Bead blog recap week 17

Pearls, shells, flowers and colourful filigree -- with the days getting warmer and Walpurgis once and for all signalling that spring is here and summer is just around the corner, it might be time to think about summer jewellery.


Seraphinite
A trade name for clinochlore, seraphinite or serafina aptly describes the beautiful silvery feather-like patterns in this grey or green stone.

Wire netting with beads
Netting or looping is a pretty wirework technique that can be combined with beads. Eni Oken has a couple of projects with pendants with beaded edges and Czech crafter Lubomir Dunaj -- check out his website here -- uses a variation on the technique to create a pretty beaded bird.

Cowrie shell jewellery
Cowrie or cowry shells have been used in adornments since the dawn of mankind. Today the shells are mostly associated with hemp macramé, surfer-style jewellery and other casual beach styles. But cowries can also be used for more formal designs, which not least Zayunu by Design shows in her bridal collection.

Wire roses
How to make pendants and other jewellery with roses made from wire. Here can be found examples of many different styles and sizes.

Swedish bead meeting already full
On Monday night beaders could start booking places for the popular October get-together PUSS (meaning kiss in Swedish). Already by noon on Tuesday all the 100 seats were taken. PUSS was the first national bead get-together arranged in Sweden in 2007 and has since become a much longed for and appreciated annual event.

Dyeing plastic beads and lucite flowers
Acrylic beads and flowers can be dyed at home. But be patient as results can vary. Plexiglas, Perspex and Lucite are all trademarks or trade names used for acrylics.

Sunny enamelled filigrees
Ezel Findings has launched a new line. While they are most known for their luxurious cz-spangled sterling jewellery components, their new line consists of brightly coloured brass filigrees. Perfect for those colourful and casual summer jewellery designs. The filigrees come in many different designs and twelve different colours.