"Cloisonné" necklace

Today's piece isn't actual cloisonné, but it was inspired by it.
Cloisonné is an ancient technique in which metal strips or wire are attached to a metal baseplate and shape compartments ("cloisons" in French). At first gems were used to fill up the gaps created, later enamel which was also colorful, but not as expensive.
I remember having been fascinated by cloisonné pieces even as a child. I don't do metalwork, though, and have never worked with enamels.

Some of my ideas come out of the blue. I like to see what's in my current "workbox" - I really should empty the last one because I'm sure I'll discover some surprises in there - and then work from that.
This time I found a leftover irregular triangle of beading foundation and a cut length of a narrow faux suede ribbon which I had shortly contemplated to use in my Big Hug necklace.
It was probably the flat look that made me think of the metal strips in cloisonné and wonder what it would look like if I glued (oooh, ambitious) the ribbon to the foundation, not flat down, but on the edge which allowed curves. Then I would fill the gaps up with bead embroidery.
Of course it would have been interesting to make an actual pattern like in real cloisonné, but the ribbon was too thick for that. It took me a good while just to get that closed "circle" done. Apart from that, though, the glueing went amazingly well.

At first I started filling the empty spaces with rows following the course of the ribbon, but like in the "Big Hug" I quickly noticed that I didn't like that look.
So I ripped the rows out and did it bead by bead instead which worked much better for the narrow spots.
Also, the original plan had been to use each color once and make the focal really colorful. Had I really thought about it beforehand and not wanted to use the ribbon that was already cut, however, I would have used black instead of the blue. Again I started ripping out and limited myself to random placement of green and blue tones instead. Of course a combination of green and blue always evokes ocean feelings for me and the ribbon enhanced that coral reef vibe for me, so I had to fight the urge to use pearls as well.
I think that just would have been too much.

Next decision - a rope.
I really love the look of a three bead Herringbone twist rope in contrasting colors and chose a dark rainbow green, a metallic blue with a hint of mint, and a beautiful dark blue.
Can you imagine just a bunch of ropes like these in different colors and length around your neck?

I had big fun playing with this one and almost wish I had the patience to try another piece with black ribbon this time, but while my hands need a break, my brain is already on the way to the next WIP in my workbox which has been waiting in there for far too long because I can't decide on the way I want to put the focal on!
What do you say - drop with the tip up or down?

Art Elements Challenge - Blue

Actually I would have liked to post this on Friday because it's a real stash tackler, but I just didn't make it in time although I had started working on it weeks if not months ago.
Originally this was not supposed to be an entry for the Art Elements challenge. The challenge made me pick this neglected WIP up again, though.

Let's start at the beginning. I had ordered cabs, among them a carved labradorite cab. My order arrived, I had a look and noticed that the lab had a crack and the next thing was me having two pieces in my hands. Don't you just hate when things like that happen?
I didn't throw it away because I thought I could try something artsy with it. I know, I know, but I'm a Swabian, so I am bound by stereotype to not throwing things away until I'm really, really, 100% sure I can't use it in some way. In ten years maybe. Also, when I held the pieces together I was reminded of a fish of the kind we used to draw as children, with that one curved line separating the face from the body.
Every time I was at the cab drawer, I saw the little "fish", and finally I decided to give it a try with bead embroidery.
I glued the cab, beaded the bezel and gave it a bead eye. Then I put it in my box with the bugle beads that were leftover from the beaded sneakers and the Twin Beads from when I had ripped up a bead scarf the other day. I simply didn't have an idea for hiding the crack yet.
The box has a permanent spot on my bed, by the way, with my macrame board on top because a certain little cat loves to sit on it. Anything for my mistress!

When I saw that this month's topic for the AE challenge was blue, I had almost finished something else and I had found a blue/green bead soup baggie in my stash drawers. It had been a gift and you could tell that someone had made this soup on purpose as the colors were really pretty together. My motivation was back!
I also had an idea for the crack now, a simple beaded strip from size 15 seed beads that was stiff enough to hold the curve and hid the crack perfectly.
Then I embroidered an ocean for my little fish using the bead soup and some of my leftover bugles and last but not least I gave him fins - no idea why, but he looks like a Rudy to me.
Finally, to make his ocean a little more interesting I sewed on some button and potato pearls.

But now what? A brooch, a bracelet focal, a pendant?
I found it was too big for a brooch and I didn't have any pins that would have been big enough, anyway. So I finished off the back as I didn't have to prepare the Ultrasuede for a pin.
It looked kind of nice held against my wrist, but not nice enough to think of a solution for how to make this into a bracelet now.
It needed some kind of beaded rope, but the blue beads were much too irregular for a rope. There were the Twin Beads in my box, though, and I had a lot of the clear mix (clear, silver lined, AB) that I could use for a Herringbone chain with the "ocean" seed beads at the sides.

Here's the result. I have to confess that part of me thought about adding a fringe, but that would have been over the top. What do you think?

I should add that this piece is not going into my shop of course, after all there's a broken stone in this one. It will have to stay mine :-)

This is not a blog carnival anymore, but I will add links to other challenge blog posts later as they come in. So please check back at the end of the month!

Oldies but Goodies - Lapis

Lapis lazuli, often just called lapis, has been the topic for our challenge before, but that's okay. We are not the only ones who love that dark blue after all.
Last time I mentioned how the Egyptians ground lapis to make cosmetics from it. There are old legends and fairy tales as well in which the stone is playing its part.

