one-of-a-kind handmade glass beads and bespoke silver jewellery by Chellie Purnell
This is going to be a really quick and snappy one!
I just wanted to get these little beauties logged onto the blog. The photos came out so great and the colours really pop!
Recently I've been working on my pinks and purples for a project and just had to do a set of simple charm beads that used the entire colour range!
I just love them all....
Making special sets for special occasions is something I love to get the chance to do...
This week I have had a great project on the go, making a set of charm beads and a matching pendant to go with an outfit for a wedding in July. I love doing the real one-offs and getting deep down into what is desired for the occasion.
Here is the dress. She is going to team it with a very light silver grey shawl or cardi and shoes in the same colour. It will look very elegant...
My lady wanted to bring out the bright cornflower/electric blue colour that is apparent on little patches in the pattern of the fabric and have a statement set of beads made especially for the day.
Here are some inspirational pictures from nature that show off this wonderful colour...
Of course there are delicate cornflowers, electric lightning bolts, the iridescent blue on butterfly's wings or beetle's wing cases. I wanted to try to create all the energy that this colour evokes with glass...
So I started to focus on the colours within the colour...
There's actually not one 'colour' here at all; there is a mixture of lighter bright turquoise electric blue, which then merges into bright electric purple at times and fades down into the deepest navy.
I needed to make the beads 'pop' in the same way and utilise these nuances of colour within the glass to bring the beads alive..
Here are a few close ups.
The wrap bead is the darkest of them all but the pure clear wrap allows the light in a bit. It has a flow about it and it has great tactility.
This one on the right is a kind of speckled design. I liked it because it also lets the light burn through but in a different way... There are 3 different shades of blue in this one!
This is the flower petal one.
Not really a cornflower, but still, so delicate and graceful..
I'm loving these silver droplet ones at the moment...
This one is all about electric currents and energy.
This one is my fave!
Made with that glorious silver glass again and a very light blue encasement! This one is a bit 'under-the-sea' ish.
And now for the pendant!
I definitely got that lush water-mouthy feeling when I got this one out of the kiln and straight away said to my customer that if she didn't want this one, there was no trouble as I would have it myself!!! (...But unfortunately, she loved it straightaway too!!)
The beautiful swirls of colour are dreamy. It's about 3 cm in diameter.
I made it so that she cold wear it on her Trollbead necklace, so it has a 4mm silver core like a regular charm bead but it is oh so much bigger...
This type of bead makes a real statement on the Trollbead necklace. They are so unusual. Guaranteed to catch the eye! Very versatile too; as they sit quite comfortably on ribbon or simply strung on cord or leather when one fancies a change..
The close up here shows the pendant in all it's glory.
And here are the charm beads on the charm bracelet with some silvers too..
As always thank you very much for reading the blog x
This lovely set has just been finished.
The brief was for a calm watery set with a colour theme of teal and aqua.
I wanted to create a set of beads with lots of texture but retain the flow and quality of water that would lend to the set a sense of tranquility.
They are called 'Lotus' because they remind me of the lotus yoga position which can be used for meditation and relaxation. I imagine someone completely serene and peaceful sitting, maybe on a warm airy beach with the sun going down. (Not me though; ...anyone who knows me will know that me getting to that beach in that kind of chilled out state is about as likely as seeing an elephant on a tightrope on Maidenhead High Street.
Anyway, moving on... the set of beads is all about serenity and peace. Maybe they will transmit those vibes to their new owner... I hope so.....
Here are some close ups of the set. The nearest bead to the camera is a mix of teal and aqua glass with a wrap of reflective 'oil on water' silver colour changing glass around it.
This one is a light teal pure and clear bead with little fine silver droplets.
This one is more organic in feel. It has little silvered ivory petals inside a light teal encasement.
I was really happy about this one. It's very simple and has lovely clarity. It has a teal centre with a twilight blue layer over the top. It has a very interesting and unexpected effect when the light shines through it as the colours are perceived differently from different angles.
