Butterflies, Sunshine & Happy Birthday Prince George...

It really doesn't seem like a year since I did a blog to celebrate the arrival of HRH Prince George  and seeing all the pictures of him today with the butterflies (which you know I a-b-s-o-l-u-t-e-l-y ❤️...  ) just makes me like him even more -  Happy Birthday to our little King-in-the-Making!

I thought, if he is peeking at the blog from his mum's lap, that he might like to see my fluttery visitors to the garden - the one below is a gorgeous 'Comma' that came to settle on the Buddleia...

We also had a beautiful Peacock Butterfly settle for a little rest in amongst the mock orange blossom bush...

...and I nearly never spotted the striking Brimstone Butterfly that was also resting in the same bush (he blended in so well!) The sunshine has really brought them all out today.

Well -  it just wouldn't be right if I didn't mark the Royal occasion with a new butterfly inspired project would it?! So, what with it being flip flop & sandal weather too I've come up with a simple little summer anklet...

For this project you will need a selection of tools and some flexible beading wire (aka Tiger Tail)..

Plus an assortment of seed beads, little acrylic butterflies and some crimps, jump rings and clasp findings

First of all it's a good idea to plan out the colour order of the butterflies...

Then begin threading the butterflies & seed beads directly onto your beading wire (a great tip is to use crimps as spacers between them - they look very cute!)

Keep adding the beads until it's long enough to fit around your ankle (allowing 2-3cm for clasp ends)

Side on a larger crimp and a necklace clasp of your choosing.  Thread the wire end back down through the crimp.

Squash & shape the crimp with crimping pliers and then thread the beads back up over the ends to cover the wire tail.

Once you've pushed all the beads up the wire, cut the wire from the reel, leaving enough to finish off (usually around 3-4cm)..

Next, link one small & one large jump ring together as shown..

Add a large crimp to the wire end, then the linked jump rings and crimp (as before) - threading the wire end down through the first few beads.

It looks nice & neat if you use crimp covers to hide the squashed crimps or if you have a gap in the wire that needs a bit of filling..

And there you go.. a pretty butterfly anklet to wear on a summers day!

If you don't have butterflies a few crystals or other pretty small beads will do just as well. Of course if you want to you can make it shorter to fit your wrist instead and maybe add an extra such as a little charm.

Happy Making

&

Happy 1st Birthday Prince George 

All pictures & text (c)Addicted to Making 2014

A necklace for Emmeline Pankhurst...

I've been giving the blog a little bit of a makeover lately and, as you might see, it's a bit of a work in progress so please bear with me if it suddenly looks different or things have been moved around!

Anyway, despite the changes, regular visitors to the blog will have already seen a couple of Suffragette inspired projects and with today being Emmeline Pankhurst's birthday I couldn't miss the chance to make a little something could I?!  

Emmeline was certainly a larger than life type character.  She was the founder of the Women's Political and Social Union (WPSU) and leader of the Suffragettes. Born in Manchester and married at 20 she felt very strongly that women should be given equal rights to vote but Parliament disagreed.  Many women supported her from a distance but were too frightened to join and get in trouble so often just wore a small badge or discreet piece of jewellery in the Suffragette flag colours of green, white & purple.

The campaigns got increasingly militant with lots of stone throwing, wire cutting, chaining to railings and worse. Emmeline was imprisoned many times, went on hunger strike and was force fed (a truly horrendous business).  Then came the start of WWI and a kind of truce was called.  As the war progressed women were increasingly needed to fill the gaps in jobs & industries as part of the war effort and eventually that led to an acceptance that they should be entitled to a more equal standing and be able to vote - the first ruling allowed women property owners over 30 to vote and eventually (sadly just after Emmeline's death)  an equal vote to over 21's regardless of gender or status. 

I think Emmeline deserves a little ongoing recognition for her core principals of equality so I've made a birthday tribute to here in the style of an early 1900's Suffragrette necklace - to make your own necklace you will need: 0.6mm gold plated wire, golden chain & various jump rings/eyepins/headpins, 2 x green czech crystals, 1 x small white freshwater pearl, 1 x small purple crystal heart, assorted pliers/cutters.

Begin by wiring up the two green crystals - thread them onto eye pins and make small loops on the opposite ends.

Then thread the crystal heart onto a bail or jump ring.

Thread the freshwater pearl onto a headpin and make a wrapped loop on the end (video for wrapped loops here). Then attach it to a small jump ring and add a further jump ring either side of that (so you have a 'chain' of 3 with the pearl in the middle).

Cut a piece of 0.6mm wire and use pliers to shape it as per the picture below (tip: begin by folding in half over your round nose pliers to make the central loop)

Use a small jump ring (or two) to attach the crystal heart to the loop in the middle of the wire shape..

Next,  attach the pearl to the centre of the wire by opening the small jump rings either side and closing them onto the 'frame' as shown below.. 

Attach one of the green crystals to one side of the wire frame with a jump ring and then use another to attach it to a piece of chain...

Repeat on the other side then adjust the chain to your preferred length to finish off. The wire is fairly flexible so you can tweak the shape of the frame if you need to.

Happy Birthday Emmeline!

Hope that inspires you to make your own Suffragette style necklace. 

I'm pretty excited that there is a new film due for release later this year called 'Suffragette' starring the likes of Helena Bonham Carter, Carey Mulligan  & Meryl Streep amongst others *rubs hands with glee* so no doubt there'll be a few more Suffragette inspired projects sometime in the future ;-)

Happy Making !

All pictures & texts (c) Addicted to Making 2014

Freya, the Steampunk Necklace &TGIF...

