Springtime Murano

What a battle to get this done!  I bought this really nice green, silver, and gold Murano leaf pendant years ago (another "finally done" project!), and it's been sitting in my bead box ever since.  I've tried a variety of techniques with it, but none worked until I decided to simply multi-strand it using a mix of gold, brown, and green.
First I fought to get all five strands the same beaded length.  That done, I then battled to get the bead cone and crimp cover on one end; the holes were too small for five steel strands, even at the thin diameter I use.  Got one side set, and started on the other, wrestled for fifteen minutes, then discovered the pendant hole was just too small for the widest part of the cone to go through.  Being glass, I didn't want to force the issue (a good hard yank might've done it).  So I had to undo 15 minutes of work by pulling the cone and crimp cover back off, stringing the pendant, then another 15 minutes to put them back on.
All figured, this took two days to do.
Note: the colors in the pendant look washed out in the photo, but the greens and golds match in both pendant an beads.

 

Name:  Springtime Murano

Price:  $30 (reason: time and effort mostly; Murano foiled glass isn't entirely cheap, either)

Length:  about 20 inches; pendant is 2.5 inches tall

Soft pink sparkle illusion necklace.

Project of the day: the first of several new illusion necklace ideas I've been toying with.  I had intended to get three different styles done today, but given I was doing a variety of other things as well that didn't happen...so we'll have to settle for one.  A friend of mine has been asking me to make a pink illusion necklace for a few months, but time and inspiration have been against me until recently.  Her only stipulation at the time was "no purple," and yesterday she mentioned she was looking for something "light pink."  Given I'm not a pink person per se, I rummaged through my bead boxes to see what "light pink" I might actually have.  Answer: not a lot.  Fortunately, there was just enough to make this necklace.  Yes, the pictures stink.  I was losing light given it took me longer than I thought to make it and my camera doesn't like focusing in good light, let alone fading.  I like the way it turned out!  Normally there's something I don't like about my illusion necklaces (they're hard to make even!).
I used pink Swarovski bicones and butterflies, rose fire polished glass, pink pearls, cherry quartz, pink faceted rondelles, and white pearl seed beads, fishing line for strength and durability, and a toggle clasp.  I used three strands (usual for me).  Usually, I space my beads more, but this design needed more since many of my beads were small--between 3mm and 6mm.
Note 1/11/12: NEW PHOTOS!

Name:  Soft Sparkle

Price:  $20 (Swarovski crystals, time and detail involved; was a custom project for Dawn H.)

Length:  20.5"

Sparkly multi-strand necklaces

I was searching for ideas for my sister's birthday this year, and asked her if there was anything in particular she wanted.  I gave her the FusionBeads inspiration projects page, and she sorted through and sent me the link to the Sensational Olivine Necklace.  I made it for her, but the magnetic box clasp I bought from Hobby Lobby for it (as FusionBeads' one for the project was out of stock) didn't work, so I bought an extender chain clasp for it instead.  Then I made her a bright orange one too, which goes with her quirky personality, and for the Frankfort show Dan made a lavender one since he'd helped me with the olive one for Margot's birthday.  Yet another project that's very easy to customize into any color(s) you want!

 

 

Name: Sparkly multi-strand necklace

Price: $25 each (olive and orange custom projects for my sister; tanzanite donated)

Color: olive; orange; tanzanite

Length: adjustible; ranges from 18" to 22"

Multi-strand spiral necklace

This is one of the two multi-strand seed bead necklaces I did for the Frankfort show.  The other one, done in autumn colors, I didn't get a good picture of before it sold, though I will be posting another when I have the time here.  Each strand (there are 7 per necklace) is hand-strung with the colors randomly, using size 10 and size 8 seed beads--which took a loooooong time given the length.  I then put bead cones over the ends and twisted the strands so they formed a loose spiral necklace rather than leave each free like other multi-strand necklaces I've done.  They were a looooot of work, but well worth it!  For the Frankfort show, I also made matching memory wire bracelets, which sold quickly; copies will be under my 6-loop memory wire bracelet post when I have the time.  This style is great if I use mixed bags of colors, or wanted to do strands of different colors, or what have you.

Name: Multi-strand spiral necklace

Price: $25 (reason: time and effort used) each

Colors: Mardi-gras mix; autumn mix (didn't get a picture of, sorry!)

Length: 22"

6-loop memory wire bracelets

I made a bunch of 6-loop memory wire bracelets for the Frankfort show, and they were easily my bestseller.  When I have more time, I will post the different patterns and varieties in this same post, as all non-fancy 6-loop bracelets will cost the same amount.

Name: 6-loop memory wire bracelet

Price: $8 each

Color: blue/purple/pink; mardi-gras; greens; autumn; lavender bugle; blues; as requested

Length: 6-loops

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"

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"