simple silver charm bracelet

This was a simple silver bracelet i made. I bought a small link belcher chain in a bracelet length.  Bought a separate clasp.  The key ring hooks on the charms themselves  were very fiddly, I used silver jump rings to attach the charms to the bracelet.  Only have the 3 charms because as they say in the world of design;- 'less is more'.

Shaped Copper bangle

I had some spare copper and decided to make a bangle with it, After guillotoining the slight angle shape I wanted for the hammered side of the bangle I then welded the 2 strips of copper together.  I filed the edges of the bangle to get the rounded off edges and wet and dry sandpaper to get rid of any sharpness. Hard to perhaps detect in this picture, need another but the entire bangle has a satin finish using a buffer designed for that effect reducing shine.

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A monthly treat for hair with hot oil treatment

I used grapeseed oil because it is easily absorbed, gives hair shine and reduces brittleness, It is good for all hair types. I used a combination of patchouli, sandalwood and geranium. This combination of oils makes this treatment good for all skin types and on a personal note I love the smell. And for hair like mine that sees heated appliances on a regular basis a hot oil treatment is a must.

Brown sugar and rose body scrub

I made a body scrub using 4 tablespoons of brown sugar, 2 tablespoons of sweet almond oil and 1 tablespoon of vitamin  E oil and added 2 drops of rose essential oil. Plenty enough for an all over body scrub.   It made bath very slippery even with a mat but so worth using.  Skin feels divine and no extra scrub needed for those rough areas like heels, knees, elbows, this can be concentrated on those areas. I have a thing about rose at the moment but probably because the weather s getting warmer.......

Paul Smith -Rose eau de parfum

I love perfumes and I am loving the scent of roses right now.  I sampled this in a local Boots store and it was j'adore, blown away by the smell, a must have.  I confess when I first saw the packaging and the name of the perfume I thought old fashioned but then I smelt it and was hooked,  Light scent, perfect for the warmer days. 

 Takes me back to my childhood days when we had a rose bush growing in the garden with a similar smell and my sister and I tried to  make our own perfume with the petals, have'ent most of  us done that.  Smelt vile!!!!  Unlike Rose by Paul Smith....... which smells heavenly.

 Bring on the lazy, hazy days of summer!!!!!

silver stone pendant

This is the finished pendant with a new stone bought from 'Angels Crystals' for £1.50.  The original green stone I was going to use was too rounded and fitted within the 'basket' badly when the loop was created from silver wire to hang the pendant on a silver chain.  This stone is a perfect fit and sits well within the silver wire and because it is not a permanent fixture I can change the stone for one a similar shape and size in a different colour,

silver wire basket for a stone pendant

I made this silver 'basket' at silversmith class to enclose a stone I bought from 'Angels Crystals' out of silver wire.  I soldered  the wires together  to make the 'basket' and tidied up the front prongs creating the silver balls.

Fruity, floral, scented perfume oil

I wanted to make chocolate perfume but forgot to order the vanilla essential oil so I chose a blend of neroli, lavender, jasmine and rose to make a fruity, flowery perfume for the coming spring/summer season,   The hardest part, choosing the oils I wanted.   Making the perfume was easy using the basic recipe on easy-aromatherapy-recipes.com.  I have to wait 2 weeks before using to allow the perfume to 'cure' and it took me 2 attempts to get the blend right but I am very happy with the final blend. Now it needs a name.....

pear, cocoa and cream face mask

I am really into chocolatey skincare products right now.  Tonight I made a pear, cocoa and cream face mask with store cupboard items.  I mixed 2tbsp. of sour cream, juiced half a pear and 2 tbsp of cocoa powder together to make a soft paste, I smoothed it over face and neck and just laid back for 15 minutes and relaxed.  The benefits of the pear is the essential vitamins and antioxidant protection,  The cocoa, high antioxidant benefits with both cell repair and cell damage protection and as for the cream it soothes and nourishes the skin while hydrating and is soothing for irritated skin.  And of course it smells absolutely scrumptious for chocoholics like me!!!   There is no shelf life as such so make and use as you need it. 

