On the Bottles.....

I have been making bottles for the perfumery this morning. In between that and the real world of cookies I have been busy.

First of all, here are the tools and supplies. I have needle nosed pliers, chain nosed pliers, and wire cutters. I used E-6000 glue or you could also use Crafter's Goop. That dries faster and is messy. They both smell equally bad so work in a well vented area if you attempt this.

The supplies are a lot of jewelry maker's headpins. These are easier to work with than straight pins. They will cut with the small jeweler's cutters and not put dents in the blades. I have lots of miscellaneous beads and findings. If you are just starting out you can tear old jewelry apart to get what you need, bead wise. Flat findings and the tin trays out of eye and lip makeup work for trays.

Basically, all you need to do is string some beads and findings on the headpins and snip them off just above the beads after they are dry.

Here you can see that I used a couple of jump rings glued to the bottom of the green beads to make them stand up.

The red Chinese bead with the gold top and bottom pieces didn't need a headpin.

It takes longer to choose the beads and findings than it does to put them together. You have to experiment until you find the right combination.

Here is what I ended up with.
Yes, it is a close up so that you can't see the box yet. I need to find something to fill in the corners.

Reading from top to bottom and left, to right I have the following combinations. The green with gold findings are glass beads from an assortment of inexpensive beads from India that Wal Mart carries. The red orange ones in the center are from a tassel that came with something totally unrelated to bead work.

The second shelf beads are all from either crystal, cut glass or Venetian blown glass. The crystal is from a lucky find at a thrift shop. They sell bags of "junk" jewelry at Salvation Army stores. Sometimes they throw in the good stuff just because it is broken.

The third shelf is a mixture. The little gold powder boxes are baubles from the end of some gaudy earrings. I put a jump ring on the bottom of each one to make them stand up straight.

If you have any square beads they make great fancy tissue holders. Poke a little piece of cut off corner of a Kleenex or other tissue and stuff the center into the hole or put some glue in the center of the tissue and glue it to the top of the square. It all depends on how big the hole is.

Tomorrow I will have the corners filled in and the box will able to be shown. I am going back to being "Crazy Cookie Lady" now. So many cookies. So little time til Christmas!!!

See you tomorrow.