Pebeo is a range of French ‘Effect Colour’ paints which can be used in conjunction with Gedeo Glazing Resin to create interesting and unique finishes on a variety of materials. This was my first encounter with these products and I have to say I was quite impressed with the finish that could be achieved in a relatively short period of time.

To make the bracelet above you will need:

• 1 x Pebeo Bracelet Blank
• 1 x Pebeo Fantasy Prisme Discovery Set
• 1 x Gedeo Glazing Resin
• Pebeo small elite mixing palette
• Cocktail sticks (or something similar for mixing)
• Pipettes
• Pebeo universal paint remover

1. Before getting started, you will need to prepare your work area.  You need a flat surface with a protective covering (preferably non-porous) and good ventilation.
2. Gather together all your materials and choose your colours. The Pebeo Fantasy Prisme Discovery Set is a great place to start as it contains 6 colours including neutrals and brights so it’s ideal for experimenting with different effects. I went for a monochrome look by using the Onyx with the Eggshell White.
3. Lay out the bracelet blank ensuring it is completely flat.
4. Mix your colours thoroughly. (This will take some time but is essential for a good result). The desired finish with the Fantasy Prisme range is an abstract segmentation rather like a series of squashed bubbles which appear as the paints dry. If your paints are not mixed thoroughly this effect will not appear and you will simply get a flat colour finish.

   This picture shows The Fantasy Prisme in the top section and a combination of The Fantasy Moon and Fantasy Prisme in the bottom section.

5. How you transfer the Pebeo to the bracelet is personal preference and it really depends on the finish you are trying to achieve. You can use a pipette, a brush, a cocktail stick or simply pour it in. The key to success is control and I found dripping the paint from the end of a cocktail stick worked very well. These paints are actually far more fluid than I expected them to be and initially I had a few problems when trying to combine two colours. As soon as the paint is applied it will start to spread. If you want to add another colour to create a contrast, you need to do this quickly. If you allow the first colour to cover the surface completely and then add the second colour, one tends to be absorbed into the other which doesn’t look so good.

   This picture shows how The Fantasy Moon and Fantasy Prisme have amalgamated losing both effects.

6. Once the paints have dried (allow 24hours), you will notice that the surface will have dipped into a concave curve. This is entirely normal, and this is where the Gedeo glazing resin comes in.

   Fantasy Prisme full effect in Eggshell White and Onyx.

7. Gedeo glazing resin is a 2 part resin compound which, when mixed forms a rounded, clear layer, that gives the Pebeo that professional glazed finish. (Well that’s the idea!)

   The Gedeo glazing resin.

   Again you need to make sure your work area is well ventilated as this is strong stuff! Mix together the resin as instructed (one part hardener to two parts resin) using the mixer provided in the pack. The instructions say mix thoroughly but not vigorously which is easier said than done. In order for the resin to harden, the two component parts must be completely mixed but to achieve this requires a certain degree of force which unfortunately results in air bubbles. Once the air bubbles are in the mixture they are very difficult to remove so heed my warning and mix slowly and steadily.

8. Once mixed, apply the mixture onto the painted surface. I used the mixing stick to drip the resin in to allow more control, but you can pour it in if you feel confident. It is thicker than the Pebeo paint and is much easier to control. It doesn’t spread too quickly and can be teased into the corners and edges until the required effect is achieved. You then need to allow another 24hours, preferably in a dust free environment, for your piece to dry completely and then voila – it’s finished!

The Finished Piece!

Once the resin is applied the colours do dull down a little which is a shame, but the domed finish is rather nice (despite the air bubbles in my case).

Like any craft, Pebeo and Gedeo are a little tricky to perfect, but once mastered the possibilities are endless. (Especially when you consider the range of materials these paints can be used on:  Wood, paper, glass and ceramics to name but a few). My advice would be to practise, practise, practise and be patient as it takes time for the full effect to work, but all in all, well worth the effort for a unique finish.

This love inspired necklace uses our red and white glass bead kit
beautifully.  

