Chain Maille Frenzy!!

Well I have just received a new booklet to teach myself new chain maille techniques, I think I may be hooked!!!! 

Below are two new bracelets I've made in the last 24 hours using the byzantine technique; one brass toned and one silver toned.

The beads are green and blue cloisonne barrels, the brassy one has gold glass pearls and the silvery one has clear crystal bicones.  

I do hope you like them as much as me.

Thanks for dropping by

Trudy xx

Jump Ring Linked Discs

Good Morning Blogland!

Today's picture is from a make I finished late last night.  I've been busy with my junp rings again (have a small blister from the pliers on my finger now).  I know I said I wanted to be nore versatile but I do just love working with jump rings. 

As you can see I've put these large silver coloured discs and some swarovski pearls onto double eye pins and made links with gun metal and silver coloured jump rings.  I think it would look very glamourous over any LBD.

Thanks for dropping by

Trudy xx

Similarly syled

Good evening, I have a second item for you today.

In response to requests for some items like this and to keep myself from getting too 'samey',  I ordered some beads and bangles which are styled after a famous brand (don't want to break any copyright rules by naming but I'm sure you'll recognise it!) 

As you can see it's a delicate, pretty piece in soft blues (turquoise???)

 I hope you like it.  I have a feeling this sort of item is going to be very popular. 

 This one sold to my friend 5 minutes after I'd made it when I sent her a pic to ask if she thought I should continue and make more. 

 The answer was a resounding YES!!!!!

Thanks for dropping by today

Trudy xx

Get Knotted

Well hello and welcome to any new viewers of my blog!!

My lovely mum has given me a huge shout out from her blog so I must try harder and blog more often!!!

Today's offering is a little piece I created yesterday.

It's made with some gorgeous wooden beads, a wooden pendant and knotted cord. 

 It's a slightly different style for me,

I'm trying to widen my versatility and so my customer base.  I hope you like. 

Please leave a little note if you do. 

Thanks for dropping by.

Trudy xx

Celtic Style Chain Maille

Good Morning Everyone!

Todays offering is a pic of a piece I have made twice now, the first one I made in a gold and silver combination and liked it so much I kept it for myself. 

The design has been taken straight out of a magazine so I can't take credit for that. 

It is celtic styled flowers and celtic knots all made with jumprings.  I used 2 sizes of silver plated jump rings and 1 size gun metal jump rings.  I've also attached a silver plate chain. 

I hope you like it too.

Thanks for dropping by and leaving any comments.

Trudy xxx

Black and Blue Wedding Commission

Good Morning Everyone!

I am proud as punch of today's offering.  I was a little worried about this initially as a friend of a friend asked me if I could make a jewellery set for her to match an outfit she is wearing to a wedding later this month.  She provided a wrap that goes with her dress but I still struggled a little to get the right colour blue bead.  And not knowing her personally I had no idea what sort of style she wears.  But once I got going it kind of flowed.

It's made with large black twisted diamond beads, blue czech glass rounds, black and silver precosia beads (one of my favourite beads!!!), blue and black seed beads in 3 strands and silver plated textured toggle clasps.

My customer LOVES it, woo hoo!!

I hope you do too.

Thanks for dropping by today, hope it's lovely and sunny with you like it is here.

Trudy :o) xxx

Pink Oval Drops and Turquoise Crystals

Well I made 3 new bits today so I thought I'd share 2 of them this evening.

The first piece is made from pink dyed jade ovals and swarovski pearls with a plastic purple faceted bead thrown in for contrast.  Again I've been busy making jump ring chain links.  This took a while as I knew exactly what I wanted to create but had to play around with my jump ring sizes and combinations to get it right.  I'm quite pleased with the finished effect, I hope you like it too.

My second item is a jewellery set made with chalk turquoise teardrop beads, turquoise glass rounds, silver plastic rounds and some very pretty and sparkly turquoise bicone crystals.  I love the colour of this.

Thanks for dropping by and for making any comments, I love receiving them xx

Silver Link option

Hellooooooo :o)

Well as my girly pink creation went down so well yesterday (and has ALREADY sold!!) I thought I would make something similar today.

I've gone for a more classical look this time which I hope could be worn by the less 'girly' ladies!!!

