Necklaces

Tubular Peyote Stitch

 ROPES!

One of my personal favorites for wearing is a simple beaded rope.  It is basic and classy, but it can be as colorful as I want.  Pendants are easily added, as well.  Here are some variations that I have worked up:

Russian Spiral

Russian Spiral with hex beads and matching earrings
Above is a close-up of the toggle closure

Russian Spiral with a removable pendant
 in shaped peyote

Russian Spiral with a removable fringe pendant

OTHER BEADWOVEN NECKLACES

Daisy Chain with dangles and
a  fun bow-shaped toggle clasp

Netted collar

Reversible necklace with shaped peyote triangles

Russian Spiral with drop-shaped beads
on black leather

MIXED-MEDIA DABBLING

Asymmetrical necklace featuring Bali copper chain, etched copper,
stone and composite beads

Hand-cut and forged copper pendant
with beaded dangles

Hand-made, enameled copper leaves
create a simple bib-style

Red Creek Jasper rounds with beaded bead caps
and spiral stitch

Hand-forged components combined with chocolately silk and Bali copper chain,
featuring a cluster of Red Creek Jasper faceted rondelles

Sand and Sea Asymmetrical Necklace
with rustic shadow-box component

Soldered leaf tile pendant
with glass and pewter beads

Bracelets

Embossed Copper with dangles and Bali chain
plus hand-forged clasp

Nepal Chain...
so dainty!

Three-strand bracelet of hand-dyed silk ribbon
with glass leaves, wire, wood, crystal and glass pearl dangles

Steel wirework with jade, glass and crystal beads,
featuring a hand-stamped copper link

New Earrings

I spent the morning photographing jewelry so I could share!

Workspaces Wednesday

We received an offer on our house one week after we put it on the market.  There are still steps to be taken, but I felt I had every right to reclaim my desk for jewelry purposes.  Yay!  On Wednesday, these were some of the goodies you could find strewn about:

These 12mm round beads are Stone Creek Jasper and I am in love with them.  I had a strand and these seven were my favorites.  The copper cones were my first attempt at this style of component (inspired by Kristi Bowman and Kiersten Giles.)  They are lightly textured and have a fire patina.  They are imperfect and I love them.

Deryn Mentock's blog, SimplySublime, has me mesmerized.  Her work is so intricate and rich.  She uses a lot of religious imagery and relics that were in the back of my mind when I went on a long-awaited treasure hunt.  Lo and behold, I found a tray of antique French religious medallions.  I chose these two with the Sacred Heart of Jesus.  Not being Catholic, I needed to learn the exact significance of this depiction.  As you might expect, the physical heart represents Christ's divine love for humanity.  Wikipedia states, "The devotion especially emphasizes the unmitigated love, compassion, and long-suffering of the heart of Christ towards humanity." 

 More antique mall finds!  Vintage Latin flashcards meaning truth, alone, so much and soul.  I see some soldered pendants in their future.

 Game tiles.  I have plans for each of these and I'm on the hunt for a bingo "27."

Weirdness that I love.  This long rope necklace is various seeds.  What caught my eye were the slices of walnut since we have had a black walnut tree in our yard for 11 years.  They are so unbearably messy and painful to step on when the squirrels have had their way with them that it is only right to transform them into art when I have the opportunity!

One final picture.  This has never happened to me before and it freaked me out.  I was annealing a piece of 12 gauge copper wire with my torch and it broke in half, fell onto my beading mat and started things on fire.  I was frantically trying to snuff it out, but most everything within my reach was also flammable!  The bead mat and my desk were the only casualties, and I am counting my blessings.  Needless to say, I am working more carefully now.

Workspaces Wednesday

I didn't forget about "Workspaces Wednesday."
There IS NO WORKSPACE

Our house went on the market yesterday, after many, many delays.  This is our first house and we have lived here for eleven years.  We pretty much planned to live here forever and my here-and-there stashes of craft supplies, kids' stuffed animals and old pictures were quite comfortable where they were!  Well, adventure and God are calling and we will be heading to Colorado Springs in August so that my DH can attend worship ministry school.