By following our simple step-by-step instructions, you can create this
simple, yet stunning necklace with red heart focal point this Valentine’s day.

What you will need:

• Flat Nose Pliers – 999 695
• Red Bead Kit – 61GL MK28
• Beading Needles – 967 010A

Step 1

 Take your thread and do a double overhand knot to secure in place on the toggle.

Step 2

Put your thread through the beading needle and begin threading the beads onto the cord.

Step 3

I have chosen a pattern of one red to five white.

Step 4

Once you get near to the length you want measure it around your neck to check you get the right length.

Project : Top Tip

Securing something at the end of your thread, as we have done with the toggle here, will stop your beads from falling off!

Step 5

Thread the glass heart bead over the beaded chain you have made.

Step 6

Finish by doing another double overhand knot.

Step 7

Now you have the finished item!

Project : Top Tip

You don’t need to stick to the patterning I have chosen with one red to five white. You can adapt this to your personal favourite!

A fantastic product review by guest blogger Gillian Salisbury

I was very excited when I was given the opportunity to try out Crystal Clay. A relatively new crafting/jewellery making product which Cooksongold have recently started to supply. It appears to be quite big in the States and I can see it repeating that status here in Britain too. The product is quick, easy to use and it was really fun to work with it.

I was delighted to receive a little parcel in the post and on opening it found 3 pendantsof various shapes and sizes, 3 different types of rings, 2 bracelets and 4 different coloured clays with a huge assortment of round crystals or “chatons” to play with.

Rather than buying this in kit form, where the colours and styles are created for you, all parts are sold separately giving you the opportunity to combine the colour of your crystals with any colour clay and to set them into any blank you can get your hands on. The design opportunities are endless.

This stuff is AMAZINGLY easy to work with. It’s a 2 part clay, like epoxy resin. The two parts are 1 part richly coloured clay and 1 part epoxy, equal parts of which have to be combined and kneaded together before being pressed into your favourite setting before placing the crystals into the clay in a pattern of your choice.

I thought when I first started mixing the two parts together that the colour of the clay would be diluted by the epoxy but it isn’t in the slightest. The purple stays deep purple and the black remains deepest black. It’s incredible!

Getting started at my first attempt with the crystal clay I was careful to read the instructions properly and followed them throughout, but as I said earlier, this product is so easy to work with that there wasn’t a whole lot to follow. There are really only two very important factors to take into consideration; one is to wear the gloves provided with the clay as the epoxy resin can cause irritation to some people. I value my hands too much to ignore this instruction and wore the gloves throughout the whole process. And the second is to mix the parts in equal quantities otherwise the finished clay will not set properly.

Top Tip:

At this point I’ll share a little tip regarding the gloves. The ones provided in the kit are for average ladies hands but being a tall lady myself my hands are on the large size. This made the gloves a little snug but this actually worked to my advantage as it made the clay easier to work with. There were no creases for the clay to slip under and no creases to leave impressions in the clay surface when working. I’d advise buying your own disposable vinyl gloves from the supermarket in a size smaller than your usual if you have any problems with the pair supplied with the clay.

Anyhow….The two parts of the clay are VERY sticky to work with and equally sticky when combined together. I tried kneading them on the top of my clean worktop but after seeing how well it stuck to the surface I soon decided to scrape it up from there quickly and then kept it in my gloved hands, kneading it continuously with the thumb of one hand into the palm of the other. (It will stick to the gloves a little but not as frighteningly as it sticks to the worktop!) I did this for a couple of minutes until both parts were thoroughly mixed together and then rolled it into a ball ready to place into the chosen setting.

First Attempt

I chose a simple flat square silver tone pendant and pressed my ball of jet black clay into it. I guess the hardest part of using this product is in gauging just how much of the two parts of clay are needed to completely fill the blank without having too much. More could be mixed to combine with the original if you didn’t have enough and surplus could be pinched out of the setting before smoothing the surface of the clay again but I can’t help feeling it’s better to gauge it right in the first place. It saves time AND money.