I've used the same circle diamond chain, and a nice mix of plastic, metal and blass beads. This is a bit longer too at about 66cm.

Thanks for popping by and looking xx

Stranded Seeds and Agate

Just to keep me in a blogging frame of mind, here's a piece I completed late last night, it took almost 3 hours to complete, 4 strands of seed beads, what was I thinking lol.

As I said it's 4 strands of matt black and metallic green seed beads, some swarovski pearl beads and the focus stone is a lagre agate oval. 

 I hope you like it xx

Pink and Girly

Hi, there, long time no blogging :o)

Life has been completely hectic over the last few weeks, but now we are all broken up for a nice long summer holiday.  As expected there has been no sign of the sun so I am creating instead!

I have to admit to having lost a lot of confidence but my mum assures me that I have no reason too so I'm back with a pic of todays make.  I do hope you like it.

This is made with hot pink crackle glass coin beads, white crackle glass round beads and some silver coloured circle and diamond link chain as well as the pink and white focal bead.  It measures approximately 55cm and is fastened with a toggle clasp.

Thanks for dropping by!!!!!!

Trying To Find My Market

Well, after a slow start (with many thanks to my mum for her support) my e-bay sales appear not to be coming on too well, I have had some interest through facebook but again this is very slow and intermittent, although I am grateful and honoured about each and every sale I make.

Another beading crafter suggest I try to sell some items on 'folksy'.  I'm hoping this will find a more specific audience.  Please feel free to pop into my 'shop' and have a look around and if you like what you see then tell all your friends :o)

http://www.folksy.com/shops/trinketsbytrudy

I'm also hoping to try taking a table top at my children's school's table top sale if they have one this summer.  

Finding a sales base in a very competitive market is a challenge I am sure you all understand very well.

Wish me lots of luck everybody.

Hope you are all having a lovely Saturday.

Trudy x

Anyone For Tennis?

Phew, now that was an 'edge of the seat' match tonight eh?

Well the piece I'm introducing tonight has been inspired by everything Wimbledon

 (well, it's green and purple lol!)

It is made up with more of these delicious green river shell hexagons with some green swarovski pearls and purple and lilac crystals (although the lilac looks blue in this pic) 

I hope you like it.

I promise to try and visit blogland a bit more frequently again, but worklife has been a bit busy and stressful recently, things are improving though.  Thanks for coming by.

Trudy x

5 Minute View

Good Morning everyone :o)

I wanted to share this piece with you this morning. 

I made it last night sitting in front of the telly surrounded by beads and boxes of bits (my goodness I do manage to make a mess when I'm engrossed!!)

Anyway, after it was done I quickly photographed it and uploaded it onto my facebook page (also called Trudy's Trinkets just in case you wanted to pop over). 

Within 5 minutes of being online a friend asked to buy it!!!!!!

I was so pleased and surprised. 

It has been made by stringing different metal heart beads with some black swarovski pearl beads and some grey and black shell beads, all teamed with the very pretty pendant. 

I do hope you like it.

Thanks for dropping by and have a wonderful weekend :o)

Trudy xx

The Other Ear Ring!

Just cos I know you've been waiting for it lol!!

This is one of the first pieces I've made since I've started to feel better. 

It uses the other half of the pair of ear-ring blanks that I used for my hopt pink design. 

This time I've teamed it with these gorgeous shell beads. 

 I've not done anything fancy with it at all really apart from making a small silver plated spiral to hang at the bottom of the pendant, but with these colours I don't think it needed much.

I hope you like it.

Thanks for coming by to look, I really appreciate it.

Trudy xxx

Been Poorly :(

Hi folks!

Just a little shout out to say I've not been around as I have been 'under the weather'. 

I've had a stinker of a cold and been feeling generally miserable and sorry for myself!!! Beginning to pick up a little now thank goodness so hope to be posting and blog hopping again properly in a couple of days.

Hope you are all well and staying crafty!

Trudy xx

Hot Pinks

Good afternoon everyone :o)

Todays post is a piece I made last weekend. 

