'Daydream' shimmy bracelet

There was going to be two bracelets today, one of them a gold one, but the gold chain I ordered is way too chunky for my liking and the beads don't sit nicely on it so I've sourced some other chain elsewhere and am now waiting for it to arrive, so it's just this 'Daydream' one instead.

The colours in this shimmy bracelet remind me of sweets, fizzy bath bombs, pink-toned sunrises and unicorn-related gubbins. The glasses I used for this one are CiM Douglas Aster and Dollhouse Milky, and Effetre EDP 254, Light Sky Blue 224 and Dark Lavender 081.

All metal is high quality silver plated base metal which is lead-free and nickel safe. The bracelet is in my shop as I type this. I've reduced the prices of a few jewellery items so do pop over there and have a look-see.

In other news, it was my birthday on Saturday. Chris and I had a quiet day but on the Sunday we met my littlest sister, Emily, and her fiancé, Adam, in London as they'd got me tickets to see Ash as my birthday present.

The gig was to celebrate the 21st anniversary of their album Free All Angels which means that it's been twenty-one years since I last saw them, which was in Cardiff when the album was new.

Em and her youthful glam face,
me and my aged un-glam one

The gig was at the O2 Forum in Kentish Town which is a lovely little venue. The show was great and a highlight for me was Ash playing A Life Less Ordinary which is, as Emily would say, a banger.

If you've not enetered my prize draw yet you've still got time; I'll be drawing the winner of the lonelies beads tomorrow. Head this way to add your name to the hat.

The humble plain spacer bead

One of the things I like about these shimmy bracelets is how they take the humble plain spacer bead to a new level. I have so many oddments of glass and of those some is glass that works best on its own without any decoration, or because it's fussy and doesn't play nicely with other glass. That's where spacer beads come in.

I'm trying to not buy glass (except for clear and a limited range of staples) so I can work through all my odds and ends, and making spacers is a great way of doing that, so expect lots more of these shimmy bracelets. Also, because the beads are small, simple and fast to make, I can keep the costs of the bracelets down. (I make my spacers one at a time, one per mandrel, though. I've never got on board with making loads of them on one mandrel.)

As I said a couple of posts back, sterling silver is becoming almost too expensive so this shimmy bracelet is made with high quality silver plated base metal findings. If I'd used sterling it would cost a huge amount and the weight would mean the bracelet would need to be hallmarked. I've never gone down that route and I don't intend to because I'm a beadmaker, not a silversmith.

I've got some gold plated findings arriving soon which I'm quite excited about because I've hardly ever paired my beads with gold metal. 

The beads in this 'Glacier' bracelet are made from a third of an unlabelled rod of CiM transparent aquamarine blue, a very skinny and therefore annoying to use rod of Effetre Antique Green 852 and some Effetre Light Turquoise filigrana.

I also made this pair of earrings the other day. Again, just two plain little spacers in glorious Double Helix Theia which, in my opinion, is the best and prettiest purple glass you can get right now.

The greenish-blue disc beads are tiny Czech glass ones that I've had in my bead stash for eons. All metal in these earrings is sterling silver. 

The bracelet and earrings are in my shop.

Thank you to everyone who has entered my prize draw so far. There are way more of you than I thought there'd be so that's fab.

If you haven't yet entered, please head this way for more details and to add your name to the draw.

Giveaway

I cannot recall the last time I did a giveaway so I reckon that means one is long overdue.

The prize is this strand of lonelies. They're just leftovers and colour experiments; all are first quality beads.

If you'd like a shot at winning the beads all you have to do is comment on this post. I know, I know – leaving blog comments is long and arduous compared to liking and tagging on Instagram but it's only a few more clicks/taps and key strokes.

Please read the following before commenting:

• You'll need to give me a name in your blog comment for me to add you to the draw. If you're using a Google account to comment your name will show up but if your comment is anonymous I won't include it in the draw unless you've given me a name as part of your comment. You can use a real name, initials or something made up. Comments along the lines of "Would love to win, Jane B" or "Please enter my name in the draw - Mrs Tiggywinkle" are great. 

• I manually approve comments so don't be alarmed if your comment doesn't show up for a little while.

• Anyone anywhere can enter.

• I'll draw a winner on 22nd September and I'll announce who that winner is here on my blog so you'll need to check back to see if it's you. I'll then ask you to email me so I can get a delivery address from you.

Good luck!

I'm thoroughly enjoying blogging again in this quiet corner of the internet – I feel like Ruth Goodman going back in time to live in a Stuart era farmhouse or something – and I really appreciate you joining me here. That's kind of why I'm doing this giveaway – it's a thank you for taking the time to come over here and partake in olden days technology all because I'm a moaning, contrary grump who is eschewing the noisy world of Instagram. I'm guessing about four people will enter this draw so your chances of winning the beads will be pretty high. 

