl 6mm beads for £1.20 and some crystal cushion cut 6mm beads for £1.20.  I had a few tiny other beads to at home as well.

Generally what you do is put the beads on the wire, fold and twist the wire together to secure this close together or further apart to create a pattern.  I think it looks better with a random pattern but I like to have control in a pattern.

First off the wire was too thick and hard to manipulate but the beads went really well with silver and I made this small piece;

I also tried my hand at earring hooks but I shaped them round a sharpe and seems a bit too thick;

I decided to buy some thinner more flexible wire from a local sewing shop but I think I went from one extreme to another as it was too thin.  This means I decided to combine the 2 together so using the thicker wire as a central twine and then twist the thinner wire around it to secure the beads.

At first it looked very straight and unnatural so I decided to brush all the "branches" one way to create the effect that they have "grown" from the centre stem which can be wrapped around hair.