It's a Cats Life!

The weather in Brisbane has turned quite summery these past few weeks and gone are the cool nights when my little kitty kat sought out a warm lap to curl up in. Instead she has now taken to spreading herself out as far as she can on the tiled floor to cool off. Who can blame her - she hasn't shed her winter coat yet! So it's not unusual for her to lay on the studio floor in wait for fallen beads to skate crazily across it. Chasing beads is one of her favourite past-times but tonight she reckons there wasn't enough action down there so she joined me on the beading table where she could create a little bit of mischief and "accidentally" knock a few beads on to the floor. Gotta love the way kitty kat thinks! After a few minutes excitement she joined me back on the table..... intently watching what I was doing. And then she lay down her head on her paws and had a nap. Next day, and she's plonked herself right back in the middle of my work space again........

Read more »

Kashmiri Opulence Jewellery Class

I really respect people who work in warehouses picking orders. It's a tough job making sure you get everything right. People expect to get what they ordered, so the pressure is on the pickers to get it right. Very occasionally, and by that I mean RARELY do my orders ever turn up with incorrect items in them. But what do you do when the beads ordered for a class arrive from overseas 4 days before your class and they are not what you ordered? Why, you redesign the project of course! So for tonight's workshop, instead of doing this: or this: you'll be doing this: AND this: or this:  AND this: And all for the same price.  What a bonus: you get to create 2 necklaces instead of 1. Hope you like the new designs!  Happy crafting..... If you can't get enough of My Tutorials and you want even more inspiration,  click here to find my books and printable pdfs ...

Read more »

Rolled, Nail Polished and Strung

After "nail polishing" the handmade paper beads in yesterday's post , it's now time to see how they look when they're combined with more conventional beads. I've got to say I am pretty pleased with the way the beads work together and I'm even more pleased with how well this piece sits when worn. I ended up using two different shades of nail polish: the gorgeous burgundy colour you saw me paint with in yesterday's tutorial and also a mica filled silver. The silver is almost transparent so whilst you see the beautiful glimmer from the mica, you also get to see the magazine print on the beads. It's an interesting look. I also left some of the beads uncoloured because they coordinated well with the aquamarine Kashmiri beads I've used in this piece. You can just see one at the top of this image.... sorry I cut the rest of it off! I love the daisy spacers connecting the beads together. There are no holes in them though so I had to get...

Read more »

Use it Up - How to Paint Paper Beads

So, now I have a small handful of handmade paper beads . What to do with them next? When you roll your paper beads from magazines and junk mail you really don't know how they'll look until you've rolled them. After all, the only bits that show are the very edges and they are often multi coloured but with a fair bit of black patterning. So what do you do when you don't like the colour of some of the beads? Why, you recolour them of course! I've decided to colour them up with some Sephora nail polish . This will do two things: it will brighten them up but it wall also seal them and make them durable for use in jewellery making. About the only time I get to use nail polish is when I'm on vacation. Most of the time, my hands take a fair bit of punishment because they are always in some sort of arty stuff which will either chip the nail polish, partially remove it or generally make it look untidy. So when I buy a new nail colour, it gets used for a couple...

Read more »

Paper Bead Jewellery

Oh what fun! I've been playing with the paper bead rolling kit that I brought home with me from CHA earlier in the year. Those brightly coloured strands of paper beads hanging up in the booth of Aubrey's Paper Beads were so enticing that I couldn't resist temptation and I bought several strands. But I also bought a paper bead making kit to make my own! Buying a kit means you have everything you need to get started. But if you prefer to use up strips of magazines and papers you already have on hand, then all you need is a bead rolling tool with a slot . This will give you really tightly formed beads and a much more professional result. One thing I discovered is that getting even beads takes a little practice. But if you roll them lopsided, you can just unravel them and re-roll the strip to make it straight. This is how easy it is to roll your own paper beads. Firstly, place the straight end of the strip of paper through the metal slot of the tool..... ...

Read more »

The Golden Cockerel

Earlier in the week, I had been rummaging around my bead drawers to see what had become lost/buried/forgotten and I found a little treasure amongst the tangle of strands which I haven't yet found homes for: a string of darling chicken/rooster beads. I couldn't resist them. They were bright and colourful and just so darn cheery! I knew right away they would become barnyard inspired earrings. But I still can't decide if they are hens or roosters! Aren't they fun? Their cute little wire feet add just a touch of whimsy. The Golden Cockerel earrings are available for purchase in my etsy shop, MillLaneStudio . Yes, my Etsy shop has undergone a name change. You can still find my listings under MHdesign but to keep everything uniform, you can now also find me listed under MillLaneStudio. Happy weekend everyone! If you can't get enough of My Tutorials and you want even more inspiration,  click here to find my books and printable pdfs ...

Read more »

That's My Design!

Today I'm going to take you back in time to a bangle challenge I was set at CHA last year: decorate seven prototype, oval-shaped Diy Bangles with only the materials I had on hand in my hotel room. And the reason for the challenge? Well, it was to come up with a bangle design for the packaging of the new Diy Bangles oval shaped bangle . Here's 6 of the designs: But in all, I designed 7 bangles and the one that Diy Bangles selected as the image design for the packaging was Zentangle Bangle! And here it is, on the packaging...... Image courtesy of Diy Bangles You have to look closely, but you can even see my name on the inside! Image courtesy of Diy Bangles Diy Bangles are really a lot of fun to play around with and they make great personalised gifts. With Christmas not too far away, why not grab yourself a Diy Bangle and decorate it for someone on your Christmas list. If you're stuck for ideas, check out all seven tutorials for the bangles by clicking h...

Read more »

Moonlight and Pearls - Rose Spray Necklace

I did it! I solved my little design challenge AND used up almost all the remaining beads from the four necklaces . So now I'll let you in on what the challenges were and how I solved them. For this last piece I was planning a simple double strand floating necklace. Pearls always look great when strung this way so I created a 40" length of floating beads on white tiger tail. I decided to try out my magic crimping tool to turn the crimp tubes into beads so that they would match the mini silver beads from the original necklace. As I worked on it I kept thinking how crisp the white tiger tail looked against the pearls and silver spacers. It was hard work crimping those tubes into balls but it was worth the effort... it was looking really good! But when I tried it on I hated it: the white tiger tail made the silver beads look too dark and it had no focal point! So a rethink of the design was in order. I decided to cut the length in half and make a single stranded floating n...

Read more »