Moss agate illusion necklace

And last but not least this evening is another older illusion necklace, done about the same time as my tiger's eye one.  I love moss agate for its delicate color patterns that make each piece different.  The first piece I owned was a triangular tumbled stone Charlie, a man who helped instruct a lapidary class I took at an old school in West Lafayette while Mom did pottery down the hall, gave me out of his supply box.  I never made it into anything, but it's still in my tumbled stone bowl on my shelf here at home.  Charlie was a wonderful man, and always had something for me to work with he "didn't want" anymore, as I was the extreme youngster of the group.  I think he and his wife adopted me during those weeks.  I still have several pieces of things I never got to work with--including a piece of stone with tiny emeralds in it, a beautiful slice of green goldstone, a piece of red obsidian, and the remains of a spectacular piece of gold tiger's eye with which he taught me how to tell tiger eye quality, and from which I made my first soldered necklace.  I wish the pendant of this piece could have been made from the piece of moss agate Charlie gave me, but the classes were cut due to few new members and budget costs.  I had to content myself with finding this beautiful pendant at Von's in West Lafayette, just around the block from Morton Center where I learned silverwork and cutting stones and spent wonderful evenings with Charlie, his wife Ruth, and good ol' storyteller Cliff.  I used seed beads and hematite rice along with the pendant.  I believe, actually, this might have ben tagged "seaweed agate" or "seaweed quartz," though I'm pretty sure I looked through the entire bin of moss agate looking for one with a lot of color and unique pattern personality.  I could be wrong, but then it wouldn't fit my story very well...

Name:  Forest Memories


Price:  $15 (personal collection)


Length:  17"

Dual-strand black necklace

I house-sit from time to time for my sister and brother-in-law.  One weekend I was staying there and realize I'd forgotten to pack something to wear for church on Sunday, so I rushed out to Wal-mart, which was just down the street, and bought a nice new pair of black jeans, a new shirt, and a shawl to wear.  I'd remembered to bring my beading supplies, since I was working on Christmas presents for my sister at the time, and decided I needed a new necklace, set of earrings, and a bracelet as well.  To go with the color of my outfit I used black and silver seed beads and hematite rice.  Ironic thing is, I wore the set a lot and the bracelet, which was a little big, slid off my wrist while I was having lunch at Noodles with friends after church another week.  When I went back to look for it that evening and asked if it had been turned in, I learned no one had; apparently whoever found it liked it enough to keep it.  I was (and still am) irked that it wasn't turned in like it should've been, but I guess I should content myself with the fact someone liked it enough to keep it.  Again, pictures aren't very good.

Name:  N/A


Price:  $15 (personal collection)


Length:  16" and 17"

Tiger's Eye illusion necklace

Since it's been raining the last few days and I've been too busy to work on new pieces or get pictures in decent light, I decided to post another of my personal collection pieces.  The lighting in the photo stinks, apologies.  I love tiger's eye and hematite.  They're possibly my very favoritest stones...except for seraphanite.  Up there, too, are watermelon tourmaline, ruby (my birthstone), opal, mystic topaz and tanzanite.  I have other favorites, but not gonna list everything (list isn't that long, though).  This necklace was done a long time ago.  I used gold tiger's eye rounds, hematite, and blackstone.  The pendant is actually twisted, which is hard to tell in the photo.

Name:  N/A


Price:  $15 (personal collection)


Length:  17"

Aventurine Foliage Cross-weave necklace

This past week my boyfriend Dan bought me a new book on different beading techniques I've passed up "at least five times" while we were browsing at one of the local bead shops.  A couple of nights later my computer crashed, so I plugged in my old CD player, popped in my Sherlock Holmes and Clash of the Titans and G.I. Joe Rise of Cobra movie scores one after the other while I learned how to cross-weave a necklace.  I got lucky and had a nice large aventurine pendant and 6mm aventurine rounds, and tiny size 15 seed beads.  I also had a large, sturdy clasp that suits the soft green leaf colors perfectly.  I really like how it turned out, though the style and size of the beads are far too large for me to wear.  The necklace is relatively heavy given the amount of stone involved!

Name:  Aventurine Foliage


Price:  $35 (reason: tons of aventurine and a fancy clasp) Donated to the Dan Bollock charity fundraiser 3-02-12


Length:  18"; pendant is approximately 1.5" x 1.5"

Blue Swirl necklace

When I saw this fancy-glass pendant, I knew I had to make my sister a necklace to go with it.  It isn't a very creative piece as far as style, but I like how it turned out and better yet so did she.  Image (c) Margot Roudebush and Whimsicals by Margot.

