Featured Item Red Wire Brooch

Each week I pick a piece from my shop Fashion Magpie Jewellery to talk about on my blog. This week is one of my unique wire brooches the red wire brooch.

I mainly sell these brooches at craft fairs because a photo doesn't look as good as seeing them in person. There made very simplistically and add a little someone to a outfit.

There's only 4 parts to these brooches, tiger wire, copper welding wire, beads and a clasp for the back.

The copper welding wire is the main base to the brooch and forms the shape, I have also used it through the middle on some of the other ones for added support. (This brooch just has the copper wire as its main shape.)

I never plan out these brooches, instead I find they look better if you just let loose and see where your creativity takes you. I start by taking a very long length of the tiger wire and winding it around a starting point. Usually I'll chose to use the joining point for the copper wire as my starting point for the tiger wire. 

 

 

This type of brooch is useful when you have a lot of single beads left from projects or some beads you brought because they where pretty but don't have a plan for.

In this brooch I used a mix of red beads and Tibetan silver connector beads left over from another project.

 

 

When filling the tiger wire it's best to leave the beads some room to move before wrapping the end around the copper and going off in another direction. I do it this way because I've found it stops the wire bending in the design and its personal preference also. I like how you can hear the beads moving on the brooch when it's worn and it shows off the colour of the tiger wire.

 

If you would like the red wire brooch it is £ 6.00  with £1.95 UK postage and packaging from Fashion Magpie Jewellery 

All jewellery brought from Fashion Magpie Jewellery comes to you wrapped with tissue then placed in an organza gift bag.

You can find Fashion Magpie Jewellery at the below links

Folksy Website www.folksy.com/shops/fashionmagpiejewellery

Etsy Website www.etsy.com/uk/shop/FashionMagpieJewels

Facebook www.facebook.com/fashionmagpiejewellery

Pinterest http://uk.pinterest.com/fmjewellery/

Fashion Magpie Jewellery Blog is a celebration of antique and handcrafted jewellery, with regular featured items from my shop, antique jewellery showcase, interviews, reviews and tutorials.

To be the first to hear the latest news from Fashion Magpie Jewellery blog you can find me on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+

Shakespeare Day. A History of The Queen of Gems, the Opal

I thought I'd do something different on the blog today and celebrate Shakespeare day. As you can see from the quote above I've decided to write a post about a precious gem stone which like Shakespeare is one I personally love, the opal.

Shakespeare called them 'the Queen of Gems' and it's not hard to see why. 

They come in every colour and sparkle beautifully when polished into a cabochon to set in jewellery, which is how they would normally be set. 

According to history it's believed opal was first mined in the virgin valley, North America, over 10000 years ago. Although in modern times it's mainly from Hungary, South America and Australia.

Australia is the main world market for opals and has even adopted it as its national stone of the country. 95% of opals come from Australia and come in all colours and sizes, including the worlds largest opal called the 'Olympic Australis' which was found in August 1956 in Coober Pedy. It weighs 17,000 carats (3450g) and is 11inches long and 4.75 inches in height. 

My own favourite type of opal is the fire opals mined in Mexico, South America.  Fire opals are a blend of warm colours like reds, oranges and yellows. I think they look stunning and I'd love to own one.

Other types of opal include milk opals which are blue to green colours, resin opal which is yellows, wood opal which is caused by the replacement of organic material in wood and is brown or grey in colour. 

Of course the most well known type of opal is the common opal.

Through out history the Opal has been revered and fears among people. The Greeks thought opals where the tears of the King of gods, Zeus. Who cried with happy when he defeated the Titans, his tears where thought to turn to opals upon hitting the ground.

The Romans thought they would bring them great fortunes when worn and the Arabs thought they where associated with lightening. Believing that the flashes of lightening where what gave the opal it's colours.

However the middles ages the gem had fallen out of favour. It became associated with the the Black Death and it was believed that it had had something to do with pestilence, famine and the fall of monarchies. It was said at the point of death a opal would lose its colour when the wearer died.

