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.
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).
It started out simple enough. Make a bracelet using four different types of blue beads. But as I started to make the bracelet, it made me think about other ways to make the bracelet, and that led to other ways to make the bracelet. So in the end I made all four versions of the bracelet that I had imagined as I was making the bracelets! Which one do you like best?
