Featured Crafter, Diane Ward.

Along with blogging about me me me, I want to feature some of the other crafters who are on Folksy or Etsy from time to time, hopefully to get the point across that ‘handmade’ doesn’t mean cheap and cheerful, but quality and finesse.

So to begin with, I’d like to add a short feature about a fellow beader and crafter and include some of her work.

Didy Ward describes herself as a bit of a magpie. Well we all do to a certain extent, that’s half the attraction of crafting, the excuse to stock up on pretty things… and make more pretty things from them!. Didy lives in Suffolk, and has always crafted in one way or another, crochet, embroidery etc since she was a little girl, but her move to Suffolk prompted her to look at gemstones and jewellery-making.

This was largely because she couldn’t find a necklace to go with a particular outfit so decided to make one herself, after all, how hard can it be? At that moment she immersed herself in a strange new world of ‘findings’, ‘crimps’ and ‘jumprings’. Like most jewellery-makers, she soon had a boxful, and another, then another, slowly taking over the house.

It was when someone suggested she try selling them, that she took it all much more seriously and upped her game. Taking up semi-precious gemstones, and beadwork with tiny seed beads, she grew and grew. Now she has her own website, didihandmadejewllery and a shop to feature her beadwork on Folksy.

Didy has a particular fascination for gemstones. She says, ‘My first love is semiprecious gemstones.  I adore those little beauties!  I particularly like them at their most natural, in rough cut and only lightly polished states.  I really like mixing rough things with smooth and a few of my designs incorporate rough cut stones, or little chip stones, with smoother rounds or ovals.’

‘But I have crazes for other things.  I used to sew a lot when I was younger and have always liked fabrics.  There is a wonderful fabric shop, a mecca for quiltmakers, near where I live and, having invested in a badge making machine recently, I now have the perfect excuse to browse all those delicious fat quarters and am churning out fabric covered handbag mirrors at a rate of knots.’

Didy also attends a lot of craft fairs, mainly in Southwold. Here are some examples of Didy’s work.

  

Blue Lace Agate Necklace 'Bohemia'.

Monet Blue Beadwork Long Necklace.

Aventurine and Hemimorphite necklace.

Topaz Russian Spiral Necklace

Fabric Covered Handbag Mirror