Name:  Swirl


Price:  $10 (custom project for my sister)


Length:  17" to 18"

Wire-Wrapped Earrings

This pair of wire-wrapped earrings I changed the color of the Swarovski crystals from the original pattern while making them for my sister.  I went back today to the FusionBeads inspiration section to see if I could get the name of the project (which I can't for the life of me remember), and the earrings are no longer there. Originally, the crystals were purple tones, but I knew my sister's favorite color was yellow, so I hunted around for a bit to get the bright-to-pale yellow matchup instead of the purple.  Image (c) Margot Roudebush and Whimsicals by Margot.

Name:  can't remember


Price:  $25 (custom project for my sister)


Length:  2" approximately

Donut Pendant necklace

My sister likes big, unique pendants, and this one I found on JewelrySupply fit the bill.  I simply strung it, then added some of my gold tiger's eye and blackstone for a little accent.  Image (c) Margot Roudebush and Whimsicals by Margot.

Name:  N/A

Price:  $15 (custom project for my sister)

Length:  can't remember...probably about 18"

Swish Earrings

Last year for Christmas, my sister asked me if I could make her earrings.  I've never thought of earrings as my strong point, but I wanted to make her something she asked for, so I hunted around on FusionBeads in their inspiration section for ideas.  These earrings, called Swish on the site, fit the bill.  They involved a new technique for me: wire wrapping.  It took a few tries to figure out how to make the wrapping part look okay (I'm still not what I would call great at it yet, but I'm getting there), but they were a lot of fun to learn.  It was also one of my first uses of Swarovski crystals.  Image (c) Margot Roudebush and Whimsicals by Margot.

Name:  Swish


Price:  $25 (custom project for my sister)


Length: about 2"

Prices and Contact Info Update

I have heard from several people my prices, which are in American dollars, are showing up on their computers as being in another currency.  The other numbers I put in (such as lengths in inches) are also being messed up.  We have, after some experimentation, figured out what the deal is: I use Internet Explorer or Safari to do my blog posts.  The ones seeing the different currency are using FireFox.  If you have FireFox, sorry about this; it's not something I can change--either try Internet Explorer or Safari if you have them.
I've got a general estimate on shipping costs now: $3.  This includes insurance.  The cost will cover a 75 cent bubbled envelope, postage, and insurance.
Contact information:  again, it's updated and public on my About Me profile page.  But here it is as well: okkirby@hotmail.com.  Put the name of the piece you're interested in on the subject heading line.
If you see something you like but want a different color or length, feel free to contact me.  Some things I can change like that.  Some will cost a little more for an increase in length or other adjustments that take a little more time (going from a 14-inch necklace to a 16-inch, for example, depending on materials, raises the price about $2).
Any questions, feel free to drop me an e-mail!

Funky necklace

I have an attraction to neat fancy glass bead patterns, and this necklace for my sister was no exception.  Given she likes 70s and/or Bohemian stuff, the orange, lime, and black of this necklace were perfect for her.  Unfortunately, it also limits what she can wear it with.  Image (c) Margot Roudebush and Whimsicals by Margot.  Check out her blog!

Name:  Funky Necklace


Price:  $20 (reason: fancy glass and cat's eye prices; custom project for my sister)


Length:  17" to 18"

Mardi-Gras Pearls necklace

Every now and then I like to do something using really good quality materials.  Finding really good pearls is an expensive journey!  For my sister's birthday in 2009, I made her a simple pearl necklace using really beautiful plum, teal, and yellow rounds.  Then I hunted up an equally neat clasp that had butterflies on it--one of her favorite things.  She says the pearls remind her of Mardi-Gras beads given how vivid their colors.  Image (c) Margot Roudebush and Whimsicals by Margot.

Name:  Mardi-Gras Pearls


Price:  $35 to $40 (reason: good quality pearls; custom project for my sister)


Length:  18" (I think)

Multi-strand Abalone necklace

I got the idea for this necklace while planning Christmas projects last year.  I was browsing at Hobby Lobby and came across this beautiful abalone pendant and it screamed my sister's name, so, naturally, I had to take it home and figure out what it wanted to be.  We settled on a multi-strand, multi-color seed bead necklace with varying sizes, each color of which drew out the colors in the pendant.  She wears it with almost everything and it's one of her favorites to date.  Images (c) Margot Roudebush and Whimsicals by Margot.

Name:  N/A


Price:  $15 to $20 (custom project for my sister)


Length:  can't remember; probably about 18"

Bohemian Sunburst necklace

My sister likes all things 70s and/or Bohemian, so when I saw this pendant while perusing the goods at JewelrySupply.com, I knew I had to make something with it for her.  I wanted to keep it simple, so I just added a jump ring and strung it on some plain brown ribbon.  She was kind enough to photograph it for me.  Image (c) Margot Roudebush and Whimsicals by Margot.