Aztec chocolate lip balm

I mixed the blend following the recipe supplied on 'makeyourcosmetics.com' but it was too minty so I adapted the recipe to my personal taste and reduced the peppermint and added more neroli, the chocolate was very strong and only needed one drop.  The end result is a subtle minty chocolate lip balm with a hint of orange.  The lip balm itself is a little too solid so will add more sweet almond oil next time and reduce the cocoa butter accordingly.

A great find at a vintage fair

On sunday I went to a vintage fair and saw this heart and charm pendant, handmade with semi precious stones and immediately thought that would make a cool pendant but something was missing so I went down to the nearest hobbycraft store and found.........a square pendant.  Combined them both as one pendant and hung them on a long black cord.  Looks great and an original piece of jewellery!!

chocolatey body butter

After one disasterous attempt to make body butter I found a recipe on About.Com.  With its mixture of cocoa butter, shea butter  liquid oil and chocolate fragrance oil this butter feels and smells divine on the skin,  I chose chocolate because of its commerical appeal at this time of year.  Little too solid so the next batch I make I will add more liquid oil.  I will attempt lip balm next and possibly chocolate perfume!!  And unlike chocolate bars won't be a moment on the lips a lifetime on the hips, this is non consumable.     

                     Dieters dream!!!!

Bespoke Hammered silver ring with copper balls

My handmade silver ring with copper balls for decoration. The top was set at a jaunty angle to give it a  quirky twist

summer flower bangle

I was looking round some jewellery stands and came across a pair of hair slides reduced to a £1.00. Total bargain, saw those and thought of my half price slave bangle and how good they would look combined,  flowers and bangles,  After cutting flowers carefully away from the hair pins, I superglued them to some leather strapping i wound round the bangles to make a base to create a perfect summer season bangle.

Melon face mask

Using quarter of a melon I made a face mask.  I put the melon through the juicer to extract the juices then cut 4 strips of gauze and put them in a small plastic dish,  I then poured the melon juice over the top and allowed it to soak the gauze for about 30 minutes, adding a few drops of water if too dry.  When well soaked, just lay back, perhaps in an aromatherapy or bubble bath or on the bed with a towel to protect the bedding, Apply the melon soaked gauze to the face and just relax for 10 - 20 minutes.  Rinse off afterwards with warm water.  Its a cheap, effective face mask using a product you may already have in the house.  An apple mask can be made the same way.

Honey and cuucumber facial toner

I adore honey and so did a search on the internet for ideas to use honey in a skincare recipe.  found several. This one I discovered on honey.com.  This one  I made up and am currently using - a cucumber and honey toner.  I took a cucumber and put it through a juicer to extract the juices, I  stirred in 2 teaspoons of honey, using a funnel I poured it into a salad oil bottle with a stopper which I bought especially to store the toner.  This needs to be kept in the fridge and keeps for up to a week. It needs to be shaken before use but leaves a nice feel to the skin.   I have found after adding one drop of benzoin to help preserve it mine has kept almost 2 weeks. Be aware benzoin can cause a reaction to some peoples skin. Labelling of bottle is essential, particularly if you share the fridge with others

'The Breakfast scrub' manufactured by soap & Glory - my personal review

I have tried out 'The Breakfast Scrub' by Soap & Glory and this is my own personal review. It is described as an oat, shea butter and sugar body smoother; the scent is described as maple and it is just so scrumptious and smells divine.  The feel is quite 'scratchy' but not unbearably so.  I really, really like it, made my skin feel super smooth and soft.  The sleeve of the packaging although  an odd  design for a luxury beauty product features kitchen equipment to reflect essentials that are found in kitchens giving an organic appearance to the product.

