Sparkly Christmas Gift Ideas!

Available now on Ebay are these beautiful sparkly necklaces & earrings made with Swarovski crystals in various colours and shapes. All necklaces & earrings come gift boxed, making them the perfect little treat this Christmas!

http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Chloes-Designs-Dichroic-Glass

Add a little sparkle to your Christmas gift shopping...

Swarovski Wild Heart & Briolette Necklaces & Earrings

These beautiful wild heart crystals from Swarovski elements are simply stunning. The pendants are quite a large chunk of crystal but they are still very elegant to wear. The faceted Swarovski crystals sparkle and shimmer in the light and look amazing worn with matching earrings.

The pendants are available on 18" sterling silver curb chains with gift box. The earrings also come gift boxed and have sterling silver earring hooks.

Available to buy now from Chloe's Designs Ebay Shop and Etsy Shop.

Cute Sparkly Stud Earrings

Here's just a few of my handmade sterling silver stud earrings with dichroic glass and cubic zirconia gemstones. They measure approximately 5mm - 7mm wide, making them a nice little size for everyone to wear and to add a little sparkle to your outfit.

The dichroic glass stud earrings have been kiln fused and are all 'one of a kind'. They each come on a gift card with a brief description about dichroic glass and a space for you to write a personal message. Each pair of stud earrings comes in their own organza gift bag, perfect to treat yourself, family or friends, or even as a stocking filler!

Available now from Chloe's Designs Etsy Shop.

Just £6.99 a pair plus delivery from Chloe's Designs.

Friendship Bracelets

Beaded Friendship Bracelets

I have really enjoyed making these beaded friendship bracelets. Using macrame weaving with wax cotton cord and beads, they look great on and also combined with other colours.

They have a silver ring at one end and a loose strand at the other end which ties around the ring to fasten in place.

Check out more of my friendship bracelets in my Etsy Shop.



Animal & Halloween Pin Brooches

Animal Pin Brooches

My latest creations are these cute little plastic pin brooches with cats, dogs, seahorses, bears, fairies and more. Featuring my own artwork, these lightweight brooches have a metal pin on the back and come on a lovely little gift card.

I've been working on some spooky Halloween brooches and will be adding some more animal brooches too. Priced at just £2.99 each plus delivery, these brooches are the perfect little addition to any jumper, cardigan or scarf!

Available from my Etsy Shop.

Amber the Fox Plastic Pin Brooch

Crystal the Seahorse Plastic Pin Brooch

Shadow the Bat Plastic Halloween Pin Brooch

Faux Suede Cord

Faux suede cord is a lovely soft cord to use for making necklaces and hanging pendants from. The cord is 3mm wide and comes in 5 metre lengths, so you can make plenty of necklaces and cut each piece to your required length.

There are 15 colours altogether to choose from including some of our new colours pictured below.

Available from Chloe's Designs Online Shop, and also on Ebay!

Colours from left to right: Cerise, Cornflower Blue, Thistle, Dark Red and Cyan.

Glass crackle bead mix with handy storage box

It can be tricky sometimes picking exactly which beads to buy when there are so many pretty beads about. If you like your glass crackle beads, then take a look at these new bead kits available from my ebay shop. I have selected colours that will compliment each other and included different sizes for you to try out.

The beads come in a handy re-usable storage box, so you can easily refill it when it's empty. More colours coming soon!

Chloe's Designs Jewellery, Findings & Beads

Ebay Shop

Hand Etched Dichroic Glass Cat Pendants

Here are a few of my latest hand etched dichroic glass cat pendants. I etch the cats by hand using a pointed diamond tip drill bit. After a day of etching, the drill bits can start to go blunt leaving double lines on the glass, so it's always handy to have a few spares. I usually buy the large multi packs of diamond tip drill bits and work my way through the pointed ones!

I etch the cats straight onto 2mm thick dichroic glass. I then sandwich the dichroic glass between a piece of black glass and clear glass. The clear glass goes on top and will give a nice glossy shiny finish to the pendant.

The pendant is fired in the kiln on a 'tac fuse' firing program. This heats the kiln up to 1400 - 1410 degrees fahenheit and holds this temperature for 10 minutes. Tac fusing the glass will allow all the layers to merge together, but will still leave fairly straight edges for me to grind afterwards. (A full fuse program will make the glass slump down more and the edges will start to round off.)

After the kiln has held it's temperature for 10 minutes it rapidly cools down to 950 degrees fahenheit where it begins the annealing process. The annealing process is very important and allows the glass to relieve any internal stresses. Glass that has not been annealed could break or crack.

The kiln must be allowed to completely cool down to room temperature on it's own, before the door is opened. Absolutely no peeking is allowed as this could completely wreck the glass inside!

It takes a good 9-10 hours for the kiln to cool to room temperature on it's own. This will definately test your patience, but is well worth the wait when the kiln door is finally opened and you can see all the glass pieces sparkling away : - )

Chloe's Designs Dichroic Glass Jewellery available on Ebay

Jewellery Making Findings Kits

Check out these fantastic little jewellery findings kits at just £4.99 each plus postage from Chloe's Designs. 

These kits are perfect for beginners and are also an ideal refill kit containing a variety of metal jewellery components, wire, thread and a basic guide to jewellery making to get you started.

