Friday Pick - Vinyard Harvest

I don't have much time tonight to do a lengthy post on this pick which I selected from Lima Beads, but I'll briefly describe the inspiration.

Now that fall is here I'm thinking about designs that reflect the changing of the season. While oranges and browns are traditional, where I live the purples and greens of the grape harvest are also part of the fall scenery. I love charoite, so a large charoite donut is the focal piece of this Vinyard Harvest design. I decided on copper beads and findings for their great autumn color.

Please feel free to visit my Fresh Pick on the Lima Beads site and leave a comment!

And don't forget to take that picture of your studio and post it for a chance at winning the TweetYourStudio prize!

Mid-Week Flutterings, I Mean, Mutterings - Jacaranda Blooms Lima Beads "Fresh Pick" Necklace

I'm pretty pleased with today's necklace. Back in June I blogged about doing a "Fresh Pick" which is one of the features of the Lima Beads site. I named the pick "Jacaranda Blooms" because of the purple dogtooth amethyst and purple freshwater cultured pearls that caught my eye and recalled to me the lovely colors of the jacaranda tree.

I ended up buying the picks from Lima Beads soon after, but didn't get around to making a necklace with them until this weekend (almost 3 months!). I tried a number of things, and ended up not using several of the pieces. This is what I've got so far.

I wrapped the larger piece of dogtooth amethyst in 20 gauge oxidized brass colored beading wire from Accessories Susan and added a Vintaj brass butterfly charm from Lima Beads, as well, also used the same wire to make the bead links. Accessories Susan antiqued brass fluted 5mm bead caps decorate the dark brown jasper (called antique jasper at the Lima Beads site) which reminded me of bark.

This was the first time my first try at doing this sort of wrapping actually seems to have worked out and look good. Have to also give huge kudos to Wubbers pliers for letting me make the bends in the wire without marring the finish.

Then I strung the beads on Soft Flex Metallics 21 strand .014 inch Antique Brass flex wire, because of the tiny hole size of the tsavorite and pearls I was going to use, which I got from DryGulch.com. I did one side's strand at a time, finishing both ends with wire guardians and Scrimps from Rings & Things.

While the design is repetitive, and sort of symmetrical, I decided to make it a little bit different by having one side feature a line of pearls then a grouping of "wild orchid" potato freshwater cultured pearls, antique jasper and tiny (2.5 - 3.5 mm) tsavorite faceted rondelles (which add the bright green, to give just an impression of leaves on a jacaranda branch) and the other side featuring the antique jasper in place of the pearls. The little groupings have two lovely oxidized brass filigree bead caps at each end of them, also from Accessories Susan. Lastly, I added an antique gold plated curb chain, which I think I picked up from Michael's, long ago, because the necklace just seemed to need it.

I've still got some bits of the pick left over and am deciding whether or not I want to try and add them or use them in other pieces. I do think this one is finished - I kind of like it as it is. And that means I've got plenty of left over pearl, jasper and dogtooth amethyst to make bracelets and earrings and maybe another pendant necklace, too.

So, this is another design full of little departures from my comfy zone. It's also one where the beads seemed to lead me where I should go rather than me having a fully conceived design idea before I started. Does that ever happen to you? I'd love to hear about it.

Tuesday Tidbits - Two Dressy Necklaces with Copper and Gemstones

While the temps soared in the upper 90s this weekend I worked on some jewelry and avoided heavier work around the house that still desperately needs to get done before my kids and dad arrive for the holiday weekend. I guess I'll be busy on the 2nd and 3rd!

First, I finished the necklace I showed in progress a while back since I got the rest of the Mocca Swarovski briolettes I needed when I was in LA. I think this would work with any number of outfits, especially in the fall and it's a nice length for lower necklines or open collars at 22".

Next is something completely new I did on Saturday morning. It was made with 14mm peach toned pink aventurine coin beads I've had in my stash for awhile and natural peach jade puffed squares (which I got from my first Lima Beads Fresh Pick) which I didn't realize were a perfect match until I saw them together.

In between the larger peach stone beads, I put a 5mm White Opal Swarovski bicone (from the great stash of Swarovski I picked up at the Rings & Things bead tour) and two "American purple shell" roundells also from the same Lima Beads pick as the jade. I used Tierra Cast Raja bead caps in copper with the squares - had to adjust them a bit to fit - and Tierra Cast 4mm copper scallop bead caps with the bicones.

I originally thought I'd make a lanyard necklace, but those just aren't selling all that well and I liked it so much as a necklace, I stopped a bit shorter than the usual lanyard length, 26"1/2 inches and finished it with a Frilly Oval Copper Toggle Clasp I got from Dry Gulch. (Thanks, Tish!). I think this turned out beautifully.

Tomorrow I'll share the blue pieces I made with kyanite and some blue glass beads that look like blue lace agate that I bought down in L.A., and vintage Swarovski Sunshine beads from The Beadin' Path.

Meanwhile, my Jacaranda Blooms Fresh Pick beads arrived today and I need to start tinkering with the design idea for those. Need to go buy colored pencils, an artist's sketchbook, and while I'm there I want to get some of the inks and pens Margot Potter has talked about in various posts on her blog, to experiment with. I'm glad I cut out a nice 15% off coupon for Michael's from one of the bead magazines I get.

