Sometimes you have to make a cut

The labradorite stones that I had or have are usually blue, grey and green, but labradorite can have so many more colors with the rarest being purple.
Months ago, I went through my cab drawer and noticed that one of my carved cabs which looked grey and green actually had a beautiful pinkish shimmer in a certain angle of light. That I haven't been able to catch well (yet?) in my pictures, but it's there, really.
And I knew just the beads to use with that.

For the bezel I chose my beloved "magic apple" coated seed beads. It will be a very sad day when they are all gone, I even love just looking at them in the tube. For the connection with the pinkish hue I chose a transparent dark red - another favorite of mine - and some pinkish 15s.

The bezel is the easy part. It's not so easy to decide what should come next, and this time I made the wrong decision.
I was looking forward to doing another freeform focal. I love freeform (and sometimes wonder how much Gary Larson's amoebas - google them if you don't know them - are to blame for that because I always think of them when I do it). I wanted to make it a mix of reds and pinks in different bead sizes, maybe with a touch of gold here and there.
When I do freeform, I like to cut the felt around the cab into shape first and then follow that with the beads. Usually I'm quite happy with that although I may have to trim the edges a bit here and there. In this case, though ... oh my, I hated it after the first three rows, I think, but kept going anyhow.
It's hard to explain my feelings when I continue working on something like that. It's like a drop of hope swimming in a sea of doubt,- there's still a tiny chance I'll manage thanks to a creative miracle - or more often a molecule of hope in a sea of anger (at myself), loss of motivation, and the voice of my muse yelling at me to give it up already.

That's the hard part. Sometimes you need to push on, sometimes you need to make smaller or bigger changes if possible - and sometimes you just have to cut.
The way I had cut the felt meant I wouldn't be able to use it for a regular design, but I liked the bezel and didn't want to do it over. Why should I, though? I just cut along the edges of the bezel and glued it all to a second piece of felt. Duh. Not that difficult, is it? So the cab sat higher than usual now because I like using thicker felt, but that was fine with me.

To hide the extra edge, I used beautiful large dark red/purple beads, then a row of gold for contrast and two rows of edging in a raspberry and the magic apple.

After that I was stuck. I have always had that problem with the drop shape, from the very first labradorite drop I ever used (remember I asked your opinion the other day - well, no answer, so I had to deal with it myself).
Do I want the tip up or do I follow my muse who always wants the tip down? As you can see, Mabel has won.
I added a large beaded peyote tube in the back for the twisted Herringbone rope I had woven in magic apple and dark red/purple. It makes the pendant sit at a slight angle instead of flat.

And if that wasn't enough, I had to give in to my asymmetric side. It had taken so long to develop, but it's here to stay now.
My first plan had been little brown glass flowers which I had used before and love a lot, but alas, I couldn't find them quickly.

I did find these leftover pearls, though, and liked the contrast they add to the pendant. Bold, maybe, but I felt the necklace could use some boldness to make it a bit less classic (and boring).

I cheated a little, by the way. At the moment that I'm writing this, the necklace doesn't have a clasp yet. I don't have a golden lobster clasp that is big enough, but I didn't want to wait taking pictures because I'm so happy this WIP that has been waiting in the workbox for a few months now is almost finished!

"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?

The big hug - part 2

If you don't know part 1 of the big hug yet, you can find it here.

We left off at the cliffhanger of my dropping my boro lampwork shark on the kitchen floor. The nose and tail broke off, but I could only find part of the tail.
Then something unexpected happened that I can honestly not explain. At least a week later, I found the other piece of the tail, but have no idea where it suddenly came from because I had searched the whole kitchen floor. My best bet is that it had flown even further and the cats found it and knocked it back into the kitchen.
Anyhow, I suddenly had a bit of hope that maybe, just maybe, I would be able to do something with it. Not what I had planned, not what I really wanted which would make me 100% happy, but something that was still good.

Now how to achieve that?
Obviously I had to glue the shark first. My complicated relationship with glue has long been a running joke among my friends. Much longer than my jewelry-making journey. It's a miracle I don't still have things glued to my fingers from years ago (that's actually a thing for me). I'm terrible with glue and my experience told me that the shark would not be perfect.
Surprise! Not. Of course it wasn't perfect.
So I would have to find a way to hide the scars the best I could. Distracting from them with gold as I had done for my friend's broken dolphin wasn't an option for me because the octopus is copper. Leaving the tail off completely and disguising it - unlike that of my shark the dolphin's tail never turned up again - wasn't an option either because I had the tail and love that long fin.