The word opal is debated over but it's believed to be from the Roman term opalus.

Opal is the birthstone for people born in October under the signs of Scorpio and libra.

Fashion  Magpie Jewellery Blog is a celebration of antique and handcrafted jewellery, with regular featured items from my shop, antique jewellery showcase, interviews, reviews and tutorials.

To be the first to hear the latest news from Fashion Magpie Jewellery blog you can find me on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+

Featured Item. Cog Diamanté Ring

 

Back at the end of Summer 2015 I was doing a lot of experimenting with making rings and using cogs from old watches to get a steampunk feel.
This weeks featured item is the result of some of those experiments, it is the Steampunk Adjustable ring for Fashion Magpie Jewellery.

The face of the ring is set on a sieve blank ring base which is adjustable to fit any size. For the face I used a silver head pin which I threaded with various watch parts. I liked the two tone effect between the silver and brass so used that as an idea for the design. Starting small I gradually upped the size of the cogs and then found two larger pieces which I fitted together to cover the sieve on the ring blank.

 

Now I was happy with the design of the ring I used the rest of the head pin to wrap around the ring base and secure it in place. To finish I added a dab of glue to the two bigger pieces to stop them spinning and then added diamante for decoration.

The steampunk adjustable ring is £4.50 with £1.95 UK P+P.

All Fashion Magpie Jewellery come wrapped with tissue in a organza gift bag.

You can find Fashion Magpie Jewellery at the below links

Folksy Website www.folksy.com/shops/fashionmagpiejewellery

Etsy Website www.etsy.com/uk/shop/FashionMagpieJewels

Facebook www.facebook.com/fashionmagpiejewellery

Pinterest http://uk.pinterest.com/fmjewellery/

Fashion Magpie Jewellery Blog is a celebration of antique and handcrafted jewellery, with regular featured items from my shop, antique jewellery showcase, interviews, reviews and tutorials.

To be the first to hear the latest news from Fashion Magpie Jewellery blog you can find me on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+

New in March to Fashion Magpie Jewellery

 

Each month I write a end of month blog post for the previous month, in it I tell you what Fashion Magpie Jewellery has been up to.

March was another quiet month for me so I decided to see what I could do to bring more visitors into my Facebook page and my Folksy/Etsy website shops.

On Facebook I have 226 likes for my page but I was consistently only getting about 15 to 20 views per a post, which is awful reach! I found I wasn't posting very often so my first step was just to post more. Step two was a follow on, I used the insights part of my page to see what people reacted to and at what times of the day my reach was best. Now I knew when to schedule posts and what to talk about. It seems to be working well so far, my post reach has shot up to 93 people on a popular post when I'm more then happy with.

As for my shops, I'm still working on them. I'm still selling the odd piece but no where near what I was, maybe it's just the time of year but I still have confidence, my shops will bounce back.

Of course one other piece of news is the addition of some new pieces to the shop which you can see below. Clicking on the title of the piece will take you through to my folksy.com shop for more details.

 

Green Spotty Earrings

£6.00

Unusual Dangle Earrings

£6.00

 

Purple Flower Earrings

£6.00

Multi-coloured Ring size Q

£4.50

You can find Fashion Magpie Jewellery at the below links

Folksy Website www.folksy.com/shops/fashionmagpiejewellery

Etsy Website www.etsy.com/uk/shop/FashionMagpieJewels

Facebook www.facebook.com/fashionmagpiejewellery

Pinterest http://uk.pinterest.com/fmjewellery/

Fashion Magpie Jewellery Blog is a celebration of antique and handcrafted jewellery, with regular featured items from my shop, antique jewellery showcase, interviews, reviews and tutorials.

