From Sample to Pendant

Hello, everyone!  I'm so happy to have you visit today.  I hope your day is going well.  I think we've finally turned the corner on this long winter.  Spring isn't far from us now!  I'm itching to get outside into the garden to start "spring cleaning"!  I do more spring cleaning outside than inside. 

Today I wanted to share a beadwork pendant I made the other day.  When I was planning my first geometric beadwork bracelet,  last spring I thought I would make a sample to see how it would go together.  I had decided to make one of Jean Power's Power Puff bangle.  Well, I really like the sample I made so I put it aside and started on the bracelet.  I didn't want to continue the sample and turn it into a bangle because in stitching it I decided to change the colors around and use them in a different order.  Well, it sat on my table and I kept thinking I should do something with it. I decided on turning it into a pendant but, as usual, I never got around to it until the other day.  Here is what it looks like finished.

 

 

 

The Power Puff bangle is a series of beaded triangles that are connected to each other with a short peyote tube. The whole thing is a tube so you can thread wire or cord through it.  I love stitching triangles for some reason and it becomes quite addictive for me to go from one triangle to the other.  This sample has the triangles getting larger by one row for each successive triangle.  You can also change the orientation of the triangles as you stitch.  That's my next trial!   I ended this sample with the start of the fourth triangle.  When I decided to turn it into a pendant I thought that would be the perfect place for a bead to end it off nicely.  I searched through my stash of torch-fired enameled beads because I thought I had one this color.  I also had some enameled head pins and one used the same green enamel.  As you'll see in another photo I had a spacer that was the same color also and I put that on top.  Here are some details.

 

 

I love enameling beads!

Here is the spacer.

 

 

 

I love the way the bead sits right in the partial triangle.  In the second photo you can see the graduated size of the triangles.  If I hadn't decided to change the color sequence I could have gone back to the original size and continued the graduated triangles.  There are several variations on this idea.  Also, you can tell I love this color green since I had so many pieces that worked with the beadwork!  To finish it off  I decided to use a purchased copper chain for a necklace.  I'm really happy with the result. 

 

 

The blog post about the finished bangle can be seen here.  I really love geometric beadwork and I haven't done any lately.  But, I have some ideas to work on so I think I'll be getting back to it! 

 

I just discovered that the blog Anything but a Card Challenge theme this month is Green with Envy, so I'm going to enter this pendant in that challenge.

 

Thank you for visiting with me today.  I hope you have a wonderful day and that you have some spring weather in your world! 





A Different Kind of Bezel

Hi, everyone.  Welcome to my little corner of the world.  I'm so happy you could join me.  Today I'm back to beading stuff!  I'm still obsessed with Contemporary Geometric Beadwork.  Kate McKinnon has announced that the second volume has gone to print and I can't wait to get my copy of it!   One thing I have learned about this process and the idea behind Kate's approach to it in the books is that once you have figured it out and know the method you can use it in many different ways.  Which brings me to the pendant I'm going to share with you today. 

Jo Ray, who designs and teaches at Bead Soup in Savage, Maryland, has been experimenting with the belly band.  That is the starting point for many of the bracelets in CGB.  It's a modified RAW technique that is really quite simple but brilliant.  Jo decided to try using it to bezel around a marble.  You could also use a large bead.  One thing led to another and she came up with a 4 sided bezel which intrigued me.  So, I took her class and after the class was over she and I were talking about the versatility of the whole concept of using the band and creating wings and horns.  As we were talking I had a light bulb moment when I knew what I was going to do with what I just learned.  I don't have a picture of the class project because it was put aside when I got home.  It will become a future experiment!  I started over and changed a few things and ended up with this.



