Last weekend I attended a craft and Makers Market in Newport, Shropshire.
The theme for the day was Halloween, which is not something I particularly do although I have made spiders and cobweb themed jewellery it isn't just aimed at the Halloween market.
I was just going to take a few of those along to the fair as a nod to the theme but then we received an email inviting the stall holders to dress in Halloween costume, definitely not something I have ever done before but before long I had remembered a crown I had been thinking of making a few years back and never quite got round to doing so decided that it might be a good opportunity to try out the design.
I started by knitting some black spikes with wire and beads. I then crocheted a band with even more spikes and attached the knitted spikes to the band and attached some thicker wire to give it some support. I decided to keep all the loose ends on show twisting some and using them to help add a bit more structure by joining adjacent spikes together.
I felt as though I had to then make a spiky black tiara to take along to the market too.
I couldn't just stop at the crown and tiara , I also crocheted a necklace and matching earrings - (no photos of those I'm sorry! ) I was tempted to make these very elaborate but I was running out of black wire at this point so kept them fairly simple. This left me with just enough wire to crochet a couple of hand jewellery pieces, again not something I have ever made before but I thought I should give it a go!
I was asked after making these if I have a pattern for them. I'm afraid I don't have patterns, Everything I make is made up as I go along. But I am happy to describe the basic making process for you.
First of all I made the cobwebs by cutting four lengths of reasonably thick wire and joining them in the centre with thinner black wire which I then continued to roughly wrap around the eight spokes moving towards the ends of the spokes. When I only had around 1cm of wire left on each spoke I made a closed loop with my pliers to stop the wire wrapping falling off.
Once the cobwebs were completed I used the thinner black wire with glass beads and crocheted a chain of stitches half the required bracelet - this depends on your wrist size place but to check place one end of your crocheted chain where the clasp would sit and take the chain around your wrist. once you have reached the half way point crochet a short length of chain stitch and attach to the end of one of the cobweb spokes then crochet back into the short length of crochet back to the bracelet chain and continue to chain stitch to the required length for the bracelet and attach a clasp.
Next I made the ring attachment by crocheting a chain long enough to make a loop that fitted around my middle finger, I then joined the loop and then crocheted a short length of chain stitch to attach to another of the spokes. I then tidied the ends and hey presto, hand jewellery completed.. I then made a second for my other hand!