Handmade Monday: Kumihimo to infinity

What a week!  The shops have been incredibly busy, and I'm coming up to 200 sales on Folksy - something I never thought I'd see.  As well as rushing around packing orders, there's been the weather to contend with.  Whilst we haven't had it as bad as the poor folk in the South West, we did have some amazing rainfall and winds.  Here is Lucca the Lab wondering why his regular walk is being swum by the ducks!

Shortly after, he worked out it was just like the beach and you could go crazy splashing in and out of the waters edge, so now he doesn't mind not having his usual walk at all.

I am persevering with the kumihimo and found a great tutorial for a twisted braid.  The lady is Norwegian will a passion for all things Japanese.  Her bracelets are absolutely stunning. 

This is my effort with chocolate, teal (which looks dark blue on the photo) and sky blue threads.

The finishing is still tricky but I'm working on it, and this time I didn't superglue my fingers to anything more embarrassing than a scrap of kitchen roll!  It's certainly addictive though.

The biggest sellers in my shop are still the little cord bracelets, and I've added infinity bracelets to the range this week...

...as well as hearts...

..and birds.

One lovely customer has ordered seven so far! 

Hope everyone has a lovely week, and the weather settles a bit.

Here's the link to see what other crafty peeps have been doing this week.

Alison x

Handmade Monday: Copper clay creations

This week I've been messing with copper clay. I once used the silver clay but as the cost of silver started to escalate, making sizeable charms and pendants just became prohibitive. The bronze clay fits much better with my antique bronze phase, but up until recently, it had to be fired in a kiln. So when I saw a starter kit with both bronze and copper clay which could be fired with a gas torch - well, that was my birthday present sorted!

Of course, if you know me well, then you know it's not my birthday yet, so technically the pack should be hidden somewhere unopened. But I never was any good at waiting...

This little heart pendant is my first creation and a collaboration. Not wishing to set the house or district on fire, I persuaded my lovely hubby to operate the gas torch for me. He did a splendid job - no-one's hair was even singed and I'm quite pleased with how it turned out. Here it's set on a chain made of mobius flower links and chocolate pearls. As I don't do copper jewellery very often, all the findings had to be hand made from wire, so this is really a labour of love. But there is a lot of satisfaction in thinking that the whole thing started life as a lump of clay, some copper wire and some pearls!

Hope you like the necklace and if you're in the UK are having a lovely extended Bank Holiday weekend.

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