Tuesday Tidbit - Aventurine Leaf Necklace

Last evening I dropped my Bead Trends March 2010 piece into the FedEx pickup box for overnight delivery. I didn't mean to put it off to the last minute, but I somehow let things slip last week and had to scramble today so it would be there in time. The April 2010 Bead Trends submission deadline and the Stringing challenge are all coming up in just a couple weeks, so I need to plan ahead better for them. To say nothing of having just over a month left to finish preparations for LosCon in LA next month.

Well, rather than dwelling on my little failings and recent foibles, let's move on to something positive! As the seemingly never ending chore of organizing my workspace continues, I occasionally stop cleaning or sorting or organizing and make something with the beads I've uncovered. Case in point, this aventurine necklace.

I pulled out a box full of beads left over from an earlier project and rather than sort through them as I was planning on, I got an idea. I grabbed this carved leaf I bought from Etsy seller Beadaholique, which I had actually managed to put in the right place to find easily (a box labeled "green stone"), and strung it with some carved floral aventurine beads from Baubles and Beads in Berkeley (say that three times fast!). Then, from the box I picked out the nearly white pale, and lovely celadon green, aventurine rounds to string into a necklace.

Normally I use metal caps and spacers in my work. This time I liked the simplicity of using just the stones.

Although I think I'd typically put this aside for Spring, the idea of a falling leaf (which I think the pendant looks like) green or not, makes me think of Autumn. Besides, here in California a lot of the trees stay green all year round, and not just the typical evergreens. I've got a couple Fall outfits I think I'll try this with and see how it looks.

See you tomorrow for some mutterings about another "last minute idea for something to wear to work" jewelry creation.

Random Necklace - Finis...?

I want to start off sharing new posts I've seen recently about the Gluable Challenge. They are all such clever crafters!

*melanie* at Earthenwood Studios blog - baby moon faces and re-purposed bracelet turned into a necklace all using beautiful ceramics. I'm saving up for a big purchase from Earthenwood some day, I love their work!

Tammy Powley at Crafty Princess Diaries showed of her fun fish bracelet and a cool quote on the brass frame

And Lisa over at A Bead A Day did this very cool bracelet using scrapbooking brads she modified and glued to the disk and loop bracelet form (reminds me of 60s Op Art Posters)


Now, on to the thrilling conclusion of the Random Necklace Adventure...

I pondered and piddled around with it some more today, and here's the finished* piece, which hangs about 24" from the neckline, so it's about 48" around - weighs in at almost a 1/4 lb (3.8 oz). Here's how it (approximately, since this obviously isn't my neckline...) looks doubled when I tried it on - you may notice my concession to pattern and order with the focal point in the center of the bottom loop:

In this shot I highlight the randomness (but not an ability to focus the camera - it looks focused in that tiny window, but my eyes aren't so good anymore - even with my glasses on, maybe it's time for a new prescription):

And this last shot was just to show it full length (I drug in that branch the other day thinking I might use some of the smaller branches for earring photos...DH just rolled his eyes).

*finished as in I may or may not change my mind, but I did put the finishing hardware on it, but I can always take it apart and try again...someday...maybe or maybe not...don't you love how I'm so definite?

Spilled Beads Do Not a Design Make...Yet

So, I knocked over my box of aventurine and jade beads - the nagging mom voice in my head told me that it shouldn't have been sitting on the floor on top of other things on the floor, and should have been more tightly closed. After saying some bad words to the nagging mom voice (which by the way, isn't remotely like my mom's voice - it's more like my own, nagging at the kids, but much surlier, voice) and grumbling to nobody about having to get down on the floor to scoop them up and more grumbling and bad words said to myself in general about having to sort them, I was on my knees with a tablespoon* ready to scoop them and sort them back into the box when I really looked at the random pattern of the colors and sizes.

*yes, that's what I use to scoop spilled beads off the carpet and it works really well - happens often enough that I keep one in my tool box with the tiny souvenir (probably not what they intended to happen, but it somehow *cough* fell into my carry-on luggage) Singapore Airlines spoon I use to sort small beads I've used and are now all jumbled up on the bead mat

"Hmm," I said to myself - possibly out loud, as I do talk to myself out loud, quite more often these days since I spend a lot of time alone in my workroom, and I guess I kind of miss the sound of human voices, or I'm just going insane, which wouldn't be a bad guess either - "that would be an interesting look for a necklace."

So instead of sorting and putting them back in the box, I dumped them into one of the shoe-box tops I've lined with a small piece of thin foam packing material for a DIY lap-desk and grabbed the bead stringing wire.

Strung about 20" or so - not happy. Tried adding some silver spacer beads, didn't like this try:

So I took off all the roundels and spacers until I just had two roundels and one spacer. Nope. (didn't take a picture of it)

Added some contrasting colored glass beads and some amethyst beads - still not doing it for me. Will continue to play with this until I get something I like. Knowing me, I'll probably end up with a pattern. I'm not that good with random.

Oh, and one other thing, I've had this silver leaf pendant almost a year now and still haven't figured out what to do with it. I considered using it on the necklace above, but rejected it, too. I do think it needs to be on something big and bold, it's 2 and a quarter inches wide and almost 2 and a half inches long.

As always, your opinions, comments, sympathy and humor are greatly appreciated :-)

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Dragon on a Leash

Months and months ago, I started fiddling with two brass stampings from Accessories Susan - one is a dragon and one is an "Art Deco Style Framework Setting Piece" in brass ox and the other is a "Gothic Style Dragon". I finally figured out that I wanted to make a pendant with them and an aventurine cabochon.

(click pictures to enlarge)

First I folded the dragon around the stone. Then I folded the framework piece. This was the tricky part. I folded it up in half and then half of that half back down again and wedged it under the dragon folds in the back. It still wasn't completely stable, so I used E6000 glue (rather thickly) to hold all the pieces together and onto the cabochon.

Next I put a textured brass cable chain on it using jump rings. It was too plain. So I thought, why not make a toggle clasp out of another framework piece and another dragon (using one that faced the opposite direction) the dragon is attached to the chain with a jump ring - kind of like a collar and leash. Then I decided to use two chains at the bottom to attach this part to the pendant.

Better, but still missing something. So I took some filigree chain and some large aventurine beads with filigree bead caps and added them to the other side. I like it now!

The total length of the chain is about 30" around, and pendant hangs 1.5" so it drops about 16" from top to bottom.

Weekend Beading Update

Between watching all 17 episodes of the 1960s series The Prisoner online on AMC and listening to Man in the Dark on audiobook, while I beaded, and other non-beading distractions, I again didn't get to posting about my works in progress over the last few days...so here are some pictures.

Friday night and some of Saturday, I worked on some knotted strands with peach beads on white Silkon thread. The rice beads have a soft feel to them, definitely not glass, maybe resin or acrylic? I liked the color and sheen when I saw them at Global beads, so I bought a bunch. On the top strand I used them, two shades of glass and two light peach shades in seed beads size 11/0 and 6/0 from Dyna-Mites. The second strand is just the rice beads and the third strand is just the seed beads.

Then, on Saturday, I worked on this necklace with aventurine beads, gold plated bead caps and disk spacers on black FFF Gudebrod silk.

And today, I strung this extra long strand (about 116 inches total) with all kinds of glass beads, including Swarovski bicones, and copper on white Silkon thread. (click for larger image to see details). Because of its length, it can be worn a number of ways, included twisted with an 'S' clasp to fasten.

My workspace is slowly getting organized, but I still have a long way to go.