These last two pictures show the whole set of six beads on a bracelet with some silvers to set them off.
I like the light and shade in the set and the texture that I ended up with.The mix across the colours turned out great from greeny/teal to twilight grey/blue.
I hope my fabulous friend likes them...
These beads were a bit different for me. I wanted something light and fun and I fancied doing some more fine pattern work using dots and gravity. I love them!
Back along I did a series of five or six beads that I called the Festival Collection. See below:
I wanted to do something using a similar technique but using a much brighter, lighter palette, and as you can see the beads came out with a slightly different feel.
I chose some 'spring' like colours. Some vibrant brights and other pastel shades. I had to make the stringers really thin as some of the detailed dots needed to be really tiny.
This is a hexagonal bead with bobbles. Layers of white and colour gradually getting smaller as they get to the top. I love the zing of this one!
This lime and turquoise one is also very zesty....
This is a calmer pastel take on the Spring look. Delicate minty green, aqua and soft purple....
Lime green and white... Energetic, lively and bouncy....
Ooh I love this one! It grades from a deep (almost purple) blue to a limey (almost yellow) green. It's light and sunny; you really feels like you could get lost in it. The large ring of six dots on either side merge into each other in the centre to make a pleasing zigzag.
Blue sky thinking.... This one reminds me of ceramics. I used some CIM glass in 'ming' and 'electric blue' for this and because I heated it quite crazily the glass colours have spread to create a 'fuzzy' edge. At first I thought I might have messed it up, but I actually like the effect its made...
Lastly, this one is quite unusual. It has a twist on one side and a swirl which grades darker and darker purple towards the centre.. On the other side there are some purple and black simple dots...
Finally, here they are (except for the purple one) on a bracelet. They look so zingy, peppy and lively together....
Thanks for viewing this blog xx
Hi all,
I just had to do a little blog about my latest project.
These ones have been so much fun!
It's been all around a garden theme! Those that know me know that I love the outdoors and plants, mud and rain, and green is my favourite colour! What's not to like?
I love working with green glass too!
There is so much richness and freshness in the colour; and so much variation too in terms of tone and texture.
A lovely customer of mine has a beautiful 'garden' themed bracelet pictured here; and she asked me if I could make her some special beads to complete and finish it off...
She wrote me a great note, full of fab ideas.
In each case I have put her thoughts in the handwriting font so you can see where the ideas for the beads came from, and for each bead there are some pictures. (These were either provided by my customer herself, or found by me as I was researching the ideas.)
So my aim was to get a set of beads that fitted the brief; worked together as a set; and also fitted in with the existing beads that she owns.
It looked like quite a challenge. But because the ideas were so personal and unusual it was a really rewarding and great fun.
OK then, so here's how it went...
1.
So this one seemed straightforward enough, until I started it....
It turned out to be the most difficult of the lot!
I wanted to get the opacity of the leaves right and have the right depth of encasing to get the light and dark elements of the ivy right. In the end I must have done about 6 versions of this one... they just weren't behaving at all, and even after I'd got two good ones I still couldn't decide on the 'best' one so I am offering my customer 2 possibles....
...so this one is number two...
The second version has more creamy white in it and more defined 'leaves'.
I like this one too.. I certainly couldn't decide.
(I hope my customer can... or maybe she will just have to have both??...)
;-)
2.
....and
I
had no idea how it would turn out either but I really like this one.
It's got that pretty iridescence on the petals that only posh silvered glass can give...
Ooh lushola! and it works so prettily with the greens...
3.
(I did think that this one was going to be nigh-on impossible when she asked me,) but then I had a little think on howit might work and it only took me three tries!! the first two looked more like encased algae than encased shoots but hey...
This 'shoots' one turned out to be one of the most visually effective ones!
It looks really good when the bead 'turns' on the chain as the clear glass magnifies the shoots in different ways.
