Happy Birth/Mother's Day!

I don't usually post at the weekend, especially when it's my birthday!  However I was silly enough to be born around Mother's Day here in the UK so today I have to share the celebration of my arrival on this Earth with celebrating the amazing woman who gave birth to me. I don't have much to offer, so I thought I'd add to the ever expanding collection of jewellery that I have made for her.
As you may or may not be aware, I adore semi-precious gemstones and they are my favourite to work with.  I love the random beauty of natural stones.  I was excited when one of my favourite sites [Beads Direct] to get gemstones were having a sale as it gave me an opportunity to work with a stone I've wanted to buy for a while - Druzy Agate:

Recycled Beads Ring

Another tutorial on Ruby's Beadwork caught my eye, and I thought it would be a nice way to use up some of the old beads I have lying around in my recycled bags.  I don't actually have that many beads in there to play around with though, as most of the stuff is earrings and brooches.
I've been trying to find uses for these milky glass beads that I have - which I think were glass pearls whose coating came off.  I've used them before (On A Sunny Day In England, Sweet Tooth Competition Prize and My Beating Heart) and this seemed like the perfect project to use up the rest of them

Woven Diamond Earrings

My first post this week is this gorgeous pair of earrings I made for myself that I haven't been able to stop wearing.

The earrings feature black and bright pink fuchsia Delicas beaded in brick stitch to create this cool diamond within a diamond pattern.

 It's finished with a round gunmetal bead and silver fishhook earwires*.

My mom loved them so much that she she asked me to make her a pair.  Hers feature transparent grey Delicas with an AB finish.

The earrings will be available to buy soon in a range of colours.  I'll also be making ones with other designs which I'll post separately.

=:x

*They'll also be available in clip-on style!

On A Sunny Day In England Set

So it's a well known fact that it's always dark and grey in England, with only the occasional rays of sunshine. I made this set to reflect that. It's comprised of silvery acrylic connectors, grey seed beads and milky glass beads to represent the clouds and clear yellow glass beads for the few rays we get.

The necklace is very long, so it has no clasp.
Length: 41cm/just over 16" - from end to end it would be 82cm/just over 32" 

More photos on Etsy.

 £70.00 (ex. shipping)
Buy now on Etsy!

Fun with wire & beads

The last few weeks I've mainly been testing out new techniques and having fun with new designs.  These aren't for sale, but they give you an idea of what I've been doing and what things you can expect to be coming to X99 Jewellery.

Celtic loop ring

Purple & grey Lattice Bracelet

The lattice bracelet is customisable, as I'll show you later with one I was commissioned to make for my Gran.