Tuesday Tidbits - Rose Stone and Paper Roses Mixed Media Earrings

"Attention! Attention!"
Before I get to my tidbits, I have a wonderful opportunity to share. Tish from Just A Tish has posted about getting an Artist's Exchange going beginning September 1st. You need to get over to her blog, read the rules and comment if you want in. So, what are you waiting for? Go now, I'll wait.


Welcome back!

Today's tidbit is about trying something completely different (for me, at least.) I was messing around with some components, trying to come up with more earring ideas, and hung a rose quartz bead on a new Accessories Susan bead cap on a brass headpin with a small brass spacer and matte rose glass Druk, wired it to a bronze loop (by Bead Landing, the Meadow Grove collection, from Michael's) and attached a simple brass ear wire. Too plain - time to go a bit nuts.

So I looked around the room, just wondering what I should do about the empty loop. My glance landed on a sheet of scrapbook paper covered with vintage-look roses. I put the earring on the paper and traced the loop,

cut it out -

and glued it to the hoop. The G-S Hypo Cement may have been overkill as far as a glue selection - but it was handy. Here's the earring with the paper glued in but before I trimmed it - I waited until after the glue dried to do that.

Then I put some Diamond Glaze and a CZ-gem drop inside the loop directly on to the paper. I put a rather thick layer, so it took maybe 4 hours to dry. It wasn't very level, I added another layer and it's about level with the height of the bronze loop now. I'll let it dry overnight. It's...interesting. I've made the second earring - it's at the stage where I'm letting the glued on paper dry to the hoop right now. It'll be a day or so before I have a finished pair. Since the back is plain white paper, I'm considering what to do about that.

I have quite a few sheets of pendant vintage prints from Alpha Stamps - I'm pondering how I might use them, perhaps with the brass frames or copper blanks I have from Rings & Things.

All vintage images on this page are courtesy of The Graphics Fairy

Hope you'll come back tomorrow to see what I've done with some gorgeous chrysocolla beads.

PS - today's ArtFire listing goal achieved:

Dawno

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Thinking About Vintage Style Jewelry

Finished the wrapped link piece - definitely a first effort and not for sale - but I think I might wear it with the necklace lanyard I did today, that I'm tentatively calling Zephram's Dream. It's 33" long, hemimorphite and howlite with sterling beads. I selected out the howlite that was entirely white or had the most minute gray veining on it for the lanyard.

Here's the lanyard necklace and linked necklace together.

My favorite kind of jewelry has always been pieces with a Victorian/Edwardian retro look, I've been fortunate enough to collect a few lovely silver and sapphire Edwardian pieces, 2 small brooches and a necklace so far. Some other examples of what I like are Michal Negrin (although mostly the simpler pieces - some are too ornate for my taste) and and the 1928 Jewelry Co. styles.

Today I was wandering around the web and happened across Accessories Susan a site that specializes in supplies for making Victorian inspired jewelry. Needless to say, someone should have hidden my credit card. I'm looking forward to experimenting and creating my own designs. If I like what I've done, I may add them to my pieces for sale.

The other place I discovered today was Beading Daily - seems to have some interesting items, so I bookmarked it and joined the forum.

Well, I've got an idea rattling around in the back of my mind and 4 or 5 hours left 'til bedtime, so I think I'll publish this post and get to it.