Summer Fun: Catch of the Day

Eesh it's been a while. . . I've been so busy w/work that the majourity of my projects got put on hold but I'm getting them done. I've got some pretty exciting news too. A friend of mine, having seen the necklace that this post is about, commissioned me to do a similar piece for his mother!!! Another friend of mine wants me to do some jewelry for him too but he hasn't decided what he wants yet lol.

Now, lets get down to business, this was my artbeads.com summer themed project. We had to create a piece that was symbolic of "Summer Fun" to us. Well, for me, summer was always a beach vacation, swim team, picnics at the lake. My summers always revolved around water and being in the water, so I tried to keep that in mind when figuring out this design.

I knew I wanted a nautical design, and I knew I wanted it to be somewhat classical/vintage in appearance- dated but timeless, simple and elegant. Originally I was going to do something similar to my Poseidon design but I just wasn't feeling such a heavy design for such dainty beads and charms so I ended up going in a whole 'nother direction completely.

I started by making long sections of chain w/my 4mm glass druk beads in light amethyst, smoke topaz, rosaline, dark green, and light sapphire. I love my czech glass beads, and I especially love the druk beads, however, I wish I had gotten them in a bigger size, maybe 6 or 8mm b/c as pretty as the colours are, I found that these beads are so small, unless you string a bunch of them together, the colour pales and it's very hard to distinguish one from another, they tend to wash out on their own.

After I had created these long double chains (pictured above), I used several 3" long lengths of bright silver chain to create the full length of the necklace and connected them to the ship's wheel pendant which is by Jollee's Jewel's (available at Michael's). To the bottom of the large pendant I attached the antique pewter anchor and sail boat charms (Captain Ahab, anyone?).

I still felt like the necklace needed something. After all, there's more to the beach then sailboats and ships wheels. One of my favourite activities, even now as a grown up, is getting up w/the morning low tide to hunt for shells. I mean, it's nearly impossible to go to the beach and NOT find any sea shells- even at the lake I find all sorts of snail shells and other fresh water mollusks and lets face it, sometimes sea shells are just too tempting to walk away from!!!

And that temptation proved too great, I just had to include those sea shells in this summer themed piece. I finished the piece w/two large TierraCast Antique Silver spindle shell charms and two small TierraCast Antique Silver spindle shell charms. I attached them in such a way that they drape down the wearer's chest w/o getting in the way or catching on anything.

The finished product is roughly 22" from clasp to pendant and, while not exactly something that a tween or teen would wear is a lovely and elegant piece that can be dressed up or dressed down and definitely celebrates the calm, peace, and tranquility of the beach, as well as the romanticism associated w/a life at sea and exotic places.

Stay tuned for the accompanying charm bracelet as well :D

The bead products:

4 mm czech glass druk beads

in light amethyst, smoke topaz,

rosaline, dark green, and light sapphire,

antique pewter sailboat and anchor

charms, and the TierraCast antique silver

spindle shell charms 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 product(s).

Gone Fishing: Fathers Day Keychains

Okay, it's been way too long. I've been so busy w/the new job that I've had to put my beading on hold (stupid priorities!!!)

I'm still around though and I have plenty of stuff waiting to be posted.

Consider this a prelude to my summer bead project for the Artbeads.com design project. I had seen these two projects in the artbeads.com learning center and I had been wanting to get into resin jewelry for a while so I saw my opportunity.

The keychain on the left is my take on Rather Be Fishing while the keychain on the right is based off Catch of the Day .

This project was a combination of traditional beading, resin casting, and a process called "upcycling" which is where you take an object(s) and recycle them into something new. In this case, I upcycled fishing hooks, bait worms, lead weights, and a rooster tail fishing lure.

I also upcycled some old jump rings off some broken keychains that were slated for the trash.

The frames I used are Antique Copper-Plated Pewter Large Rectangle Pendant and the Antique Silver-Plated Pewter Grande Rectangle Link. Also from artbeads.com I got the bass fish charm and fishing boat charm as well as the ICE resin I used to seal the items into the frames.

For the resin casting I made sure to follow the instructions that came w/the resin and for the overall design, I tended to refer more to the pictures on the projects respective pages rather than the actual projects themselves.

Once I actually got down and dirty and started to put my keychains together, I found other than the resin I wasn't doing anything I hadn't done previously and I also found that surprisingly, a lot of fishing lures are put together in much the same way as jewelry. I found it kind of funny that I was recognizing certain stringing and wire wrapping methods on my dad's lures that I myself have used on my beading projects before!!!

Erin's Butterfly

This is a necklace I put together as a gift for a friend's bday. I wanted to give her something that was pretty and elegant w/just a touch of gothic to it.

I love cascades so I tried to create a simple cascade to focus on the central butterfly. On one side, I placed a skeleton key charm, a red glass wire-wrapped bicone, and a monogram "E" on the left side of the butterfly since we read left to right.

On the right side of the butterfly, I placed an "L" charm, another red wire-wrapped bicone, and a fleur-di-lys. I also placed a silver and red-enamel flower blossom farther up on the chain. Originally, I had hung it on the clasp but found it to be too heavy and rather annoying against the back of my neck (I always give my pieces a test run before ever giving them to anyone).

There's not a whole lot on this necklace as far as "beading" is concerned but working w/chains and metal involved a whole 'nother skill set and can be quite frustrating.

It doesn't help that I'm so beyond guilty of being a perfectionist. I take the charms and beads off the chain and re-attach it til it hangs just the way I want it to lol and it can get to be rather time consuming.

