Don't forget our giveaway...

Currently running a give away on our facebook page: www.facebook.com/bewitching bijou

You only need to be a fan of the page to be in for a chance to win a piece of exclusively designed jewellery from us at Bewitching Bijou!

Hurry hurry!! The competition closes on Saturday 2nd Feb at 5pm (uk time!!)

Rose Tutorial

There are several ways to make roses, and some look more realistic than others. I have three methods, this is the second method that I have learnt and is by far the most widely used method in my jewellery. I hope this inspires you to give it a try and see what you can make!!

You will need:

Polymer Clay; any colour what so ever.
A knife or you can just use your hands to separate the pieces.
Some nimble fingers!

Condition your clay well before you start so it is easier to use.

1. Take a ball of whatever colour polymer clay you like. Mine is about 1.5cm in diameter.

Obviously, the larger the ball that you begin with, the larger the flower will be. If you want to make tiny roses then you will need a smaller ball.

 2. Next you are going to divide the ball into seven parts. Do this by first cutting the ball in half, and then cutting one of the halves into three pieces and the other half into four.

Keep the group of three and four separate from each other at this stage as it will be useful to know which way round they are when it comes to assembling your rose.

 

 3. So, take the smallest piece of the group of four and squish it between your fingers into an oval shape. Some say plectrum shape and some say round, but I say oval.

Really, only the top edge needs to be somewhat perfect, the rest isn't going to be visible, so do the best you can. If you find it sticks to your fingers use a touch of baby powder.

NOTE: Don't use a lot of baby powder because not only will it prevent the clay sticking to you, it will also prevent the clay sticking to other bits of clay. If there is excess on your piece when you are done, it will wipe off after it has been baked.

I use a little bit of baby powder and dip my fingers in it occasionally-this seems to work best for me.

4. Next, roll that little petal you made to make a spiral. This will be the centre of your flower.

5. Now squish the next smallest piece of the group of four pieces into an oval shape.

 6. Wrap this second petal around your spiral, pinching it at the bottom. Try and follow the direction of the spiral, so that if it is anticlockwise (like mine is) you wind the petals round anticlockwise.

 7. Move on to the third petal now, using the third smallest, attach in the same way as number 2, just a little bit further round. You should have a gap between the folds of the second petal, place thethird one there.

Pinch at the bottom.

 8. This is what you are aiming for with the third petal.

Now squish the last piece of the group of four and attach a little further round from petal three. Remember to wrap carefully and pinch at the bottom. It lets the inner bloom stick out a bit more if done just right.

 9. Now to tackle the surrounding outer petals. Take the smallest piece of the three remaining pieces and flatten it almost as flat as it will go with your fingers. Wrap this huge petal around the rose.

You are aiming for it to cover 1/3 of the exterior of the rose. You will need to bring the petal up and set it higher than the other ones as later we will work these outer petals.

 10. Do the same with the final two pieces.

 11. Don't worry about any tattered edges, it adds to the realism. You can always tatter them yourself by using a small pointed tool if you want the older bloom affect.

 12. Now gently, with your fingers or a soft brush, turn the larger petals outward and pinch in the middle of the outer edge of the petals. This creates a blown bloom look and gives it the beautiful natural shape of an older rose.

If you want a younger rose, don't put the outer petals so high up in comparison to the middle and only pull them away from the main bloom slightly at this stage.

 13. Finally, carefully cut the end of the rose that you have been holding on to off.

14. Now you can do what you want with them, make them into a bead, or collage them.

This is a piece in the making for Valentines.

Groups of these roses look gorgeous together, but are equally gorgeous on their own.

You will need to bake them once you have decided what you want to do with them. This will make the clay hard. Always follow the manufacturers instructions for that.

Once baked you can add rhinestones to their centres to make them sparkle, you can paint them, gloss them, glue them onto something else or just leave them as they are!!

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We hope you enjoyed this tutorial and hope to see you at this page again next time!! 

Remember to keep an eye out for new things in the shop and exciting news updates and competitions on the Facebook Page!!

The Joys of Life!

