...and, now for some jewelry!

Yes, all my jewelry making blog friends, I do still make jewelry.  In fact, I just took a bead looming class this past weekend, so I have another method in my arsenal!  But, I digress.  I have finally gotten some enamels and did some torch fired enameling, ala Barbara Lewis.  Some of you may remember that I took a class with Sally Stevens over the winter and fell madly in love with torch fired enameling.  So, I finally acquired some different colors of enamel from Barbara's well stocked online store and I set myself up on our screened porch and spent three hours enameling copper beads, swirly headpins I made, and other fun pieces. 

The headpins were made with the idea of creating my version of Sally's bib necklace that was on the cover of the April/May issue of Step by Step Wire Jewelry.  Here is my necklace.

 

 

 

I used ceramic beads, along with some small copper beads to make the links on my cool enameled headpins.  I decided to make the chain after seeing the beautiful chains my blog friend Patti has been making.  So, I used 16 gauge copper wire and made infinity links which I linked together with jump rings.   The hook is a variation of an infinity link that I saw used on a necklace on Pinterest.  I wish I could remember when I saw it and who made it, but unfortunately, it's been a while ago.  Here are a couple of detail pictures.

 

the clasp

 

 

 





The headpins and the chain.

 

 

I also made a pair of earrings from two enameled beads. 

 

 

 

So, there you have some of my adventures in enameling on my own!  There are more pieces coming!  I really love doing it.  Its a very fast technique and you can end up with a lot of different components is a very short amount of time.  Its very addictive!

 

I hope you are enjoying the quickly passing summer.  Have a wonderful week.  Thank you for stopping by and welcome to any new readers.  I'm so happy to have you join me!

 



 









Necklaces

Well, right now it's just going to be one necklace.  But, I've been trying to finish projects that have been sitting on my table for a while.  For some reason most of them are necklaces and some of them, like the one in this post, only needed a clasp!  But, time flies and my best efforts at finishing things get pushed aside by new projects, and this time of year, the garden! 

Anyway, here is the first of the finished necklaces.

It's a Russian spiral that uses bugles.  My friend Kathy, owner of Bead Soup, came up with it.  Her's was not assymetrical, this one is.  It uses 3mm bugles and 5mm bugles and it has 3mm and 4mm crystals randomly placed in the larger area.  I love that!  It was a fun necklace to make, and like all Russian spiral pieces, it worked up quickly.  Unless I'm the one making it, in which case it sat for a month or more needing the last inch or two stitched and then sat another month waiting for it's clasp!!  But, it's finished now and I've worn it, and I love it!

There are more "finally finished" necklaces, but that will be for another post.  Stay tuned!

Thanks for visiting.  Enjoy your day!



Wedding Projects

Or, at least some of the things I made for my daughter's wedding.  I tried not to get too carried away with making things.  I wanted to enjoy the journey to the big day, so I limited myself to small projects that were easily done and finished well in advance. Carrie also limited herself to making the guest book.  Yes, she is a fantastic bookbinder!  You can see the process of making the book and the pictures of the finished book if you follow the link above. 

I thought you might like to see some of my handiwork, so without further ado, I'll share some pictures of my contribution to what was a beautiful day!

The bridesmaids' and flower girls' necklaces along with the tags holding the necklaces.

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Packaging for the flower girls.

Packaging for the bridesmaids.

The table favors.  A collaborative effort between the father of the bride (the labels) and the mother of the bride (the bows).  By the way, the favors were jars of strawberry jam!  Yum!!

Well, these are some of the little things I made.  I have some tags and the necklace that the bride wore along with the box to keep it in.  But, they're for another time. 













