Tackle that stash - Mini wire crochet pendants with pearls

There was this pearl necklace. Big, bold, with a huge crystal. From the first time I laid my eyes upon it, I was determined to rip it up and make something else with the pearls.
You know how these things go. From the first time to now meant a few years in which I picked it up, put it down, picked it up again ... until I finally felt I tried to push this into the wrong direction. Why did I think the result had to be another big pearl necklace? Why not use the pearls individually?

Sometimes we need color and it doesn't even have to be much. So I ended up with little affordable pendants, just one freshwater pearl in a colorful wire crochet setting on a ball chain. No silver, no gold, but pink tones, purple, orange, green, light blue ... and who knows, there may be more to follow.
Which color do you like best?

Available in my Zibbet shop

Oldies but Goodies - Whimsical

What is "whimsical"? I picked a random online dictionary and got this: "1. spontaneously fanciful or playful, 2. given to whims; capricious, 3.quaint, unusual, or fantastic".
Another site gave me an example to make it even clearer. "An example of whimsical is a little girl pretending to be flying around the house like a butterfly." I wonder what a grown lady who is doing the same is called.
This Jewelry Artisans Community Oldies but Goodies Challenge promised to be interesting. Unfortunately I can't give you a butterfly girl, but ... oh, why don't you look for yourself? :-)

1 MC Stoneworks
2 The Crafty Chimp
3 Violetmoon's Corner
4 Jewelry Art by Dawn
5 Cat's Wire

No quote of the week

Sorry, no quote this week. Time ran and I haven't been able to prepare one earlier.
Maybe you wonder what takes me so long to put these posts together. What is there to prepare?

First I pick a movie or a TV series. Sometimes I just stumbled upon a quote to use, but most of the times I didn't and have to look for one.
Then I have to pick the perfect quote. As you might have noticed by now, it's rarely just one or two sentences, so I have to decide how much exactly I will use from a scene.
I can get obsessive about quotes. I know how easy it is to change a quote over the years if you didn't get it right the first time. You'll add a word, you'll leave something out. That won't do for these posts. A big pet peeve of mine are incorrect quotes on IMDb.
So I work with the quote itself and sometimes subtitles. Very often subtitles don't give you the original text, though. What to do if you have a mumbling actor? Just the other day I listened to just one sentence more than ten times to finally get it right!
Then of course I have to do the same thing for my German blog.

It takes time. And patience. And it helps if there's no nagging cat sitting beside me or on the keyboard.
Yup. That's why there is no quote today. No time, not patience, and a beautiful but nagging cat.

Instead I give you a random picture of some koi. Tomorrow you will understand how and why I stumbled upon this in my folders.

Tackle that stash - Kumihimo cord and beads bracelet

This bracelet really made me dig into my stash drawers!

At first I only wanted to loom a slim bracelet. I had some bead soup mixed from gold lined crystal, transparent topaz, and transparent topaz AB cube beads and I had ordered some gold lined crystal and transparent topaz seed beads for a piece in a series not long ago of which I still had some leftovers.
I really like the look of alternating cube and seed beads in a row - as I did in the O beads bracelet and pendant - which reminds me of tweed. Great structure.
When I had finished looming, however, I knew this needed something more, but what? I went through my drawers and found some golden Kumihimo cord that seemed just perfect and that I had used in looming before.

I sewed one strand on along the middle of the bracelet. Not only did it give the piece even more structure, but the red thread also added some contrast.
The sides did look a little naked now, though, so I added two more cords.
It's a bit of challenge what to do with the cord ends if you use ribbon crimps. Did I want crimps? What if I didn't use a clasp at all? What if I just braided those strands tightly, so they could be used for tying the bracelet onto the wrist in two different ways depending on the wrist size?

I was so close to leave it at that, but somehow it still needed something else. It needed some embellishment on the sides because it was slim, maybe a row of seed beads? Okay. Not on both sides, however. How about a seed beads fringe - I had already used up the cube bead mix except for one lonely cube - or maybe ... wait, I still had crystals that would be perfect in color! I knew I didn't have that many left, would there be enough? It turned out I did, in fact I had one too much.

Didn't that work out nicely? ;-)
And an extra bonus is that I could use the bracelet for the monthly JAC challenge which was about fiber art/mixed media AND that it gave me more ideas!

Oldies but goodies challenge - Bracelets

Bracelets. There are so many different bracelet styles. So many techniques! So little time! Even worse, not enough arms on your body!
It's a good thing that you don't have to try everything, you can split the work ... and the fun. If you want to know what I'm talking about head over to this week's Jewelry Artisans Community Oldies but Goodies Challenge. You will find all kinds of things there and many more pictures than what I can offer you in this collage. Tiny beads, wire, sheet, silver, copper, bigger beads, stones, and a very special charm bracelet. I promise you that you will be blown away.

Enjoy this little collage first, and then don't wait, have a look at the other pictures! I am sure that everyone will find something to like there.

