Black and White

Black and white are such easy colours to wear and I just love this look: so classy teamed up with black and off-white accessories. However, it can be a little boring! Enhance with brightly coloured accessories (I love red but other colours would be equally as effective) for a more daring outfit.

Ruby Gold Murano Heart Pendant, Crystal Pearls Bracelet - Black, Black Murano Heart Pendant and Topaz Gold Murano Heart Pendant from www.juliewaltonjewellery.co.uk.

Symphony dress from All Saints

Symphony by juec featuring printed tote bags

All Saints knit dress
$175 - allsaints.com

Belstaff leather boots
£450 - net-a-porter.com

Mulberry printed tote bag
$1,350 - lagarconne.com

Went to Birmingham today looking for Christmas presents, but came home with the Symphony dress from All Saints for me. It looks fab on, and can't wait to wear it. I already have boots similar to those shown and now need to save up for the bag. Maybe I'll be lucky and get it for Christmas!


Below is a collection of jewellery that would look amazing with this set, and is available to purchase from my on-line shop at www.juliewaltonjewellery.co.uk. Unfortunately, I haven't mastered the art of adding my own designs to Polyvore yet! 

Large white Freshwater Pearls with a focal offset Agate Geode slice, Crystal Pearls Bracelet (Bronze), with Charm and Crystal Pearl Earrings (Bronze) available from www.juliewaltonjewellery.co.uk.

I won Cookson Gold 'Design of the Week' Competition

OMG I am so excited! A couple of weeks ago I happened to notice that Cookson Gold, a company I sometimes buy silver from were having a 'Design of the Week' competition and so I decided to enter with this wonderful bracelet I made for my birthday last year (hubby bought the silver, and his parents bought the gemstones). It is made from a multilink chain with around 100 Multi-Gemstone Faceted Rondelles (Citrine, Peridot, Aquamarine, Carnelian, Amethyst, Moonstone, etc, etc) attached to it, and I absolutely love it. It goes with anything and I wear it lots!

I was a bit dubious about entering the bracelet as I'd actually made it last year but I'd only just decided on what catch to put on it and had finished it that week so, hey ho!

Now, I never ever win any competitions, so imagine my delight when I received an E-Mail telling me I'd won! Not only that, it wasn't even a prize draw competition. It was one where people had actually liked my design.

The prize was a Dremel Versaflame, which means I now have the ability to solder my own links and hopefully create designs that I couldn't do before, so watch this space (although I need to master it first) and hopefully, I won't burn the house down!!

Latest Murano glass Beads purchased

I bought some lovely, new Murano glass hearts yesterday. What do you think? They are such beautiful colours aren’t they, and I can’t wait to start making them up.

The main reason for buying them is that a very good friend of mine is having a Jewellery Party for me early November and suggested that I have a selection of charms available, as they will make nice, inexpensive Christmas presents, especially for those people that already have the fashionable bracelets with a charm carrier fitted. This means that with a neutral coloured bracelet, you could have a selection of charms to suit different coloured outfits, particularly as the Murano glass beads come in a myriad of colours and a variety of shapes. Yesterday, I only purchased the hearts but on reflection, maybe I should have bought some of the other shapes too! They could also be hung on the more traditional Sterling Silver charm bracelets, and if you had one of each colour the bracelet would go with any outfit, and what a talking point!

Did you know that Murano glass is handmade on the little island of Murano in Italy close to Venice, and is some of the most beautiful in the world? Click here to find out more.

I already have a selection of Murano glass heart jewellery (pendants and earrings) for sale. Check out the Murano Hearts page on my website for the colours currently available.

New Logo

Wow, I've had a busy and challenging day! This morning I decided it was time to have a go at creating a new logo for Julie Walton - Handmade beaded Jewellery.

For a while now, I've had a favourite necklace and, what I think, is a fab photo of it (particularly as a lot of my photos are not as good as I'd like)! My husband and I also liked the look of my "new look" Blog, which I tackled about a week ago, so with those two in mind I have come up with this using Microsoft Powerpoint, which I'm really pleased with.

Next step was to upload it to Facebook - no problem. Then Twitter - oops, couldn't get that to work until I realised that the file size was too large so the photo had to be resaved as a .jpg which resolved the problem.

Then I realised that I had followed a number of people on Blogger via Twitter which was showing as my old photo. What I really wanted to do was follow everyone using Google. How do I stop following blogs I currently follow via Twitter? Well, I didn't know how I'd done it in the first place so that was already a problem! Then I found this link http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/blogger/thread?tid=0d3deac6621df89b&hl=en

Well, that was OK but I obviously didn't really understand the answer so after a lot of tinkering, the answer finally fell into place. Now, all links to Blogs I follow are via Google with the logo above showing. Yeh, a successful day, and I'm now more knowledgeable than I was this morning!

Your thoughts on the logo would be gratefully received.

Julie x

Refreshing my ‘worn out’ Fashion Jewellery

I am a person that hates throwing anything away and therefore, takes time over buying anything (not just jewellery). I would rather pay more for what I really want knowing that it will last years. In the past, with jewellery though, the choices were limited: the High Street Jeweller with very fine, petit pieces that did nothing for me, or were out of my price range, or fashion jewellery which was much more exciting but had a relatively short life. Luckily, today, there is so much more choice.


However, over the years I have purchased some lovely, fashion jewellery but have got frustrated when a favourite piece started looking tatty but I still wanted to wear it, or it has been made from a Copper based material which reacts with my skin, leaving me surrounded by an unpleasant metallic aroma.

Now I have no excuse. With some of the pieces I love, there is the opportunity to refresh them replacing cheap plastic crystals and pearls with Swarovski Crystallized Elements and gemstones, the Brass or worn out silver plated chain with Sterling Silver and chunky Silver Plated charms that are now more coppery than silver with Precious Metal Clay, something I’ve not had a go at yet!


Today is the day I start, with a lovely green necklace on a Brass chain!

Click on this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Costume_jewelryfor a great description of Fashion Jewellery, otherwise known as Costume Jewellery.


Julie x

Preparing for Chatsworth Country Fair

I'm really looking forward to my next show on September 2/3/4 where Julie Walton - Handmade Beaded Jewellery will have a stand in the Rural Crafts Association marquee at Chatsworth Country Fair. It isn't a place I've taken my jewellery before, and with attendance reported as being around 100,000 there's an air of anticipation and nervousness around the house, particularly as I'm a perfectionist and everything has to look just so for me to be happy with it.


However, there is lots of preparation to do beforehand to ensure the stand looks really professional. We have to bring the whole stand with us so Son and I are off to collect stand fittings and associated paraphernalia such as curtains, extra lighting, etc, from Mum and Dad's today so we can do a 'dummy run' at the weekend. My Mum, Jean Martin Originals, has been in the business for a number of years and is well kitted out for this type of fair, than goodness!


Over the past few weeks I have been busy ordering extra display equipment, most of which arrived yesterday, and a banner (which I am really excited about) so if you do go to the Fair, look out for me and please come and say 'Hi'.

Thankfully, most of the orders have arrived now and I can turn my attention back to making jewellery. I already have some lovely pieces (two pretty coin and stick pearl necklaces with the most amazing Thai Karen Hill tribe silver clasps and a bold, modern looking facetted, matt black Onyx and Sterling Silver necklace) waiting to go to the Assay Office for hallmarking but I don't want to be too hasty in taking them as there may be more. Luckily, the Birmingham Assay Office provides a quick and professional service. I'm also expecting a delivery of Swarovski Crystallized Elements today, so hopefully there'll be some glitz on the stand too.

Hope to see you there


Julie x