Thursday 23 June 2011

Tiny Charms

I promised you another post today.

I have been thinking for awhile now about putting a range on my Etsy Shop that is different to my jewellery. I started with buttons and have now got the beginnings of a range of tiny charms.

I have been doing lots of experimenting over the past few months with antiquing beads with acrylic paint with varying degrees of success, well actually rather a large number of failures in fact! I could not get the look that I wanted, most of the time the beads ended up looking dirty rather than antiqued - not quite what I was looking for. I have also been experimenting with sealing the beads. Those of you who know my work, know that I sand everything that I can and then buff my beads and never, ever use glazes or varnishes. But of course, you cannot leave paint unsealed, so I had to find something that would work. I really hate varnishes and glazes, they always "gloop" or drip or just look wrong.






Anyway, to cut a long story short, I eventually discovered a way of sealing the beads that works, gives the look that I want, doesn't drip or gloop and best of all is easy to apply! Phew...breath a sigh of relief!

I have ideas for other charms as well, and also want to start doing some bead sets as well. I might even be persuaded to do some of my cupcake charms!

My daughter Katie loved these little Toadstool Charms so much than she insisted I make her a pair of earrings with the new earwires that I had just got through the post! Here they are, and here is Katie modelling them!














All these tiny charms are now in my Etsy shop. I do hope you like them!

Let me know what you think - I always love to get some feedback from all of you.














I am painting the skirting and doors tomorrow in the latest phase of my studio room - not my idea of fun! Hope you all have a great weekend!

Studio Room Update - But this time with Pictures!

Seem to have sorted out my camera, so here are some shots of the work so far!

This is the plasterboard waiting to be fixed to the wall for the dry-lining.










This is the view from the sitting room into the studio. As you can see we are working on all areas at once (must be completely mad!)











Here is the dry-lining complete!













First coat of paint on!


















Looking into the room with my new chair!














Lots still to be done - but slowly we are getting there!

Have been working on some new things for my Etsy shop - will be revealing all later today I hope.

Enjoy the photos!