Hey everyone, sorry it's been a while, been busy back at school, haven't had a chance to churn stuff out like I was over Christmas. It's a holiday weekend though (MLK day is on Monday), so school work's not so pressing that I couldn't take a break and focus on my artbeads.com work so yeah, I've spent the last 2 days working on this beauty.
I LOVE sea horses. Though, to be fair, I love most ocean/water related stuff, but sea horses are a particular favourite and I've had this little guy sitting in my pendant box for well over 2 years now, just waiting for the right time to use him and it finally presented itself.
I believe the sea horse pendant is from the Lost & Found collection by Blue Moon beads but don't quote me on that. I've had him so long, I'm not even sure he's available out of the collection any more. However, the chain I used, available in a length of 54 inches is also from the Lost & Found collection.
As is my want though, I generally tend to mix and match different brands, collections, even materials. The "pearls" I used are 6mm glass round beads w/a pearl finish from the Manor House collection. They are available in a lovely variety of pastel colours.
For this project, I chose an eggshell/tannish colour to offset the 6mm Czech Fire Polished glass beads in cobalt blue provided by artbeads.com then to compliment the lovely AB finish of the 8mm Czech Fire Polished glass beads in emerald I chose a pastel purple/blue colour, trying to play up the ocean theme.
I really liked the deep rich colours of the fire polished beads, they were so vibrant, despite being darker colours. Blue's always a favourite colour of mine to work with and green, well, green's just my favourite colour period. When I ordered the AB finish beads, I wasn't sure what to expect. I didn't even know what "AB Finish"meant, but I'm really quite pleased with the multi-faceted appearance of the emerald-coloured beads. The way they sparkle is slightly reminiscent of Swarovski crystal.
I broke up the "pearls" into clusters of seven using 6 and 8mm silver plated brass beads by Bead Gallery.
I used the beads provided by artbeads.com as centerpieces, capping the cobalt blue beads with the 6mm silver flared star bead cap, also from artbeads.com. I loved the star caps, they were very dainty and delicate and added a nice elegance to this piece. The only downside I had to them was they were a little hard to handle, I kept dropping them!!! They just slid right between my fingers!!! They were a little tricky to string too, if I didn't string them as a cluster w/the bead, they would get tangled in the wire. A minor annoyance but they are pretty against that dark blue bead.
To spice up the long chain that's supporting the sea horse, I created wire wrapped links of alternating 8mm emerald beads and 6mm cobalt beads which I strung from one side of the chain to the other below the two beaded strands to create the illusion of a fourth strand. To create the wire wrapped links, I used beadalon 20-gauge silver wire, available at most craft stores. I made sure to maintain a drape to the wire wrapped beads, when the necklace is worn, they fall just above the link that holds the sea horse pendant.
Legal Stuff:
The bead products, 6mm Czech Fire Polished
bead caps were provided to me by artbeads.com
free of charge. I am part of their blogging project
and have not been paid for my use or opinion of
the above products.
The seahorse is definitely part of Lost and Found, it is still available. This piece is gorgeous, great work!!
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