Once the clay was placed in the setting it was a simple matter of smoothing the clay down and into the corners and edges of the piece. You can use fingers for this or modelling tools. Having previously jumped into the silver clay experience I was lucky enough to have some good modelling tools to hand, but really, anything can be used. Cocktail sticks, lolly sticks, ballpoint pens, etc etc. You get the picture.

Once I was satisfied that the surface of the clay was smooth and that all the corners of the setting had been filled I could set about the deliciously satisfying art of setting the crystals. The clay comes supplied with a little blob of beeswax attached to the tip of a toothpick and this is used to gently pick up a crystal and place it onto the clay. The beeswax holds the crystal so well that sometimes they don’t want to be separated but by rolling the toothpick across the top of the crystal the clay will hold the stone in place. Then it’s a simple matter of using the un-waxed end of the toothpick to press the crystal down into the clay.

It’s best to push the stone down so that its broadest part is flush with the clay. I found out the hard way that if the stone sits above the surface of the clay it will catch on your clothing later and come out with a ping! However don’t press it in below the surface of the clay or the stone’s light-catching abilities will be reduced and that would be a great shame as these little beauties can REALLY sparkle.

The real art of this particular product is in the placing of the stones into the clay. I’ve seen pieces where anything goes regarding pattern and these can be very eye-catching but I’m not very confidant in my abilities to pull that off so placed the stones in a regular and symmetrical pattern. I became more adventurous with my second attempt and chose a heart shaped pendant which I filled to overflowing with gold clay for a nice big fat chunky pendant and placed the stones to make a flower with a decorative trim at the three corners of the heart.

I had heard that it was possible to make a marbled effect by combining two different colour clays so, being an adventurous “try anything once” kinda girl, I had to give that a go. Once I’d reached a comfortable level of skill with the clay I set about making purple and silver marble.

I rolled out some premixed purple clay and made a long thin sausage with it before doing the same with some premixed silver clay and then coiled them both loosely together and gently squished them. I had to be careful at this point as overworking the colours will blend them into one colour. The end result was the gentle mottling and irregular striping of natural marble. When it came to decorating this clay with the crystals I was torn between smothering it in crystals and risk hiding the marble effect or holding off on the stones and let the marbled clay be the main feature. I went for the latter option and then simply highlighted the patterning with crystals. This became a bracelet of 5 marbled cabochons with the odd flash of tanzanite and black diamonds.

I’m very sad to say that at this point of my Crystal Clay experience I ran out of blanks to fill but still had lots of clay and stones left over. It’s been a week or more since I was last able to set crystals into clay and I now find myself looking around the house for things to cover in clay and sparkle up. It doesn’t just have to be jewellery items. Fridge magnets? Mobile phone covers? I need to do more. Now…..where’s the cat?….he’s been looking rather dull of late…..

Beading and sewing 192Os-inspired cap-sleeves onto a high-street top for added sparkle.

By Jeanne Spaziani- as featured in making magazine.

1. Print out the sleeve pattern (p82) and cut a test sleeve from a scrap of fabric similar to what you will be using for your sleeves. Pin it to the armhole and decide if you want to change the over-the-shoulder length or to move where the sleeve finishes at the front or back armholes. Adjust the pattern piece as needed bearing in mind that there is already 1cm of seam allowance included on all edges of the pattern.

2. Cut out a pair of sleeves from your fabric. If your fabric gives more in one direction than the other, cut so the stretchier grain runs over your shoulder and down the top of your arm and the less stretchier grain is the long edge that will be sewn to the armhole. Hem the scalloped edges which will be beaded with a small hand-rolled hem (this gives better support for holding the weight of the beads than simply leaving a raw edge, even on fabrics that don’t fray).

