Every Mum deserves a bouquet of flowers for Mother's Day. But why not go one step further and make her a pendant with a beautiful rose cluster bead that will live on long beyond a bunch of flowers. Make it yourself with love and show her how much she means to you.  This stunning bottle-style pendant is surprisingly easy to make. You just need an assortment of bead caps and a couple of crystals to add some sparkle to this special rose cluster bead. Here's a shopping list to help you out: Jesse James Feeling Rosy bead  from Grenadine Strand #2 4mm and 6mm  Swarovski crystals  to suit your feature bead An assortment of bead caps 70mm long headpin Beadalon snake chain kit Clasp 2 x jump rings Tools:   2 pairs chain nose pliers; R ound nose pliers; Flat nose pliers;  Flush cutters;    Bead mat Work Out Your Design To design your bottle pendant, you'll need to sort through your bead cap mix and find combinations that work well together. Starting with th......

Is it an Egyptian Perfume bottle?  Or a love potion? Or maybe if you rub it, a Genie will appear and grant you 3 wishes!  No matter how you see it, this exotic bottle pendant is sure to bring you lots of admiring compliments. To make one of your own, you'll need: F eature bead of your choice. Suggestions: venetian beads ;  lampwork beads ; European-style beads (troll, pandora, etc), cloisonné beads 4mm and 6mm  Swarovski crystals  to suit your feature bead An assortment of bead caps 50mm -  70mm long headpin  (depending on your design) Beadalon snake chain kit Clasp 2 x jump rings Additional if using a European-style bead or other large-hole bead 2mm - 3mm round spacer beads to fill the core Tools:   2 pairs chain nose pliers; R ound nose pliers; Flat nose pliers;  Flush cutters;    Bead mat Work Out Your Design To design your bottle pendant, you'll need to sort through your bead cap mix and find combinations t......

If you follow me on Facebook , you will have had a little sneak peek of the jewellery components I'm using for my daughter's upcoming wedding. I'll be sharing these pieces with you after the wedding but in the meantime, here are some pieces I designed for another very special bride, a friend who lives half way across the world in Chicago. She has chosen emerald for her bridesmaid's dresses. The Maid of Honour's dress is strapless and features a pleated panel that fans out like a sunray at the waist whilst the sunray is featured at the neckline of the Bridesmaid's dresses. Her brief was to incorporate the sunray into the jewellery. Here's how I interpreted her vision. Firstly, for the Maid of Honour, I created a multi layered pendant featuring extra long gold bugle beads arranged in a semi circle, edged with Swarovksi bicones in Aurum and Emerald. The central focal consists of two layers of gold german filigrees which are encrusted with Swarovski crystals and......

Filigree stampings are one of my favourite jewellery making components. The lace-like patterns add a really delicate touch to your designs and yet they add substance at the same time. With such a wide range of shapes and finishes to choose from, they are also very versatile. Here's some ideas to get you going. 1. Use them as dangles in a charm bracelet. Dangle lacy filigrees from jump rings and they become charms on a charm bracelet. In this design they're lilypads for the frogs! 2. Form them into napkin rings. The soft metal of these square brass stampings made them easy to shape around a cardboard cylinder. Connect them together with jump rings and beads to give the napkin ring stability. 3. Turn them into a jewellery bail to slip the stringing material through. This one does double duty by adding decorative detail to the front of the pendant as well! 4. Wrap them around a teardrop crystal to form a custom fitting bead cap. 5. Add a cluster of smaller beads to the centre of ......

Some time ago I came across a really interesting stringing material called tubular nylon mesh. Ever since I first saw this product I just knew I would love working with it. I've made many unusual pieces with it and whenever I wear one of them it draws lots of admiring comments. But this is the first piece that has been published. It's called Evening Elegance and it appears in the August issue of Crafts magazine . If you're in Brisbane, all the supplies for this project are available locally, but if you're not, the stockists are listed in the article and you can buy them all online. Crafts is a great magazine which includes sections for stampers and papercrafters, jewellery makers, knitters and crocheters and also general crafters. You can order a digital or a hard copy of the magazine here . Or you can order just a single issue. 'Til next time..... If you can't get enough of My Tutorials and you want even more inspiration,  click here to find my books and print......

How  about a little bit of eye candy to start the day? Beautiful, iridescent and shimmery, these pieces catch the light as you move. The camera struggles to capture that quality but whenever I wear one of these swirly looking pieces, they draw an amazing number of compliments. Notice how the colour changes when you look at the ring (top left) from a different angle. It really does change like that! Tide Pool Ring Iridescent Rose Pendant These two pieces are now available for purchase from my online jewellery boutique . Or maybe you'd like to learn how to make your own. Then head on over to Mill Lane Studio where you can purchase the Twist and Roll tutorial. For some other great jewellery ideas using Fantasy Film, have a look at the other tutorials whilst you're there. 'Til next time..... If you can't get enough of My Tutorials and you want even more inspiration,  click here to find my books and printable pdfs...