Kit Review - Country Garden Earrings from Spellbound Bead Co

Create 25 pairs of floral earrings in time for summer!

Country Garden Earring Creative Pack - Autumnal colour way

When Christine at Spellbound Bead Co asked me to review this creative pack, I will be perfectly honest and tell you that I didn't think I would need the instruction booklet that comes with all the supplies. I've made lots of flowery earrings before, and thought I'd find the designs included far too easy. Boy, was I wrong! I learned lots of new techniques, particularly in creating stems and stamens from wire, and the designs I made from the instructions provided were so much better than those I might have come up with on my own.

Country Garden Earring Creative Pack - Azure colourway

Looking at what comes with the kit — alongside the detailed instruction booklet comes a selection of lucite shapes including leaves and flowers of different types, three sizes of seed beads in a variety of colours, lots of tiny glass trumpet flowers and leaves along with glass pearls, facets, headpins, silver plated wire and enough earring findings to make 25 pairs of earrings. All you need to add are the tools. Just a pair of round nosed pliers, wire cutters and chain nosed pliers should suffice. Oh, and a tape measure if you want to follow the instructions precisely and cut all your headpins and wire lengths exactly to size.

My first piece of advice when starting with this kit echoes that given on the first page of the booklet included. Make sure to read the 'Before You Begin' section that covers all the techniques and materials needed. It will help a lot if you understand all the different lucite shapes too!

If you are new to jewellery making or to the techniques used, then it is definitely a good idea to start with the simpler designs introduced first in the booklet. I should say here that the designs are very sensibly ordered so that you may master simpler skills first before adding in more tricky techniques using wire. I began with the Bluebells earrings and worked my way through the next eight designs before I had a go at earrings further on in the booklet and even having a go at my own designs. Each design has a clear list of the ingredients required and a lovely photograph of the finished earrings so you can check your work easily.

One of the great things about this kit is that none of the earrings take very long to make. You could whip up a pair to match your summer dress at a moment's notice, or quickly create a last minute gift for a friend. Available in Candy (pink, white and blue), Garden (purple, pink and lilac), Azure (blue, green and purple) and Autumnal (black, red and gold), you will find it tricky to choose which colour way to buy. I tested the Azure kit but I now have my eye on the Autumnal pack with its inclusion of reds and bolder colours.

Here are some of my finished earrings displayed on my new flower pot earring stands. Find out how to make the pots here.

The Country Garden Earrings Creative Pack is available from Spellbound Bead Co and is priced at £29.95 which works out at around £1.20 per pair of earrings! 

We have a pack to give away to one lucky winner!
To enter, just leave a comment on this post with your preferred colour way and we will pick a winner at random after midday on Monday 6th June. Which colour will you choose?