A Shameless Plug

I hope you are all busy and enjoying making seashell necklaces with your shore line finds. However, should Christmas be approaching a wee bit too fast for all your planned makes and project ambitions. You can purchase a range of seashell necklaces from me directly through my Folksy Shop - check it out at http://folksy.com/shops/driftwooddreams.

I can make items to order and please send me a message if you have any queries about shipping outside of the UK.

Thank You Very Muchly,

K

Seashell Necklaces - PArt 2

Some more necklace ideas...happy making!

Stocking Fillers - Seashore Necklaces Part 1

Equipment

Drill and small drill bit - I use a hand drill and 1.5mm drill bit.
Leather thong / cord - approx 55cm in length. Shorten or lengthen as desired.
2 x 7mm split ring
1 x lobster clasp
2 x 5mm jump rings
1 x head pin
1 x small pearl effect bead
clear nail varnish
2 pairs small / jewellery making pliers - round nosed are better - these can often be picked up for £1 a pair in tool shops.
1 pair small wire cutters.
1 mussel shell - cleaned


Step 1

Place the mussel shell upside down on a piece of wood or work bench surface that it won't matter if it gets drill marks in it. Place the drill bit in the top corner point of the shell, and drill a hole about 5mm in from the edge of the shell. Be careful not to drill too close to the shell edge or it will become too fragile when worn. It may take a bit of trial and error to work out how much pressure to apply when drilling the hole so not to break the shell.

Step 2
Once the hole is drilled, paint both the outside and inside of the shell with a couple of coats of clear nail varnish. This both strengthens the nail and gives it a shiny, fresh from the sea look.

Step 3
Once dried, work one of the split ring through the hole in the shell and check that the shell is able to swing freely from the split ring. If it doesn't, it's time to drill another shell I'm afraid. Working the split ring can be a bit fiddly, just like trying to get a key onto a new keyring, and I find using either a pair of small pliers or my thumb nail best.

Step4
To make the pearl embellishment, thread the head pin through the bead and cut the end of the pin about 1cm from the bead. Use the round nodes pliers to bend this end into a hoop that sits snugly against the bead. Attach a chain of two jump rings to this hoop, and attach the jump ring furthest away from the bead to the split ring on the mussel shell. The bead should now dangle in the hollow curve of the shell.

Step 5
In one end of the leather thong / cord, tie an overhand knot to form a loop about 1cm long. Fasten the second split ring into this loop and then fasten the lobster clasp to this split ring. This forms the fastener of the necklace. In the other of the leather thong, tie another overhand knot, also about 1cm long. This forms the loop you will clip the lobster clasp into to fasten the necklace.

Your necklace should now be ready to wear or give as a ideal stocking filler for Christmas.

Enjoy making!

K

Stocking Fillers - making a seashell necklace

Right! I know I've said it before, but this time I will keep up to date with my blogs. I PROMISE I WILL TRY HARDER.


So first off, as the Halloween pumpkins gently rot in the garden and the smoke of November 5th bonfires drift away, it's time to start thinking about Christmas.

I have never been a full on fan of the commercial side of Christmas and although it is nice to receive bountiful gifts, as I've got older, I appreciate more, a gift that a friend has spent time and thought over rather than two minutes choosing which bar of special offer chocolate by the checkout whilst queuing to pay for a pint of milk.

And yes, in these times of financial austerity, it is cheaper too.

So what I aim to do over the next few weeks, is post a series of blogs on 'how to make....' ideas for gifts for friends and family and decorations for your home.I believe quite strongly that we all have a creative, artistic type somewhere inside of us waiting to be unleashed. And so most of the projects are make able by all, although I will try to make some specifically for children.

I've got to go off to work now, but when I get home this evening, I will start posting the step by step guide to how to make seashell necklaces as pictured above.

cheers

karen

A Roomfull Of Rugs

Really into making Toothbrush Rugs at the moment and have just completed another one. Well, completed as far as I've run out of the right coloured material. The great things about toothbrush rugs (apart from using old and unwanted material) is that you can keep increasing the size as and when you find some more matching material.

Now just off to the local beach to look for natural colour schemes for the seashore inspired rug workshop I'm running at Wembury Marine Centre on the 25th of this month.

Bountiful Bunting

Busy making items for this years Yealmpton Show in a months time. 22 strands of bunting in various stages f completion, made from a range of reused fabrics. Hope to get them all finished by the weekend so I can start on the next batch of items.

Dolly Mixtures

Have just finished two more 'toothbrush rugs', which have the same colour combination as classic children's sweets such as dolly mixtures, fizzy flying saucers and those alphabet ones that broke your teeth.

Take the SeaAiR at Wembury

Full Dates of workshops coming up at Wembury Marine Centre as part of the artist in residence programme.

Through The Looking Glass

Excellent day today working as Artist in Residence as part of the Wembury Marine Centre SeaAiR programme. Small but lovely, creative and enthusiastic group of people using the seashore environment to create driftwood mirrors. 

Kicked off with a leisurely stroll along the beach this morning to search the strandline for interesting items to decorate our mirrors with and blow away the cobwebs. Lots of dog whelk shells, sea glass and driftwood but no mermaids purses, crab shells or other 'interesting' finds presumably due to all the stormy weather and rough seas.

Then an afternoon of noisy creativity with hammer and nails to create our finished pieces. Everyone very pleased with their final results.

Thank You everyone for attending.

one stitch forward two stitches back

Aaargghh.

One of the problems of making a 'toothbrush rug' is that there is no set pattern to follow when it comes to increasing the size and stitches. And sometimes it doesn't work out but usually you don't discover this until a few rounds of stitches too late. Hence why I have spent the last two hours undoing all my hard work.

Oh well!

I'm Back!

Well - Hello again! It's been a year since I was last here and I have absolutely no idea where all that time has gone or what I've been doing that has prevented me finding time to update my blog.

Promise from now on I will try harder.

One thing I have been busy doing is creating 'Toothbrush Rugs' by re-using old cotton materials such as pillow cases and bed sheets. This is the first one I made, using a tartan design duvet cover. The toothbrush bit is that you use an old toothbrush (minus the head) as the sewing needle. A bit fiddly to start with, and your wrist starts to ache after the first hour or so, but there's no limit to the size of rug you can create.

For my 'Seashore Rug', I've taken my inspiration from the beautiful stretch of coast I live near, and have used a colour palette of blues, greens and yellows.

I've also got several more rugs on the go, as using only old sheets and materiel found in charity shops and car boot sales, means that you sometimes have to wait quite a while before finding the ideal colours needed to complete a rug.