Blog Partner

I'm so pleased to say that I've become a member of Artbeads.com Design Partner Program.  I know a lot of bloggers are members of the team and it's an honor to be included with these bead artists.  I was just accepted into the program, but I was still able to participate in the current "Winter Enchantment".  The idea behind the theme is what you find inspirational about winter.  I have to say that winter isn't my favorite time of year.  Once the glitter of Christmas is stored away for another year, I tend to huddle in the house as much as I can.  But, since I was a young girl the bright spot of winter was Valentine's Day.  It's not because I'm  an extreme romantic, although I do like soft pretty things, but because it was a touch of bright red and cheeriness in the midst of the gray of February, when everyone had enough of gray skies and gloomy, snowy weather.  It was a chance to make things with the color red, to enjoy pretty things like hearts and flowers and to eat fun things like heart shaped cakes iced with pink icing.  Yes, my mother always made me and my cousin a chocolate heart shaped cake with pink icing.  I still have her heart shaped pans!  So, when I found out that the theme of this installment was Winter Enchantment I knew immediately what I was going to chose.

These were the items I ordered for my project.  I love the Crystal Red Magma heart and I love that color with copper. So, copper chain was an obvious choice. I, also chose the copper heart leaf pendant because I've been wanting to use one of those copper leaves in some project. This one was so pretty and perfect for my idea that I was thrilled to find it.  So, as I ordered my pieces I designed my project.  I don't ever do that, but this idea presented itself almost as a whole as I began chosing components!  Wish that would happen more often!

This is the finished necklace.  It came together almost as I had envisioned it.  Again, very unusual for me since most of the time I don't start with a clear idea of what I'm going to end up with!



And, here's a close up.

 

I used the copper pendant as a closure, making the hook out of 16 gauge copper wire.  A nice feature of the design is that I can use the hook in one of the links of chain and have the copper heart hang free.  That was something I hadn't anticipated but I like the option of having a long necklace, or a shorter one depending on what I'm wearing it with or my mood!

Well, I hope you all have a restful Sunday.  The weather in my part of the world is gloomy and rainy, a perfect studio day!

To comply with FTC regulations I must tell you that I review products for Artbeads.com free of charge.  My statements are an honest assessment of the products and I receive no compensation from Artbeads.com for my endorsement. 





Transformation

I'm in the process of taking this necklace and remaking it.  I love the peyote stitched triangles, but I've never been happy with the necklace.  I put it together quickly in order to wear it to an event, but I was never happy with it.  So, it's being transformed!  Stay tuned...

Flamenco!

I've been trying to clear off my worktable so that I can have some room for new projects.  I have a hard time working with a lot of clutter around and that's what had happened to my table.  A lot of projects started and in little bowls, or on bead trays in various states of completion.  Well, I've made some progress, and this is the newest necklace to be finished.

I bought the art glass doughnut at a bead show last year.  I'm sorry that I don't remember the name of the artist who made it so that I could give her credit.  But, I loved the colors and knew I had to do something with it.   It sat on my worktable for months before I decided to combine it with a Cellini spiral.  I love the Cellini spiral, which is a bead weaving variation of tubular peyote. 

In a magazine I had seen a version of Cellini spiral which reversed itself.  You can see how cool it looks in the middle of the spiral where it reverses direction.  When the spiral was finished I had to decide how I was going to use it with the art glass doughnut.  I had been thinking of different ways of attaching the art glass to the spiral, using the spiral as a bail.  But, I didn't like anything I came up with.  After much fiddling I remembered that my daughter had made me a lenght of Viking knit from lime green wire.  I had the lime green silk ribbon and it had emerged as the best way to attach the glass doughtnut to the necklace.  I didn't want to hide any of the Cellini spiral by looping the silk over it, so I strung the spiral on the Viking knit and tied the silk to the wire.  

   

Here you can see the Viking knit wire with the silk tied in a loose knot around it.  I finished the necklace with two silver cones and a toggle clasp.  My husband and daughter think the art class looks like  girls twirling in their flamenco skirts, hence the name!  I'm really pleased with the way this necklace turned out.  I took a while to decide what to do, but I'm pleased with the result.  And, I'm pleased that I found a perfect project to use the gift my dear daughter made for me quite a while ago.

