The Community

So after many hours of loud electro, pain staking (and yes in many cases dodgy) editing my website is finished and live on the web!

Check out my online store at: http://disguiseddesigns.weebly.com/

and the associated facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Disguised-Designs/209868559024592?sk=wall

Tell all your friends, new pieces added every month or so!

The crafting season is upon us and after to moving to a new place with a permanent craft room I’m getting finally getting my crafting groove back.

Helping me along in kick starting my motivation was a request from a friend to make some jewellery for her beach wedding in Bali this week (apparently if you have worked at WACOSS and don’t want to wear shoes on your wedding day I’m the lady to see!) I did not charge for time or labour because quite frankly, this woman is amazing and I miss working with her and was honoured she asked, not realising that the project in itself was a truly mutually beneficially experience!

It all started with a picture of a foot jewellery design she liked ( a small one at that) and a confident affirmation that I should be able to do it. Cue me staring at the picture for ages trying to picture cotton braided/weaved through the beads and hoping I could figure it out.

Next step is the trip to the bead store for bead selection. At this point I have to point out that bead shops can be a little daunting at first, so many types and colours and jars and strands. I love it of course but I couldn’t help but laugh at the amazed yet panicked tone in her voice which was not at all unlike the other friend who I did wedding jewellery for. What followed was a exercise in professionalism that surprised even me. Halfway through pulling jars off the shelf I experienced one of those strange moments when your mind goes blank for a moment and you realise that you actually do know what your’re doing. Luckily my friend felt the same way, which was good as I was still trying to figure out how to string the beads on the foot jewellery together. A happy hour of bead shopping later and off we go with plans to meet soon for the fitting. I was driving home feeling all proud of myself when it occurred to me that I forgot to a) measure her feet and b) that she has 2 feet and that I was meant to double the number of beads needed for the foot! So after laughing at myself for about 10 minutes I get home and do what I normally do when I get new beads and just look at them for a little while and make mental pictures of what they will look like finished.

I completed the earrings, necklace and bracelet first. Then procrastinated on the foot design for a while till I decided that I was done with mental pictures and weaving my hands through the air trying to figure it out and just started. First go was quite successful, played around with the amount of seed beads around the pearls to make sure to get the right shape. Used the woven part of the foot jewellery for the first fitting (great excuse for a long and yummy lunch at city farm with old co-workers) and it fit perfectly! More importantly than that my friend was very happy with how it all looked and her excitement was contagious. Another couple of fittings (one in the cafeteria at DCP, the other in lobby) and a second trip to the bead store for the forgotten foot supplies and the pieces were finished in time for my very happy and excited friend to head off for her wedding. Pictures of the pieces below.

There are many reasons I love making jewellery but one of the best joys of crafting is making something for someone that they love and makes them happy and when its going to be a part of something as important as a wedding day it’s even better. What started as a favour for a friend turned out to be just what I needed at just the right time..now to finish sorting this pile of beads and getting started on some new pieces, oh and to launch my website…what this space!

Will follow up with a shot of this on the foot shortly, for now just imagine the top bit going around the leg.

Swarovski pearl and Swarovski crystal rondelle

Bracelet; Swarovski pearl and seed beads

Swarovski pearl & Swarovski crystal rondelle

Also did a couple of toe rings if she felt like wearing them on the day

So I’ve logged 77 hours on this project and my upper back is killing me but I’m so close to the end I can taste it! Will be done by the end of the weekend!

60 hours and still counting. The end is in sight!

3720 minutes front

40 hours & nearly at the half way point!

2425 front

2425 back

20 hours plus!