Tangerine tango - Pantones colour for 2012

Tangerine Tango, Pantone's colour for 2012.  Love, love it!!  Personally, I would wear it as an accessory not an all over colour.  This is a palette of the other colours for the coming spring/summer 2012 season and I am delighted to see the magenta pink included.  My all time favourite colour and shade of pink!!!

cupcaked bath bombs and fresh sage infused for customised shampoo

Walked into a Java store near me and saw this wonderful array of cupcake bath bombs.  Saw them, instantly drawn to them.  The awesome snowman cupcake was described as creme brulee and the pink cupcake with fruity flowers is strawberry,  both delicously scented and looks and smells good enough to eat!!  And according to a sales advisor customers have been known to take bites out of these scrummy looking cup cakes and put them back on the shelf.  Having the foresight and knowledge that they are in fact soap for the bath, not been tempted to eat them myself..  Can't wait till I am at the stage of my holistic skincare course so I can make my own.  Something i have made successfully though is...............and not visually exciting as these cupcakes is....................

A sage infused shampoo for normal to dry hair.  Using a sage infusion made using fresh sage leaves and mild baby shampoo as a base with one drop of benzoin as a preservative.  I have to wash my hair more often as to be expected with a mild shampoo but I love the fact I can choose which herbal infusion I add.  I keep it in the fridge to prolong shelf life, a minor snag is don't yet know  how long it will keep  till I am forced to make a fresh batch.  The wonderful thing  with making my own herbal shampoo is the fact I can choose which herb I want for each new batch I make,  Experimenting is so much fun!!!!  I would love to make comfrey or marshmallow herbal shampoo next.

Fabric to make folksy inspired hand sewn jewellery

I have chosen this fabric to make some  folksy jewellery with hand sewn hearts as the main focal point using this fabric.  An idea by Lisa Steed Davey in the february edition of 'Make Jewellery'. Saw the article and thought of the chintzy jacket featured on my Chloe mood board.

Polished stone for possible ring setting or wire wrapping

I found this stone in a local crystal shop and thought how nice to set this into a ring.  I was shown the DIY rock ring on Audrey Kitching's blog - Buzznet  featuring wire wrapping. This is  polished stone and would require a hole drilled through the stone horizontally.  Not sure if that is possible for this particular stone.  Love the 'soap bubble' effect within the stone itself.

The inspirations behind my fashion jewellery for the spring/summer 2012

Photographs from Paris fashion week courtesy of Vogue.Co.Uk. 

From the Chloe fashion catwalk show.

Photographs from the Paris fashion week courtesy of Stylezza.Com and the corsage cloche photograph courtesy of Monsoon.Co.Uk

From the Ralph Lauren fashion catwalk show.

I was also inspired by the Dior collection, The Dior is memorable because of the use of black in the collection.  White with a dramatic use of black in an outfit to stand out from the crowd but also a black dress with a mosaic detail with this seasons colours was memorable to me.  Chanel with its wonderous backdrop of a sea theme. beautiful music playing to draw mere mortals in to the viewing.  Models dressed in dazzling iridescent dresses with clutch bags designed to resemble shells emerging down the catwalk.

All these inspirations are from the Paris week 2012 spring/summer collections. 

Work in progress - lariat necklace

The lariat necklace i am working on, 5 more strands to go, tis work in progress.  Inspired by the vintage 1920s glamour and featuring the pantone colour of the year tangerine tango.

Designer inspiration from the Paris spring/summer 2012 catwalks

I have been checking out the Paris spring/summer collections for 2012  Loving the florals and floaty fabrics, the watered down shades from 'Chloe, the classic blacks and whites from Dior, Ralph Lauren with the shimmery 1920s twist.  Chanel with the organic under the sea backdrop. And oh, the TangerineTango pantone colour for 2012 is just fabulous.  I have drawn inspirations from these designers and am now in the process of making a lariat necklace using seed beads in shades of tangerine and creamy white with contrasting indigo bugle beads,very shimmery.

A copper pendant I made at silversmith class,  experimenting with shaping and wrapping.  Effect made by a round hammer head.

A siver ring i am currently working on at class.  This is work in progress.  The design was created using the elongated long side of the hammer.