To be the first to hear the latest news from Fashion Magpie Jewellery blog you can find me on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+

Featured Item. Purple Leaf Bracelet

The featured item this week for Fashion Magpie Jewellery is the Purple Leaf Bracelet.
The idea for this bracelet can from the colours, I love the way turquoise blue plays with deep purples, I think its a stunning combination.
The embossed leaf at the centre of the charm bracelet was an experiment its self. I had just got the deco emboss part for Christmas 2015 and was eager to try it out. It was after painting the embossed coin with Vintaj patina inks that the idea started to form in my mind for how the bracelet should look.
I knew it needed to be bronze, it's my preferred metal to work with and I wanted the piece to show off the colours of the beads rather then be shiny like silver.

I used purple vine leaf beads along the length of the bracelet to mirror the pendant leaf and joined this with some bronze charm leaves. Next I brought in some turquoise with some 8mm facet beads and filled up the gaps with small 4mm crackle glass beads.
I love how full this bracelet looks and how it rings when its worn.

The Purple Leaf Bracelet is £10 with £3.20 UK postage and packaging.

You can find Fashion Magpie Jewellery at the below links

Folksy Website www.folksy.com/shops/fashionmagpiejewellery

Etsy Website www.etsy.com/uk/shop/FashionMagpieJewels

Facebook www.facebook.com/fashionmagpiejewellery

Pinterest http://uk.pinterest.com/fmjewellery/

Fashion Magpie Jewellery Blog is a celebration of antique and handcrafted jewellery, with regular featured items from my shop, antique jewellery showcase, interviews, reviews and tutorials.

To be the first to hear the latest news from Fashion Magpie Jewellery blog you can find me on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+

How to find inspiration when you have writers block

Regular readers of the Fashion Magpie Jewellery blog will have noticed a lack of new posts over the past few months. Basically I've hit burn out!

So to remotivate myself I've sat and forced myself to look at the blog from another angle and I think I may be on to something! 

The first thing I did was to find a notebook and pen, make a cup of tea and get comfortable.
To find ideas I took a look in my favourite book 'blogging for creatives' by Robin Houghton. Chapter 5 has 12 ideas for blog posts which I wrote down in my notebook.

From here I took the 12 ideas and tried to suit them to my blog. I did that by looking at Pinterest, which is always a major source for inspiration. I looked for other bloggers posts giving details on what they blog about and looked up what was trending at the moment.

I think I know have at least a few months of post topics to choose from. 

One last tip I have is to keep an eye on the calendar for upcoming bank holidays, world days etc.

What do you do? Or what would you like to see me writing about?

Featured Item. Purple Butterfly Bracelet

This weeks featured item is the butterfly bracelet by Fashion Magpie Jewellery.

I tried to keep this bracelet simple and not overly clutter it with pieces. The central focus of the bracelet are, of course, the beautiful shimmering butterflies which I got free in a big batch of beads I ordered.

 

I wanted soft feminine colours so I picked small 6mm baby pink Swarovski crystal which mirror the shimmering of the butterflies. I also choose to use a deep purple faux pearl which I experimented with wrapping it with silver wire. I used a long head pin which I threaded the bead onto and made a loop on the top as normal but in stead of cutting the excess wire off I wrapped it around the base of the loop then round the bead to wrap the last of the wire around the base of the bead. It looks really elegant and adds to the feel of the bracelet.
 

The butterfly bracelet is £10 with £3.20 UK postage and packaging.

You can find Fashion Magpie Jewellery at the below links

Folksy Website www.folksy.com/shops/fashionmagpiejewellery

Etsy Website www.etsy.com/uk/shop/FashionMagpieJewels

Facebook www.facebook.com/fashionmagpiejewellery

Pinterest http://uk.pinterest.com/fmjewellery/

Fashion Magpie Jewellery Blog is a celebration of antique and handcrafted jewellery, with regular featured items from my shop, antique jewellery showcase, interviews, reviews and tutorials.

To be the first to hear the latest news from Fashion Magpie Jewellery blog you can find me on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+

New in Janurary to Fashion Magpie Jewellery

 

January for Fashion Magpie Jewellery has been about developing new ideas and trying to build up stock levels again after the Christmas rush. As yet I've only listed the two items below but I have many more which are in various states of production to list as well so watch this space in February.