4.
My lady had already given me a tip on this one because she envisaged it looking similar to the brown swirly 'leaf trails' bead that she had bought from me earlier on in the year (which is one her bracelet above) so I had a bit of an idea as to how I would attack this one!
I started by making a turquoise blue and bright pea green twisted rod of glass with clear, and then wrapped it several times to make the idea of the feathery 'flurry'. It's got a great 'lightness' about it I think; because of the colours, the ribbony texture of the strands, and the play of light through the bead.
5.
When I read this request I thought this would be the one that was a 'bridge too far' in terms of dooability (if that's a word ;-), but having had a go at it, it looked brilliant first time round and I will definitely use this technique for other beads in the future.
I used a very light amber core for this one and then used ultra thin strings of black and brown to give the impression of branches. I then surrounded this layer with flecks of lime green, yellow and pea green for the leaves. The overall result is just right. (I really want this one myself!!!)
Here all the set are together. I hope that she likes them and enjoys wearing them on her Garden Bracelet...
:-))
I
LOVE
glass!!
Thats all from me for a bit.. Christmas orders beckon!! Eeek!
As always I welcome any comments and enquiries...
Feel free xxx
Hi there,
I've been asked by lots of people what sort of 'kit' you need to do this sort of thing. The answer is you don't NEED much but once you start, you can kind of get carried away with it (well it did in my case) and before you know where you are, you've filled up a room!
I thought it would be nice to give you a little tour of the workshop so you could see where it all happens....
The main place where glass gets melted and beads get made happens here where the torch is. I've put it in front of a window here, but I'm note sure it helps much. I think I can see the flame better when there isn't so much natural light actually.
So each bead is begun by winding molten glass onto the mandrel in a similar way. From then on the colours, techniques, treatment possibilities are endless for the glass which means that no two beads ever come out the same!
Then once the little beadlets come out of the kiln they go over to the other desk where I do pretty much everything else.
There are quite a few stages to the process.
I tend to make finished jewellery from my beads whereas some people choose not to do the silver-work bit and just stick to the making part.
Firstly the mandrels still loaded up with a bead on each get soaked in a tepid water bath, with maybe a bit of fairy liquid for good measure. This loosens the bead release and makes the beads easier to get off the stainless steel sticks. I now have an amazing set of 'vice-grip' pliers (I think that's what they are called). I got them for Mother's Day and they make taking the beads off the mandrel a real joy compared to what it used to be like!
I sometimes get one that is a bit naughty and I need to get the hammer out. Uh Oh....(If the hammer has to come out to get the bead off the mandrel it nearly always spells a quick demise for that particular bead, but
sometimes
it just needs a quick tap and the bead comes off the mandrel unscathed).
Then it is power tool time! Yay! I do love a bit of power toolage!! I clean the beads out manually with a diamond dust tipped file called a 'reamer', then (especially in the case of transparent cored beads) it is great to use a Dremel with a diamond dust tipped bit and scoop out all the residual bead release skulking in the nooks and crannies of my beads' holes. `once this is done the hole is as clean as a whistle and the light reflects into the bead so much more beautifully.
Next, lots of things can happen. I then use sterling silver findings and elements to put the jewellery together. Chain, other beads, cores, cords and ribbons are all utilised go into trying to do the best for the little beadlings, and show off their assets so that some lovely person might decide they want to take the little 'sparkly-pants' home with them!
I do the gift-packaging and notecards at this desk too.
So there you have it. A little guided tour of the workshop.
While I'm here I will share a few picks of bits I've been working on:
Scarlet/Black Poppy Ring Topper
Focal pendant to be worn on Troll or Pandora necklace
Smoke/Slate neckace and earring set
Mega colourful bracelet
this one is a beauty...
I particularly like the metallic bumpy bits!!! ;-)
Do drop me a comment or email me at:
chelleholly@btinternet.com if you have any particular questions or enquiries. Take care x