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
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
Made this with my Aunt in mind today. She had a very rough day and I was her pep talker. I thought about her all day, and kept thinking about these beautiful amethyst nuggets I had waiting for a special project. I came home after work with the intent to use them...only I had no idea for what, which has happened multiple times. Then, just as I'm getting ready for bed due to a freakishly early morning at work tomorrow, inspiration hit and this is the result.
Name: Spring Vine
Price: $15
Length: almost 8 inches
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
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
These earrings are to match the necklace in the previous post. The wire links and the earwires are handmade. The pair took about an hour. I used the same smoky-gray and dark red Bloodstone as in the necklace.
Name: Blood and Silver earrings
Price: $15
Length: about 1.5 inches (from tallest part of earwire loop)
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
These earrings almost used up all of my remaining magnesite. I think I have four of the pyrite-laced rondelles left.
Name: N/A
Price: $8
Length: about 1 inch dangle (see photo with quarter for comparison)
I made this yesterday evening, but couldn't get a decent picture of it under indoor lights. I've had this strand of blue goldstone chips since I bought it for my sister's birthday years and years ago (I bought two strands, actually, but only used one in the project at the time). The bracelet is fairly heavy, given the amount of stone involved and the size of the chips, but the sparkle and texture make it really fun.
Name: Blue Chip bracelet
Price: $10 (reason: amount of blue goldstone used)
Length: 4 loops
I've had this multicolor moonstone since early November, when my friend Tina and I made a trip to one of my favorite stores. Thought I'd try seeing what it looked like as a memory wire bracelet; jury's still out on if I will keep it this way. One thing I will note: moonstone is quite soft and doesn't handle reaming to make the holes bigger very well. This is the entire (expensive!) strand I had...only made three loops on the wire. Moonstone is neat in the fact that it's a bit pearly and the color rolls along the surface like cat's eye / fiber optic beads. I thought the silver complemented it quite well.
Name: N/A
Price: $20 (reason: cost of moonstone)
Length: 3 loops
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
I used some of the remaining Picasso Jasper from Dan's Christmas present to make a bracelet with my last remaining copper toggle clasp and some of the copper rounds. I think this type of stone is growing on me...
Name: N/A
Price: $10
Length: 8 inches
I had only a small amount of lapis lazuli heishi remaining from a necklace I made a guy at work months ago, so I purchased a new strand in order to make another one. Turns out, when the new heishi arrived, they were a size larger. So I came up with this. I got these really neat three-hole spacers at Hobby Lobby a while back, and knew I wanted to do a piece like this (heishi with them, at any rate). I like how the blue and silver work together.
Name: Lapis heishi
Price: $25 (reason: time and effort, plus lapis)
Length: about 9 inches total
The problem with winter projects is that by the time I get them to or near completion, I've run out of photo light. This has happened especially the last two days running, even though I've gotten off work at 2:30 and started tackling projects as soon as I got home.
I thought I'd do something a little different this time since these jasper barrels I got are so cool and varied, and show you the work in progress. The first photos (white paper) were taken last night in the light of my plant stand. The one on the bead board is how I assembled the necklace (since my ruler has run off, it's the only way I can gauge length). The others are the "glamor" shots done in the light of my plant stand with the camera refusing to focus and give me a decent picture without hacking off part of the piece. I do not have a clasp for it yet; will get a nice, guy-friendly one this weekend at home if it doesn't snow. I used antique copper rounds to accent.
Name: Dan's Picasso
Price: $25
Length: 20 inches