1 RioRita
2 MC Stoneworks
3 Jewelry Art by Dawn
4 Violetmoon's Corner
5 Cat's Wire
6 The Crafty Chimp
7 Robin's Jewelry, Antiques, & Collectibles

Quote of the week

Have you ever watched your own body language? In which situation you cross your arms or take a step back or lean forward? The looks you give others? What is subconscious, what have you trained yourself to do because it promises success in some situations?
I took a moment to stop writing and feel what I am doing right now. As so often when I concentrate on a blog post, I am sucking on my lower lip (my version of a concentrated child having its tongue tip sticking out) and squinting.
You know sometimes I'm glad I don't have to watch myself grimacing all day ... sorry, co-workers.

How about the little tricks of a district attorney?

Tom: Oh, we know that those paintings exist, and we believe you have them. Didn't you learn anything in law school?
Laura: Yeah, but Logan, we really shook him up in there.
Tom: Ya.
Laura: That look in your eyes in the end?
Tom: What?
Laura: Pure blue steel.
Tom: What are you talking about?
Laura: I'd like to develop a look like that.
Tom: You don't develop looks. You just ... look.
Laura: Not me. I practice looks in the mirror. I got one I picked up from you!
Tom: What?
Laura: I'm cross-examining someone and they give me an answer I just don't buy ... this is what you do.
She shows him the look.
Tom: I don't do that.
Laura: Yes, you do.
Tom: I don't do that.
Laura: All the time! Just like that. You stand by the jury, and you sort of give a quarter-turn and then you give that exact look.

Why don't you give it a try yourself? ;-)

Legal Eagles, USA, 1986

Tackle that stash - Beaded ring with pearl

This week I thought I wouldn't be able to meet my personal challenge. I have been working on a series of bracelets. Although all of them would qualify for the stash challenge so far, I chose not to reveal them before all of them are finished.
Right now I am waiting for beads to start #4.

We are still in the tight grip of summer heat which is not my kind of weather at all, and the longer it goes, the more I feel my motivation dwindling to do anything at all. Without my iced peppermint tea I would probably be lost.
This morning I remembered that it was Friday and I had absolutely nothing to show. I went through a few old ideas in my head during the day, but none of them seemed exciting and quick enough to realize it.

So I have to admit I took the easy way out and chose something that didn't need too much brain power and went fairly quick, a beaded ring in brick stitch in two of my favorite seed bead colors, raspberry and taupe lined crystal AB which are pretty much a staple in my small stash of seed beads.
I topped it with a very pale pink freshwater pearl in a netted setting ... et voilà!

It's available in my DaWanda shop.

Oldies but goodies - Amethyst colors

This week the JAC Oldies but Goodies Challenge was about amethysts. Not everyone of us works with stones like that, but our rules are not that strict, so we changed that to colors of the amethyst.
English Wikipedia tells me that "according to surveys in Europe and the U.S., purple is the color most often associated with royalty, magic, mystery and piety".
It also tells me that the name amethyst comes from the Greek meaning "not intoxicated" which reminded me of the story our Latin teacher told us about amethyst embellished goblets being used in the olden days because people thought that way they wouldn't get drunk from wine.
I don't drink wine myself, but somehow I have the feeling that doesn't really work ;-)

Judge yourself about what these entries remind you of and make sure to check out the original thread for more pictures!

 
1 Studio 9665
2 Violetmoon's Corner
3 Cat's Wire
4 MC Stoneworks
5 Jewelry Art by Dawn
6 The Crafty Chimp

Quote of the week

This fine Sunday I chose a movie I love very much and somehow always connect with Easter eggs because it was on TV one Easter Sunday many decades ago ... but that's just an extra tidbit.
It's a comedy that was filmed after a play and the playwright himself is in it.

A woman is accused of having murdered her husband, a painter. She's lying in court and when she doesn't know an answer, she faints.
When her attorney quits because even he is not convinced of her innocence anymore, a mysterious man, Peer Bille, turns up and takes over. For everything the prosecutor brings up he has a different explanation, why the rowing boat capsized, why the defendant's dress was dirty, even why she was happily humming only weeks after her husband's death.
Even the nosy neighbor's statement fails to impress him although she has not only seen a strange woman crying and talking to the grave, but also shadows of a man and a woman in the painter's studio. Did both husband and wife have lovers?

Bille: I assume, Miss Kiebitz ...
Kiebutz: Butz!
Bille: Butz ... that you were shocked by all this.
Kiebutz: I'd say so.
Bille: You covered your eyes and turned away?
Kiebutz: Not right away.
Bille: How long did you watch?
Kiebutz: Until I'd had enough.
Bille: And when was that?
Kiebutz: I didn't check the time.
Bille: You just watched the shadows. And tell us what they did. What did the shadows do?
Kiebutz: They embraced.
Bille: Go on.
Kiebutz: They kissed.
Bille: Go on.
Kiebutz: Kissed for a long time.
Bille: Go on.
Kiebutz: He kissed forehead, eyes, and mouth.
Bille: Go on.
Kiebutz: Then the shadows disappeared.
Bille: And then?
Kiebutz: Then ...
Bille: Then you waited a while?
Kiebutz: Yes.
Bille: But nothing happened?
Kiebutz: I'd had enough.
Bille: Apparently not, if you waited some more.
Laughter in the audience.
Bille: What's the distance to your house?
Kiebutz: Around 100 meters.
Bille: Congratulations. You must have great eyes for your age.
Kiebutz: I used my opera glass.
Bille: Just what I wanted to hear.
Laughter in the audience.
Bille: Thank you, no further questions.
Presiding judge: Have a seat, please. Thank you.
Kiebutz: Thank you. And rest assured, that's the last time I give the authorities a tip-off.

