Blog

The life of a Vibes & Scribes employee and demonstrator can be a whirlwind at times. There are always new crafts to try and materials to experiment with, and with new stock flooding in all the time one can easily forget about some projects and get distracted. So, with that in mind I have decided to give blogging a proper go. Hopefully it will allow me to try out new crafts myself and also give our customers some inspiration and show how easy it can be to create your own gifts, jewellery etc.

This week I was asked to give a jewellery making demo in store and since I had never actually attempted the craft myself I thought it would be the perfect opening post. It is so easy to get started and once you have the basics all it takes is practice and experimentation to create beautiful one off pieces of your own. Here are two of my favorite necklaces that I made this week and just how easy it is to make them!

Almost everyone I know is either a Harry Potter fan themselves or knows someone who would kill for this golden snitch inspired necklace. It is something I have seen a lot myself online for varying prices and I’ve managed to create this guy myself for a very, very small price. All you need is:

- 1 metre of chain (€1.99, available here)

- 1 gold round bead ( .8c, available in-store)

- 1 pack of wing charms (€1.99, available here)

- and 1 clasp (€1.99 for a pack of two, available here)

It being a first attempt I kept things very simple, all you have to do is string your bead and charms onto your length of chain and then attach your clasps by bending the wire open, linking it onto the chain and closing it again, and there you have it, a super simple and quick Harry Potter inspired necklace!!

Keeping with the book inspired necklaces, this next piece was something I always wanted to try and did not think it would be this simple to achieve. I’m always looking for ways to incorporate books into crafts and this necklace is such a useful way.

After seeing similar pieces online I had thought that I would have to use resin to achieve this look, but it turns out we have these guys (cabochons, available here and here) ready made in various sizes in stock, making my life so much easier. All I had to do was trace the cabochon around a page, cut it out, and then glue the page to the pendant, the cabochon to the page and then string it onto my chain and attach my clasp like before, and voila: I have a beautiful book inspired necklace! This is also the perfect size to be used for a pair of earrings too or a charm on a bracelet, making it so handy and versatile! Not to mention you could use any piece of paper you wanted instead of the book page, perhaps a photo (making it a nice replacement for a locket) or any patterned paper that you may fancy.

Since I made these two necklaces together I was able to half my metre of chain and use the one packet of clasps (seeing as two come in this particular pack), meaning that the cost to make the two of these necklaces together was the low low cost of €8 approx! I think I’m going to be making a lot more of my own jewellery in the future!!

~ Emer x