Name:  Bohemian Sunburst


Price:  $15 (custom project for my sister)


Length:  varies, adjustable ribbon

Funky Ring

I don't usually do rings.  This was a first for me this summer in preparation for my sister's birthday.  I wanted to do something really funky and this ring project fit the bill.  How much more fitting can I get with the Groovy Swarovski crystal mix from FusionBeads, wire-wrapped onto a vine ring?  She absolutely loved it, and was awesome enough to take the photo for me!  Image (c) Margot Roudebush and Whimsicals by Margot.  Check out her blog!

Name:  Funky!

Price:  $30 (reason: Swarovski crystals; custom project for my sister)

Size:  size 5 ring

Berrylicious Earrings

My sister, photographer of WhimsicalsbyMargot.blogspot.com, loves funky jewelry, so I do my best to make some very unique pieces for her.  The moment I saw these earrings as a project on FusionBeads, I knew I had to try it for her for Christmas this past year.  I learned the "covering a component" wire technique and it was pretty much the first time I'd worked with Swarovski crystals.  The project was called Berry Patch and featured just the earrings, but I went ahead and also made her a pendant identical to them. The crystals mix is called Berrylicious, and suited her personality to a T.  She was also awesome enough to do the photograph for me!  It is (c) to Margot Roudebush and Whimsicals by Margot.

Name:  Berry Patch


Price:  $35 to $40 (reason: Swarovski crystals; custom project for my sister)


Length: 3"

Touch of Fall memory wire bracelet

My boyfriend Dan is really getting the hang of memory wire.  While I was working on Evening Twilight, he asked if he could play with more memory wire and made this piece.  It reminds me a bit of spring and Easter, really, with the pink in it, but it definitely can add a splash of color to a fall outfit as well.

Name:  Touch of Fall

Price:  $8 (turned into gift to a friend from Donna V.)

Length:  6 loops

Evening Twilight bracelet

I've been experimenting with a variety of new techniques lately, and this is one of those I've managed to finish and get pictures of while it's still light out.  This is the first right-angle-weave bracelet I've finished (have another one started that I have to redo do to a bead breaking), and I really like the end result.  It was inspired by a FusionBeads project Night in Alaska and their handy-dandy tutorial for right-angle-weave.

Name:  Evening Twilight


Price:  $14 (reason: time spent on intricacy of piece; turned into Christmas gift from Donna V. to a friend)


Length:  about 8"

Innocence of the Heart necklace

This necklace is another older piece I felt I wanted to showcase.  When I was in college, my family used Spring Break to fly out to California to meet a good friend of Mom's and visit a bunch of places, such as Big Sur National Forest, Yosemite, San Francisco, Monterey Bay, the sequoias...and we also visited around the town where her friend lived to do some antique and fabric shopping, as Mom is an avid quilter (Fiberobsessive is the name of her blog here on BlogSpot).  One of the shops we went into had beads, and as I was doing some minor beadwork for myself at the time, I bought two beading books and some supplies.  Among those were some blue-and-blush crackle glass beads that sat around in my bead box for about a year, waiting for the perfect necklace.  Then came along this resin heart pendant and I knew they had to go together.  I threw in some dyed "sky" quartz  (that has since faded out), white rice pearls, and some dusty rose matte seed beads, and this was the result.  I thought it a fitting way to remember the vacation.

 

Name:  Innocence of the Heart


Price:  personal collection, no idea original cost!


Length:  14"; pendant roughly 1.5" x 1.5"

Black Iris Memory Wire Bracelet

This was a particularly fun bracelet to do...I was having strange effects from my cold medicine this week (it was playing with my sense of balance and my vision rather than clearing out my cold-fogged head), so this was a particularly challenging piece with all the deep, vivid colors.  I love how it turned out though!  I used rainbow iris seed beads and one of my favorite natural stones, hematite, which always seem to work beautifully hand-in-hand.  Hematite is surprisingly heavy and has a cool, slick quality to it that I love in jewelry.  Hopefully the picture can speak for itself.

 

Name:  Black Iris

Price:  $12  (reason: hematite; personal collection)

Length:  8 loops

Jet Elegance Earrings

Inspired again by FusionBeads' Rock Candy set.  This time, they're done in black instead of aquamarine like my Aquamarine Frost set, or the red like the original Rock Candy set.  It's very hard to take pictures of sterling silver and black faceted crystals!  Earrings measure about 1" total length, with the crystals being 9mm x 5.5mm.

Name:  Jet Elegance


Price:  $11 (reason: sterling silver and Swarovski crystals)


Length:  1"

Jet Elegance Necklace

Jet Elegance is simply a color variation on my previous necklace Aquamarine Frost and FusionBeads' Rock Candy inspiration piece.  It is done in Swarovski crystal and sterling silver.  Snake chains are one of my favorites...they don't knot, and they don't kink as far as I've dealt with them.  They don't distract from the pendant with the obvious links of other chains.  The pendant is small, only 17mm x 9.5mm, but adds just that little extra touch of class to an outfit.