And of course we can't forget lapis in art, both the stone itself and the pigment called ultramarine that was made from it. Ultramarine which can still be bought today, but has lost its significance in art after synthetic pigments took over, was more precious than gold at times because of the time consuming process to make it. The powder from the ground stone is cleaned and then washed out in clear water until you finally get the pigment itself, a mere fraction of the original lapis.
Here's an interesting article that also shows examples of how ultramarine was used, in the Sistine Chapel for example.

Back to our Jewelry Artisans Community Oldies but Goodies Challenge for this week, though - I hope you'll like today's selection. Not all of it is lapis, but the beautiful dark blue you will find in each piece.

1 and 5 MC Stoneworks
2 and 4 Jewelry Art by Dawn
3 and 7 Cat's Wire
6 and 8 The Crafty Chimp
9 and 10 RioRita

Oldies but Goodies - Sapphire blue

While sapphires come in all kinds of colors, white, green, pink, yellow, orange, most people will probably think of blue first.
Sapphires are our Jewelry Artisans Community Oldies but Goodies Challenge's topic today - the color, not necessarily the stone, though. Have fun with my selection!

1 and 8 The Crafty Chimp
2 and 7 Cat's Wire
3 and 5 RioRita
4 and 6 MC Stoneworks

Tackle that stash - Water and sand

What kind of person wouldn't like a surprise parcel? And even better if you are a jewelry artisan, a surprise parcel with ... you guessed it, beads in it? An eclectic mix of beads. As I put it elsewhere "skulls and flowers, snails and leaves ... what sounds like the ingredients for an interesting potion is in fact a parcel ..."

One project that I started for myself from some of those beads to see if the design would work out the way I wanted it to still needs its clasp and confronted me with an interesting problem, but that's not today's story.
The last Oldies but Goodies Challenge is over, but seems to have inspired me.
Doesn't this say seaside?

Instead of silver wire that I would usually have used with the light blue/greenish stone chips I chose a warm copper wire, hence the title of this post as the blue stands for the water and the copper for the sand.
Together I crocheted them into a rope.
That didn't use up any stash, however, because the parcel only arrived a short while ago and the strand of chips had not even made it from my desk to the infamous drawer.
Not that I am obsessed with having to use stash no matter how, but in this case I felt one of my shells would actually make a perfect focal part for the necklace. I picked one that goes beautifully with the copper wire and knitted a setting for it that I attached to the rope.
One simple white pearl is the only embellishment.
Voilà!

Tackle that stash - Earrings with movement

Welcome back to "Tackle that stash"!
As a matter of fact this time I didn't not only tackle the stash, but also a second problem that I - and not just I - have. WIPs - works in progress. Those WIPs are driving me insane. There are those that are missing that last little spark that you just can't find. Or those that have a problem you haven't solved yet or that can only be solved by frogging. How about those that didn't work out the way you thought they would, but somewhere deep within you still know/feel/hope you can save them? Not to forget about those you have forgotten - how very paradox, isn't it?

This pair of earrings used to be almost every kind of WIP.
First it was a pair of earrings that I wasn't very happy about because it was missing something.
Then it was a pair of earrings that I started ripping up because I hadn't solved the problem of the missing something.
When I gave up on the thought of saving them, I ripped until I had two blue disks left and then I forgot about those. I have this vicious bowl eating that kind of stripped down WIPs ... and coins ... and paper clips ... and single earwires ... and had I mentioned the stripped down WIPs?

Well, I found them, and I gave them a silver edging, but they did need more than that, so I went through my stash drawers and found all the wonderful dagger beads I have which were just perfect. Finally I found the silver beads for that little shine in the middle - and voilà!
I know they look a little as if they were inspired by a dreamcatcher, but actually they were not. I just love dangles!

You can find them in my shop now, and looking at all the daggers I still have, it doesn't seem impossible there will be more color variations eventually.

Oldies but Goodies - Blue

Last Sunday I told you about the importance of color. It's pure coincidence that the last JAC Oldies but Goodies Challenge was all about Sir Lancelot's favorite color blue or is it?
Anyway, I put together some lovely blue items for you and as always there were many more which you can browse here.
What is your favorite color? Who knows, maybe there will be a challenge for you soon?

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

Mabel's gift

I can hear you sigh now - ANOTHER muse post? "Lady, you are getting boring!"

Drop the overripe tomatoes, people, and calm down! Don't worry, it's about my latest piece and I'll make it short because I feel the need to search the kitchen for some cookies and chai.

The start - a leftover piece of 12 gauge silver plated copper wire.
Next step - hands that can't keep still while a movie is on. Bending back and forth.
Step 3 - Hey, look! That's like a drop! Maybe if I make bead soup from different blues and clear and just a few brownish ones to pep it up (the only soup I'm better at making is pumpkin and potato soup) and put them on that dark blue wire and then ...

Silence with the odd mumbling thrown in.

Less silence, slight cussing. On many stitches I need to go through with my smallest hook to make them wide enough for the larger hooks.

Yawning. Ok, this is taking longer than I thought, I'll continue tomorrow.

Tomorrow:
Silence. Getting into the routine. Small hook, big hook, small hook, big hook.

Done! Here you go. Mabel's gift, in my Zibbet shop now :-)


And was that soooo bad now? ;-)

Surprise message

For the first time ever I was featured in a treasury without my team and I am especially happy that it shows one of my favorite pieces - the blue rose.
Enjoy all those beautiful blues in A patch of sky!