Yesterday I whipped out eight bracelets using leftover stones from a variety of projects. They're all about the same length, in a variety of colors and patterns, depending on what I had available that worked with them.
Picture-taking didn't turn out too well as you can see--the camera won't focus on the foreground, whether it's the front of the bracelet or just the bracelet in general, only the background or the back of the bracelet, no matter what I tried.
Name: N/A
Price: Malachite and silver $20
Green aventurine and gold $10
Sapphire, Swarovski, and antique copper $15
Blue lace agate and silver $10
Garnet and silver $10
Peach/Red aventurine and antique copper $10
Rhodonite, blackstone, and silver $15
Yellow jade and silver $10
Length: all are about 8 inches
I decided this morning I wanted to experiment with a tiny difference in my work. Usually when I make memory wire bracelets, I'm limited to seed beads or similar; most stone beads don't have large enough holes to string on memory wire. I decided, what the heck, I'd go through my bead boxes and see if I couldn't find some stone beads that would work. I'd been thinking of my peach adventurine for the last couple of days and how I hadn't done anything with it (purchased it well before Christmas), so I got it out and turns out it worked. I also don't use a lot of gold, but it went so well with the aventurine.
I thought a lot about my neighbor growing up, Lois, and how I remembered seeing her wear two colors a lot when I was a kid: peach and mint. The two go well together, so when I photographed the bracelet, I used my new dusty teal sweater as the backdrop. It's kind of a tip-of-the-hat to Lois and my childhood. Lois is my parents' age, and my sister and I used to dog-sit and mow her yard. Her husband, Jim, raises honeybees and does woodworking. We spent a decent amount of time over at their house or in the woods between theirs and ours. They're one of the sweetest, gentlest-natured couples I've had the honor to know.
Now all I need to do is make some lemon poppyseed bread like she made me while I was growing up...
Name: Peachy Keen memory wire bracelet
Price: $15 (reason: over a whole strand of peach aventurine)
Length: 5 loops
My boyfriend's Mom loves jewelry, especially big, unique pieces. She's awesome at coordinating her outfits to go with her jewelry (or the other way around, depending), so I've made her a couple of pieces. One--a dark teal pearl necklace--I haven't taken pictures of, but yesterday I was remembered to take my camera when I visited and got pictures of the other one, in which I used aventurine, silver, and dark teal pearls. I remember I took Dan with me to look for materials, since it was near Donna's birthday and I had offered to make her a necklace he could give her. You may recognize the pendant; I used another just like it (a little lighter in color, though) for the aventurine cross-weave necklace I donated to the Bollock charity fundraiser silent auction. I also made a very simple pair of aventurine dangly earrings to match.
Donna was delighted with the gift and found two great shirts that set it off in two different ways...each makes the light or dark components pop and she says she gets no end to complements on it.
Name: N/A
Price: $25 to $30 (given to Donna V.)
Length: about 22 inches; she added an extender as well
I don't do a lot of earrings yet, as I'm not comfortable enough with my skill at them, but this is a pair I took to the First Baptist Church craft show in Frankfort November 19th. I made them to go with the aventurine cross-weave necklace I did a while ago. They are 6mm aventurine beads with size 15 seed beads on sterling silver. Very simple.
Name: Aventurine Earrings
Price: $10 (reason: sterling silver)
Length: approx. 1" from tip of dangle to height of ear wire loop
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"