My plan for 2016 is to keep going as I have through 2015, it seems to be working so why try to fix something when it's not broken?!

 

 

Burgundy Leaf Earrings 

£6.00
 



Purple Leaf Beaded Bracelet

£10

 

You can find Fashion Magpie Jewellery at the below links

Folksy Website www.folksy.com/shops/fashionmagpiejewellery

Etsy Website www.etsy.com/uk/shop/FashionMagpieJewels

Facebook www.facebook.com/fashionmagpiejewellery

Pinterest http://uk.pinterest.com/fmjewellery/

Fashion Magpie Jewellery Blog is a celebration of antique and handcrafted jewellery, with regular featured items from my shop, antique jewellery showcase, interviews, reviews and tutorials.

To be the first to hear the latest news from Fashion Magpie Jewellery blog you can find me on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+

Happy Valentines Day

Featured Item. Owl Necklace

 

This weeks featured item is the Owl Necklace from my online shop Fashion Magpie Jewellery.

The owl necklace is a bronze coin which was pressed onto a pattern with a Vintaj Big Kick embossing machine. The embossing machine rolls the blank coin with a deco embossing pad sandwiched between to clear pieces of plastic. The rolls pressed the coin down onto the pattern and emboss it.

Next I took the patterned coin and polished it with a nail file pad. This technique helps to polish only the pattern on the coin and relieves it. The next step was to add colour, I did this using Vintaj's patina ink which I dabbed onto the coin with a paint brush. the colour I used is called Moss green. Before it dries and while its still tacky I took the nail file pad to it again and polished the patina from the pattern so the green only remained on the background.

 

 

To keep the shine I coated the entire coin in patina glaze, again by Vintaj. this helps to keep the metal pristine.

When the coin had dried I wrapped a four star shaped filigree around the back and then added holes with a hole punch where I wanted the owl to hang from (it already had the hole in the top.) 

 

 

The owl is a bronze charm with a front and back to the owl. I hung him from a jump ring and added him to the bottom of the coin.

The chain is made up of a mixture of 8mm bronze filigree beads and 3 beads together, 2 brown beads and a moss green faux pearl. 

 

 

 

To buy the Owl Necklace it is £12.95 with £3.20 UK postage and packaging.

You can find Fashion Magpie Jewellery at the below links

Folksy Website www.folksy.com/shops/fashionmagpiejewellery

Etsy Website www.etsy.com/uk/shop/FashionMagpieJewels

Facebook www.facebook.com/fashionmagpiejewellery

Pinterest http://uk.pinterest.com/fmjewellery/

Fashion Magpie Jewellery Blog is a celebration of antique and handcrafted jewellery, with regular featured items from my shop, antique jewellery showcase, interviews, reviews and tutorials.

To be the first to hear the latest news from Fashion Magpie Jewellery blog you can find me on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+

Featured item. Red and blue necklace

Each week I take a piece of my jewellery from my shop to write about for you in my featured items blog post. I aim to use this post as a insight into the inner working of Fashion Magpie jewellery.

This week I have chosen to feature the red and blue necklace, which is one of my favourite Jewel enamel pieces.

As with most of my necklace pieces I started with the pendant. It's this pendant which I love the most about the necklace. It's a plain brass coloured disc but it's the Jewel enamel within which really catches the eye. This piece typifies how unpredictable the Jewel enamel is. I used sapphire blue and Burmese flame.
Burmese Flame jewel enamel is my favourite jewel enamel. When it first melts it has a pure gold glaze over the top of the colour, so if you pour it straight away you will get a deep bright red with hints of gold in it. However if its left a little longer the gold disappears and your left with the red you can see in this necklace.
I love the way the pendant almost looks like an alien world, with blue seas and red continents. Perhaps this is what Mars used to look like?

