For my mum

On yet another visit to my local bead shop, this time with my mum, we saw these lovely glass beads and my mum liked them so much that she brought them for me to make her a pair of earrings with. Below is the earrings I made for her.

chain drop earrings

I really like this design and was tempted to keep them for myself.

Pendant

I made this long pendant necklace with a blue foiled glass bead and silver wire and findings.

Know your gemstones...

                       

The most famous and valuable cat's eye gemstone is chrysoberyl cat's eye. In fact when the term cat's eye is used alone in the gem trade, it always refers to chrysoberyl cat's eye. All other types of cat's eye gems require an additional varietal designation, such as cat's eye apatite.

Why is chrysoberyl cat's eye so highly esteemed? One reason is that chrysoberyl has superb gemstone characteristics, with a hardness of 8.5 on the Mohs scale. This places chrysoberyl right behind ruby and sapphire as an especially hard-wearing gem, suitable for all kinds of jewelry. Because of its excellent hardness, chrysoberyl takes a good polish and displays superb luster

For more about this gem click this link

                                                                         Cats eyes

                                                        

jewellery making hints and tips

When dealing with runaway beads wrap a piece of sticky tape around your finger to pick them up with.

Tip found in - Compendium of Beading Techniques by Jean Power