I have used some lovely fuschia crackle glass coin beads with some fuschia crystals and some heamatite look seed beads.  The pendant is actually an adapted earring!!! (look out for the other earring, haven't decided what I'm going to with it yet lol) 

Again I've made up a simple drop earring to compliment the necklace.

I hope you like it and thanks for taking the time to stop by my blog!

Trudy xx

Blue Flowers

Last night's little number includes a long chain I made using a double link chain. 

I cut it into 10 link lengths then attached beaded eyepins with split rings.  The beads are a clear and blue glass flower bead and a silver twisted pillow bead, these have been defined by using small dark blue seed beads on the silver pillow and transluscent blue plastic beads  which you might use on a little girl's necklace for the flower bead. 

I have also had a little play about with different ways of displaying (totally stolen by viewing other peoples pages!!!!)  I haven't quite got the hang of it it yet but do take a look at the photo below.  I'd love to have your views (good or not so good) on this. 

 Thanks for dropping by.

Trudy xx

Turquoise Surprise

Well last night's make is very hard to attribute. 

Almost all the stones/beads are from a mystery lucky dip purchase or are from stash I have had for over a year when I first started collecting bits for my little hobby and wasn't too interested in what they were actually formed from!!!!!  I do however know that the two larger and deeper coloured stones on the necklace are turquoise blue veined jasper.

 Despite my total lack of knowledge I hope you can still appreciate its aesthetic value - it's just really very pretty, maybe that can be enough for this one?????

I hope you like it as much as I do! Thanks for taking the time to look.

Trudy x

Mother of Pearl Again

Good evening :)

I haven't made anything yet today, just about to get my bits out and have a play so I thought I would post this piece which I made over the weekend. 

It uses the very last of my Mother of Pearl pendants which have been popular so I hope you like it. 

The pendant has been teamed with some peach toned pearl effect beads and some translucent peach acrylic beads to give a lovely soft feel and I've used 10mm and 5mm split rings to form the chain links.

Thanks again for looking.

Trudy xx

More Green!!!

Another post to end the weekend, and I'm working with green again! 

This time I used some green semi-precious beads alongside some small green pearl effect plastic beads and two sizes of green crackle glass beads. 

The links have been formed by making a double chain link from silver plated split rings. 

And again I have created a matching pair of earrings to finish off the look.

I hope you like it. 

Right off to bed to prepare for the week ahead.  Thanks for stopping by :o)

Trudy xx

Bue and Green Should Not Be Seen?

Happy Sunday everyone. 

Well after quite a few days not being able to make anything, the creative juices were flowing yesterday.

This is made up of 2 feature glass beads greating the drop and a simple strand of cubic green seed beads and some small blue plastic rounds.  I hope you like it and thanks for taking the time to look.

Trudy x

Been Busy :(

Hello all!!!

Been soooo busy the last few days, I haven't had time to blog and I certainly haven't had time to make anything. 

However I have quite a long leisurely weekend ahead with few plans (other than housework!!) so I'm hoping to get making very soon. 

I've also had 2 sales of my work on e-bay and made a facebook page too!  (when I figure out how I might add a link from here or vice versa) 

Anyway, I'm posting up a set I made at the beginning of the month but which was made for a good friend's birthday and didn't want her to see it.  I hope you like it, she did :o)

This was made with some lovely pink and purple acrylic beads, some small crystals and some metal beads, oval links and a silver coloured pendant.

Thanks for dropping by and any comments you'd like to leave.  I really love receiving them.

Trudy x

Green and Sparkly

Just nipping in quickly to post this little piece I made up tonight. 

All was going well initially then I decided to try and get clever (oh how foolish of me!) and things started to go a little pear shaped. 

It's made from some pretty light and dark green crystals and this green semi-precious stone, unfortunately it wasn't labelled (came in a lucky dip).   It's been wired onto a double strand toggle clasp.

This is not the piece I set out to make so I'm not happy with it particularly but hopefully you will like it more than me as you don't know what it was supposed to look like :o)

The next two nights are both booked up with work meetings so don't know if I'll get anything new on for a while.

Thanks for dropping in and having a look. 

 I really appreciate everyone's comments, they make my day (or rather night usually).

Take Care

Trudy xx

More Pink Hexagons

Well tonight's little piece uses up the last of my gorgeous pink hexagons :o(

although I have a supply of green hexagons not started so watch this space!!!