The chain on this necklace is made up of a mixture of red beads with turquoise crackle glass beads. I wanted to keep the look of this being of another world, so the red beads all look like stones and the crackle beads look like the oceans whirling around.

I'm really pleased with how well the colours all match up in this necklace. Measuring 24 inches long, it would be ideally worn with a high necklace top to best show it off.

 

To buy the Red and Blue Necklace it is £12.95 with £3.20 UK postage and packaging.

You can find Fashion Magpie Jewellery at the below links

Folksy Website www.folksy.com/shops/fashionmagpiejewellery

Etsy Website www.etsy.com/uk/shop/FashionMagpieJewels

Facebook www.facebook.com/fashionmagpiejewellery

Pinterest http://uk.pinterest.com/fmjewellery/

Fashion Magpie Jewellery Blog is a celebration of antique and handcrafted jewellery, with regular featured items from my shop, antique jewellery showcase, interviews, reviews and tutorials.

To be the first to hear the latest news from Fashion Magpie Jewellery blog you can find me on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+

Featured Item Purple Necklace and Stud Earrings Set.

Welcome to the first featured item post of 2016, featuring the purple necklace and earrings set.
The featured item blog posts are an insight into how the items featured came to be made. This set started off as just the pendant and stud earrings, which are made of Jewel Enamel. Jewel Enamel is a type of Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel or UTEE for short. This UTEE starts life as a powder which has granules like sugar, its then melted down in a melting pot which doesn't take long. It can then be poured into a mould and looks a little like a subtle glittery marble. The glittery quality can only be seen when in bright lights or outdoors. Jewel enamel sets in less then a minute which makes it a perfect substance to work with.
With this set I heat shined the jewel enamel which involves carefully heating the top level of jewel enamel with a heat gun. It turns to liquid again then sets immediately after the heat source is taken away again to reveal a shiny surface. This technique gave more definition to the swirls in the pendant and makes it look like there is several different layers to the purple.

The earrings where harder to make than the pendant due to there size. The bigger the piece your pouring into the easier it is to pour. I had to be careful not to pour to quickly because it runs out of the melting pot quickly and its hard to judge when to stop the flow before it overflows. Jewel enamel gets darker with time, the longer its left in the melting pot which isn't a good thing when you want items like these to match! I got there eventually there and I'm pleased with the results.

 

 

The necklace took time to decide upon but after a trip to Hobbycraft and a new stash of beads (couldn't help myself!) I found the perfect beads for the projects. They are a deep purple crystal bead, 8mm in size with a facet that helps compliment the glitter of the jewel enamel. I coupled these with 2 bronze toned Swarovski crystals to keep attention on the pendant. I used my Vintaj bead looper and set to work stringing then in a Y shape, When I'd finished the necklace hung 16inches and I used a lobster claw fastening for the clasp.

 

 

I think the set looks very elegant on, the sort of thing you'd see an actress wearing on the set of a period drama perhaps. What do you think?

 

To buy the purple necklace and stud earrings set it is £19.99 with £3.20 UK postage and packaging.

You can find Fashion Magpie Jewellery at the below links

Folksy Website www.folksy.com/shops/fashionmagpiejewellery

Etsy Website www.etsy.com/uk/shop/FashionMagpieJewels

Facebook www.facebook.com/fashionmagpiejewellery

Pinterest http://uk.pinterest.com/fmjewellery/

Fashion Magpie Jewellery Blog is a celebration of antique and handcrafted jewellery, with regular featured items from my shop, antique jewellery showcase, interviews, reviews and tutorials.

To be the first to hear the latest news from Fashion Magpie Jewellery blog you can find me on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+

Most Popular Blog Posts in 2015

 

A look at the inspiration which lead to the Blue Clock Charm Bracelet.

Click here to read

 

A closer look at the inspiration behind the Three Pendant Necklace

Click here to read

 

August was one of the first months which started the monthly 'what's new' blog post, and it was a massive success

Click here to read

 

This Folksy Friday was by far and away the most popular Folksy Friday of 2015, published for Halloween.

