Artefact Creations started off as an idea to make jewellery pieces based on museum exhibits, amongst other things. I may still get around to going to the British Museum for some inspiration, but meanwhile I'm having enough fun just using my imagination or letting the beads themselves suggest combinations of form, texture and colour.
Having looked on the internet and seen other websites attempt similar things, I decided I didn't want to create exact looking replicas but to use ancient jewellery as a starting point for my ideas. I also knew that I didn't want to use any modern materials like acrylics or plastics, and neither did I want any of my beads on stretchy elastic or any modern thread. For me, even the parts I couldn't see were still important.
I prefer to work with mainly with copper and brass wire or chain. My beads are either threaded directly on to the wire itself or linked by a handmade chain. Sometimes I use ready-made chain just for the extension chain, if I use one.
It takes some restraint on my part not to hammer and harden the links until daytime, as I'm sure my neighbours would not appreciate that at two or three in the morning.
As I have described in my etsy shop, I see my jewellery as being a blend of both ancient and contemporary style. I like unfussy designs that are bold and interesting enough to make a statement, as well as being intensely colourful. One of the reasons I love Venetian glass beads is that they are very colourful and have an inner radiance that glows when the light shines on them, due to the 24k gold (or sometimes silver) that they are filled with.
I have to search in different places to get the colours I want, eg. my local bead shop does not do a very good red Venetian glass bead but they do a very good gold - still, the treasure hunt is all part of the fun! I also like using a mix of swarovski crystal beads and semi-precious or glass beads, so there is some variation and contrast of shape, texture and sparkle.
Looking around my local department store recently in the costume jewellery section, I was amazed at some of the high prices charged for designs made from very inferior looking metals and cheap materials. I think quality is as important as design and I may get around to copying that necklace I saw priced at £65, which could have been made out of tin in Taiwan, and can't wait to see how it will look using better quality materials.
Having looked on the internet and seen other websites attempt similar things, I decided I didn't want to create exact looking replicas but to use ancient jewellery as a starting point for my ideas. I also knew that I didn't want to use any modern materials like acrylics or plastics, and neither did I want any of my beads on stretchy elastic or any modern thread. For me, even the parts I couldn't see were still important.
I prefer to work with mainly with copper and brass wire or chain. My beads are either threaded directly on to the wire itself or linked by a handmade chain. Sometimes I use ready-made chain just for the extension chain, if I use one.
It takes some restraint on my part not to hammer and harden the links until daytime, as I'm sure my neighbours would not appreciate that at two or three in the morning.
As I have described in my etsy shop, I see my jewellery as being a blend of both ancient and contemporary style. I like unfussy designs that are bold and interesting enough to make a statement, as well as being intensely colourful. One of the reasons I love Venetian glass beads is that they are very colourful and have an inner radiance that glows when the light shines on them, due to the 24k gold (or sometimes silver) that they are filled with.I have to search in different places to get the colours I want, eg. my local bead shop does not do a very good red Venetian glass bead but they do a very good gold - still, the treasure hunt is all part of the fun! I also like using a mix of swarovski crystal beads and semi-precious or glass beads, so there is some variation and contrast of shape, texture and sparkle.
Looking around my local department store recently in the costume jewellery section, I was amazed at some of the high prices charged for designs made from very inferior looking metals and cheap materials. I think quality is as important as design and I may get around to copying that necklace I saw priced at £65, which could have been made out of tin in Taiwan, and can't wait to see how it will look using better quality materials.
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