Under the blue moon

I really have to blame den Dekan for this or thank him. Probably both because it was definitely him who had hidden the blue dichroic glass cab, but because he also made me find it again when he hid something else in the same place before my eyes.
It was a nice surprise, and as I was still in "moon mode" from the moon hare that I made for the JAC challenge "Moon and Stars", I started humming Blue Moon. That's a lot of moon ;-)
We had the old single by Elvis Presley, so that's always the version that comes to my mind first. Those were the times, me trying to convince my mother that I HAD to do my homework to background music aka all my father's old singles from the 50s and 60s.
Luckily we had the old "Musiktruhe" that I have shown here years ago, a TV/radio/record player combination. One of its very useful features was that you could put on several singles at a time (the family doesn't agree exactly on how many) which would then drop down and play one after another. I doubt my Mom would have approved of my getting up after each song and changing the single while doing homework.

And here is Elvis' voice in all its 1954 glory.



My mind began wandering.
Sitting near a lake listening to the sounds of crickets and frogs ... spotting some dragonflies having settled for the night ... under a blue moon ...

With the blue moon, the nightly background, and the dark green blade of grass, I wanted a contrasting color for the dragonflies, so I chose a mix of red beads to embroider them, with clear AB sequins for the wings.
It reminded me of the time a red dragonfly visited me in our little garden once. We don't have a pond, so I guess it had come over from another garden to say hello and then headed back.

Quite some time and a bead order later because I ran out of background beads, I thought this would have made a fun bracelet instead of a pendant, but with the backing already sewn on, I finally decided against that and added a hex bead rope instead.
I tried to take a video to show how sparkly this necklace is, but that didn't work, so it will have to be a late night picture for now.

Headband or tiara?

I think I mentioned it before, when I was a child, we had those plastic disks in several colors which reminded of flowers and which you could connect to each other and build all kinds of things. The most easiest thing to make was a tiara because the different colors were different gems for us.

When I found a metal headband blank in my stash, I didn't think of that, though. I thought of bead embroidery because I had just found another dichroic glass cab. It was a dark blue with green and I had all those bugles in ocean colors lying around and seed beads to go with them and I could add pearls (coins and Biwa) and crystals, oh and those two opalite cabs, too!
Once I had a few bugles on there, however, I didn't like the stripey look together with the rounded shapes of the cabs and beads, so I ripped all of them back out and picked different seed beads instead.

Embroidering took its time, but like bead looming it has a meditative effect on me, so that was okay.
Lately I have been trying to get away from strict symmetry, so this piece isn't symmetrical either as you can tell if you look closely.

Now came the hard part. How to get this piece onto the metal blank? I had a vague idea, but I wasn't sure. The ending of this video tutorial by Lidia Sapronova helped me confirm what I had to do.
First I glued a piece of thicker paper to the bead embroidery strip to strengthen it as the blank itself is very slim. Then I took my ultrasuede, measured and cut two little slits, one on each side a few centimeters from the edge through which I put the ends of the blank. Now I could glue the ultrasuede to the blank which sounds much easier than it was for someone who is as glue challenged as me and then the bead embroidery to the blank and ultrasuede which resulted in some minor cursing.
I just wasn't sure if the glue could really hold all of this together, so when it had dried, I decided that for safety I'd sew all those layers together not just at the edges, but also along the edges of the blank, so that it wouldn't be able to move around in there. Somehow I hadn't expected it to take so long, but I'm still glad I did it.
The last step was of course the edging for which I chose pearly white seed beads to enhance the ocean feeling, sea foam and all that, you know.

There are examples in which both the embroidery and the ultrasuede go all around the metal blank. In my case that means there would have been hair over it and would definitely get tangled in it, so I didn't chose that variation. Also I would have had to add a piece of ultrasuede as the pieces I have wouldn't have been long enough.
In other pieces in there was an extra piece of ultrasuede all around the metal ends, but I admit that I didn't think myself capable of sewing that on and make it look good, too. Don't forget, this was my first attempt at something like this in the first place.

There's no doubt about it, this is no lightweight.
That's not my personal problem with it, however. I have never been that good with those kinds of headbands because I don't like the feeling behind my ears. Also with my straight hair they always slipped down when I looked down. A friend said I should try to attach some combs. I'll have to look into that, but actually I think it looks much better worn as a tiara ...
I deserve a tiara, don't I? And funnily enough worn like that it doesn't slip down even if I curtsy before Mylady Gundel ;-) Seriously, I can look down and it will still stay in my hair.
Now my wardrobe is not exactly very regal, but we'll see. It was another challenge and I did it and am proud of it.

