Tuesday 13 July 2010

How I work

The pictures that follow are of me working on an order. It was for 3 side tiaras called Claire using clear ab Swarovski crystals and burgundy crystals, silver plated wire and seed beads. I tend to either sit on the settee using a fold down plastic table or if I am at my mums, I sit on the floor using a folding blue plastic table.
As you can see I have already completed 2 side tiaras. 1 adult size and 1 child size. My tools are wire cutters, flat nose pliers and round nose pliers. I used 0.6mm silver plated wire to create the flower and now I am using 0.8mm wire to make the stamens. I have wrapped 2 lengths of 0.8mm wire round my silver plated tiara crown base. I have already pulled the tiara base in to the shape of an Alice band. I prefer to use the tiara crown bases as they are shorter in length than the Alice bands and often my customers dont like the feel of the Alice band around the back of their ears.
I have now threaded on the crystals. In the adult size I have used 4 clear crystals to 1 coloured crystal. Each crystal is separated by a seed bead. In the childs side tiara I have only used 3 clear crystals to 1 coloured crystal. I have finished the end of the wire off by using my round nose pliers to create a small loop and then I have snipped off the excess wire.
Next I have wrapped the flower round the centre of the stamen wires and tiara base. Again I have cut off the excess wire. Its almost finished now.
I create a centre flower using 6 x 5mm and 1 x 6mm coloured crystals to add to the centre of the the big flower. It is then wrapped round the centre of the large flower and the excess wire is cut off.
That's the order completed.