Happy Halloween

Although I think lampwork beads are often amazing miniature pieces of art they feature very rarely in my jewellery. I am huge fan of holidays (Christmas being my favourite) but you would not catch me dead wearing a Rudolp sweater or Easter Bunny pyjamas. I don't even own a pair of Christmas tree earrings. I came across some Halloween themed lampwork beads on Etsy and wondered if on the most popular fancy dress holiday of the yeat one would get away with wearing something quirky?

Pictures from www.etsy.com

They are pretty cute. But pumpkins dangling from my ears....?

Picture from www.byte.org/blog/

Horrific Halloween to All!

Dreaming of the weekend

Pouring rain and houling winds in the darkness of the night, except it is only 7pm. Anticipation of the coming weekend keeps me from not feeling the weather. I am finally looking forward to great company, nights out in the town, relaxation in posh hotels, pampering in a spa and a hike along a beautiful Irish coastline. Halloween weekend here I come!

What are you looking forward to?

Beading Library

I mentioned on the earlier post that I have found a lot of great information and instructions to beading in the internet. Since most of my money disappeared to the various online beading shops I tried to source my instructions from the free available media.

In the very beginning I purchased few books on beading techniques which proved very useful way to learn to basics. But after learning the basics I felt that most of the books available repeated the same instructions with very little variance. As a consequence my physical beading library is relatively small and the only recent additions to it include Jean Campbell's 'The Art of Beaded Beads'.

Learning French

Few years ago I discovered French beading blogs which were ultimately responsible for an un-reasonable amount of delica beads, heaps of snapped fine needles and a stiff neck. In return I tried and discovered the tiny secrets of the seed beading world.

I believe Tulipe was where it all started and who's designs and instructions I studied to produce my very own French-style jewellery.

I adored the way that the French beaders mixed colours to create such beautiful beaded pendants. My creations were more in tune with the earthy colour scheme which I had grown use to at the time. Before this I had never used cabochons and took the easy way out by starting with Swarovski's cabochons which could be mounted into a metal setting. These metal settings / mountings have small holes at the back which can be used as a starting point with the thread.

My second discovery was beaded beads, which led to countless of hours of frustration until I finally managed to create my first own beaded beads. I absolutely love beaded beads and wanted to make a necklace which consisted solely of large beaded beads. Once I discovered that even with some practice I took me anything between 45 minutes to hour and a half to create one bead I reluctantly abandoned the idea. Perhaps one day...

What I ended up creating has still been one of the most loved pieces I have ever made.


Diving back into the archive of my beading hobby has its benefits. I had totally forgetten how nice the black resin beads were, which I used the the black beaded beads necklace. I think it is time to do some shopping!

Star Quality

I have been looking for the star perfect earrings for a quite a long time. I don't exactly know what it is about the star shapes that appeals to me, but for a long time I've been facinated by stars and considered them to be my lucky charms.

Earrings with star quality


What really goes with these beautiful earrings is a matching necklace or a ring.

To go with...



Awww....I love them all. Be Mine.

Au Oz = USD1,052.00

Pretty pricey, huh? Have you seen those adverts where they coax you to turn your unwanted gold into cash?

Picture borrowed from http://www.arizonaestatebuyers.com/

For those of us who store decades and decades of ugly birthday, anniversary or christmas gifts from their husbands and boyfriends - it is time to raid the jewellery box and get rid of the junk! Gold price sky high you can exchange your ugly arse jewellery (that you would have never picked yourself) into cash and treat yourself for something new, something YOU will like!

How to pick what goes and what stays?
Normally a good rule of thumb is to discard anything you haven't worn in the past year or two. This is the rule normally applied to ones wardrobe. What is the point in storing jeans from you teenage years in a hope they will fit you once again? Let's face it - for most of us, it's never gonna happen. Be cautious though. Many of us have inherited jewellery from our parents or grandparents which although, we will never wear, will hold much more value than the simple conversion of ounces to cash. Besides sentimental value, your family heirloom may turn out to be sought after antique. So, do your homework!

My jewellery box contains very little gold, so I can forget about turning my gold for cash. 90% of my gold jewellery is self-made and rest just don't make up enough to be worthwhile. In fact, up till I started making my own jewellery (some 4-5 years ago) I passionately hated gold. I'm still not the biggest fan, but I have made few pieces which I quite like.

'Dime' is made of 24k gold and swarovski crystals.

'Golden Touch' has beautiful natural white freshwater pearls and 24k gold.

Faceted citrine drops and 24K gold make up these dangling 'Goldilocks' earrings.

Exquisite lemon smoky quartz droplets from Earth Bazaar on 24k chain make up 'Whisky&Jack'.

Although, I think that turning unwanted things to cash is a great idea, I don't think I am quite ready to start turning my gold to cash. Would you?

Round 'n' round

Once upon a time a beading enthusiast got excited about the simple, eternal roundness of donuts.

Lilypad style

About year ago I was introduced to TV-sitcom which has been frequently referred to as the new Friends. I was instantly hooked to 'How I Met Your Mother' and it didn't take much longer for me to fall in love with the show's costume styling. My absolute favourite wardrobe is worn by Lily Aldrin played by he fiery red head Alison Hannigan, also known from 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer 'and 'the American Pie' movies. Here is a quick overview of what I think is the best of Lily's.

One of my favourite Lilypad style moments was during third season when Lily confessed her shopaholic tendencies to Robin. For the life of it I cannot find pictures from this episode anywhere. Only one I could get my hands on is portraying Lily in the mids of blissful shoe heaven. And last but not least...awww! In the latest HIMYM episode Lily wore this amazing silk(?) blouse, which you can only see a tiny bit of in the last picture. I'm hopeful more promo photos of the latest episode will turn up soon. Normally I would be relying on SeenON! for the latest showbiz fashion advise, but my search turn up nil hits :-(

Does anyone know who does the styling / costumes for the show?

Vintaj Natural Brass

I shall present some older, but even more dearer, beading pieces. After a 5 am wake-up call and numerous means of transport later I still feel like a zombie - no chatter offered on these. Just pictures & basics.

Collection of glass pearls in browns, caramels and gold on a copper chain.

Vintaj Natural Brass pendant and an 'inspire' charm with a beautiful Swarovski (I think the colour is golden shadow) crystal pendant.

Dangling necklaces

I made a collection of dangling necklaces of different lenghts and colours. At least one of them is already earmarked as a Christmas present, rest of them might just end up in my jewellery chest.

'Black Cat' is a collection of faceted crystals and oxidised silver dangling on a long silver chain.

I absolutely love the combination of colours in 'Tinkerbell' necklace. Oxidised (antiqued) silver chain and a fairy charm with swarovski crystals.

The 'Dressmaker' is a Christmas present for grandmother. who loves the colour purple and is a retired dressmaker. It's a combination of dyed freshwater pearls, silver foild glass beads, faceted glass beads and an oxidised silver chain and charm.