Thursday throwback, the graff pink

For my first Thursday throwback I thought I'd tell you about the most expensive piece of jewellery ever sold, the Graff Pink.

The Graff Pink is a pink diamond which is very rare in nature, but this particular diamond is rarer still because it is 24.78 carat, a typical pink diamond would be 5 carats.

It sold at Sotheby's in 2010 for £29 million after a hard fought battle of wills between four bidders, it went to a billionaire jeweller called Lawrence Graff. Graff has been named the king of bling after buying the previous world record breaking ring, a 17th century blue diamond called the Wittelsbach. 

The diamond was among less then two percent of the worlds diamonds categorised as 'potentially flawless.' After buying the piece graff gave it to his world class cutters who carefully removed 25 natural flaws and increased the colour of the piece, something only a handful of people can do. From there the diamond was sent for analysis at the Gemological Institute of America who declared the diamond flawless and richer in colour. All without loosing a single carat! 

It was now that Lawrence Graff named the diamond after himself. The Graff Pink

A big thank you, and plans for the future!

Just hit my 1000th page view on here today and would like to take a moment to thank everyone for there continued support of Fashion Magpie Jewellery and let you know what I've been up to recently.

Thank you !!!!!!!

I've been ramping up the amount of time I'm spending promoting Fashion Magpie Jewellery, with more of a presence on social media, such as Facebook and Twitter. I've also decided I should dedicate more time to my blog too. I love writing almost as much as jewellery making. Writing was my first creative love before Jewellery making, (believe it or not,) so it seems silly not to spend more time doing it. My plan is to do at least 2 or 3 blog posts a week and see how I go.
My idea is to do a Thursday throwback post showing jewellery trends from history and famous pieces.
A Folksy Friday post, explaining about folksy.com and the different finds I find on folksy. Eventually I'll use my folksy Friday posts for guest blog posts too but I'm still researching this at the moment so watch this space.
My third post will be a general post, used to update you on what I'm up to or doing tutorials.
Let me know what you think of my plans? Do you have any ideas?

Thought it would be useful to put a few links at the end of this post to help you find me.

Twitter @Lcw19861875
Facebook www.facebook.com/fashionmagpiejewellery
Folksy website www.folksy.com/shops/fashionmagpiejewellery



Next weekend hopefully I should have a tutorial for you with the glass globes I told you about (here)

Why we should accessorise.

Had some trouble with writer block recently, but sometimes writer block, I've discovered can be a blessing in disguise! 

To me, writers block is an opportunity to research new topics. Research isn't to everyone's liking but I love it. I look through search engines for inspiration, find out what all my favourite blogging crafty people are talking about and look at the latest trends on the high street at the moment. My favourite high street store is accessorize, I absolutely adore them! There the perfect blend of delicate vintage design and bold statement jewellery that I love, I could honestly shop in there for hours.

It's shops like accessorize that show us the importance of the accessory in an outfit, sometimes they can be the difference between a good outfit and an great outfit!

For example a white blouse can be accessorised for day, night and work just by changing your necklace. Wear a statement necklace for day which has bright bold colour or patterns or a fun, young look, a sparkly little one at night for a classy chic look and a pearl necklace for work.

That's three looks for one blouse just by changing your necklace!

What's your views on the importance of accessories?

New For Sale

Hi
As promised I've been busy today listing new things for sale on my Folksy page. Must say I'm feeling quite pleased with myself, think its some of my best stuff to date that I'm making now and I cant wait to get feedback.
Before I show you what I've listed today I wanted to give you a quick up date on the glass globes I ordered I mentioned in a earlier post (Click Here) I haven't so far made anything with them but keep watching my blog because I'm having great fun experimenting with different things to put in them and will show you how I'm doing at a later date.

So now to the pictures, if you want to buy any of these pieces, I have a link right of my posts on here. >>>>

Apple Necklace

£12.50

Angel Necklace

£12.50

Dragonfly Tribal Earrings

£6.00

Blue Bird Brooch

£6.00

Red and Green Wire Brooch

£6.00

Gold Bead Wire Brooch

£6.00

New pieces coming soon

Got a day off tomorrow from the day job so decided I'm going to take loads of pictures of new creations and put them up for sale. Got a few brooches and necklaces to list and if I've got time there's a bracelet I've been working on.

So watch this space and until then here's a sneak peak!

Long time no see

It been a while since last posted on here, (longer then I had thought.)
So I thought I'd let you know that I am still around, today I've been going through all the jewellery I've made and trying to make sure I've got as much listed for sale as I can on my folksy site, what isn't listed I have pictures of on my Facebook page. That way if there's anything I haven't got listed on folksy, I'm only a comment away on Facebook.
I'm quite low on supplies at the moment, so yesterday I had fun ordering myself some new bits and bobs to play with. One of the special featured items on my suppliers website was for a globe pendant. I'd never heard of these before so naturally curious I looked them up. Turns out there a thin glass globe which fits to a pendant bail, anything can be put inside from, glitter to sand or even charms. My imagination was whizzing with the possibilities of this new craft so I've added some to my order and begun researching to the possibilities! I'll let you know what I come up with.

Before I go I thought I'd show you a few of my newer pieces I've listed on Folksy. If you like what you see the link for my site is right of this post.

 

Happy New Year

Happy New Year! Hope your all doing well and 2014 is treating you well.
2013 was a brilliant year for Fashion Magpie Jewellery, so I'd like to say thank to you all for your support and feedback.
To kick start the year I'm going to start with a tutorial for a brooch I've been making. It's inspiration came from a hair bobble I brought from a company called Inca jewellery a few years ago.
In this tutorial I'm going to use stamped jewel enamel (something else I've been experimenting with.) Felt, beads, needle and thread and loads of glue.

Here is a picture of the results from my jewel enamel experimentation first.

For the tutorial I'm going to use the tree design, so lets begin.

 

Step 1 is simple cut your felt to the desired size then glue the jewel enamel (or any other focal piece) in the centre and leave to dry.

 

For step 2 thread your needle and tie a knot on one end, now thread the needle through the back of the felt to the front as close to the focal piece as you can and then thread your first bead on to the needle. For my design I've used a lime green seed bead but you can use anything you wish. Now push the needle back through the felt, approximately the length of the bead, then back so that your next bead will sit snugly next to the first. Now repeat this step until you have gone all the way round your focal piece and your design looks a bit like mine below.

 

For step 3, repeat step 2 until you have a second ring of beads. You may repeat this several times until your happy with the results.

 

Step 4. Now you should have finished sewing your beads on so it's time to cut the excess felt off being careful not to cut through any of your threads on the back.

 

 Step 5. Cut a second piece of felt for your back, I've chosen to stay with the green but you could use contrasting colours.

 

Step 6. Cut two slits for your fastening to poke through like in the picture.

For step 7, glue the fastening to the back. you can be as messy as you like with this bit as it'll be covered later, just make sure the glue doesn't get through the slits and onto your fastening. From experience I can tell you that if it gets through, it'll glue the fastening in place and you won't be able to use it!

 

Step 8. Glue front and back together and when the glue has dried you can cut the excess felt off the back.

 

And finally you now have a finished brooch!