Thanks for stopping by to visit.  I hope you have a lovely day and get to create something wonderful!

Fusion

I've always loved fiber, fabric and beads,  and the more color the better!  I started this adventure in creating doing needlepoint.  Gradually I moved on to crocheting, knitting, quilting, counted cross stitch and beading.  It didn't take long for the desire to combine all these wonderful things began to take hold.  The first thing I thought of was needlepointing the front of a vest.  I never have done that, although I still might some day.  I think I'd use even count fabric rather than needlepoint canvas so it wouldn't be so stiff.  Eventually, I began making jackets knitting the back and sleeves and using fabric for the fronts.  The black one is the first one I did and it's still my favorite.  I also made one with linen yarn and fabric (the second picture), which was published in the Salon section of Stampington's Belle Armoire.   

When I began making knitted jewelry I used beads and buttons as I told you in my last post.  But, soon I decided I had to use some fabric and possibly needlepoint canvas.  The first idea I came up with was to knit I-cords and make a pendant and bail out of fabric.  I decided to make folded fabric flowers and attach them to a base that I made from Timtex.  I fused silk fabric to  the Timtex  and stitched the flowers down with beaded centers. I also added leaf beads in between the flowers.  I fused the same fabric to Timtex for the bail.  Then I was left with unfinished edges!  Well, I decided to bind the edges with narrow bias binding.   I used the sewing machine to stitch the binding to the Timtex first and then turned it to the back and stitched it down by hand.  For a closure I picked up the ends of the I-cords on knitting needles and began a single I-cord,  knitting for about 3 inches.  I did this on each side.  I then cut triangles from the same purple silk that I used for the flowers and stitched them into a bell shape.  The bottom photo shows the closure.

  

Shortly after I finished this necklace I saw a posting about a wearable art show in California called Creative Expressions 2008.  I had never heard of the show, but I decided to send in photos of the necklace just for fun.  To my great surprise it was accepted!!  There was an opportunity to sell the piece, and so, once again, just for fun, I agreed to put it in that category.  Shortly before the show closed I recieved an email from the curator saying a collector of art jewelry had purchased the necklace!!  To say I was both humbled and thrilled at the same time is an understatement!  It was a wonderful experience!

Having used fabric, knitting and beads in that first necklace, I decided to make another piece and use some needlepoint canvas as well as knitting, fabric and beads!  I had this wonderful knitting ribbon which had gold leafing on the ribbon.  It's an interesting ribbon to knit with, but so cool I couldn't resist.  I knitted the i-cord and a flower which I  attached to the colored canvas with a dichroic button made by my friend TerrieVoigt (see my last post for a link to her website).  Once again I used Timtex as a base.  I covered it with a piece of gold lame fabric,  which is something I often did when I made needlepoint Christmas ornaments. When you aren't covering the canvas with solid stitching it looks nice to have a color or some glitz showing through the canvas.  I then covered the lame with the blue needlepoint canvas which I had stitched with a needle lace pattern and scattered beads.  The flower was stitched in the middle of the the circle.  For a backing I covered Timtex with a piece of the lame and hand stitched the two circles together.  I then stitched blue and green lentil beads to the edge.  I made the bail the same way I had made the other necklace, except that I used needlepoint canvas, and stitched an interlocking web pattern and scattered some beads on it. Once again, I lined Timtex with lame and covered it with the canvas.  I finished the edges with narrow bias binding made with a hand marbled fabric I had gotten at a quilt show.  I didn't want to leave the ends of the I-cord plain (life is too short not to embellish is my motto!) so I made stuffed tubes and attached them to the ends of the knitting.  I then used the lentil beads to create a collar around the top of the tubes where they attach to the I-cords. 

Both of the necklaces were really fun to create.  The ideas evolved as I worked on them.  I don't often have a completed design in mind when I start a project.  I just have a general idea of what I want to do and the materials I want to work with, and I go from there.  Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. But that's all part of the fun!

Hope you enjoy seeing these pieces and thanks for visiting!