And ..... RELAX!  It's nearly the  beginning of the weekend (depending on when your day ends of course, and if you don't have to work over it!)

I thought I'd pop up a tutorial for the weekend, this time taking my inspiration from the naming of  'Friday' which appears to have many origins including several Goddesses of Love:  Venus (Roman), Aphrodite (Greek) or Freya (Norse) 

I have chosen Freya as my inspiration. As well as 'Love' she was also a goddess of Fertility, Divination and one of the Valkyries  (great wiki explanation of them here).  Freya was also known for her magical necklace, the 'Brisingamen' which was forged by dwarves.


So, with all that spirited-warrior-women-flying-around thing and love going on I think I found the perfect focal Steampunk style charm in my stash for a necklace for Freya  which I've also strung on layered chains.  Here's the step-by-steps...


You will need..... your jewellery pliers, a focal charm, two different sizes of chain, large jump rings and a toggle clasp. I've used gunmetal/antique silver tones.

Start with 2 x lengths of the smaller link chain that each measure approx. 37cm

Take the first piece of chain an loop both end links onto a jump ring...

Then lie the chain down so you can find the middle link...

Slip the middle link onto the same jump ring (it doesn't really matter if the chain twists when you do this).

Now add the focal charm to the same jump ring and close it.

Repeat on the other side with the second piece of chain.

Use a jump ring to connect the small linked chain bundle to a piece of the larger link chain.

Repeat on the other side of the focal charm...

Measure the chain per your preferred neck length and use jump rings to attach the toggle clasp pieces

Here's the finished piece - fit for a warrior love goddess!

It also has a bit of  'Biker Chic' to me too - just imaging it teamed with a denim jacket & boots....


Have a great weekend!


All text & pictures (c) Addicted to Making 2014

The World Cup & Funky Neon Necklaces Part II (the clasp!).....

Well, the sun is still shining and even the football players in the World Cup seem to be embracing the trend for neon (their boots were so bright in that first game I could hardly watch the game!)  I shall have to think of a World Cup inspired make - especially with Fathers Day coming up!

In the meantime here is part II of the neon necklace project that I promised to post - and a great way of making your own cord 'clasp' which you will be able to adapt to use on all sorts of other necklaces.  

We pick up where we left off at the end of the last post  - i.e. where your necklace is pretty much complete with just a simple set of 'ties' at the back.   Here goes...

The first thing you will need is some fairly sturdy craft wire - I used 1.0mm gold plated. You will also need some cutters, round nose pliers & flat nose pliers. Oh - and a pencil... it's very useful for this project!

Working from your reel of wire, wrap the end around a pencil several times to make a nice coil  - not too tightly though or you won't be able to remove it!

Slide the wire off the pencil and use your round nose pliers to turn a loop on one end...

Then use flat nose pliers to 'straighten' the loop so it sort of sits on top the coil of wire...

Now turn the coil over and do the same on the other end.  If the wire end is a little long simply trim it. 

Use flat nose pliers to sit the loops nicely on either end of the coil....

Now all you have to do is thread the cords through the coil clasp and gently give the top & bottom wires of the coil a tiny squish with your flat nose pliers - just enough so that you can still slide the clasp up & down the cords but also enough that it won't slip off them easily...

And there you have it... simple, cheap and useable for many other things too :-)

(don't forget you could plait the cords too if you wanted too....)

Happy Making!





All text & pictures (c) Addicted to Making 2014

Neon fingertips & funky necklaces...Part I

It's been a long time since I painted my nails but this week I thought I'd try out one of the fab neon colours around this summer - everywhere you go there is fuchsia pink, bright yellow, lime, aqua clothes, accessories & jewellery.  I don't think my nail painting is as neat as it could be but it's certainly eye-catching!


Anyway, as I still have a stash of bright acrylic beads from the bead shop days, I thought I'd make my own neon necklace to funk up my look and, of course, I will also share the steps with you on the blog..

To begin with... you would need to gather up some colourful thick cord, a selection of beads, tiger tail, crimps, ribbon clamps and jewellery pliers.

Cut 6 x lengths of cord that each measure around 40cm.  Then, holding three of the ends together, lie them on a piece of sticky tape and fold over the top.  This is a great way of keeping them together for the next step....

Sit the taped ends in a ribbon clamp...

Then use flat nose pliers to close the ribbon clamp securely... 

You should now be able to rip the rest of the  sticky tape off the cords, leaving the ribbon clamp in place...

Now you need to cut a short length of tiger tail for the beaded mid-section.  Slip one end through the loop in the ribbon clamp and then crimp it in place, right underneath.

Thread on a selection of mixed size beads  - don't worry about having everything completely symmetrical - it actually better with a bit of randomness! Remember to slip the end of tiger tail through the beads too so it doesn't stick out.

I beaded approx. 15cm of tiger tail but you can make it longer if you want too. When you are happy with it, slide on a crimp, thread the end of the tiger tail through the other ribbon clamp loop, back down through the crimp and the first few beads -  pull it tight and crimp, then trim the end to neaten up if it is poking out between the beads.

At this stage, you could either simply tie the necklace on via the laces (and let the ends dangle prettily down the back, perhaps with an extra bead knotted on to each end?) OR... I have another idea how to finish this off with a pretty natty hand made clasp (will post later in 'Part II'...so do check back)

This necklace would look great worn with a vest at a summer festival or add a shock of rebellious colour to a plain white work shirt.  

***   Part II coming soon....


Happy Making!



All Pictures & Text (c) Addicted to Making 2014