Beaded scarf – sneak preview

gemstone beads

Remember the Blackcurrant Surprise fabric I dyed back in August? The one that came out a lovely shade of grey? Well, it turned out to have another surprise in store for me. I’d folded it up and put it away while I decided what I wanted to do with it… and when I got it out, it had changed colour again! It’s now a pretty neutral beigey shade, and it still smells very faintly of blackcurrants.

It’s destined to be divided into three little scarves, each measuring about 50 x 150cm, with beading on the ends. The beads in the photo are all semi-precious stones. Smoky quartz on the left, moonstone in the middle and labradorite on the right. The sterling silver ring in the middle is set with a 12mm labradorite cabochon, and it’s adjustable so the scarf can be styled in different ways.

I chose the smoky quartz because its brown tones blend nicely with the fabric, but now I’m not sure whether or not it’s too dark. Perhaps once the beads are more spread out, with all three colours sprinkled in together, it won’t look quite so dramatic.

These are going to be Christmas presents, so  won’t be able to show you the finished scarves for a little while. In the meantime though, I do have some plans for these pretty little adjustable rings, so watch this space!

Silver and Labradorite Ring

Silver and Labradorite ring

Well, it will be once I’ve soldered the bezel to the ring and set the stone!

Last August I did a short silver jewellery course as part of a week of courses at my local high school. They also run silver jewellery classes during term-time, but they’re so popular that they’re always over-subscribed. I asked to be kept on the waiting list, but I was rather taken by surprise when an email arrived letting me know that a place was available!

These are the results of two evenings’ work. In the first session I made the ring, which I’m really pleased with. Much better than my first two, although I can see from this larger-than-life photo that it’s not quite flat. In the second session I made the bezel for the stone, which still needs a little filing and polishing before it’s finished. Once that’s done I can solder it to the ring, and set the stone into place.

We were advised to go for a larger stone rather than a smaller one, so I went for a lovely 18x13mm labradorite cabochon from Kernowcraft. I thought the rose cut matched nicely with the hammered ring. Everything needs a thorough clean and polish, but I hope it’ll be lovely when it’s finished.

I’ve also bought a little pile of rose quartz cabochons in different sizes (hoorah for gift vouchers!), thinking that I’d like to use the classes to practice making different types of settings for the stones. But I bought a couple of smart shirts recently, and now I’m thinking that I might like to make some cufflinks. I can feel some experiments with textures coming on, I think.