Hokuspokus, D, 1953

I don't know why, but the DVD very conveniently had English subtitles which I used for today's quote.

Tackle that stash - Wide wire knit ring with Biwa pearls

You know how you drag a WIP around for months? Work on it a little time after time, but somehow you are not quite convinced?
The plan had been to add three round faux amber cabochons to this ring. All that was left to do was weave in the wires, but somehow it didn't feel right. One of the amber cabs sat slightly too high and slightly crooked and it felt as if it was laughing at me every time that I tried to fix it.
There comes a point when you know you have to rip a piece up or it will die in your drawer unfinished. So I cut the wires, I ripped off the cabs - I will be able to use them in another piece, I hope - and set out to look through my stash for something I could use instead.

I love these Biwa pearls. I have used them in two bead loomed bracelets (one of which is still available) and have been thinking about other ways to use them.
This kind of ring is now one of them. How do you think about light golden or silver wire?

It is available in my Zibbet shop.

Oldies but goodies - Favorite holidays

Do you have a favorite holiday? That was the question at the JAC Oldies but Goodies Challenge this time.
And has that holiday inspired us to create? It sure has.
I love Hallowe'en for example, but you already know that. I think it's not difficult to guess what the other holidays in this little collage are.

1 Jewelry Art by Dawn
2 Cat's Wire
3 Violetmoon's Corner
4 The Crafty Chimp

Quote of the week

Have you ever had a roommate who was completely different from you?
How about bringing a neat freak and a slob together? How would they get along even if they were best friends?
Imagine one of them dragging the apartment into the new age - the early 70s in this case - without consulting the other one.

After Felix has sold off all of the old furniture, Oscar has to eat his breakfast standing up. He insists on getting something to sit. Little does he know what Felix has in mind, though.

Oscar: You know I hate surprises.
Felix: Yeah, but you're going to love this one. Oscar Madison, you wanted something to sit in ... 
He pulls a sheet off the chair.
Felix: Here you are!
Oscar takes the hands off his eyes, sees the hand chair and covers his eyes again immediately.
Oscar: What is it?
Felix: Well, what does it look like?
Oscar: It looks like Bubba Smith's hand! I want you to tell me what it is.
Felix: It's a chair ... in the shape of a hand. A left hand, to be exact.
Oscar points at the still covered chair.
Oscar: And this, I suppose, is the right hand.
Felix: Aren't they super?!
Oscar: No! I sent you out for some chairs! You come back with a couple of hands.
Felix: But they're ... they're just like ordinary chairs. Sit down!
Oscar: But they're hands! I feel like an M&M.

The 70s are back in style even now, bell bottoms, maxi dresses, but hey, could you see yourself living in a room like this one? Did you maybe live in one yourself? I'd love to know!

The Odd Couple, USA, 1970 - 1975

Tackle that stash - Cottage garden bracelet

Okay, so it's not really a cottage garden, but you have to admit it would have been hard to add edible plants, too. I just did like the idea when my friend, the Chimp, saw a WIP picture and said it reminded her of one.

I don't know if you saw my Yin Yang pendant which really started the idea. Its little accents with the glass cabochons in their seed bead and brick stitch settings reminded me of flowers.
I had already cooked up some bead soup from lots of different greens to loom the base to which I had added a picot edging of tiny green seed beads.
There was still a whole bunch of those glass cabs in my stash. Whenever I had finished one blossom, I sewed it onto the base until there were eleven of them on there, each one in a different color. I noticed that I have a lot more colors in Delicas than in seed beads. Is that a good sign or a bad one?

Now those blossoms needed some stems. I had wanted to use the same beads as in the edging, but they turned out to be a little too dark to actually stick out, so I used transparent light yellow beads with two different green threads instead.

The plan had been to leave it at that, but then I remembered my little lampwork bees from Izzybeads. I thought one of them would make a great little charm to dangle from the bracelet. On the way to the drawer, however, inspiration struck. How about adding one of her smiling suns to make my flowers grow? Even better!

So here you go.
"Mary, Mary, quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells, and cockle shells,
And pretty maids all in a row."

Oldies but goodies - Wire

There is so much you can do with wire. You can wrap it, you can weave it, you can solder it, you can knit it, you can crochet it, you can do Viking knit or knit with a spool, you can wind it ... and all pieces are unique.
I think this time our JAC Oldies but Goodies Challenge participants were a little reluctant to show everything they've got because there is so much. Nevertheless what they did show is worth a look once again.

1 MC Stoneworks
2 Cat's Wire
3 Violetmoon's Corner
4 Jewelry Art by Dawn
5 The Crafty Chimp