Tonight I matched them with my gun metal plastic round beads and some larger fuschia plastic beads.  All put together onto double eye pins and linked with simple split rings

then a very simple matching earring to set the necklace off.

I hope you like it and thanks once again for taking the time to drop by

Trudy xxx

Black and Gold

Good Evening :o)

Tonight I have a little set for you;

 the design is one I shamelessly stole from a pic I saw in a magazine (I forget which!).

It is made up with black glass beads, gold seed beads and a gorgeous black and gold glass star pendant. I apologise for the picture quality, I took the photo this evening under these lovely energy saving bulbs we all have now.

I've brightened the image up a little in editing but didn't want to effect the colours too much from the original.

I hope you like it.  Thanks for stopping by and having a look.

Trudy x

Eurovision Fever

Well I haven't made anything today, been looking after my two little ones and catching up on that awful bane of my life (housework!) and tonight has been given over entirely to Eurovision! Just nipping in to post you a pic of a necklace I made the other night before the voting starts. Come on BLUE!!! and is it me or were Jedward actually not too bad tonight????

Anyway...I hope you like the piece below, some textured dark grey and flat red beads have been put together with these 3 flower beads. It feels a little gothic to me, let me know what you think :o)

Right, back to Graham Norton...

Nabbed By The Daughter ;)

I went shopping today (as you do!!!) in my local bead shop and found (among lots of other pretty things which ended up in my basket) this beautiful wire heart pendant.  When my 16 year old got home from school I showed her all my new bits and bobs.  She took one look at the heart and just had to have it! I have matched it up with some silver and gun metal coloured plastic beads, some tiny metal heart beads and two larger metal heart beads for some extra detail.  Also, you can't see on this pic, the clasp at the back is a heart! 

I now have a slightly less moody teenager (for now) and I will not be doing any hoovering or general tidying up for the next week or so (well she has to pay me back, right???).  Thanks again for stopping by and leaving any comments, I do LOVE receiving them.

Trudy  x

Let's Try Again :)

Well after losing last night's post what with Blogger playing all silly I'll pop it up again for you all to see, in case you missed it.  Apologies if it returns from whichever part of cyberspace all our work is floating around in and you get it twice, but since (IMHO) it's quite a pretty little piece I hope no-one will mind too much???

This has been made using another Mother of Pearl pendant which has been teamed up with some lovely fuschia pink hexagon shell and some plastic metallic blue beads.  I am thrilled to say it has already found a home with a work colleague (and very good friend).  I'm almost sad to see it go, I do really rather like it.  I hope you do to.  Thanks for taking the time to look. 

Trudy x

Busy Evening Ahead

Well I have a work meeting tonight which might go on for quite a while so I don't think I'll get any new pieces made :(

 In the meantime this is a piece I made last week which is handsomely displayed on my new 'factory seconds' bust (don't ya love Ebay!!!!). 

Hopefully after I'm all done I'll have time to wander around blogland and check out all my new followers.

Have a good night everyone and thanks for stopping by.

Trudy x

2 after 10

First of all, what can I say but WOW!! and THANK YOU!!!

 I've had such a great response so quickly

(thanks a lot to mum {Beryl K} for pointing some of you in my direction)

I have been thrilled at the lovely comments so far.

So here are two more items for your pleasure.

I hope you like them and thanks for any comments you'd like to make :)

Trudy x

one post, three pics

My first few photos show my most recent and favourite pieces.  After a short break from making any jewellery I have very definately got the bug again and despite working full time and being single mum to 3 amazing (most of the time lol) children I am totally addicted to this wonderful hobby again.  Not a night has gone by over the last 8 days when I haven't made something. I hope you enjoy looking at them as much as I enjoyed making them. Thanks for dropping by. The photos have all been quickly snapped by my daughter Bee (Bethany) who takes some pretty nifty pics.  She has her own blog and is one of my followers, so do please pop over to DinardoPhotography for a quick look while you're blogging.
Trudy x

Hello :)

Hello and welcome to my little blog, I hope you enjoy some of the images I plan to put on here. Please leave a comment and let me know you dropped by.  I'll see you around blogland.

Trudy x