I've had these blue-and-white petals for what seems like forever, trying to decide what to do with them, and was recently browsing an old jewelry catalogue and came across an idea that might work. The catalogue had used fancy amethyst briolettes and gold, but the design basics worked very well for this, too. I didn't have enough petals to do the entire necklace that way, however, so finished it out with the silver rounds.
My camera is still being quite grumpy and doesn't focus properly, so the pictures are bad, sorry.
Name: Blue Sunflower
Price: $20
Length: about 20 inches
Back when I first started making jewelry as a kid, in part thanks to my Dad making special "date" trips to my favoritest store in the whole wide world with me, I wanted to make my Mom a necklace. So we went, and I picked out a rhodonite heart bead and several pink lepidolite rounds for an illusion necklace. I strung it (with Dad's help and a lot of frustration) on some poor-quality, very weak gold-colored wire, and was never happy with it, but Mom kept it nonetheless though she never wore it. About two years ago, I found it in her jewelry culls to be thrown away, so I took it to redo. It sat in my bead box until last night, when I finally came up with a plan to use it and some of the remaining rhodonite rounds I got for her opera-length necklace from this fall.
I wanted to do something fun and creative, so I used silver wire and wrapped both ends (it had two holes for stringing I utilized) to make it a link pendant, then I strung the rest of the necklace off-center so the heart would stand upright when worn. This was the result.
I used silver wire, Beadalon beading wire, rhodonite, blackstone, and a lot of silver.
Name: Bound Heart
Price: $25
Length: just over 20 inches
This is what I do on quiet, rainy Friday evenings since I'm not dating. I was half-watching a Ninja Gaiden walkthrough, letting my hands tease ideas from my brain for the pendants I have lying around. Throw in a batch of homemade popcorn, a glass of milk, and a cat for company and, well, this was the result.
This pendant is a nice piece of amethyst, wrapped with a tarnish-resistant brass wire vine and Swarovski bicone "buds", accompanied by pressed glass leaves. I didn't follow a guide, or any photo for inspiration, just let it tell me what it wanted to be.
Name: Amethyst Blossom Vine pendant
Price: $25
Length: pendant is approx. 2 inches by 1 inch, including bail
Finished this today, though it was mostly made yesterday while I was doing laundry. A new technique for me: tubular netted. I had planned to make it longer, and because of that had used a batch of seed beads (black iris) that I had a ton of, but somewhere in adding thread the second time something went wrong and I couldn't figure out where or how. So I finally gave up and simply attached the clasp. It has the feel of a grapevine given the netting style and the clasp with its grape leaf toggle and the cluster of grapes on the bar. I didn't originally know how I felt about the black iris coloration with such intricate chainwork, but it grew on me the longer I worked with it.
Name: Through the Grapevine
Price: $35 (reason: mostly time and effort)
Length: 18.5 inches
Didn't realize I hadn't posted this here!
I had a hard time deciding what to do for Mom's birthday (the 28th), when I suddenly hit across a series of ideas. I was originally making this style of bolo in a bright blue-teal, and she had remarked how much she liked it and wanted to see me finish it. But I haven't gotten around to it due to lack of finding ideal fringe beads. Then, during Bead Day with my niece, she commented how much she loved these buttery-yellow seed beads a friend of mine had sent me. Bingo!
So I started to bead the bolo chain. Then I realized I didn't have a ring for it. So I rummaged through some things until I came across a metal ring necklace I'd bought on clearance with the intent of using spare parts for another project (but had found a better alternative), and decided one of the links would be perfect. I still wound up one or two fringe beads short, so I smuggled the unfinished work home last weekend, snuck to my favorite local bead shop, bought a couple beads, went home, smuggled my bead box and the project upstairs while she was busy in the garden, and finished putting it together.
Name: N/A
Price: $40 (original not for sale)
Length: about 30 inches
This necklace is named after my rose, Orange N' Lemons, given the color scheme. I used up some handblown cane glass, the last of my fire opal Swarovski bicones, yellow-orange rondelles, and flat yellow Czech glass rondelles with gold metal seed beads. Bright and cheery, and even a little bit refreshing to look at. I don't do much with crystal (or sparkle), and strangely enough I don't do much with fire tones like these despite the fact that I'm drawn to them.
Name: Oranges N' Lemons
Price: $25 (reason: cost of cane glass and Swarovskis)
Length: about 19 inches
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
I've had this Crazy Lace Agate donut pendant for even longer than my Dragon and Phoenix. I remember purchasing it when I was housesitting for my sister one fall. I originally braided some thread and just wore it around my neck that way, but I was never really happy with it. So I set it asid in my bead box for years, never quite finding anything that really worked with it. Finally, one of the sites I use for supplies got in some rounds that matched it (a lot of crazy lace agate has a brown cast to it, but my donut is entirely shades of gray), so I bought a strand thinking it was 16" like most strands are and some gunmetal gray wire. Turns out the strand of beads was only 8" so I had to get even more creative with my wirework for the necklace to be a decent length. I chose the link style I made because it looked vaguely Celtic. I used up my remaining silver wire for contrast, and the rest is done in the gunmetal. Also made my first S-shaped clasp. Very different from what I usually do, but I really like it.