Well, several things have happened this week that have affected my crafting, which is a pain in one way as I have some Valentine's stock that is half finished, and I really need to get on with it before Valentines, ideally...!! I actually started the jewellery two weeks ago!! I am hoping that things may settle by the weekend so that I can carry on, if not early next week-so if my blog posts are a bit intermittent, I apologise!

Can't do the tutorial either as I have no time to sort the pictures out! AH!

Basically, a few things have happened-me and my long term partner have split up and I have gotten a new job. The latter means that I can move out of where I live now, which is what I sorting out today, the ins and outs of the excess rent, packing and handing in notice to my previous job.

Let it be known that I HATE PACKING!!

2 reasons: 1. It takes for ever....
                2. You realise how much rubbish you have accumulated over the years....

I guess the latter is the reason for the former...but still.

I have sorted out the craft room ready for moving tomorrow, but I have yet to start on the sewing cupboard which is full to the brim with fabrics, notions, sewing machines, more fabric, in fact I have three big boxes of fabric....theres my work lamp and the photo booth thing (that is honestly rubbish) in there two.

But I honestly don't want to!! So in short-my shop will be "On Holiday" till I can unpack the stock and hopefully should be back up next week!

Sorry for any inconvenience, but this change will make all the difference to me and hopefully will make me more able to do my crafting :)

                                                                      Wish me luck!!
x x x

Post Christmas Winter Wonderland

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to craft anything in the last fews days. I'll tell you why. I came to visit my Mum and Dad for a few days expecting that today I would be back home. But the lovely snow has basically blocked us in. I was going to post a tutorial today, but for that I need pictures and for that I need to have the crafting equipment with me!!

Instead, I have decided to do a piece about the snow, as I am surrounded by it!! All the pictures on this posting are ones that I've taken in my back garden this morning. The sun was out and it really was quite pleasant and it has given me ideas on some new necklaces.












                        This is one of my favourites, the spider webs completely covered in frost. I think it looks amazing!! I am so tempted to make a necklace that imitates this look. I think that it would look great but maybe not something that would be bought particularly...what do you think? Please use the comments for your suggestions!

 This is the biggest tree in our garden, and I took a photo of it because I absolutely love the contrast between the white frosty branches and the dark black almost trunk and larger out reaches. The sun was in my way when I took this picture but unfortunately that was the only available angle.

I wonder if contrast would work really well in jewellery.

 This was one of the reasons I wanted to take pictures today; the wonderful icicles! I think they are really picturesque. I have to say they were bigger earlier this morning but I had to go out before I could take time to do this blog!

 I love the spring flowers and I think it is because of the plants tenacity to push through. In the picture to the left you can see those green shoots growing through the snow waiting for that spring sunshine.



I love the pattern of the frost that clings to the leaves (below) and the stalks of a raspberry bush (left). Its so random but so pretty. I will use these for reference when I make some more frosty looking plants and flowers.

Thank you for looking, see you next time. Don't forget to like my Facebook Page and look in my shop on Etsy for any new stock or if you want to see what I have made! I will do my best to get a tutorial up on here as soon as I can get home!!

Fairy-tale Features

Today I wanted to share with you all some of my favourite fairy tale jewellery currently listed on Etsy.com

I love all five of these pieces and I hope you do too! I love looking at other peoples work whether it is jewellery or art or beauty products to find new ways of thinking about things. It’s always refreshing to see other people’s interpretations because it may give you new ideas, or at the very least new ways of thinking about things you want to do. This is especially useful when you have creative block and can’t seem to think of any ideas. Of course, do not lift or copy ideas from other people-that is not acceptable. But you can use other people’s ideas and interpretations as a spring board to bounce your own ideas off.

Because my ideas centre on fairy tales, I thought it would be nice to explore this theme in the first features page on here.

The first piece is a bracelet by a very talented jewellery maker called Laughing Vixen Lounge. It’s a really good piece to look at as an “inspired by” item. It’s very obviously a piece inspired by the Snow White story.

                                                              Laughing Vixen Lounge

You can see the classic mirror as a charm on the bracelet, as well as the apple, the dwarf, the witch, the prince and the princess charms which all feature in the story. The bead colours enhance the bracelet as well because the red stands out amongst them, mimicking the red of the tempting shiny apple that snow white bites into to her doom.