Click here to read.

 

The blue flower necklace post was the most popular post 2015 and still gets a lot of hits today, it's also the most revealing post I've wrote.
Click here to read



You can find Fashion Magpie Jewellery at the below links

Folksy Website www.folksy.com/shops/fashionmagpiejewellery

Etsy Website www.etsy.com/uk/shop/FashionMagpieJewels

Facebook www.facebook.com/fashionmagpiejewellery

Pinterest http://uk.pinterest.com/fmjewellery/

Fashion Magpie Jewellery Blog is a celebration of antique and handcrafted jewellery, with regular featured items from my shop, antique jewellery showcase, interviews, reviews and tutorials.

To be the first to hear the latest news from Fashion Magpie Jewellery blog you can find me on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+

Featured Item. Blue Heart Necklace

This week the featured item from my shop is the Blue Heart Necklace.
This necklace was inspired by the heart of the ocean necklace a replica of which is worn by Kate Winslet in the blockbuster Titanic.

To explain how this necklace came about I first need to explain a little about last year when I was coming up with the idea for this necklace.
At the beginning of 2014, my nana was dying she had cancer and it was gradually taking over her whole body. Over her years she had picked up various bit and pieces of arts and craft and tried them then stored them. Unfortunately she was now too ill to put them to use and knowing her granddaughters where just as crazy about arts and craft as she was, she called us all up and had us come over. She told us all her hiding places and we happily spread the pieces out among our selves and listened to her tell us stories about the pieces she made and how easy or hard she had found doing them. In my stash of items I had found beads and clasps. Nana said she had tried jewellery making because she loved the pieces I had made and decided to give it a go. She reminisced about a beautiful springy bracelet and spending ages threading the beads together only for it to spring from her fingers and send beads flying through the air. Her fingers weren't strong enough to do the loops which jewellery making demands so in the end she had admitted defeat and packed it all away. (She said granddad was getting sick of cleaning up all the beads anyway!)
In one pack of clasps I received gratefully that day was the flower clasps used in this design although it would be a few months more before I would use them.
By August of 2014 I had started to blog regularly and one of those first posts was a post about the heart of the ocean diamond. ( if you'd like to read it click here) The movie prop had always been one of my favourite pieces of jewellery from any movie and even more so after researching it for the blog post.
so I sat down with my jewellery enamel one night and made the heart pendant of this necklace with sapphire jewel enamel and a pinch of black to darken the colour down a bit. The result looked fantastic as I heat polished by warming it up with a heat gun until the surface just started to melt. The heat brings out the colours and gives it a shine.
I thought about just adding it straight onto the chain but instead decided to take a look in my box to make sure there wasn't anything else I could do. It looked a little plain sat on the chain all by it's self.
Sure enough the first thing I saw when I opened the box was the flower clasps from nana. I smiled and couldn't help but wonder if nana had guided me to them!
I decided instead of using them as a clasp behind the neck I would use them as part of the pendant design.
Ever since making this necklace I have loved it and it remains one of my favourite pieces in my shop, I have to admit I will be a little sad to see it go when it eventually sells but at least I know it'll be loved and worn!

If you would like to be the one to buy this Blue Heart Necklace, it is £12.50 with £3.20 UK Postage and packaging. I do also post aboard.

It will come to you wrapped and in an organza gift bag.

You can find Fashion Magpie Jewellery at the below links

Folksy Website www.folksy.com/shops/fashionmagpiejewellery

Etsy Website www.etsy.com/uk/shop/FashionMagpieJewels

Facebook www.facebook.com/fashionmagpiejewellery

Pinterest http://uk.pinterest.com/fmjewellery/

Fashion Magpie Jewellery Blog is a celebration of antique and handcrafted jewellery, with regular featured items from my shop, antique jewellery showcase, interviews, reviews and tutorials.

 

To be the first to hear the latest news from Fashion Magpie Jewellery blog you can find me on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+