Jewellery & Fashion

Author: Drew

  • Making your own jewellery

    You don’t need to have completed a course to be able to make your own jewellery, it’s something that is becoming more widely accessible to the generally public without the need for too many complex skills to make beautiful pieces.

    Many craft stores now sell jewellery making kits and you can order many supplies online to help to cut costs. Most of the craft sets come with instructions on how to make a few different items but often the best way to learn the different techniques is to watch free online tutorials.

    Making your own jewellery can be very therapeutic and can be a real money saver in making great personalised gifts for your family at Christmas and other occasions.

    It’s always best to start off with a small beginners kit then if you find that you enjoy it you can always add to your collection by buying additional products online, if you show a real flair for it you could even look to sell the pieces you make.

  • Where to go for maternity clothes

    When you find out that you are pregnant you tend to start filling your head with ideas of little neat baby-bumps that are dressed in all the latest fashions sported by the pregnant celebs of that season. However when you come to buy said perfect outfits you are faced with one rack of uber casual lounge wear (if you’re lucky) in your usual high street stores and not much else. You then turn to your current wardrobe and convince yourself that you’re sure some of it will still fit when you get a bump, after all how big can one person get??! The answer? Well let’s just presume that your current wardrobe is very unlikely to see you through the whole of your pregnancy.

    So where do you turn? The internet.

    Thankfully there are plenty of yummy-mummy types out there who have realised the problems pregnant women face in trying to find fashionable yet comfortable maternity wear and there is a wide range of options online to suit all occasions. So get online and order some fashion gems, but just ensure that the company you order from has a good returns policy just in case the items are not right once you get them home.

  • A guide to clothes shopping

    When you need to revamp your wardrobe it can be hard to get good quality items without blowing your budget buying numerous tops, dresses and trousers that you may end up only wearing once.

    The best tip given by stylists such as Gok Wan is to buy only a few staple items that can be mixed and matched together to provide you with what’s known as a capsule wardrobe.

    Think about the items that you buy in terms of them being good quality and versatile enough to wear with other items in your wardrobe. For example a stylish tailored jacket could we worn with jeans for a trendy ‘pub outfit’ as well as with smart trousers for a professional look as well as being teamed with a dress for a smart formal look.

    Also bear in mind that a versatile item such as a little black dress can be teamed with relatively cheap fashion jewellery to completely change its look to suit different occasions.
    You really don’t need to spend a lot to get a fabulous wardrobe, just shop smart.

  • Inventive ways to store your jewellery

    Jewellery boxes often end up a big tangled mess of bracelets, necklaces and earrings all tied up together and easily broken in the mad rush of trying to untangle them, however there are some better ways of storing your jewellery to avoid this problem:-

    • Get a cork noticeboard and put peg style pins in equal spaces to hang necklaces on, one necklace per pin will avoid the chance of them becoming tangled.
    • Save the polystyrene from boxed items that you have brought to store earrings in, the earring will easily push into the foam even with the back on.
    • Use small screw in hooks on the inside of your wardrobe door to hang necklaces and bracelets on that way they are to hand when you are choosing an outfit.
    • And for something really different why not put some tree branches in a vase then hang necklaces from them, this doubles up as an impressive room decoration as well as a handy place to store your jewellery.

  • How to clean your jewellery

    When you first buy new jewellery whether it be a necklace, bracelet or a ring it is almost buffed to a dazzling shine however after a couple of months of wear it can start to look dull and in the case on intricate metal-work it can actually become quite dirty.

    All jewellery can be cleaned however some jewellery is more tricky than others. To clean a detailed piece that contains gem stones you need to be careful not to use anything too abrasive and to ensure that you don’t loosen the stone, the best thing for this is to use a mild hand soap and a soft toothbrush to gently polish out any muck from hard to reach places without damaging the item.

    To clean tarnished silver items one of the best things to use is toothpaste! Rub the toothpaste into the tarnished areas then buff off with a soft cloth, this will take off any grim and return the natural shine to the silver.

    You can buy gold and silver polishing cloths however these household items do the job just as well if not better!