Although a relatively simple piece, it is a very nice piece that shows where the inspiration has come from very nicely. It is a lovely dainty bracelet full of the wonders of Snow White.

This next piece is by a unique jewellery maker called petiteVanilla. It’s a gorgeous hand crafted resin pendant with the fantastic picture of Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf on it. I love the simplicity of the design and the lovely bright colours that lift the image from the resin.

                                                                   petiteVanilla shop

I love this piece because it is playful. The image has such wonderful colours and the figures are very stylised. It feels like the pendant is almost like a link back to childhood where those fairy tales were often told in their lighter and much more playful forms.

Again, this is a relatively simple piece but utterly sweet, incorporating something old from the brass chain look and the very new look of the picture in the pendant.

This next piece is a by a very experienced Etsy seller called Nixxi Rose. It is a gorgeous piece inspired by The Frog Prince story. Now, I only know two versions of this story; the short, she got talking to a frog in the Castle pond, and kissed it versions and the longer Disney version. Whichever one you know, this piece certainly feels like it sprung from the swamps for me.

                                                                   NixxiRose Shop

With gorgeous dragonfly and frog charms along with the beautiful green, brass and pink colourings, it seems to encapsulate the whole feel of a swamp. But with such beauty that you’d think only a princess could wear it! It is delicate and a great homage to the tale.

This piece inspired me because I had completely forgotten about that story! Bringing it to life in this wonderful bracelet reminded me that every story can inspire you to create anything.

This next piece is one of the cutest items I have ever seen. I really love it – again because I had not even thought of that tale, and it completely inspired me because of it. This is a necklace by Zala and its main focus is a shoe made of polymer clay.

                                                                      UraniaArt Shop

As you can see, this little shoe seems to be inspired by the English nursery rhyme called “There was an old woman who lived in a shoe”.

There was an old woman who lived in a shoe.
She had so many children, she didn't know what to do;
She gave them some broth without any bread;
Then whipped them all soundly and put them to bed.

(Variations of this rhyme are available!) My main medium is polymer clay so when I saw this I thought it was fantastic! And the idea that you can be inspired to make such luscious jewellery out of a nursery rhyme completely opened my ideas to more media that I can be inspired by for my own work.

Finally, this piece is by a jeweller who we have met before: Laughing Vixen Lounge. Anyone who knows me personally will know that I absolutely love mermaids, especially the tale about The Little Mermaid. Therefore, I simply HAD to include a mermaid themed piece of jewellery.

                                                                Laughing Vixen Lounge

This is exquisite and a completely different idea to the first bracelet I showed you that was made by the same artist. Firstly, it has some wonderful vintage looking photo charms with gorgeous pictures. The blue beads compliment the bracelet by looking almost like bubbles in the sea. I love the green beads and the ones with bobbles on that give this bracelet a wonderful texture and lovely full feeling. Finally, to finish the bracelet there are some lovely silver charms of things that you would expect to find in the sea.

The whole piece has this wonderful magical quality to it and it is a lovely tribute to the theme of mermaids.

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I hope you have enjoyed this week’s features. Hopefully it has inspired you to keep creating! I know it has me! Thank you to all the artists who allowed me to post their items on here and write about them, they are all exquisite pieces!

Don't forget to visit my shop and like my facebook page to stay up to date with latest news!

7 Reasons I LOVE Crafting

It’s about time to tell you why I think crafting is such a brilliant thing and why I devote most of my time to it. Sure I do other things like watching the television, reading a book and meeting with friends, but it’s the time with my crafts that I find myself loving more and more. So here are 7 reasons why I think crafting is just so damn great!

7. You can make a business out of it.

Well, maybe you won’t be the world’s best seller of cushion covers after a year or have a million pound home funded by crafting trinkets, but there is always the possibility that you could. Everyone had to start somewhere, and if that is doing a part time job whilst crafting and earning at least enough to cover you for more materials, hey, where’s the hurt?

Plus it keeps your crafting room decluttered from all the things you have made but have found anyone to fob them off on….

