Spring Fling

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

Fiery Swarovski necklace

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

Pearl and sparkle bracelet

So yesterday I finally got to have my Bead Day with my seven-year-old niece.  We've been trying to arrange it since Thanksgiving, but weather and schedules never quite worked out.  I picked her up and took her to Von's (my favorite store in the whole world) where we did some shopping, then drove out to my parents' to use their large upstairs room to spread all of the supplies I'd brought home, Aubrey's, and my sister's out to play.  Aubrey got three projects done: two bracelets and a necklace.  I only got one and a half done--this metallic gray-blue pearl and faceted transparent rondelle bracelet done with antique brass findings.  The rondelles have a little metallic gray-blue and brown on them as well as their normal sparkle.  Not sure yet if I'll actually sell it, given the memories of yesterday, but I'm posting it anyway.  The other pictures are of Aubrey's work; she wanted her "Easter egg" bracelet to be photographed on a floral plaque my Mom has, so I did.

 

Name:  Bead Day!

Price:  $15 (for pearl and rondelle bracelet; nothing else for sale)

Length: 8 inches

Gothic Garnet

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

Blood and Silver earrings

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)

Blood and Silver

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

Aqua for Grandma

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)

The Zebra Fairy

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

Silver Skies Murano earrings

Pair of earrings to match the previous necklace.

 

Name: Silver Skies

Price: $10; $35 for set w/ necklace

Length:  see image with quarter for size comparison

Silver Skies Murano pendant

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

Teal Magnesite earrings

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)

Gilded Threads bracelet

I had a few beads left over from the Bronze Lily necklace I made my sister this past year, and felt it might be nice to use them in a bracelet since I still had some gold metal seed beads to act as spacers.  I had two different types (and dye lots) of the magnesite--the pyrite-laced rondelles and some tiny, more turquoise standard rounds with the black matrix instead of pyrite--so I used both for visual interest.

 

Name:  Gilded Thread bracelet

Price:  $8

Length: 8.5 inches

Blue Chip Goldstone memory wire bracelet

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

Moonstone memory wire bracelet

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

Peachy Keen memory wire bracelet

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

Tina's Tiger Eye Pendant

Last November, a friend of mine from work joined me in a jaunt to one of my favorite places.  She'd never been to Von's, and I'd been raving about it.  She picked out a nice piece of red tiger eye, and asked if I could turn it into a pendant like I did the dyed-pink quartz she'd brought me.  I said sure, but that it would take me a while to come up with something to do with it.
Three months later...
After sifting through tons of wire-wrapped tumbled stone pictures, ideas, and resorting to watching some tutorial videos, this is what we wound up with.

 

Name: N/A

Price: $15 (approx.; it depends on size of stone, how much and what kind of wire used)

Length: semi-large tumbled stone

Picasso Jasper earrings

Last night I made these really simple wire-wrapped Picasso Jasper earrings out of the two remaining "blue" pieces I had from the previous projects.  They matched a lot better in the dimmer lighting last night, but they're the two that are the closest in color and pattern I had left.  Did a little fancier wire-wrap than usual, but still a relatively simple technique.

 

Name:  Picasso earrings

Price:  $10

Length: about 1 inch including earwire

Picasso Jasper bracelet

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

Lapis heishi multi-strand bracelet

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

Jasper necklace in progression: Dan's Christmas gift

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