When I was going through all of my old seed beads I found such a lovely collection of blues that I had to then find some beads to mix in with them! I love how the beads made from wine bottles, vodka bottles, and gin bottles all work so nicely together!
Last year I fell a little bit in love with the process of enamelling. I took a couple of courses, and experimented a little bit at home. This year I am looking forward to making more pieces of jewellery with enamelled copper components. These earrings seemed like a good place to start. They go quite nicely with the champagne bottle beads, I think…
The subtle variations in embellishments on this particular necklace make it quite smashing! I have made the beads from a champagne bottle. I love the colour of champagne bottles, the green is stunning.
The subtle contrast in the beads, alternating from etched to shiny makes this bracelet really interesting…that, and it was also made from a champagne bottle!
Just letting you know that I’m happy to take custom orders for pieces. Last year I had a customer, who had celebrated a special birthday with a magnum of Moet champagne, request several pieces of jewellery to share with her daughters as a memento from the special day! I recently got an email from one of those daughters who said “the most amazing keepsake”.
Don’t throw the bottles in the bin! If you would like to discuss a custom order, please feel free to email me Jules.frahm@gmail.com
I love the richness of the beads that I have made from a Hendricks Gin bottle. It’s deliciously chocolatey!
This necklace is a real pleasure to wear. It’s a statement piece, without being too big or heavy.
So, I’ve been asked a few questions about this year of recycled glass jewellery, and I thought I would answer the questions below. I’m now 10% of the way through the project, and I have to say – so far so good!
Q. What is the year of recycled glass jewellery?
A. The year of recycled glass jewellery is really about giving me a focus for the year. I love making recycled glass jewellery, but I find that I only work in two extreme kinds of ways – either full on production or full on exhibitions. This year I wanted to MAKE time to explore the recycled glass idea further. Take production and exhibitions out of the mix, and just be creative every day with recycled glass!
Q. So, you are making something every day?
A. The creative process for making beads and jewellery is a bit longer than that. The process for making beads is a day, so I can’t actually make the jewellery until the following day. So there might be days when I make the beads for a couple of pieces, and the next day I’ll make two pieces of jewellery. And in between all of that I am planning, drawing, thinking, contemplating and experimenting!
Q. What are you hoping to achieve by doing this?
A. I am hoping to commit to making new work, to trying new ideas for beads, trying new types of glass, trying new types of jewellery. I get fairly creative when it comes to exhibitions, but sometimes I leave new ideas to the last minute and never really try them because I’ve run out of time! I wanted to take the stress of preparing for exhibitions away, and just be more creative this year.
Q. Is it working?
A. Well, I’m over 10% of the way through, and I have to say I am having lots of ideas about new work, and also making lots of new work! I’m really enjoying it all: the making, the photographing and the sharing of the work on social media.
Q. Do you think you’ll last the whole year?
A. Last year I drew a picture of a pair of earrings every day for an entire year, and that was so difficult. I feel like this year’s challenge is a bit easier than that to be honest, so fingers crossed, I am going to last the whole year.
Anyway, that’s just a bit about the project that I am working on. If you have any questions, please let me know!
Here is today’s photograph of a bracelet that I made from a Stone’s Green Ginger Wine bottle. I love the shape of these beads, and the colour rates very highly for me too! Simply elegant.
This month colour play is all about the colour RED!
During 2012 I created two pretty cool things. The first was an exhibition all about red glass beads. Titled “10,000 red glass beads” it was a labour of love, and a time that I look back on really fondly. Yes, I really did make 10,000 red glass beads for that exhibition.
At the same time I was pregnant with my second child, and he was born just a couple of weeks after the exhibition opened! Well, that little person is now 5 years old, and he started school this week!
All of that nostalgia led me to make some new red pieces for my colour play series! I have always loved the colour red, and I love to make red jewellery. This month I have some really exciting pieces available.
I have made them all one off pieces. However if an items is sold, and you would like something similar, please feel free to contact me, and I’ll see what I can do.
The first necklace features my favourite red flower beads. I have used red flower beads in all sorts of ways, but I haven’t made a necklace quite like this before. I was thrilled that such a simple style could still look amazing on!
These earrings are quite stunning on! The flower bead sits under the ear lobe, and the silver at the back sits to about 4cm.
Here is a quick link to the shop in case you need it!
It was so lovely working with the Blue Depression Glass, I decided to make a pair of earrings to match the necklace from yesterday. Again, the colour is absolutely lovely, and the contrast between the etched and shiny beads is wonderful!
Tomorrow I’m going to share some answers to a few questions that I have had about my “year of recycled glass jewellery” project, as tomorrow will be about 1/10th of the way through the project, or 10%!
I have collected all sorts of glass over the years, some of which I have used a lot (Green Depression Glass), and some that I have been waiting for the right project – hello Blue Depression Glass!
I rediscovered this glass when I was going through my collection the other day. I felt ready to make something with it, especially after playing with the Pink Depression Glass the other day.
Here’s the necklace I made:
I love that I can use beer bottles as the base of some of the beads that I make. This particular bracelet features Coopers Ale and Coopers Clear.
(Luckily my husband likes drinking beer).