So this is what the finished tiara is looking like from all sides and worn by my model Jacqueline.

Interview with the artist - Pamela from Willow Walker Designs

I have always been fascinated by glass and admire artists who work with it. One of them is Pamela from Willow Walker Designs who will tell us about what she does today. Be prepared for some serious beauty.

Starfire, teal and purple wire wrapped dichroic glass pendant

 

Tell us a little about who you are and where you come from.

I am an Oregon girl, born and raised. I have spent my life in the central part of Oregon, west of the Cascade Mountain range where it is mainly ranches, forest, desert and open land.  We are fairly dry here and boast of “260 days of sunshine a year”.  I have been here in Bend since 1983.

What's your craft and how did you get to do it in the first place?

I love glass and I love jewelry. 

Wire wrapped jewelry is my passion. My involvement in stained glass led me to glass fusing with dichroic glass which led me to wire wrapping as a way to set my glass cabochons without a torch.  Although I have learned to do that too since then and enjoy combining with wire wrapping.

Silver stars etched dichroic fused glass earrings

I created my first stained glass sun catcher at the ripe old age of eight and have been involved with glass ever since. When I was 14, my parents moved back to their home town and opened a retail-custom stained glass business. One of the things we tried was glass fusing.  After graduating high school I left the nest and didn’t get to play with fusing until my mother became ill and passed away. At this time my father’s favorite glass manufacturer was launching their own line of fusing glass. I fell in love with dichroic fused glass jewelry that was in the shop. I scrounged through mom’s glass, found a few pieces of fusible and dichroic glass. I made a few pendants and showed my dad. The next thing I knew he bought me an early Christmas gift in 2006 of a pound of dichroic scrap glass. About three days later it was gone and I had a beautiful collection of pendants, earrings and bracelets. I loved creating it and have never stopped.

Is there a story behind your business name? 

I used to do black powder re-enactments or as we call them “Rondezvous”. Everyone gets a nickname sooner or later. Mine is Willow Walker and I love it and chose to use it for my business name.

Blue, gold and pink dichroic art glass wire wrapped pendant

I think this is one of the most asked questions – what inspires you? 
 
Sometimes it is the beauty that surrounds us, other times the glass itself, a color combination, a new technique and of course the beautiful pieces made by my fellow wire wrappers.

Tell us a fun thing about yourself.
 
I was born on April first, so I am a “fool”!

Do you do other crafts, if yes, what? 

I am a stained glass professional. I also enjoy flower gardening and sewing. I try not to let myself go much further for the sake of my sanity and my wallet.

Art Deco etched dichroic fused glass pendant

Which one of your pieces is your absolute favorite? Which one was the hardest to make and why?

 

I have no absolute favorites. I love each and every piece, some more than others, but I am unable to pick just one. I did a woven frame necklace that I fought getting the base wires to weave as tight as I wanted. I was working with rose 14k gold filled wire and needed to be using a finer gauge of wire that I still don’t have. One of these days I will, though.

 

Is there someone whom you admire and who inspires you? 

Many, many talented wire wrappers! I admire and am inspired by Dale “Cougar” Armstrong, Iza Malzyck, Debbie Fang, Magdalena Borjenko, Bobbi Maw, Perri Jackson, Lisa Lynn Barth and many, many more.

 

If you had free choice of just one supply you can use for your craft/art, what would you be dreaming of, no matter how expensive?

 

Hard question, but I believe I would have to answer Dichroic Glass.

Pewter grey dichroic glass post earrings

Do you sell online, if yes, where can we find you?

WillowWalker Designs on Etsy.

 

Famous last words ;-) Is there anything else you want to tell the world out there?

Over the years I have tried a variety of dichroic fused glass jewelry styles, from simple wire wrapped cabochons, different effects created during the fusing process and more. It has only been the last four years that I knew where I wanted to go with it. The variety one will find in my Etsy store definitely reflects that. I am working my way through adding all the older items I still have before I get the newer, fancier stuff listed, so please keep on checking back!

I consider this necklace to be the fanciest, prettiest piece I have created so far, that and its matching earrings. I sold the set to a local jewelry store and they sold it within a week!

I am not surprised, it's a beautiful set! Thank you for sharing a little more about the artist behind your lovely pieces, Pam!