3. All beadwork for this project should be done with your needle threaded double for strength. Waxing your thread before sewing will help it pull smoothly and be less inclined to tangle. First I sewed a row of beads along the hem, back stitching each one on individually to make a strong base for the next step of adding fringe. Spread some beads out on your felt or velveteen lined tray and use your needle to pick the beads up, rather than your fingers. You will be able to pick up a few at a time like this when you get to the fringing step and in general it speeds things up.

4. After the entire hem had beads sewn on I started my fringe working from the centre of the sleeve hem out to either side thus making sure that my fringing started off dead centre. Thread your needle, wax the thread and make a knot in the end. Slide it from behind the rolled hem to hide the knot and do a tiny backstitch to make sure the knot won’t pull out of your fabric. Slide the needle through a hem bead and begin picking up beads with the needle in your chosen pattern and sliding them onto the thread. When you reach the bottom of the fringe strand pick up one last small bead to act as an anchor, pass through it only once and then slide your needle and thread back up through all the other beads of the strand finally coming out through the top bead again. If your piece of fringe is long you may have to gently coax the beads into their proper place just below the hem beads. Keep an eye on your thread tension – too loose and you will have bare thread showing when the fringe hangs – too tight and the strands of fringe will buckle and not hang nicely.

5. Slide your needle through another bead or three of the hem row (depending on the amount of spacing you want between each strand of fringe) and thread up beads for a second strand. Keep making strands like this until you have about 15cm of thread left (less than this and you could find yourself mid-strand without enough thread to finish it). Make a couple of tiny backstitches behind the rolled hem to make it secure and knot the thread off. I generally make two knots to be on the safe side. Re-thread your needle and keep on making strands of fringe. I generally got four or five fringe strands done with each needle threading.

6. To in-fill the body of the sleeve I made hanging strands about 7cm long radiating from a central cluster. To do this I started from behind the cluster, threaded through the desired beads, anchored the end where I wanted it and slid the needle and thread back through those beads to where I started and knotted off before starting another long strand. They hang nicely like this as well as covering more ground. Every so often pick up your sleeve to see how the beads hang to check you are happy with the effect. Remember to be sure your threads are very securely backstitched and knotted at both the beginning and ends of each section. A few single scattered beads on the sleeves and a section of beading across the front neckline pulled it all together. Time and patience will dictate how far you want to carry on – beading is a bit addictive!

7. When the sleeves are complete, lap the 1cm seam allowance under the inside side of the armhole, pin and stitch in place with tiny hand stitches. I stitched mine twice –along the raw edge of the seam allowance and again just behind the armhole binding.

8. Sewing in bra strap holders (you can buy ribbon ones at most haberdashery shops) on the inside shoulder seam of your top will help keep the beaded sleeves from dragging the shoulders of your top down as the beading adds more weight than you might think.

Steampunk- the best way to describe it is one foot in the age of steam, the other in present day!

The computer or laptop you’re currently using- it’s plastic and likely to be a bit bland and mass produced.

Imagine if the Victorian artisans had made your computer! It would be elaborately decorated with brass, polished wood, copper, glass, etching and engraving- decoration for the sake of decoration.

Steampunk is……. What if the future had happened sooner?

The best thing about Steampunk in jewellery making is that all the conventional rules are completely thrown out the window. Materials that you wouldn’t normally put together, colours that you wouldn’t normally marry, the emphasis and use of coils and mechanical parts and items do not even need to be symmetrical to be easy on the eye.

Aquiring the materials is very easy and recycling is greatly encouraged- use old jewellery, break down broken watches and even bottle caps!

So, with a little imagination, anything is possible with Steampunk.

Steampunk themed Charm Bracelet

This project was designed by Sian Lyndsay Williamson. Sian is a currently self-taught and runs her website from home, based in Staffordshire. Since moving from her St. Andrews hometown 5 years ago, Sian took up jewellery crafting after struggling to find employment, and has never looked back. Sian hopes to gain her qualifications when her two young sons are in full time education.

