Roses

When I order beads, I sometimes throw something into the cart spontaneously, not even because I think it's drop dead gorgeous or because it immediately gave me an idea although that happens as well of course.
Actually it's meant to be a challenge for myself, and as I never know if I'll be up to the challenge, those are often sale items or small baggies.
A while ago I added four red resin roses to my cart. Four sounded like a small enough number for me to manage.

What I don't like much about bead embroidery is just glueing a cab on without giving it an extra bezel to keep it there safely. Blame that on my complicated relationship with glue. If I use a bead, I like to sew through the bead holes and immediately feel better about it.
Obviously a bezel didn't work for the roses and there were no holes, either, so I just have to trust the glue to be as sticky for them as it is for my hands.

Red always makes me think of black, and black and red together always make me think vampires and gothic vibes, so it wasn't a surprise that I chose black seed beads and matte black firepolished crystals along with the roses.
I tried around for a while, but finally found that I liked the flat background best. I couldn't resist adding skulls. I picked the grey instead of the black ones that I have because they sparkle a little more.
Voilà, my "Gothic Roses"!

A few days later, I thought about making another pair right away, not dark this time, but light and sparkly. I would have liked to make the exact same design, but the only other firepolished crystals that I had in the right size were purple/blue which definitely didn't work with red.
What I found instead were some crystal rondelles that I had bought at the craft department of a local shop for their sparkle - magpie alarm! ;-) They were in my drawer for years, but now their time had come.
Luckily I also still have some of the crystal AB skulls and don't they fit perfectly for my "Ice Roses"?

If you want to see the sparkle even better, you can check out my very small YouTube channel which I only have because I seem to be unable to convert the videos from my old camera, so not just the sound will upload on my Instagram.
I'm such a technology freak sometimes ;-)

Self defense

Have you been in that situation before? You just happen to go for a little walk, see that murky castle up on that hill and think you'll go by to check out their ancestor gallery. When you knock on the castle door, it just opens up by itself and the next thing you know is a vampire charging at you, obviously being very interested in your neck?

Now wouldn't you feel better if you had something to defend yourself with? Like a cross?

Ok, seriously now. I have no idea if this cross works against vampires, but it sure looks as if it should.

Dark red and black Swarovski crystals around a big black glass cab on black wire make a pretty stunning combination. This is a statement piece. It's huge, it's sparkly and it's impossible not to see. How could I have resisted to make it??

You can find it in my ArtFire studio now.

Spring cleaning

It's not spring yet and I'm not cleaning my house as you might think now.

The cleaning I want to do is in my inventory. I feel there are some older pieces which could use a little rejuvenation. I'm not sure at the moment how far that will go, it depends a lot on what Mabel is telling me.

Have I ever told you she likes to hide in drawers, little bags, on wire spools and in boxes? I have to admit it, sometimes I am not very organized.

So today I found a bag containing nothing but a wire spool with some 9 ct. gold that I had gotten myself months ago to see if it would work for wire crochet (it doesn't ....) - with some faceted garnet beads on it! I remember thinking then  how gold and that red would go together perfectly, then I got discouraged by the wire breaking and packed it up, only to forget it. Like my grandmother used to say "the house doesn't lose anything".

One of the patients on my rejuvenation list had been a rope, spool knitted from dark red ribbon. Red garnets ... red ribbon ... hm ..... what about that tiger eye rock still lying around. Red and dark ... dark mood ... a dark pendant on milky white skin (thinking of my second doll head Lilith here) ... no silver ... gunmetal wire! As you can see, Mabel has been hard at work here which was no easy task as my head is not the best tool at the moment.

So here's the result - the "Lady Jean" necklace, now in my ArtFire studio.