Sakizo's Juliet: Part 5: Jewels

I got a little bored of sewing, and decided to start making the jewellery. I didn't take photos for all the steps, but the first part is quite simple. The choker is a strip of interfaced velvet, sewn into a tube and turned inside out, then decorated with trim and lace. I stuck on some half pearls with E6000, and closed it with a hook and eye.

Next . . . the gems.

No, not those gems. These gems.

I don't know how to use resin, but I did find several tutorials for making hot glue gems, though I altered the method. Instead of melting the glue in the microwave, I melted sections of glue stick in a metal spoon over the gas hob (be careful when you do this), and used a bodkin to stir in eye-shadow for colour. Once the glue mix looked right, I poured the glue on to some foil in the shape that I wanted. A mold would have been more precise, but i didn't have time. I could have used to spoon as a mold, but I found that the glue was too sticky and wouldn't come out of the spoon bowl. Once I was finished, I had 10 glue gems.

 Once the gems had cooled, I trimmed off the extra foil, and started gluing pearl beads around the circumference of each gem.

Took a while. E6000 stinks and is not something you want to inhale, so work in a well ventilated area.

And here are the finished gems. I really like the result of this experiment. They lack the clarity of resin, but they do still have a mineral look to them.

 Next step was to stick the big gem on to the choker. I also sewed on some lengths of pearl strings for decoration. 

 The next steps were making the ruff and the pearl necklace. The ruff was made by folding a strip of satin into the right folds, tacking them into place, and sewing them on to a strip of material, attaching that in turn to the choker.

 My method for making the pearl necklace was not very professional. I looped pearl beads on to some nylon fishing wire (should have used thinner wire), and tied it to make a loop of pearls. I managed to fix some jump rings and lobster clasps on to the ends, and sewed jump rings to the dress. The blue gem is glued on to the necklace. The tear drop pearls are glued on to the blue gem - there's thin clear thread looped around each one, then knotted and attached with glue to the gem. 

Chokers

The Marianne Choker

 I love chokers. 

 They are such elegant necklaces, harkening back to Victorian glamour.

I made three chokers in this Victorian/Gothic style. The first is the Marianne choker available on etsy, named for Marianne Dashwood of Sense and Sensibility. 

The second is the Elinor choker, named for the eldest Dashwood. Also available on etsy

The Elinor choker

This is a much simpler choker, just a ribbon, a pendant, and a snap to close it.

This was the easiest choker to make. I just had to seal the ends of the ribbon, attach a small loop of ribbon to the choker, thread the cameo on to the main ribbon, and attach a snap closure.

Thirdly, the Marie Antoinette choker . . . because I didn't feel like calling it the Margaret choker XD This is available on etsy as well.

The Marie Antoinette choker

This was probably the most difficult choker to make, because I had to pleat the little ribbon and pin all these tiny little pleats down. This was actually quite difficult.

I had fun playing around with the macro setting on my mum's camera. I would like to get my own camera but I know nothing about cameras, so until I learn more I will continue to use this one.

If you are interested in these chokers, feel free to check them out on etsy.