The only additional things you need are some pliers and some pretty beads to start making your own jewellery creations.

Making your own brooch...

Making your own brooch is very easy to do and only requires a few items. There are lots of things you can turn into brooches, such as coins, plastic/fake flowers, flat cabochons, gemstones. You could also make something using polymer clay, silver art clay, inkjet plastic shrink paper or even fabric.

When you have chosen your brooch piece, you will need to attach a brooch back with a small amount of glue. If the back of the brooch is shiny, you may want to lightly sand/scuff the area you intend to glue. This will help the glue bond better.

It's always handy to have some blu-tac lying around too. If your brooch has an un-even or domed surface, you can rest it on some blue-tac while it's drying. (I have often come back to my brooches and found the brooch back has slipped while drying!)

Silver & Gold Plated Brooch Backs from Chloe's Designs.

Basic Earring Making Technique...

Tools & Materials:

Cutting Pliers, Flat Nosed Pliers and Round Nosed Pliers.

2 x Earring Hooks

2 x Head Pins

Selection of beads / seed beads / Swarovksi crystals.

Instructions:

1. Thread your chosen beads onto the headpin (Fig 1a).

2. Use your cutting pliers to trim away any excess headpin wire. You will need to leave approximately 1cm of wire to make a loop (Fig 1b).

3. Using your flat nosed pliers, bend the spare piece of wire to a right angle (Fig 1c).

4. With your round nosed pliers, hold the tip of the wire & rotate to form a loop (Fig 1d).

5. Attach the ear hook to your earring by opening the loop you have just made, or the loop on the ear hook. Remember to close your loop after attaching the ear hook. (Fig 1e).

Earring head pin & loop illustration. Fig 1a-e.

Visit Chloe's Designs for your jewellery findings and beads.

Handmade Dichroic Glass Discoveries...

I am always spotting new and interesting creations with dichroic glass, and I usually find Etsy a good place to start browsing. There are alot of unique handmade jewellery and gifts available from all over the world on Etsy.... a good place to look for that unusual present for your family & friends.

Check out these amazing dichroic glass pendants, paperweights and figurines from VortexGlassWorks:

Below: Amazing dichroic glass ring featuring the skull fused glass by zulasurfing. This ring looks stunning in the photo, but I bet it looks uber cool in real!

Making Jewellery with Swarovski Crystals...



Add a touch of elegance to your jewellery creations using Swarovski crystals and pearls. I made the two necklaces above using 4mm bicone crystals with a mixture of pearls and a large crystal teardop pendant. The pendant is fitted with a sterling silver pinch bail which will keep it firmly in place. Alternatively silver plated jewellery findings can be used which are alot cheaper to purchase.

There are alot of Swarovksi crystal suppliers out there, and it's definately worth looking around to see what colours and shapes suppliers have available. I find it easy to get carried away when I'm looking for new beads. If you are wanting to have a go at jewellery making and not sure where to start, then I recommend looking for a project to follow. There are several good jewellery and craft magazines which give detailed tutorials and sometimes include free bead samples too.

Making Jewellery

I've just finished working on my website and have recently added in a new selection of glass beads and jewellery findings available to buy online. I plan to make some more dichroic glass pendants and gift sets later in the year and am hoping to introduce some new etched pictures for my pendants too.

Unfortunately my handmade glass jewellery is only available to buy from my Ebay shop. This is because each piece is one of a kind and cannot be exactly reproduced.

I've also been working on my Facebook business page and will start to include regular pictures and updates. If you'd like to follow me on Facebook or Twitter, please come and say hello ...

Glass Crackle Beaded Necklaces

A few necklaces I have made using glass crackle beads along with my kiln fused dichroic glass pendants.

Bead Inspired

Check out our new range of glass beads at Chloe's Designs Jewellery, Findings and Beads online shop.

New beads coming soon!

Have fun making your own pendants

It’s easy to make your own unique pendant to wear. To make your pendant you need an object that has a flat back, like a cabochon, piece of glass, or perhaps something you have made from polymer clay?

You also need a leaf type bail as pictured below. These bails also come in heart shapes which look very cute. If your pendant object has a nice smooth back, you ideally need to scratch it up a little bit. This will help the glue stick when attaching the bail. (A hand-held drill with a sanding attachment is ideal if your object is glass, otherwise a small file or piece of sand paper should work well.)

You will need a strong glue like an epoxy glue to attach the bail to your object. If you’re object has an un-even front, then use a piece of blue-tac to keep your object in place while you attach the bail.

Place some glue on the bail and then put the bail onto your object. You may need to pick your pendant up and check you have the bail in the correct position. Leave the glue to dry and then check out your new creation!

Leaf and heart bails available from Chloe's Designs Jewellery Findings and Beads.

Glass Beads

It's been a while since my last post, so I would like to wish everyone a very happy 2011!

I have worked with dichroic glass for a few years making unique pieces of jewellery to sell. I always enjoy the moment when I open my kiln to see how the different colours of glass have fused together. I usually always look for glass beads to go with my dichroic glass pendants and earrings, and have decided to also start selling glass beads and findings so you can create your own stunning jewellery.

My personal favorite are the glass crackle beads as they come in an array of mixed colours and really do stand out. I'll be adding more beads shortly.

Visit Online Shop: Chloe's Designs Jewellery Findings and Beads