Colorful hairpins

Other

Round acrylic cabochon grass green 12 mm CB-R001B

Round acrylic cabochon burgundy red 12 mm CB-R001FA

Round acrylic cabochon cobalt blue 12 mm CB-R001AB

Hairpin bronze with round setting for cabochon 12 mm HS014

Faux Druzy jewelry set

Faux druzy jewelry set - parts

These acrylic cabochons are made to simulate crystal gemstone druzy. They are black with a baroque surface, and the colour changes from peacock blue to green.
We offer a wide range of earhooks, rings, settings and hairpin to mount these stones - making your own jewelry line can be as easy as that!

Combinaties

Ring antique bronze with ornament setting for cabochon 12 mm RNG027

Earstud bronze with round setting for cabochon 12 mm OS001

Earring hooks bronze with round setting for cabochon of 12 mm OH016

Earrings bronze with round setting for 18 mm cabochon OH017A

Hairpin bronze with round setting for cabochon 12 mm HS014

Faux druzy resin cabochon round 18 mm CABM086B

Ring bronze with round setting for 18 mm cabochon RNG028

Faux druzy resin cabochon round 12 mm CABM086A

Making earrings with vintage rhinestones

Recently we introduced a new line of materials for jewelry making: vintage rhinestones and brass prong settings. These rhinestones differ from cameos and cabochons in that they don't have a flat back for gluing, but they can be set in the matching prong settings. These settings have four metal points that can be folded over the rhinestones with a pair of flat nose pliers. Many of these rhinestones were made a long time ago in former Czechoslovakia. If you are familiar with Czech glass beads, you will know how radiant the colours are and that it is high quality glass. You can find rhinestones with and without foil on the back. The foil is used in the transparent stones to reflect light through the stone, making them sparkle even more. To give you some inspiration, here is a tutorial for some earrings made with vintage rhinestone

Materials for making vintage rhinestone earrings.

What do you need?

• Rhinestones
• Prong settings
• Earrings
• Jump rings for connecting the pieces
• A pair of flat nose pliers

Put the rhinestone in the prong setting and fold the metal points over the stone.

Tips on assembling the earrings

• The first time you try to close a prong setting might feel a bit clumsy.
• The easiest way is to put the stone in the open setting and hold them between the thumb and index finger of your left hand (if you are right handed). Holding a pair of flat nose pliers in your right hand, push/squeeze the metal prongs over the stones one by one.
• The earrings that were used here have an opening in their eyelet. You can fold this open so you don't need an extra ring to hang the setting from.

Attach the prong setting to the eyelet on the earring.

Combinaties

Gold earwire with fuchsia pink rhinestone OH013B

Jump ring gold 4 mm OR-G001

Vintage rhinestone ruby emerald green pear 10x6 mm PNS-P008

Vintage rhinestone navette opaque turquoise 15x7 mm PNS-NV008

Prong setting with 2 loops for pear rhinestone brass 8x5 mm KLZ-P001B

Prong setting with 1 loop for navette rhinestone brass 15x4 mm KLZ-NV002A

Prong setting with 2 loops for navette rhinestone brass 15x7 mm KLZ-NV001B

Gold earwire with cobalt blue rhinestone OH013C

Testing for nickel

Nickel allergy: It's a problem many women run into when they wear jewelry. Nickel is a metal that is commonly used in metal alloys. And not just in cheap materials; even low-content gold is sometimes mixed with nickel. An allergic reaction usually occurs when you have been exposed to nickel for a longer period of time (and if you are sensitive to it, of course). Most coins, for example, contain some nickel, but we never touch them long enough to get a reaction. But if you were to wear an earring with traces of nickel, then that could result in unpleasant reactions. It may cause itching, eczema, or make your earlobes swell up. In short, this is something you really don't want when you're wearing jewelry!

