Valentine's Day Collection

As promised here's the blog all about my new pieces made with gemstones.  As I had purchased quite a lot of black stones I decided to team them with red and start my Valentine's collection.  It only has 2 pieces in it at the moment but the ideas are coming thick and fast so keep your eyes peeled.

The first Valentine's item I created is this beautiful Heart Pendant Necklace.

Heart Pendant Necklace

This was made with red plated copper coiled using a coiling gizmo, then moulded into the shape of a love heart.  I then thread fireline through black organza ribbon and as I reached the pendant I added 5 geniune agate beads either side.  The picture above doesn't do the beads justice.  They are black faceted rounds and shimmer as the necklace moves.

The second piece I completed is the unusual ladder weave necklace.

Ladder weave necklace

The beads are beautiful faceted white agate and faceted black agate gemstones.  I have also used red beading thread and small round glass pearls.

Hopefully inspiration keeps coming thick and fast and soon you'll see another Valentine's collection blog appear.  Fingers crossed for me.

Working with Gemstones

Wow, I am terrible at keeping this blog up to date.  Hopefully I will get better at it with time.  Anyway Christmas is fast approaching and although I made a few sales during craftfest things have been quiet since.  Yet, despite this I can't help buying new supplies, mostly genuine gemstones. 

For the last year and a bit all my jewellery has been made from glass or plastic beads which creates beautiful yet low cost jewellery but I've been looking at a way to up my game lately.  After watching Jewellery Maker (and enjoying a couple of glasses of wine) I found myself making 2 purchases and now I have some beautiful agate, haematite and shell beads to work with.  I also searched through my stash and discovered the genuine turquoise gemstone beads I had purchased months ago.  At the moment I am still experimenting with the beads I purchased from Jewellery Maker, but I have made some beautiful necklaces using the turquoise beads teams glass pearls.

 Turquoise Flower Necklace

Turquoise Tear Drop Necklace

Both these necklaces are available in my online shop http://folksy.com/shops/CassiaCreations.  Hopefully you'll see some jewellery made with my Jewellery Maker beads on there soon too.