Too Tired to do a Friday Pick

Public Domain Image from Wikimedia Commons

Yep, long week. Too tired to try and do a pick - really do want to get back to it, but I'm just worn out. So, instead, I'll tell you my books did arrive today - yay! Also thought I'd show and tell about some quick projects I did this week.

On Tuesday or Wednesday, the week's a blur, I tell you, I wanted to wear my charoite and sunstone necklace but I didn't have anything else to go with it. So before I left for work, I grabbed the box lid that all the materials I used to make the necklace (except the chain) were still in, a couple headpins and the chain I'd used, and whipped up earrings and a bracelet. Took about half an hour all told. I again bent one of the twisted wire links into a hook fastener and, voilà - bracelet finished. Earrings were done with headpins and the beads/bead caps.

Then this morning I decided I was going to wear a lanyard with howlite and amazonite to go with a cute camp shirt I had. I had this white turquoise* bracelet and pendant I'd gotten a few years back, when I was still buying jewelry and not making my own, to accessorize with the lanyard.

the lanyard

Couldn't find that pendant for the life of me. Spent half an hour searching before I gave up. Still wanting to accessorize, I grabbed my howlite nuggets and made earrings and a pendant. That took maybe 15 minutes. Sometimes it's just better to make something unique anyway.

*I very firmly believe this white turquoise is howlite, it doesn't look like any of the Native American pieces purported to be white turquoise, which through Googling, seem to be not really a type of turquoise at all. At the time I bought this for a fairly high price at Nordstrom's, I didn't know anything about semi-precious stones - but I did like the way the stones were set, so I grabbed the bracelet and missing matching pendant. It's amazing how much I've learned in the last year or so! I have to give a lot of the credit to the Rings & Things Gemstone Guide - both the book and online version.

So, who else makes last minute accessories before dashing off to work or out with friends?

Tuesday Tidbits - Put on Your Sunglasses!

This is probably the most "glam" piece I've ever attempted. I was dazzled by some chessboard Swarovski rhinestones i saw on Artbeads and decided to grab them back when they were having a great sale. I'd also previously acquired oval sterling jump rings, amazonite cubes (not in stock) and some non-tarnish silver Artistic wire from them. I bought the aqua Swarovski to go with those amazonite cubes as I had a design idea in mind.

Late last week as I was linking together the amazonite bits to the Swarovski's, I realized I needed sterling chain, so I got that as well, this time using one of their coupons to get a bit of savings - be sure you either sign up for their newsletter or check the coupon specials (there's a link on their hone page) before finalizing your order!

Wave the magic wand (well, really work for days on it) and create version 1.

Not exactly there, though, but I took a picture so you could see the changes. A couple hours later, version 2:

Liking version 2 better, so far. Will put aside for a while before deciding if it's done.

Update!

I just couldn't stop fiddling - made it a 3 layer necklace by adding satin ribbon tie-back. Added advantage that length becomes more adjustable. Pondering embellishment to ribbon...

Speaking of Artbeads - if you're on Twitter, don't forget to do the "Tweet Your Prize" contests! Today's ends at 9 a.m. Pacific but perhaps there will be another one up later this week, so check that link daily!

Saturday's Output and a Bead-loving Cat

I sure let this day slip away - did finish a necklace, but also took a very long nap in the middle of the day, watched a couple hours of TiVo'd shows and basically was very lazy.

I'm having another mental debate about whether this piece is really finished, but here's what it looks like now. It's made from amazonite cubes from Artbeads, sterling wire and sterling roundel spacers, also from Artbeads, and hand-crafted sterling silver hammered links from Prolifique's Etsy shop. (the focus on this pic isn't very good, so if you enlarge for detail, it will be a bit blurry).

Our eldest cat, Yogurt, has taken to jumping up on my worktable when he comes into the room - he's in and out all day because this room faces the back yard and has a large sliding glass door I keep open - there's a screen door that keeps him inside. One of these times I'll be quick enough with the camera to get a picture.

He likes to sniff everything, but I'm afraid he might also try to eat a bead or some of the beading wire. He almost started knawing at my beeswax block, but I managed to shut it in a drawer before he could. That cat will eat almost anything.

Seems Like About an Inch an Hour

The wrapped loop chain experiment is progressing at about an inch an hour - well, I've actually done 12 inches, so I guess I'm going a bit faster than that. My hands are a bit sore and my thumbnails are trashed. I may not be doing this in the most optimal fashion.

The loops are getting a bit smaller as I go along. There's no wiggle room between loops for the stones now, either. The other thing that seems to be going well is less wastage of wire; I'm 'eyeballing' the lengths and seem to have figured that out.

I'm using a rather soft 22 gauge "non-tarnish silver" from Artistic Wire, which makes it a bit easier to manipulate, but I'm not sure of its durability. The stones are 6mm round howlite and ~15x8mm amazonite rounded rectangles. This shot makes the stones look more blue than they actually are - they're a lovely pale sea-green color with white streaks.