So look no further. Set up an online store or even sell on Ebay. There is a big demand for handmade, especially if it is a niche product. After the initial set up you will need to constantly tend to it. A shop is like a flower in some pretty poor soil, it needs help to grow-as your shop will. But it’s a worthwhile investment and learning more and more about business practices, policies and marketing is actually rather fun. As if receiving lovely positive comments about your work!

Which brings me to my next point

6. Crafting brings people together.

This isn’t a kum by yah moment, but you will find largely with the crafting community that they are a very supportive bunch who like to help each other out. Obviously there are the one or two who seem to try to stir things, but they are usually people who copy other peoples work and claim credit, or trolls and thus should be ignored.

Never ignore a forum, there are some great ones out there brimming full of ideas and feedback to help you on your way. Don’t be shy; dive in! There is so much you can learn from other people that going on a forum is a very rewarding experience. And every one is always so happy, maybe because….

5. Everyone loves (well made) handmade gifts!

I put well made in the title of this one because I thought of one time where I was walking round a craft fair and saw some hand made bags on sale. I used to make bags so I thought I would inspect…and they were terrible!! Seams half done, random bits of thread sticking out here and there….! Ah, the humanity!!

But giving or selling something good which then evolves into great is fantastic. If it’s a gift, not only have you put effort and time into it which people appreciate more than a bottle of wine from the garage, but you can also personalise it. If it’s a product, there is room for custom orders to be made so that you can customise it to your clients taste if requested.

Also a well-made handmade item is unique. By their very definition, no two will be the same no matter how similar. So you would have something unique, just for you.

4. Personal Pride

Crafters get very attached to the items they make…well I do anyway…and I think it is because of the time I took to design the item, to go through the entire making process, to describe it on my shop and then the lovingly wrap it and send it away. All that time and energy spent on it is why I am so proud of my items. Everything I make I would keep if I didn’t have a finite amount of space and money.

After learning all the techniques and spending so much time on developing and item and then finally, when it is finished you can stand back and say “I made that.” You can be proud in the knowledge that it’s the only one like it in the world and that your wonderful mind and your deft fingers made that item.

Things could get emotional here so I will move on quickly!

3. You can be inspired by EVERYTHING!

You want a muse? Look around you. What patterns could you copy? What textures? What colours, shapes and forms could you twist? Go outside, look at the flowers, the sky, the birds. Go on the internet and look for others work for extra inspiration….EVERYTHING is inspiration for something new.

I read a lot so some of my items are inspired by books. It sounds odd but it’s the feel of the thing. If it’s a dark story then maybe I’ll make a black rose bracelet or a studded crown, if its light and fluffy then something pink and delicate might be made. You just have to stay inspired, keep your ideas moving.

In fact, I now carry a small A5 note pad with me for drawing ideas of things, copying tree forms sometimes to get ideas for necklaces and

                   (credit andertoons)

writing down key words just in case I am out and about and cannot make it immediately. I also take it to bed as I manage to have my best ideas just as I am trying to sleep!

2. You can make ANYTHING!

This is true.

Oh, you’re not crafty?

You can’t draw for toffee?

Everything you have ever made was terrible.

WRONG!

You just need some more practice ;)

Well-made handmade does not happen overnight for most people. When I was starting dress making I didn’t wake up one day, shout “Eureka!” and make a Victorian ball gown! No, I took my time starting small, watching other people on YouTube, going through tutorials, looking for inspiration, playing with various shapes so I could work out patterns and curves. It was the same with clay, I had to learn first. It’s a hard step to take, but it means that you can make anything!

And it’s true, you can.

You can make anything you want. Some examples are pot holders, place mats, door organisers, broaches, rings, door handles, picture frames, dream catchers, friendship bracelets, cushion covers, models, cakes, plates, recipes, movies and videos, games, banners, clothes, electronics, lights, lamp shades, tables, side boards, cheese boards, board games…..

                                                                   (credit fantasyclay) 

...or an Angry Birds bauble for your Christmas tree!!!

