Monday Miscellany - New Lanyard Necklace Design

Still trying to get back into the groove around here. It's been an interesting few weeks - like the "May you live in interesting times," curse kind of interesting.

I've made a few new pieces that I can share this week, though. Today's is a lanyard using Swarovski pearls, CRYSTALLIZED™ Swarovski Elements Mocca 6mm bicones, small gold glass bicones and large dark topaz glass with an iridescent coating on one side. It's a long lanyard, 30", finished with gold lobster claws. I used medium 49 strand SoftFlex for the stringing wire. Everything in it came from my stash, so I'm doing fairly well sticking to my plan to use what I have and buy fewer new items. That said, I have broken down and bought a few new things - I'm particularly excited about my new Earthenwood Studios stuff.

I'm pretty fond of this pattern and will probably make a series of lanyard necklaces with a similar look using other colors. I've called this pattern Baroness and this particular lanyard "Mink". When I get my photography studio (aka my daughter's bedroom which she's currently occupying for the weekend) back, I'll be taking better photos and listing it at Artfire.

Thanks for coming by!

Monday Miscellany

I think Monday posts are the hardest to do. I guess I'll just take a page from Modern Literature class and do "stream of consciousness" - although I think this is more organized than most of the stream of consciousness writing I read way back when.

Although I have a new goodie bag to work with from Rings & Things, I did just use the Indian Pink Swarovski's I got in the last pack in this necklace - aren't they the perfect color to go with the rhodochrosite heishis I got recently from Lima Beads? This is very petite - just 16", the heishis and eight of the Swarovski's are 4mm, so it's quite delicate looking when on.

Below is a piece I worked on last Saturday night, still have some finishing fiddly work to do on it, but (I think) the design is done. Necklace is around 16", the center detail is around 2" long. Swarovski pearls, Swarovski crystals from Global Beads, gold fill wire, gold vermeil daisy spacers from Artbeads. Took about 4 hours to complete. *whew*

Of course the center bit was the first thing I added to the basic strung necklace, then I decided it needed even more bits, and just like Topsy, it growed. I finally resisted all temptation to do anything else to it Saturday night, which is when I took the picture above.

I have Thursday and Friday off this week (yay!). Thursday I go to the Rings & Things Bead Tour (that psychodelic-y banner has me flashing back to my youth and I never even touched LSD...really!) and get to visit with a new friend of mine while I'm there, since it's about midway between where I live and where she lives.

I met her at the SF convention, Potlatch. She's also someone I know online at Live Journal. She asked me if I still had a pair of earrings I'd shown but she didn't buy there -she called them "those orrery looking earings" and you know, the way they move, it is kind of like an orrery. Anyway, I told her they were still available and we're going to conduct that transaction, see the bead show and have a lovely time. I'm really looking forward to seeing her, as well as the beads.

Friday I'm going to have lunch downtown with another friend who I met through work and lives in the same town I do. She's not at my company any more, so I don't get to see her in person as much although we found each other on Facebook, so we try to keep up there. I am so glad for places like Live Journal, Facebook and Twitter helping me stay in touch. I'm terrible at writing chatty letters/emails or making phone calls so those sites are great for letting folk know I'm thinking of them or for sharing little bits of news.

Then it's work work work on my pieces for Bay Con. Tags, display, new stuff - next weekend will be very busy.

Angelite Jewelry Lanyard and Accessories

Had some meetings today, so last night I knew that I was going to wear a pair of medium gray slacks with a subtle periwinkle blue pinstripe, matching silk knit cable sweater and gray knit and suede sweater jacket. I got out my hematite, the new angelite stones I received the other day, and made this lanyard to go with the outfit:

(please click to enlarge for detail)

The angelite stone is nearly a perfect match to the sweater. I also made earrings - the bead caps in the earrings and lanyard are Tierra Cast gold plated lead free pewter, ordered from D & I and have simply lovely detail, and a bracelet, but in the bracelet I used the Swarovski Tahitian-look pearls instead of hematite:

And this is kinda what they all look like on (what you can see of) me in the periwinkle blue sweater and added Swarovski Tahitian-look pearl and gold bead bracelet I made the day before (note the Tahitian pearl pendant - goes great with hematite, too).

I do plan on making more with the Swarovski pearls, but I have a lot of hematite, especially the 4mm rounds, because I wear a lot of dark to medium gray in the fall and winter and lighter gray in the spring. Of course, all my meetings were with guys who probably didn't even notice the jewelry (and if they did weren't about to comment). I may make a duplicate set for sale - but for now, these stay in my personal collection!

More New Stuff In Today's Mail & A New Steampunk-ish Pendant

My mailbox brought more joy today. I needed some extra stuff for BayCon (and the other cons I hope to be attending) and the last of it (yesterday's haul was part 1) came today - as well as the Swarovski Tahitian Look pearls from the dollar sale at Artbeads, which I mentioned a few days ago. I've left a review of these pearls on the Artbeads site as well; I'm very pleased with my purchases!

Speaking of which - here's the bracelet I made using the pearls and gold filled beads, shown with my earrings and necklace (the ones my husband bought for me):

The other package was from Accessories Susan, and I made a pendant base awhile ago with some of the oxidized brass she offers on her site. This evening I've added some additional bits and pieces to complete the pendant.

The stamped brass lady's hand and watch pieces are from a wonderfully eclectic assortment pack I got from Melanie at her Etsy Steampunk Supply shop, the "gem" is recycled from an old piece of costume jewelry I have. It needs a chain, which I may embellish with tiny light sapphire faceted Czech glass beads. This picture definitely needs to be clicked on for the details. There's a tiny steel blue minute hand attached to the big gear, the "gem" is set in a smaller gear.

Last night I submitted a necklace with those emerald green Swarovski crystals I showed in yesterday's post, to the Bead Star competition in the crystals category. My friend Lori Basiewicz helped me name it "Emerald Rain". I'd love to show you a picture, but just in case it makes it to the competition, I'm going to keep it off the web for now. I still need to make something for my SIL's birthday with the rest of them...and they'll probably show up late now, since her birthday is Saturday.

I may yet submit in one or two other categories before tomorrow's deadline. I don't know if my work is ready for "The Show" as they say in baseball, but it really can't hurt to try.

That's all for tonight - lots to do, little time to do it! Thanks for dropping by!