Name: Shades of Gray
Price: $40 (reason: wirework)
Length: 18 inches
Perfectionist that I am, I'm debating redoing the interior strand so the beads line up with the voids on the outer strand of this necklace. Malachite is a rather expensive stone to get good quality, so I've been collecting it over a couple of years for a project and last night I finally got the inspiration of what it would look like. I handmade the bail for the donut, and carefully measured where each beaded section would be on the two strands, then crimped them in place. I accented just a little with some silver. I made a "visible" illusion necklace, since that seems to be a growing fad--instead of clear fishing line, I used the usual protected steel cable I use for stringing.
Name: Misaligned Malachite
Price: $40 (reason: malachite prices)
Length: outer strand 21 inches, inner about 19 inches
I have had this dragon and phoenix pendant for years now, but never found stone that went well enough with it to make a necklace from it until two weeks ago. The seller I bought it from claimed it was "multicolor jade" but when I got it the patterning of the stone is clearly multicolor moss agate. I went to my favorite store looking for something to go with it and had almost given up when one of the girls working there got an idea and brought out some very flawed sodalite rounds. Given the pendant is mostly green and brown I was rather skeptical about using the blue, but it worked when we held them up to each other. There was enough brown flaw in the stones to ease the blue tinge, unlike any of the green we'd tried. I discovered when I got home that I hadn't actually purchased sodalite, but the strand I'd chosen (which I chose because it had a lot more of the brown in it instead of the vivid white-lined blue common to the stone) was actually sapphire. I matched it with some antique copper to draw out the brown.
I absolutely love the way it turned out. Glad this is now a finished piece in my personal collection!
Name: Dragon and Phoenix
Price: $20 (personal collection; not for sale!)
Length: 16 inches
I made this about two weeks ago. I've had some memory wire for necklaces for quite a few years, but never really played with it until this. I also hadn't played with one of my favorite stones, Tiger Eye, in a long while, either. This was the result.
Name: Tiger Eye Memory Wire
Price: $10
Length: adjustable
Made this quick and easy ribbon-strung necklace the other day just for the heck of it since I felt "springy". Hand dyed silk ribbon, etched shell pendant, and a brass jump ring.
Name: Spring Fling
Price: $30
Length: adjustable; on a three-foot ribbon
I made this today after an early afternoon of housework. Three different Swarovski bicone colors, antique brass rounds and findings, and gold spacers. I thought I'd ordered antique brass spacers, but I guess not. I like the color contrasts between the bright gold and the brass, though.
Name: Firesong
Price: $30
Length: 19.25 inches
This necklace uses up the last of one strand of the dark gray-and-red Bloodstone, accented by some beautiful Garnet. I used gunmetal findings to finish, and this necklace kind of had a gothic feel, hence the name. Growing up, the gothic style kind of had an appeal for me (not the makeup, but some of the clothes and the colors), and those colors still draw me nowadays. This is one of those "multipurpose" necklaces. For me, it would be a short necklace; for most, a choker; and it is simple and practical enough even a guy might find it appealing to wear.
Name: Gothic Garnet
Price: $20
Length: 16.5 inches
On my trip home this weekend, I came across some fascinating Bloodstone rounds. Unlike most Bloodstone I've seen, these were not the usual green spattered with red. The rounds, approximately 8mm (larger than I usually use), are a deep, smoky gray that borders on black with darker red spatter. I knew I just had to experiment with them, so bought two strands. This is the result of the first idea I came up with. This necklace is my second extreme wirework project--every link was hand made, as were the findings. This took at least three hours!
Name: Blood and Silver
Price: $35
Length: 22.5 inches
My Grandma's favorite color is aqua. Her birthday is in April, and because I don't get home as much as I'd like and knew this weekend might be the last in a few weeks to see her, I deliberately looked for something for her while I was at my favorite supplier. I had almost given up when I came across these small rounds, labeled Sea Blue Chalcedony. They are about as true an aqua as I've ever seen, beautifully clear, and perfect for my plan. I stayed up until 1am this morning making it, before driving back home today to see my Mom's work in a local quilt show. My Aunt and Grandma were there as well, so we all went out to lunch. As with a lot of my work, I kept it very simple and elegant, and accented with silver.
Name: N/A
Price: $25 (original not for sale; gift for Grandma)
Length: 18 inches, I think (forgot to measure)
So yesterday afternoon, accompanied by three companions, I made a trip home to my all time favorite store and got some supplies to both start new projects, and finish some long-standing ones. I was browsing through the different stone pendants and came across this beauty, labeled "Green Zebra Jasper." I've never heard of Green Zebra Jasper, and the Zebra Jaspers I have seen don't have a metallic quality to the stripes. This is one of the prettiest pieces of stone I've come across in a long time. I wanted it to stand on its own, so picked out a soft green fairy ribbon to complement it, and attached it with a triangular sterling silver jump ring. Both pendant and ribbon were a bit pricey, but I think the images show it was well worth it! I am strongly debating keeping this in my personal collection.
Name: Zebra Fairy
Price: $20
Length: 40 inch ribbon; pendant is 2 inches x 1.5 inches
I've had this Murano glass pendant for years, trying to figure out just what to do with it. Finally decided just to toy around with it and this was the result. Also made matching earrings (next post). This is a lot more silver than I usually use!
Name: Silver Skies
Price: $30; $35 for set (with earrings)
Length: 24 inches
