I Love Lucite

I've never been much of a one for flowers, but recently I discovered lucite flowers and now I'm hooked.

There were two sizes available on Beads Direct last time they had a sale - and since the medium ones are an inch across I'd hate to see the size of large ones!

The first thing I made was a bookmark form Mothers Day. I attached a length of chain to the top of the hook, with a leaf at the end and three blue flowers randomly clustered for a naturalistic look.

I also spent some time this weekend making jewellery. There were only two of the medium flowers in white, and they looked really good with small black flower centres, so I paired them up and made a set of earrings. Because the hole runs through the middle the flowers tend to hang straight down, so I added a length of chain to the eye pin loops at the front and back to keep them facing forward.

Also at the weekend, I picked up an elasticated bracelet covered with butterflies. It was horrible, because all the beads were silver and it looked really monochrome. Personally I'd have gone with silver butterflies and brightly-coloured beads. But I already had an idea for the butterflies: to hang one asymmetrically on a necklace, so it formed a part of the chain, then add a dangle of some flowers. So I dismantled the bracelet and did that instead. Then with some smaller lucite flowers, and small butterflies from the same bracelet, made a pair of matching earrings.

 

I quite like making sets, I'm thinking about doing something similar in blue to wear myself.

Out of the Blue

And then, out of the blue, someone bought a pair of my earrings. It's a cute little pair of dangles made out of watch parts, and I'll be making a trip to the post office tomorrow to mail them.

There's been so much else going on lately, I have to admit to neglecting Etsy a little bit. I've got finished items to list, unfinished items to finish, half-thought-out designs to work on.... Mostly its a problem of daylight - in that I need it to take photos before listing anything, and I also prefer working in it to artificial light. Hopefully things will improve now we're on the upward haul to Spring.

Last week I tried to put some glass charms on faux-suede cords, but managed to cut both cords too short so they're more like chokers. I'll try again this weekend, and use the original cords for bracelets instead. I also made some charm bookmarks the other day. No photos yet (daylight!), but I really enjoyed making them and am trying to think of people to make more for.