Evening Bling

Bracelets provide a fabulous addition to an evening outfit. This bit of sparkle is a comfortable bangle style.

The bracelet is threaded on thick elastic. Crystals are evenly spaced with silver spacers. The crystals can come in a variety of colours ranging on elegant black to fun red to sparkling blue or for a bit of fun the colours can be alternated.

PhD: Chapter 1

I've been slowly feeding my thesis chapters in wordle.net. It certainly makes it look more impressive in key word form

Baking Stuff Envy

Everyone who knows me, knows that I LOVE baking and gadgets. I blame my grandmother and her kitchen full of fun gadgets to bake with.

Taking a stroll through @home, as one does, I found these really cool pie weights, the modern version of baking beans or ceramic beans for blind baking pastry cases.

I want...

Umonya: April 2013

Project Umonya held another course over the April school holidays. This three day course takes students through the progress from what is a programming to logic, functions and scope.

The photos below are the lecturers and tutors from the various days, a mixture of CS students, industry professionals and past students. 

St Petersburg Options

A St Petersburg necklace can be done in a variety of colours and sizes and types of beads. My first attempt at one used glass pearls. 

Attempt 2 was a lot more adventurous, a double-sided St Petersburg lariat in seed beads with fringe ending

The most classical version I have completed included tiny pearls (left) and the most delicate of size 11 seed beads and a Swarovski drop (right) made for a group of bridesmaids to match their watermelon colour dresses.

Sun Sets on Summer

Hout Bay provides opportunities to see some beautiful sunsets in Summer. This is probably on of the last few before the cold grey weather sets in for good. 

Bead Drying Stand

Ever need to hang your beads up while they dry? I was making a 6 strand necklace the other day and needed to hang each strand so they did not stick to any surface.

Enter the wooden dowel rods positioned over two speakers from the hi-fi. Works brilliantly!

If you ever need to photograph jewellery, this is an easy way to do so too. I normally use the disposable chopsticks that come with takeaways.

Hair froth

Flower with fronds

This gold flower is the perfect addition to an off centre updo. The flower is made from lightweight wire threaded with seed beads on a base. The black fronds are dotted with gold beads and stem from underneath the flower. The flower is attached is placed on a hair comb, either in plastic or wire.



Flower with leaves

The second is a flower design is created from gut threaded with seed beads. The leaves are fashioned from wire and attached together with the flower to the hairclip. This flower is much heavier than the gold clip, but is smaller and easier to wear with any evening hair design.

An example of how the flower looks in the hair

Twin Bracelet

I've been busy this weekend making a Twin Bracelet with Super Duo beads. Not quite finished yet but they are certainly interesting to work with.

The Classic: Pearl Necklace

Pearls add elegance to any occasion, it is just a question of length.

Necklaces are normally made to a standard set of lengths, namely:

• Choker: 35 - 40 cm
• Princess: 45 - 50 cm (standard length)
• Matinee: 50 - 60 cm
• Opera: 70 - 80 cm
• Rope: 80 cm - 1.5 m

Most of the pearl necklaces are made to Princess length, and contains about 50-55 pearls. 

You can view pearl necklaces for sale at: Purple Gecko Designs on Hello Pretty 

Slinky Bracelets

These fun, quirky bracelets provide hours of entertainment while looking good. Made from memory wire that remembers its springlike shape, these lightweight bracelets provide an alternative to numerous bangles on a wrist.

Like a spring, Memory Wire 'remembers' its shape and retains its coil form. Made from thin tempered stainless steel, which is tarnish and corrosion resistant, it is rigid and snaps back to its original form when expanded and released.

Memory wire bracelets will fit almost any wrist size. It does not require clasps or ends, so is extremely easy to put on; you just expand the coil and wrap it around your wrist. It is strong so, unlike thread bracelets, it will never break (only chip the beads if some creative child or adult tries to use it as an actual slinky)

Latin Jewellery

I am going to attempt something this weekend that I have little experience in doing: creating Dancesport jewellery that sparkles.