1. It is food for the soul and relaxes the mind.

Now, I suffer from chronic depression and have done for years without knowing. However, recently I had a break down and was signed off work for a long time. In that time as I started to get better, I realised that I wanted to do something. At the time I was more into sewing, but because of the short attention span I couldn’t focus so I needed a craft that would be easy to pick up and put down.

That was when I found clay.

Clay was easy to use, easy to mould, lovely colours, textures and there were billions of tutorials to get me started. The bonus thing was that it didn’t take me long to pack it up if I got annoyed with it (which in the beginning was very often!!) But not long after I started I realised how relaxing it was. To mould this little shape of soft plastic into something, bake it and keep it forever if I chose. I found it hugely therapeutic to have something in my hands to fiddle with especially if the tele was on.

And on those days where the walls crumbled inwards toward me, I took to clay. As I massaged the soft surface I would think of all the things I could make today. And I made them. Some when terribly, some I burnt and some I used translucent clay rather than white and it ended up brown!! But I carried on.

And on those days where the walls start to fall again I just take a little bit of clay and imagine what little world I can make from it.

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So those are the 7 reasons why I think crafting is awesome. I hope you do to. Please email me or comment any suggestions of posts you would like to see, or tell me your experiences with crafting!

Don't forget to visit my shop and like my facebook page to stay up to date with latest news!

Till next time!

Welcome to Bewitching Bijou

Hi there!!

Welcome to the Bewitching Bijou blog that is connected to my shop on Etsy. Here I will be posting my inspirations, like and dislikes along with some tutorials, some tips on how to make jewellery, sneak peeks and-of course-competitions and give-aways.

I need a little help from you to make all that happen so please like my facebook page : www.facebook.com/bewitchingbijou

My shop for those of you interested in what I make is on Etsy: www.etsy.com/shop/bewtichingbijou

To begin with let’s look at what Bewitching Bijou is to me.

Everyone has a dark side and a light side, a bad side and a good side, a rebellious side and a conformist side-think I have stretched that far enough! I call them the Temptress and the Princess sides. 

(Credit to Loren Jarvier, Flickr)

I had to include an Ariel picture in my first post!!

My jewellery plays to those two sides of our selves and out minds; the pretty and elegant side that is enchanting, graceful and full of compassion as well as the darkened, seductive temptress side which craves rebellion.

So my princess side says “Start a post about the pretty things, the animals and songs in your heart.” But the inner darkness calls, “No, start with something unique, tantilising and…dark.”

And, well, unfortunately Princess, this time Temptress wins.

My favourite thing about fairy tales is that they can be flipped around. Some of my favourite poetry is by a lady called Carol Ann Duffy-The World’s Wife. She wrote the poem Mrs Beast, a reference to Belle's (in the Disney versions) character. She plays with the idea that the "happy ending" is not all that it first appears to be. Here is an extract:

These myths going round, these legends, fairytales,
I’ll put them straight; so when you stare
Into my face – Helen’s face, Cleopatra’s,
Queen of Sheba’s, Juliet’s – then, deeper,
Gaze into my eyes – Nefertiti’s, Mona Lisa’s,
Garbo’s eyes - think again. The Little Mermaid slit
Her shining, silver tail in two, rubbed salt 
Into that stinking wound, got up and walked,
In agony, in fishnet tights, stood up and smiled, waltzed,
All for a Prince, a pretty boy, a charming one
Who’d dump her in the end, chuck her, throw her overboard.
I could have told her – look, love, I should know, 
They’re bastards when they’re Princes.

The fluffed up and the subversion of the fairy tales that we all know and love, and the characters around that are what my jewellery is about. It is about perhaps flipping the story on its head and exploring the idea that perhaps Prince Charming was charmed by another woman and ran off with her, or that Tinkerbell IS a villain, or that the Wicked Witch of the West was actually trying to good...(Go see Wicked, its awesome!!) Bewitching Bijou is, for me, a store that gives you two sides of the coin. Like Two-face you will find the dichotomy of good and bad within my store, between pure good and dark evil, from fluffy to hard edged. 

Today it seems that Temptress wins but tomorrow, who knows!!    

If this post seems very divided, well to see the stars you need both light and dark.