Here’s how to make a very quick and easy Steampunk themed Charm Bracelet:

You will need:

Antique Black Jumprings

Gold Plated curb chain

3 Feature Charms- e.g. Swooping Swallow, Owl, Hearts and Keys, Dragonfly, Moon Maiden

Toggle and Clasp

Gold Plated Head Pins

Pink Glass Bead Mix

 Daisy Spacers

Tiny hearts and butterfly spacers

Filigree connectors

Quartz chipstones 

Reclaimed cogs

Chain nose pliers

Round nose pliers

Flush cutters

 Step 1

Start with 35 links of curb chain and attach the clasp and toggle to each end.

Step 2

Slide a tiny butterfly spacer and approximately 4 large quartz chipstones onto a headpin. Make a lopp in the pin, feed onto a link of the chain and wrap the wire around twice. Snip the excess and tuck the wire in.

Using a jumpring, attach a feature pendant to the next but one link along. Mount a glass bead through a headpin between two daisy spacers and attach to the chain using the same method as above.

Step 3

Slide a tiny heart spacer on a headpin and attach this to a cog part. Connect the filigree connector using a jumpring.

Step 4

Connect the filagree to the curb chain, using a jumpring.

Step 5

Fill out the rest of the curb chain, spacing out evenly.

Variant- Why not try with different chipstones? Here I’ve used Carnelian and added detail to the cogs with Swarovski Crystals.

You might want to make the feature pendants yourself from art clay silver, copper clay, bronze clay or even wood clay for a more unique touch.

After searching the globe for the most attractive ranges of beads, we are now extremely pleased to reveal the launch of our BRAND NEW expanded range!

One of the most exciting things about making your own jewellery is choosing the perfect beads for your design so we have a fantastic range of over 2,500 bead designs to choose from.

Our range includes Glass, Seed, Semi-Precious, Wood, Acrylic and many more which will inspire you to create a myriad of different designs!

We are all aware of the cost of precious metals and therefore incorporating beads into your designs or creating completely beaded jewellery is a highly affordable and exciting alternative. With a beautiful array of colours and finishes to choose from, you can find your creativity through colour and inspiration.

Our New Beading Range also boasts big brands such as Miyuki, Preciosa and Swarovski. Also hot on trend this year are shamballa bracelets and now we stock both the shamballa cord and shamballa crystal beads so you can creat your very own fashion piece!

There has never been a more exciting time to work with beads as this art  form is constantly evolving, mixing traditional techniques with new, exciting methods and uses too. With so many different and unique ways to use our vast array of beads, we have a comprehensive beading book range to help all contemporary bead workers.

Not only do we stock over 2,500 different beads we also stock a great range of the beading tools and stringing products to match- as well as the perfect storage to keep your beads!

All are products can be found in our brand new Bead book for everything you’ll ever bead! You can claim your FREE COPY today by clicking here!

PLUS why not join our Bead Mail Club to find out what we’re up to including hot news, exclusive offers and freepost events?

Our weekly communications will keep you up to date with what’s happening here at Cookson Beads. You will be the first to hear about our new products, offers and inspirational projects!

Click here to sign up!

Get it while stock lasts!! When you spend £50 or more online at Cooksongold you get our Bear at the Bench for FREE! When you place your order, just enter “FREEBEAR” into the e-voucher code field to claim yours!! The 10″ cute bear loves soldering, hammering, polishing, can give good hugs and relax with you during weekends!! He is ideal as a Christmas present for your friends, family or even as a Christmas gift for your customers. He can also stay and help out in your own workshop! To learn more about taking him home for FREE click here!  Alternatively, you can also purchase our Bear at the Bench for ONLY £4.99 (Was £9.99) by clicking here!

Did you know that our little companion now also has a Facebook page? People are following him in his adventures and having fun with his give-aways! Last time he was playing “hide and seek” on the Cooksongold website. Find out what he will do next: Become a fan to be one of the jewellers to enjoy his experiences!

P.S. We also have a Facebook page: like Cooksongold for even more fun and competitions, hints and tips on jewellery tools, jewellery making techniques, share your artwork and see others jewellers’ designs and so many more!!