"Fresh Pick" Friday

I don't know if this will become a regular feature here, and if it does, I hope to be able to create other picks from other suppliers and put them together in a similar mosaic. Just need to figure out how...anyone know of a website or application that will help me build a mosaic-like picture similar to what's shown below? I have Paint Shop Pro but have had a devil of a time trying to figure out how to put multiple images into one frame. Paint Shop Pro is easier to use than Photoshop, but still not all that user-friendly (IMO) to someone who hasn't been working with imagry software for ages.

Anyway, this post was prompted by a comment Dave from Rings & Things left about the picture of my little work-box on Wednesday's post.

Dave Robertson said...

Hi Dawno,

You & I were discussing how hard it can be sometimes to bead-shop at a distance. The pairings of colors and materials shown in your workspace are a great example of the kinds of stuff someone might want to get in a single order. They all go well together. Love that hessonite!

--Dave

Here's the "workspace" which is actually one of my DIY laptop beading boxes:

So that got me to thinking about how one supplier I use now and then, Lima Beads, makes it easy for me to 'collect' ideas in a virtual workspace and get a feel for the colors and supplies needed. I thought maybe what I could do would be to come up with a design concept (I don't actually sketch out designs very often, but I'm thinking about getting colored pencils and giving it a try) and then create the mosaic using the Fresh Pick feature at Lima Beads and show you how it works. Please note, I'm not linking to each product, you can click on this "Fresh Pick" link (or the one below) and from there click to any product you want more details about.

So, my design concept was inspired by the incredible blooming Jacaranda tree. I'm not sure where I first saw a picture of one recently, but it just popped into my mind as I was wondering what kind of design I might choose for this article.

If you are unfamiliar with the Jacaranda, this is the time of year they are covered in the most beautiful purple flowers, which are really pretty messy when they fall off, they stain the sidewalks purple for one thing, but as long as that's someone else's problem, I love looking at them!. So I set about thinking of what I might want in a necklace inspired by the Jacaranda.

I went to Lima Beads and started with the bark and found some antique jasper beads I thought were perfect. Then a little bit of green for the buds and leaves that barely show through - the Tsavorite Faceted Rondelle 2.5-3.5mm looked good (wow, pricy, but I'm brainstorming and going with my first reactions).

Some Thin Pillow 36x18mm Dogtooth Amethyst beads 6x9mm Violet Faceted Teardrop CZs, Lilac Faceted Bicone 4mm CZs and some 5-5.5mm Wild Orchid Fresh Water Potato Pearls, for the blossoms.

Finally decided to add some butterfly links, ribbon links, east and west facing bird links and a Stampt Antique Gold (plated) Blooming Flower 21x20mm Filigree to work into a pendant, were the final touches.

I needed one more thing to fill out the mosaic so I picked a tiny brass bead cap, which could be used with the brown beads or the Tsavorite rondelles. Here's my "Fresh Pick"

You can save your picks privately or publicly. There are picks that Lima Beads chooses to be promoted on the home page with 20% off on the items. You can also click on any pick (and there are pages of customer picks and the Lima Beads Team's own choices) to buy the items in it and get a page with the listings of each item and a button to move the item to your cart.

It's really handy. I actually did that with my first Lima Beads pick. May only get a few of the pieces from this one if any - I'm way over budget on bead purchases right now.

One final Lima Beads note, their new Design Gallery has opened - it's set up so folks with Lima Beads accounts can upload pictures of their work directly and comment on other's.

REMINDER!!
The deadline to order a kit for the Use the Muse II contest is June 27, 2009!

And the Shiny Stuff Keeps Coming or, How I Exhausted the Mail Carrier

I want to plug a few things I've read lately that I can't wait 'til Sunday's Wanderings Around the Beadosphere post to share.

First, Wendy Gibson of Winged Heart Studio has a column up at the ArtFire sponsored Handmade News. Wendy is one of their regular columnists for the Craft Trends section! Congratulations on the great gig, Wendy!

I understand there may still some spots open at Handmade for anyone who'd like to also become a paid editor, columnist or volunteer contributor, but I bet time is running short.

Tish is still collecting donations to help Chance run, she's only asking for 50 cents - and needs just over 900 more donations to reach her goal - which was 2000, so she's beyond the half-way mark in just a few days. Tell a friend, add your 50 cents, tell another friend.

Where do you go for inspiration that's not another beading crafter? I like Autonomous Artisans, Nikon Sniper, The Smitten Image and sometimes just doing a search on Google Images.

Now some notes about my day - Yay for my May's Bead Club beads from The Beadin' Path. Yummy summer-y sherbet colored heishis, bright silver-plated shell charms, large chrysocolla pendant bead were in this month's pack. Ideas for these are bouncing all over my brain.

Then there was more yay for Vintaj brass bits and caps and disks, and beautiful Lunch Specials beads from Lima Beads (sign up for their emails - you'll be glad you did). I don't know what is in today's special (today meaning the day you see this and click) but I got some beautiful rhodochrosite heishis and lemon ice and violet elongated faceted cubic zirconia teardrops at super prices. These CZs, with their own pre-attached bails, are definitely on my wish list.

Last but not least, this gorgeous borosilicate lampwork glass nautilus shell pendant from LaffingGull Lampwork

I'm going to be a designing dervish this weekend - only 2 weekends to go before Bay Con and I want to have a nice stock of Victorian and Steampunk style pieces.