Just a couple of projects I have been working on

I have been working on a couple of new ideas, thus a lot of making something and then scraping it to try something else.
I did get some designs that I am happy with though. I am especially fond of the frog. I think I need to make more such jewelry, just for fun!

Here they are:

Beads in a square pattern

I saw a piece that used a similar techinque and I was inspired. So I took the idea and ran with it. Love the result. Apologize for the picture quality, still trying to get the hang of my new camera! 

Earrings are in the same design, almost. 

Getting there in the end

I struggled a bit with this design. I had a very firm image of it in my head regarding the design, but I struggled with getting it into something I could work with. First I started with:

Here I had used string around each bead. However, I was uncertain as to how to get a good placement.

So I tried:

I liked the concept, but when I had finished it, I didn't like it. 

So I used Kuminhio braids and braided with blue and metallic tread with the beads in regular intervals. The result: 

These are three strands of Kumihimo braided strands that are then braided. 

Finally, I got the look I was looking for! 

Looong holiday, a bit creative

Been a long time since I updated my blog. Very hectic before the holiday, and with the kids home, I have been travelling and spending time with them. I am also working on a store, for the Norwegian marked. Just to pay for more material. I got tired og takling apart jewerely just to make something new. Aften all I do spend a lot of time into it and also I love the result. 

Hopefully I will break even. The site is in Norwegian, but you can find it here: www.designbyconstance.no. Not quit finished with it, a couple of bugs to fix and also more product to add. If you feel like it, feel free to send me a comment.

Here is my newest creation. I had lost of fun with this, brown leather and brownish, glass beads. Lovely combination in my eyes!

First idea, just beads and the spoon glass pendant. A bit blurry picture, but hopefully you get an idee. I felt this idea was missing something. So I added a bit of leather. 

This I liked. So I used this as a starting point and ended up with:

And the chain is made up of connecting sections of four beads and leather. 

Earrings included. Maybe I will be thinking about making a bracelet. 

Just for fun..

It was raining and I just took a couple of materials and had fun. This is the result:

A beautiful blue flower pendant set in a necklace!

I am not certain with this necklace, if I love it or not. I had to use bit of glue on the thread and I am not sure if I like the result. However, here it is:

Takes a bit of time, but it looks nice!

Here are pictures of my latest project. The chain is a Kumihimo braid, with beads and then a larger pendant attached.
It took some time, but I love it!

This is the whole necklace.
Here is a picture of the details:

Messy, messy job

The time had come for me to try and make a mould out of the masks that I had previously applied liquid plastic on. I thought this would be fairly easy, but nooooo. An incredibly curious dog and a little girls that absolutely wanted to participated made the job a lot more of a mess that it needed be.

 Here I have all the supplies ready. It was a bit of a struggle to try and find a bowl that was big enough to submerge the mask. You can see one mask is already in, and the other is waiting on the side.

Here I have both in, finally. I think I spilled the plaster at least 10 times, just a bit mind you, trying to keep track of the dog and the little girl who wanted to see what mommy was doing.  The dog managed to get a plaster in her fur so I had to clean that, and then my little girl "helped" me by pouring the plaster in the bowl.......

Then came the tricky part. I had to make sure that the shapes didn't get stuck to bad in the plaster. Here is a picture of me using a spoon to gently break the almost dry plaster off the mask.

Here you can see the mask is free, but I left it in the plaster to make sure that the plaster got the right shape. 

 Here is the mask free of the mould.

Here is the mould by itself. The plan is to pour liquid plastic into the mould and then be able to make masks for the children that they can paint and have fun with.

 Here is the  mould and the plastic mask

I am rather proud of this as I have never done anything like this before. I now know a lot more, so I hope the next similar project will be easier. I am looking forward to trying to make plastic masks soon, but I will wait to make sure that the plaster is completely dry and also paint it to try and make sure that the plastic coating doesn't stick to hard to the plaster surface. 

Trying to make plastic moulds

I have 4 children. The boys, 8 - 10 - 12, are getting a bit too old to enjoy being creative with their mother. They are more concerned with games and playing legos and stuff like that. However, they do love to paint and also to be allowed to run amok in all my crafts thing.
Now the boys wanted to make masks, and of course my little girl, 3 years old, wanted to do the same. And if I have to keep buying masks for them to paint, then I would be broke before the end of the week. They are surprisingly expensive. So I bought two masks and then I use a liquid plastic stuff to try and make a mould. I don't really know if it worked yet as I have to add a lot of layers.
I am a bit pessimistic at the moment, as I think that the plastic liquid has really stuck to the base. Hopefully it will work, but I will keep adding more layers.

Here is what it looks like today.

Grey, gold and blue necklace

I am loving this Kumihimo braiding, although it does take bit of time. Especially as I have to redo the braid ever so often in order to fix mistakes.
But here are a couple of pictures of my last project:

Here you can see the beading plate. I was extremely glad when I got the bobbins, the little plastic circles that helped med avoid tangles. I had so tangles at the start that it wasn't even funny!

 Here is the finished product. The grey thread is velvet and then there is a gold colored wire braided in.

I don't know if you see it here, but is very nice up close :-)

Necklace in pink

Finished a couple of necklaces. One I had finished before, but I wanted a new picture, and one, the pink, is new.

Pink delight

I had these beads that I felt were a bit pale on their own. So I added some wires, and now I am very happy with the result!

Learning a new technique

I have spent a lot of time this week learning to do kumihimo patterns. I hope the spelling is the same in English as it is in Norwegian.
It is lots of fun, but also a bit frustrating as even the smallest of mistakes can mess up a braid and at least at the moment I can not see the mistake until after I have finished the braid.
I have ordered a couple of bobbins I think they are called that help keep the threads in check. I have found that this is an absolute must! At least with the thinner thread and the wires. So here are a couple of examples of what I have made so far. A bit rough still, but fun!

This is a fairly thick thread. It is easy to work with, but the result is a bit massive. 

 I don't know if it is possible to see, but there is actually a metal wire braided in with the black thread. Fun, but the wire seemed to have a life of its own.

 This is the one I was most pleased with. This is all metal wires, purple and grey. The colours look wonderful with each other and the overall look was very nice.
I have decided to make this into a necklace and I have added a pendant in similar colors.

Different shapes necklace

I played around with different coloured beads and then I hit upon this combination:

It is perhaps a bit difficult to see, but there are both round and square beads in addition to the heart pendant.

This is then the end result. I thought the colours worked well with each other, but it can be a bit difficult to see in a picture perhaps.

A little bird whispered in my ear.....

I had a couple of small metal birds in different shapes. So I thought I would make a couple of earrings with these birds and a couple of blue beads.

This is the result. I thought they were cute. Two different pairs.