Making Jewellery (Jewelry)

I’ve been making a necklace for a friend to wear at the Romance Writers of Australia Conference, which is coming up in a couple of weeks, It’s in Hobart, Tasmania. Our conferences always kick off with a costume cocktail party on the Friday night and this year the theme is “A Winter Wonderland.” because it’s winter here, and Tassie (pronounced Tazzie) is the coldest state in Australia — if you kept going south, the next stop would be Antacrtica.

My friend doesn’t generally dress up in costume, but I accidentally bought a pile of these glittery dark crystal beads on-line. I clicked on 1, expecting one string of beads, but it was also a wholesale store, and what I had unknowingly ordered was one lot of ten strings! So I have rather a lot of these glittery dark crystal beads

So, with her agreement— really I pushed her into saying yes — I’m making her a necklace and earrings so that she can wear them at the cocktail party and look minimally costumed up.

And by the way, I only make stuff for friends — I don’t sell anything  — so I never charge for the things I make. It would take away the fun if I had to make stuff to sell. But  if people wanted something in a particular (expensive) stone that I don’t have, I’d probably charge them for the cost of the stones. 

Before I make necklaces, earrings or bracelets  I fiddle around, trying different arrangements of beads. I decided that these beads, if strung together plain, would look quite dark, so I decided to lighten them up with an occasional clear crystal. So this is what the necklace looks like.

I also made these little earrings — two pairs, so she could have a choice, and also so she could pair them with other clothes.
But it’s really just an excuse — I just like making stuff.

And now, back to the wip (Work In Progress).