We've known we were leaving (kinda) since last August, (pretty sure) since November, and (for sure) since March.  I avoided touching my desk and my shelf workspace until the day before the house listed.  In fact, my recent favorite area--the long, low shelf--no longer exists.  Once I had the shelves cleared off,  my quick and dirty carpentry job looked fairly hideous.  (Note to DIYers: Building grade lumber is NOT sufficient for furniture.  Not even shelves that you will cover up.  If you paint them, the knots just work their way out and all the caulk in the world will not keep them from warping.)  So, I dismantled them.

I know that, wherever we land, I'm going to want a surface just like that one...only not hideous.  Maybe Ikea will come through for me.  Or my father-in-law.  His shelves don't warp.

Workspaces Wednesday

A new feature...WORKSPACES WEDNESDAY

This idea is not original to me, but I've seen it on other artist's blogs and think it is a lot of fun.  Plus, I'm hoping it will give me some accountability to finish projects and clear off some workspaces!

Some people have "work bench" or "work table" Wednesday.  I use a lot of different spaces, though. There's always one beside my bed where I often sit and putter at the end of the day.  I also have a desk.  My current favorite, though, is the the top of a long, low set of shelves.  It works well for torch-firing enamel, so a piece of galvanized steel lives there.  When I'm not enameling, the steel can also handle resin and liver of sulfur spills or hot wires that I've just torched to get a balled end.  So, our tour begins here!

First project: resined paper bead caps.  I've seen some neat focals made with resined vintage paper and wire.  I've been on the look-out for ways to add more bead caps into my work and wondered if I might use paper to create some.  Quite a process, it turned out to be (says Yoda, the beader.)  First, I cut circles from a 60's tome on gardening and wet them down.  I formed the wet paper around a marble and let it dry completely.  Next, I brushed the shaped paper with Mod Podge and helped them into 1/2 spheres. While they were drying, I hammered flat some 26 gauge copper wire, wrapped it around a Sharpie, snipped jump rings, soldered them closed and tossed them into some liver of sulfur.  Yeah, just that easy.  Final step, slip the rings over the paper shapes and paint them with Ice Resin.  The results weren't perfect.  Some of the caps ripped when I removed them from my drying rack.  There was uneven coloring where the resin seeped in around the hole.  Still, it shows promise and I'll do better next time.

 Here's a peek at a pendant I am making with one of the caps. 

Which brings me to these pretties!  I purchased these lampworked art beads from  SpawnofFlame at Etsy.  I'm crazy about this artist's work!  These color schemes are "Warm Fire" and "Cool Fire."

And these..."Red Velvet."  The etched finish gives a soft matte surface that I  love!  These earrings  are created with fine silver wire (26 ga. and 18 ga.), freshwater pearls, and Adornments fibers.

These bangles have been sitting out for weeks.  I like the idea of them, but there is something wrong.  The clasp mechanism is clunky and the enameled, layered flowers don't show well as the bangle flops around on the wrist.  What to do, what to do?

More bead cap experiments.  These are...wait for it...
cut from a Pokemon tin!  I need a deeper dapping block to get them just right, but they will be fun to use.

Here I have a crazy accident that I insist on turning into something cool.  On this same workspace, I was using a solution of vinegar and salt to clean up a copper component and these crazy crystals started growing on the bowl.  I let them go for a few days and didn't have the heart to just throw it all away when I cleaned up.  So, of course I made a resin  pendant with the crystals.

The final stop for today, some dalmation jasper that I dressed up with alcohol ink.  The  stone is cool on its own, but  it takes the ink so well and looks really exotic when the black spots show through.  Now, I need an inspired design to use them...

Thus ends the workspace tour for this Wednesday!  I hope you enjoyed the peek at my art life.  Come on back soon!