If you're new to my blog, or if you've not been here for a while, hello! If you're viewing this on a desktop or a tablet you will see a sidebar on the right. (If you're looking at my blog on a smartphone, scroll right down to the bottom and tap 'view web version' to see the sidebar.) In that sidebar is a list of of my 'how to' blog posts, a link to all my Creation is Messy testing posts, my blog archive, and a very small list of blogs that I follow. Are you a blogger too? If so, give me a shout.

Looking after your jewellery

I enclose the following information with jewellery that I sell but I thought I'd put it here for reference.

Looking After Your Jewellery

When you’re not wearing your jewellery, keep each piece in a plastic grip seal or soft fabric bag. Store in a dark place. This will reduce the chances of your jewellery tarnishing and keeps it from getting scratched or tangled. Handle your jewellery carefully and keep it away from perfumes, lotions, hairspray, household cleaners and chlorine.

Cleaning Your Jewellery

• Plated Metal Jewellery

If your jewellery is zinc alloy, brass or pewter with a silver, gold, rhodium or antique copper plated finish, dip a soft cloth in some lukewarm dish-soapy water and then gently rub your jewellery with the cloth while keeping it submerged in the water. Dry the jewellery with a clean cloth, or allow it to air dry.

• Pure Copper Jewellery

Pure copper tarnishes over time but this can look lovely so you might not want to clean it. If you do, add a teaspoon of salt to some white or malt vinegar, or lemon juice, and soak your copper jewellery in the mixture for a minute or so. Remove the jewellery from the solution and then rinse it with cool or lukewarm water. Do not use very cold water or hot water as this could potentially shock the glass and cause it to crack. Dry the jewellery with a clean cloth, or allow it to air dry.

• Sterling Silver Jewellery

Sterling silver can be cleaned in the same way as plated metal. If it is heavily tarnished you can use a sterling silver cleaning solution or special silver polishing cloth. These are available in supermarkets and jewellers.

• Surgical or Stainless Steel

This beautiful metal only gets better and shinier with age and wear. If you do need to clean it, follow the instructions for cleaning plated metal.

IMPORTANT: Never clean jewellery that contains glass beads using the boiling water, bicarbonate of soda and tin foil method, as you might shock the glass and cause it to crack.

Making a shimmy bracelet

I thought I'd show you how I make one of my shimmy bracelets. Obviously this is just a chain with beads attached to it so it's really nothing fancy or revolutionary but I've made many of these over the years and I wanted to show you how I've streamlined the process to make quite a long and repetitive task a little bit faster.

I've watched many Adam Savage videos and he's very methodical in his approach to making and assembling. Although I'm not creating movie prop replicas or costumes like Adam does, I have picked up many helpful tips and pieces of advice from watching him. For jewellery assembly I am a big fan of what Adam refers to as 'order of operations' which is working out the best and most efficient order of doing things to complete a task in the fastest and most logical way. If you want to learn more about this I highly recommend Adam's book 'Every Tool's A Hammer: Life Is What You Make It' which I reckon is a must for any maker.

For a shimmy bracelet I get all the components I need and set them out on my work surface.

First up, beads.

These are an assortment of simple lampwork spacers I made in four shades of pink.

Next, findings.

These are all antique copper-plated brass, except for the clasp which is lead-free pewter. I've gathered quite the collection of antique copper-plated findings and components over the years and now seems like a good time to use them because much like Lurpak butter, the price of sterling silver is getting ridiculous. Sure, brass costume jewellery may not weather as well as sterling silver wearables, but it still looks nice and enables me to charge lower prices. Besides, if Vivienne Westwood can sell brass jewellery (we bought Robyn a Vivienne Westwood bracelet for her 18th) then so can I.

My first job is making the bracelet base from a length of chain, some jump rings, a clasp and a bead dangle.

Next, I thread all of the beads on to headpins, topping each one with a copper round bead.

I then create the first bend of the wrapped loop.

I do this for all of the beads.

I then work through all the headpins again, this time making the loop.

By doing this one-task-at-a-time thing I'm not constantly threading beads, putting one pair of pliers down and picking another one up. The repetitive nature of each job also enables me to be consistent so that my bends, loops and the resulting wraps will all be even.

Next, I attach each headpin to the chain and wrap the loop. I trim off the excess wire and after all the beads are attached to the chain I work along the bracelet, tucking the wire ends in and straightening everything up.

I timed this whole bracelet assembly; from gathering all the parts to finishing the bracelet took me an hour and a quarter. Not bad going for all those wraps.

I don't know if any of what I've shown and written here will be of use to you. If you're already a fellow order-of-operations devotee then I'm giving you a knowing nod. If you're not, give it a go. It's amazing how much time you can save by calculating the most efficient way of doing something in order to become a one person factory-style production line.

If you like the look of this very pink 'Candyfloss' shimmy bracelet, it's in my shop.

I'm going to be doing a bead giveaway here on my blog in the very near future, so please do bookmark me or check back soon.