Christmas Gift Ideas from Chloe's Designs

It's been a very busy few months building up to Christmas. I have several new gift sets and lots of new dichroic glass jewellery sets that are now available from my ebay shop.

Please come and take a look for lots of unique jewellery gift ideas ranging from wine glass charms to earring sets & necklace gift sets...

Unique handmade dichroic glass & silver jewellery by Chloe's Designs.

Visit Chloe's Designs eBay shop to browse my entire collection.

A busy summer making jewellery...

I have been keeping myself very busy this summer making lots of new jewellery. My next big craft fair is just around the corner and I have been working on a new selection of dichroic glass pendants, sets, bangles and more.

Pictured below is one of my most recent handmade dichroic glass bangles. I kiln fuse these bangles and I also shape them inside the kiln too. It takes several firings and a few days to finish each bangle.

I also make my own dichroic glass pendants with hand etched pictures on them. I find that the cats are the most popular, but are also the hardest picture to etch on the glass!

My next craft fair is at Milton Keynes Central Shopping Centre. The fair is in Middleton Hall just outside John Lewis and is on from Thursday 16th September to Sunday 19th September 2010. Please come and say hello if you visit the craft fair : - )

Mouse with cheese necklace...

Last year I made a sterling silver pin brooch for a very special present. I wanted to make a mouse and somehow attach a piece of cheese to him. I made the mouse & cheese from some small pieces of clay which I used as moulds to cast into sterling silver. I was really pleased with the result, but still not sure how to link the two pieces together.

My first idea was to hang the cheese from some chain, but I wasn't very keen on this idea. After pondering for a couple of days the idea struck me ... I would wrap the mouse's tail around the piece of cheese. It didn't take long to make the tail and solder all the pieces together. I have several silver mouse's lined up ready for my next piece of jewellery, but here is one of my necklaces I made in a similar style:

Handmade Sterling Silver Jewellery by Chloe's Designs

www.chloesdesigns.com

New Dichroic Glass Earring Cards

After I got back from my last craft fair in March, I was buzzing to make some new earring cards. When I did my first few craft fairs a few years ago, I would hang all my earrings on one big sheet of card. This wasn't the best idea because it wasn't easy for customers to pick up the earrings and have a good look at them.

So I decided to design an individual earring card for each pair of earrings to hang from. I found this worked alot better as customers could easily pick up each little earring card and have a proper look at them.

My new earring cards are very similar to my old one's, execpt they are slightly bigger and the design of the cards now matches my logo and business cards. Here's a picture of my dichroic glass stud earring cards:

If you'd like to check out my current range of dichroic glass earrings available to buy online, please visit my website:

www.chloesdesigns.com

Necklaces by Chloe's Designs

I have been working on some necklace designs this year and really wanted to try and add in some new elements such as gemstones and pearls. The first flower necklace pictured below includes a pearl. I started out by sawing 2 flowers from a sheet of sterling silver and then soldered these together. I made a sterling silver bail which I soldered to the back of the pendant and the pearl was added at the very end after I had finished polishing it up.

The picture below is very similar to the necklace above, but I included a pink square cubic zirconia stone to this pendant...

More jewellery creations available from Chloe's Designs online Ebay shop.

Handmade Sterling Silver Rings by Chloe's Designs

Over the last couple of months I have been busy making a selection of sterling silver rings. I wanted to incorporate some gemstones and pearls in my new designs and I also had a couple of new tools ready to try out.

The first ring below is a very simple sterling silver ring band with a 5mm pink cubic zirconia gemstone.

The next ring below includes a pearl stone...

After all my rings are finished, I will send them to the Birmingham Assay Office to be officially hallmarked. I always love getting my jewellery pieces back from being hallmarked.

Here are just a few more of my latest handmade sterling silver rings...

My Dichroic Glass Jewellery Stand

A couple of weeks ago I had my first craft fair of the year. January & February have flown past while I've been busy making new jewellery pieces. My first craft fair was at Central Milton Keynes indoor shopping centre and the next fair will be in September 2010.
I was really pleased how my stand looked, but I came home with lots of new ideas for my next fair. One of them being a new logo and banner design which I have been working on.
I've just made a start on some new dichroic glass pieces and hope to have some new pictures soon!

Handmade Dichroic Glass & Sterling Silver Adjustable Rings

I've been working on a new range of adjustable rings using dichroic glass & sterling silver. I originally looked online to buy my ring blanks, but I didn't like the styles of adjustable rings that I found. In the end I decided to make my own adjustable rings and started by making a template ring on some card. Once I had made my template, I copied this onto a sheet of sterling silver to saw out. It can take a while to finish making each ring as they all need sanding by hand and polishing. I shape the ring around a wooden ring mandrel and gently hammer it into shape with my mallet. The rings wrap around the finger and can be adjusted to fit any size.

I make the piece of glass seperately by kiln fusing several sheets of plain glass & dichroic (di-kro-ik) glass together. This usually requires several firings before it can be attached to the sterling silver ring.

More dichroic glass & sterling silver adjustable rings available from Chloe's Designs online Ebay Shop.

Happy New Year from Chloe's Designs

I would like to wish everyone a very happy new year for 2010.

I have been dying to show off some of my handmade Christmas presents. I was expecially pleased with my dragonfly ornament and mouse pin brooch. I started the dragonfly last August and got him finished a few days before Christmas. I had to learn a few new techniques to make the dragonfly, but it was all good practise.

I made his body and tail section from solid sterling silver and made his wings using dichroic glass and sterling silver. I think this is probably my best piece I've made so far, and am really chuffed how it turned out...

I made my mouse pin brooch also from solid sterling silver. At first I made the mouse & the piece of cheese, but couldn't decide how to link them together. I sat watching the telly for many nights re-arranging the mouse & cheese to come up with a new idea. Then I thought about wrapping the mouse's tail around the cheese and really liked that idea....