This is why I have always been very cautious about buying metal parts. I have never blindly trusted my suppliers' promises that their products were nickel-free.
Recently, I have started testing my metal products for nickel myself. I bought a nickel-test at an on-line allergy shop. Thy sent me a plain white bottle, containing a substance called Dymethyl Glymoxime. You just need one drop on the metal you are testing, and then you rub it in for about a minute. If your cotton swab turns pink, then your metal contains nickel.
The first time I tried this out, hardly anything happened. The cotton swab turned a bit brownish. Was this nickel, or just some dirt or tarnish on the surface? I looked for some jewelry that I was sure contained nickel.
This is what happened to the bracelet. I put a drop of the tester on the back, and the liquid changed colour immediately. This was pink. This was nickel!

A second bracelet gave even more exciting results. The liquid spontaneously turned fuchsia and spread through the material. Rubbing wasn't necessary, the test was positive.

Baroque earrings

One of the nicest current fashion trends is the Baroque influence. In clothing this can mainly been in the use of heavy brocade fabrics, often with large embroidered panels with bouquets of roses. And think lots of gold, black and false pearls. Fashion house Dolce and Gabbana in particular have reintroduced this style of extravagance, and it is this feeling that inspired these earrings. They are large and quite heavy – in short, a piece of jewelry to make a statement with and impress!


What do you need?

• A pair of ready-to-use earrings with large ornaments is used as a base.
• Besides these, each earring combines one large porcelain flower cabochon with several small porcelain rose beads.

Just fiddle around a bit with the flowers until you have found a look that you like. Maybe you would rather use flowers all in one colour? At least try putting the loose flowers on the ornament first, before starting to glue them down. That way you will know for sure that everything will fit properly. Of course the bead flowers have holes in them, by the way, but the backs have a flat surface that is ideal for gluing onto things.

• Glue. For these earrings I used Hasulith jewelry glue.
• If you want, you can use a toothpick or headpin to spread the glue on the materials.
• The earrings don't come with earnuts (backs), but these are available for sale separately.

Other tips for assembling your earrings

• It is better to start out with too little glue rather than too much. Let it dry for half an hour and then test whether all the flowers are properly attached. Then you can add some extra glue where needed.
• I put the earrings flat on a white peace of paper to dry. I think the flowers are too heavy to let them dry at an angle. Some of the glue leaked through the earrings onto the paper, causing some bits of paper to get stuck to the back of the earrings. But using a little bit of sandpaper on the back of the ornament was enough to remove these.

Combinaties

Porcelain beads small roses 9 mm pastel mix PC-BL001B

Porcelain beads small roses 10 mm pastel mix PC-BL001A

Porcelain cabochon bouquet roses green and pink 20 mm CAB-PC001B

Hasulith Glue 31 ml L001

Long earstud with large baroque ornament pendant 70x45 mm OS003A

Earnut for earstud gold 5x4 mm DOP006

Daisy headband

These acrylic head bands are a cute base for some decoration with cheerful flowers. The headbands are a little over 3 cm wide at the widest point, so these daisy cabochons have the perfect size to make a pretty edge over the top. Both the headbands and the daisies are available in many different colours, so the possible combinations are endless.
For this tutorial I chose a black headband and classical white and yellow daisies.

Materials
1. Acrylic headband
2. Daisy flower cabochons, 7 pieces
3. Glue. Here I used Hasulith jewelry glue.

Tips for decorating the headband
1. Use a large amount of glue for each flower. Because the headband is round and the cabochons are flat, they can use some extra glue in order to attach them securely.
2. Attach the daisies in steps. I started out by gluing on the three flowers in the middle. Then I let the headband rest upside-down, to keep the cabochons from moving while the glue is still fluid. After about 15 minutes you can do the left side, let it rest again, and then do the right side.
3. Then let the headband dry for a long time, at least 24 hours. After all, there are holes in the headband where the glue can come through (and get into your hair if it hasn't dried properly).

Combinaties

Hasulith Glue 31 ml L001

Flower Cabochon Daisy 27 mm CABR103