Name:  Jet Elegance

Price:  $28 (reason: sterling silver and Swarovski crystal)

Length:  18"

Aquamarine Frost Earrings

To complement the previous necklace, I made Aquamarine Frost earrings, another project inspired by FusionBeads' Red Candy series.  As with the necklace, these tiny, elegant earrings are done in sterling silver with Swarovski crystals.  The stones measure 9mm x 5.5mm, which make the earrings about 1" in total length.  Again, pardon the photo.

 

Name:  Aquamarine Frost


Price:  $11 (reason: sterling silver and Swarovski crystals) (sold to Donna V. at the First Baptist Craft Show in Frankfort, November 2011)


Length:  1"

Aquamarine Frost Necklace

Another FusionBeads inspiration piece.  Aquamarine Frost was directly inspired by the necklace Red Candy.  It's a very simple necklace meant for just a dash of sparkle to accent an outfit.  The piece is done in quality sterling silver and Swarovski crystal, and the pendant is small--only17mm x 9.5mm.  The simplicity and elegance are sure to catch attention, though!  Another piece that was very hard to do justice with photos...I couldn't keep it from looking washed-out.  It's a soft ice-blue.

 

 

Name:  Aquamarine Frost


Price:  $28 (reason: sterling silver and Swarovski crystal) (sold to Donna V. at the First Baptist Craft Show in Frankfort, November 2011)


Length:  18"

Clara's Necklace Inspiration Piece

This necklace, Sapphire Beauty, is inspired almost dead-on by the inspiration piece Clara's Necklace on FusionBeads.com.  The only difference between them is the size of the pendant.  Whereas Clara's Necklace used the 39mm pendant, I don't like using something quite that big and chose the 27mm one.  I really like Swarovski's bermuda blue color in their pendants and wish they'd put it in more styles.

 

Name:  Sapphire Beauty (inspired by FusionBeads Clara's Necklace)


Price:  $30 (reason: Swarovski pendant and sterling silver findings)


Length:  18"

Banded Scarlet Necklace

This is probably the only primarily red necklace I've made I've ever been remotely happy with.  The pendant is a really neat piece of banded red agate from Von's here in town, the rest of it carnelian, white rice pearls, red seed beads, and white pearl seed beeds.  It sat around forever and I was almost ready to scrap it when a friend heard I made jewelry and asked if I'd done anything red.  I sent her pictures of it, then showed it to her in person; she absolutely loved it and bought it from me.

Name:  Banded Scarlet


Price:  $15 (sold to Felice B.)


Length:  17"

Amethyst Dreams Necklace

This is one of the pieces I've duplicated the most.  The first I made for my sister for her bithday about two years ago.  I liked it so much I made one for myself, then got so many comments on it I made a third and posted it on Etsy.  It sold almost immediately.  It's a great necklace to show the versitility of seed beads, amethyst, and simple white rice pearls.  My copy is 15" long, but I believe my sister's and the Etsy sale were about 17".

Name:  Amethyst Dreams

Price:  $15 (have made 3: 1 custom project for my sister, 1 for personal collection, 1 sold on Etsy in 2009).

Length:  15" to 17"

Personal Collection: Optimus Prime Necklace

Okay.  I've decided to let you in on my more kooky side.  I have been a big fan of Transformers since I was about three years old.  The recent release of the movies (using one of my favorite characters' original voice from the original cartoon series), only rekindled that fandom.  So when the first movie came out, I got to thinking how to subtly comment that I was a Transformers fan and came up with this necklace.  Blue goldstone, carnelian, white rice pearls, and red, blue, and silver seed beads rounded out my choices, as I don't seem to make red-toned necklaces very well (and Optimus Prime is mostly red in the original series).  My grandmother liked my necklace (I have a bracelet and earrings, too), that I made her a similar one (without the donut) for her birthday the following year.  At least my camera caught the sparkle of the blue goldstone!

 

Name:  Optimus Prime


Price:  $20 (personal collection)


Length:  15.25"

Apologies...

I have not updated the last couple of days due to a few things.  Hopefully this week will be tons better.
#1: my car died.  I have spent a crazy weekend hunting down a new one, getting a loan, and getting all the new details sorted out.  Good news is I now have a vehicle again!
#2: I'm sick.  I caught a rather nasty cold, so I don't have a lot of energy.  Hopefully that will change soon.
I still need to get photos of some of my different work, such as the multitude of projects I've done for my sister.  I've been getting home late, so the lighting hasn't been good to take them.  Most of what I currently own are simple strung-bead jewelry.  Rather than showing potential customers a ton of the same thing, I want to hold off until I have a little more variety to show.  I'm also planning for a show in Frankfort in November.  Pictures of more unique stuff will be coming once a few random supplies arrive.
Thanks for your patience!