Materials needed:

• Flesh coloured stretch material
• Swarovski hotfix crystals (or glue on)
• Fabric glue
• Vilyn 
• Elastic
• Hooks and Eyes
• Clear press-studs   

The first dilemma is that flesh coloured stretch fabric is not abundant in Cape Town. The stuff that is around is about 3 shades lighter than me and I have to still tan that 'wonderful' orange colour for competitions.

The second dilemma is keeping ironing stiffener between lycra type material that melts with heat.

This shall be a experiment. Results to follow. If successful maybe I will add a few items to Purple-Gecko for others looking for similar items.

Multi-way Knot

This necklace can be worn many ways. Created from six seed bead strands in a randomised collection of colours along a theme.

The necklace can be worn in the following way:

• Six loose strands as a long necklace
• Strands twisted to form a princess length necklace (with oval clasp to hold it together)
• Worn as loose strand knotted in front mimicking the 1920s knotted pearl strings.
• Twisted and then knotted in the front as shown in the featured picture (with oval clasp)

PicMonkey

I've been playing around recently on PicMonkey with photo effects. The original photos are loaded up and various filters are applied to create some awesome looking pics. 

I've added the original to show what a difference a pop of colour makes to the image!

Have Craft, Will Travel

Many a time I go away and pack myself a beading project to complete on my journeys. This is what my away case tends to look like: beading mat or felt, beads in individual containers, thread cards, needles and some thread conditioner.

I normally return home with a nearly completed object or UFO (Unfinished object) that needs glueing or a clasp.

Cooking Safari in Bo-Kaap

Over the weekend my mother and I ventured into an area I have not really explored in Cape Town, Bo-Kaap. The area features a tight-knit Cape Malay community and a pretty colourful neighbourhood.

I snapped the photo above on my phone while we took a bit of a walk around and ogled the vibrant colours (it was late afternoon and many shadows). I shall definitely return another day to explore the beautiful houses and mosques. The scenery reminds me of touring Burano.

Our cooking lesson (with Lekka Kombuis) itself took us on an journey through the Cape Malay favourites (though Bobotie is still a favourite): Chicken curry, rotis, samoosas and chili bites. I have finally learnt the correct spice mix for a curry (Chilli powder, tumeric, coriander, fennel, cumin and Masala)!

Rolling rotis was an interesting experience, making the dough itself is very similar to making foccocia dough. The trick is in the rolling and using lots of butter! I also learnt how to beat your dough into submission.

I will definitely be trying out the recipes again at home and posting the results :)

Wrapped Loops

Delicately wrapped wire is shaped into loops and individually linked together to create an elegant crystal and pearl necklace. Consider purchasing a matching set with the wrapped loop crystal and pearl earrings

This technique makes the necklace incredibly light and is not suited to long strands that could potentially catch on buttons or for people who fiddle with their jewellery all day (I am just as guilty of this!)

Nature's Inspiration

Inspiration comes from many sources, this time a bouquet of flowers in my moms house, a gift from visiting family.

The lilacs, purples and green are stunning and I think would look beautiful in a bracelet or set of earrings.

Hello Pretty

Purple Gecko Designs is now available for purchasing on Hello Pretty! Head on over to have a look at the unique pieces I've been adding to the stores inventory. You will be sure to see some pieces I've been writing about on my blog over the past year (and will be writing about in future as I catch up on my blogging).

Houndstooth Designs

With all the Houndstooth material being used for fashion item this season, I'm feeling rather inspired to duplicate the pattern in a bracelet (and maybe a pair of earrings)!

Now if only I can could get the pattern right! Seems attempt number 4 might finally be correct

For those wondering about the graph paper, Fire Mountain Gems and Beads have a wonderful set of FREE printable graph paper for brick stitch, peyote and square stitch.