For such a simple necklace, I spent most of an afternoon putting it together before I was satisfied with it.

I gave it to my friend yesterday for her bday. I was a few days late but she was gone on her actual bday and I didn't see her in classes before yesterday. But even being late, she still absolutely loved it and was amazed that anyone would take the time to actually make something special, specifically for her.

Saturn's Rings: Wire Wrapped Pendant

So I've been playing w/wire wrapping a bit lately and this has been my most complicated design so far. I definitely bit off more then I could chew, overestimating my skills but I like how it came out.

This pendant consists of an imperfect rectangular onyx framed by 20 and 22 gauge silver-plated copper wire and garnet-coloured glass beads. The bead that dangles is wrapped separately and attached w/an "o" ring for free movement. I was thinking of stringing this on a black ribbon but we'll see.

Springtime Dewdrops: Beauty of Spring Project

Yes, it's been a while since I've posted anything. I apologize profusely. I've been so busy w/school and preparing for my senior art exhibition, I've had to put my personal projects on hold. Ugh, priorities, priorities, sometimes they suck lol. But having been on spring break all last week, I had ample time to catch up on some of my personal projects. This being the most important one. The theme for this piece was the "Beauty of Spring". It was our March project for the artbeads.com project bloggers.

For my part, I selected the Large Copper Butterfly pendant as my focal piece. Nothing says

"Spring" to me like butterflies and butterflies are always a personal favourite of mine.

I also chose accent pieces that were antiqued-copper plated charms. Keeping in mind what I associate with spring, I chose a bumble bee, a sunflower, a watering can (spring always means planting the garden for my dad and me). I also chose a flip flop, to which my roommate and I had a debate of spring vs. summer over. I chose it for spring because spring is synonymous with cute strappy shoes and easter dresses to me. In addition to the flip flop, I also chose a cut out star and a flower outline charm.

Originally I had wanted the charms to dangle below the butterfly pendant, as in a "Y" chain but I didn't realize the back of the butterfly was more of a tube, like for a slider necklace, then a bail so I had to come up with a different solution for my planned cascade effect. I ended up using a length of antique copper-plated cable chain that I cut up into sections consisting of 7 links each. Between each link, I placed a swarovski crystal in the new XILION cut. I used the 4mm XILION bicone fushia and indian red and the 5mm XILION cut bicone in erinite (green).

Another challenge I faced was stringing the butterfly. The tube on the back of the pendant was too narrow to slip the chain links thru but I was worried that just stringing it on wire wouldn't proved the necessary support so I ended up stringing a piece of wire with some 2.5 mm swarovski crystals I had that were a lovely orange colour and threaded the crystals thru the tube. They just barely fit but on the upside, while you can't see them, they also prevent the pendant from excessive twisting and spinning.

After I had connected the butterfly to the primary chain, I then went back and cut the remaining length of chain into sections of 3 links. I used alternating swarovski crystals in the center of the chains to join them, then connected them to the links on the primary chain. I tried to used opposite colours from the ones on the primary chain. Again, they were XILION cut, however the ones I used on the cascading chains are 5mm as opposed to 4. The colours I used on the cascading chain links were lilac, fire opal, and indicolite (blue).

After I had added the cascading lengths of chain, I still felt like the necklace needed something else and I still had quite a few swarovski crystals hanging out in my craft box so I set out to make use of them. I again ended up trying to use opposite colours from the ones on the links on the primary chain.

The final step in the creation of this piece was the addition of an antique copper toggle clasp . I thought it was a nicer, more fun and flirty touch then your average run-of-the-mill lobster claw clasp.

The finished product is about 18-inches in length and sits comfortably just above the bosom. Despite the copious amounts of metal on this piece, it's surprisingly light weight and makes a lovely rustling, tinkling noise when one moves.

The bead products:

Large Copper Butterfly pendant,

anitque copper plated charms, swarovski

XILION bicone crystals in 4 & 5mm, antique

copper-plated cable chain, all copper findings,

and the copper line-etched toggle clasp 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 product(s).

Wire Wrapped Glass Beads II

I've been seeing a lot of wire-wrapped jewelry lately and I really like it. It ranges from sexy and elegant to fun and funky to just plain weird, lol. Seeing so much of it, it got me curious and I decided I wanted to try it myself so I did. I had these amber-coloured glass beads left over from a project and I figured they'd be something good and cheap to practice on. I made a set of five using 24-gauge brass wire since it's so malleable. After getting a bit of practice under my belt w/the brass wire, I moved to the thicker, sturdier 20-gauge silver wire and I'm quite pleased w/how it came out. I love how amber looks paired w/silver and even though these beads are glass, they're still gorgeous wrapped in silver.

I'll more then likely end up using these but if anyone's interested, I can easily make some more than I'd be willing to sell.

Wire Wrapped Glass Beads

I've been seeing a lot of wire-wrapped jewelry lately and I really like it. It ranges from sexy and elegant to fun and funky to just plain weird, lol. Seeing so much of it, it got me curious and I decided I wanted to try it myself so I did. I had these amber-coloured glass beads left over from a project and I figured they'd be something good and cheap to practice on. I made a set of five using 24-gauge brass wire since it's so malleable. My only complaint working w/the brass wire is that it's so thin. I had to twist it back over itself two or three times to get it sturdy enough to cage the beads but I like how it came out and it was a relatively quick process.

I haven't decided if I'm going to use these or try to sell them though so I'll keep y'all posted.