I started the bezel the way Jo taught it, but I used a single needle instead of the double needle that she used.  My process for stitching the four bands around the marble was changed and at that point the whole thing took on a life of it's own!  What I ended up with wasn't what I had thought I would end up with!!  But, I love what happened and I'll go back to the class project and see what that becomes and if I can stick more to the vision I had.  Anyway, back to this one.  Once the bezel was finished and the marble was in place I peyote along the band and increased in one space to begin the wing.  As I worked each band I moved the increase down the peyote so that the wings would be stepped down away from each other.  Once the bands were finished I did a herringbone finial at the bottom and placed a crystal drop inside.  For the bail I used peyote stitch to create a loop and hung the pendant from a ball chain.  Here are some close up photos.



 

 

 

I feel this method of working geometric beadwork is only inhibited by imagination.  It's a very freeing sort of process, one where one idea grows out of another.  Right now I've moved on to the Rick-Rack bracelets section of the book and I'm having a great time working on my first version of that idea!  Once again, horns (because I can't get enough of horns and wings) are making an appearance!  Stay tuned. 

 

Along with all this wonderful beady fun I'm having this summer, my daughter and I decided to add to our ever growing list of things to do and take a beginners Zentangle class from our friend Patti at The Queen's Ink.  Patti is a certified Zentangle teacher and her work is so beautiful.  So, I've been working on tangling as much as possible.  You'll see some of those results soon,  I'm sure! 

 

 

Thank you so much for stopping by today.  I hope you are having a wonderful summer.  It's going by so quickly and I'm trying to enjoy and savor it.  Hopefully you are too! 



Spinner

Interesting title?  Well, it's because I love jewelry that has parts that move!  Spinner rings, one of which I don't have but want, spinner pendants made with metal or bead weaving, charm bracelets or bangles made like spinner rings.  I love them all.  I'm also a big fan of Mary Hettsmansperger.  I have all of her books and I love all the projects in them.  One of her projects is a spinner pendant.  I've wanted to make one, but like many of the things I want to make or do it gets buried among other things.  She classifies it as a beginner project and it really is easy to do.  With lots of variations, I might add!  Great for future projects.

A few weeks ago I decided that I was just going to make one.  I had scraps of metal on my table and so I cut some up and textured it and went to work.  Here is what I ended up with.

 

 

I cut a disk out of silver sheet and I rounded the ends of a rectangle of brass.  I textured both of them with a hammer.  The copper I cut and shaped and then decided to try embossing it.  I love embossing paper, and recently Vintaj has put embossing folders and a machine on the market.  If you have a die cut machine you don't need the one Vintaj sells, any of them will work.  I had gotten one of their embossing folders and so I decided this was the time to use it.  Well, I love the way it turned out.  I lightly oxidized all the metal but I love the way the embossed piece looks.  I followed Mary's directions for putting the pendant together and I love the results.  Here you can see the embossed copper better.

 

 



 

 

These pendants are really fun to make.  Anything goes so you can use any scraps on your work table.  Putting the spacer beads between the sheet metal pieces allows them to move and spin.  I think it's so much fun!  It's become one of my favorite necklaces!!

 

 

Thank you for stopping by today.  I hope you have a wonderful holiday weekend!

 

 

 





Remember this pendant?

It's the pendant I made before Christmas at Bead Soup in Savage Mill.  I really liked the finished pendant.  It was so frosty and wintery looking that I didn't want to let it sit in the studio collecting dust.  So, as soon as things settled down a little after the holidays I stitched a necklace for it. 

Since I really love spiral rope stitch I decided to use that for the necklace.  I just finished it yesterday and I'm very happy with the way it turned out.  As you can see in the picture below I peyote stitched a toggle bar and used a white frosted glass ring that I found at Michael's some time ago for a toggle. 



So, now this is my new favorite winter jewelry!  I say that when I finish all my jewelry!  We're going to be joining friends for dinner tomorrow evening so I can wear it!  It's pretty cold and frosty here, which makes it very appropriate!

Here's a picture of the entire necklace.  Enjoy!



Thanks for stopping by.  Enjoy the coming weekend.  Don't forget to do something creative today!