My Jewellery Collection

I love jewellery.   I also enjoy craftwork.   I recently discovered that I can combine the two and so have started to create pieces of jewellery.   Like everything we do in life, we have to start somewhere and hopefully as we  get more confident and experienced so do the projects we undertake.   We also go through phases in what we do, and to try to give an example – a painter might start with still-life, move on to landscapes or seascapes and then have a go at portraits.

I’ve probably become a bit like that with my jewellery – even this early into the process.

As well as my love of jewellery and craft, I also love crystal.   I have a collection of Swarovski miniatures which I try to display to get the best advantage of the sun.   All through my life I’ve loved and been fascinated by the way light is caught and thrown back in the different colours of the rainbow and the way it sparkles like the sun does on water.   I guess I’m a bit like Pollyanna.  Well I soon discovered that Swarovski also make crystal beads so this discovery has brought in another opportunity for me – to work with the materials that I’ve always loved and admired.

I now have three loves that can be combined and that’s what I’ve been doing – bringing them all together to create crystal jewellery.   I’ve even given my jewellery collection a ‘name’ so that I can put a label on my pieces – Krystal Kreations.   At this stage in my learning

process I’ve made a pact with myself that no matter what type of piece I make, I will somehow or other incorporate crystal into it.   I can already see that this could become a challenge – particularly if I’m making something chunky or earthy in style, but the intention is there that I will incorporate at least one piece of crystal into the piece somewhere.

Red Rock

Getting back to the beginning.   Along with a selection of beads, I bought a beading book.   That showed me a couple of techniques that looked easy enough to have a go at, so I got underway.   The gratification of being able to create a piece in a very short space of time, confirmed that this craft is definitely for me.   I don’t have the patience to knit or for needlework.   I like to create things that I

can finish quickly and enjoy without having to wait for weeks or months even to see the finished result.   I started to make pieces that I could wear with my current wardrobe.   Then I made a couple of pieces that I could give as gifts.   The down-side of making jewellery in a short space of time, is that I have to go and buy more beads, but I’ve found a couple of bead shops within driving distance that have good supplies.   One of these shops specialises in Swarovski beads and I’ve become a bit of a regular.   At this stage I haven’t bought on-line, but I can see that this is probably the way to go, particularly if I’m wanting to buy in bulk.   That in itself is a good thing, as the more you buy of one bead, the cheaper they become.   I still need to do a comparison to find out if there is one particular place that comes out ahead in pricing.

Working with the crystal beads has got my creative juices running and I’m already thinking ahead to

some pieces and styles that I can make.   I’ve decided to work in collections and have come up with a couple of names ie Waterfall and Teardrop.

I have no idea where this hobby craft will take me.   At this stage I’m happy to be making pieces for myself and to give to those special people in my life as gifts.   I’m not sure how long I’ll be able to continue doing this as I guess there are only so many times you can give the same gift (as in jewellery), except that even if I am working to a particular style or theme for a time, each piece is still individual as I don’t / won’t use the same colour and style combination twice, so every piece is different and no-one will ever get the same piece or the same piece as some-one else.

Fuscia & Black Chandeliers

Hopefully if you come back to My Jewellery page for a visit from time to time, you’ll see how my collection(s) have evolved.   I’ll be loading photos so that you can see what I’ve done so far.   I’ll update it as often as I can.   I hope you enjoy what you see, as much as I’ve enjoyed creating them.