The tough part about hiding the scars would be that the one through the nose is very close to the eye and that there's a quite massive glass loop on the tail (it is a pendant after all). Had the shark been like a cab, all the way flat on the back, I might have been able to glue it completely onto some backing.
Even before starting I knew I wouldn't be all that happy with the nose part. Oh well.

What exactly should I do, though?
It was obvious that bead embroidery was the only way to go. As I said, this shark is much smaller than the other ones and was even more fragile now (haha). Just wrapping the octopus to it wouldn't make for a very sturdy construction.

So instead I would glue the shark onto the backing where possible, then sew the loop to it and hide it under beads. I would also glue the octopus's head as well as possible (there are wires from the wrapping in the back which lift it up a bit) just to make it hold safely enough while arranging the tentacles around the shark.

Please excuse this bad picture. It's one of my infamous
night time WIP pics and is usually just intended
 for friends. Actually, I had to retrieve it from an old
Facebook message. I hardly ever take real WIP pictures.

This, my friends, sounds a lot easier than it actually is. I first sewed the tentacles on in a few spots. Copper is pliable and can still very stubbornly refuse to do what you want, especially in thick wire wrapped like this, even more so if you go wild with tentacle loops. I would have loved to preserve more of the flow from the WIP pic, but that would have been very wide for a focal for myself.
Of course I would have to sew down the tentacles some more after deciding on bead placement.

So I did all of that and then I had a lot of space for beads. I didn't want to buy new beads at the time. I had a load of seed and cube beads in different sizes and a variety of blue, clear, green, purple, and who has been following my jewelry making for a while knows I can't resist pearls in water scenes.
I started in what I consider (my) classic bead embroidery meaning going in bead rows lying next to each other. Very organized looking, I thought it would make a nice calm background for the hug.
One corner in, I had to admit to myself that I hated it. Because of the thick wire, those tentacles aren't laying flat. So there are not only beads around them, but also quite a few over and  under them. There are also beads under the shark and over the scars (I'm indeed not all that happy with the nose part, but couldn't manage any better without concealing the eye) and under the octopus's head - and getting in these spaces in nice organized rows? Yeah, it didn't work.
I can't tell you how long it took me to embroider that background, one or two beads at a time.

A slightly better WIP picture, still meant for
friends. It doesn't do the sparkle in the
goldstone or the shark justice.

Next up - my old enemy, finishing jewelry.
Two months and still no chain.
Then, however, I remembered my mermaid (this is one big piece of jewelry, but luckily went to a customer who loves it big).

I still had some copper crimps and the faux leather ribbon whose colors worked well with the background.
When I tried it out, though, I didn't like the look of it after all. Somehow the focal seemed to call for a copper chain to go with the octopus.
Rummaging through my supply drawers, however, I only found chain in the wrong size and I really, really didn't want to make my own chain. So I went online shopping instead, but again the chains were either too small or didn't have the right look.
In the end, I found infinity links, which seem to mimic the loops of the tentacles, and used them with jump rings to make a chain. Luckily, I bought just the right amount!

Is this my vision? Heck no, it couldn't be much further from it. I wanted the octopus and the shark all by themselves, maybe with a few beads to hint at the ocean. Had the breaks be in different spots, I might have managed to do it.

Did I save the shark, though? I think so. Another broken piece that didn't go into the trash, but will be shining on. (The urge to get philosophical about broken beauty is big, but I'll spare you!)

The big hug - Part 1

Over ten years ago, I got several boro lampwork pendants from a very talented artisan, manatees (you can see one of them here), a dolphin (you have seen him before as well), and a shark. The pendants are absolutely gorgeous, but it took months for them to ship which put me off ordering more. That's a real pity because I have not seen any since that come even close to them.
Also the shark broke in transport. I got a replacement, but I was determined to find a way of using the broken one as well (I've done that more than once with components, but of course never sold those).

If you haven't noticed it yet, I don't just love sharks, but also octopuses.
This is a picture of just some of those I made over the years. A tiny one, bigger ones, a really big one. Ah, have you already seen it? Sharks!

I experimented with the broken pendant first. The idea had been to hide the glue marks behind tentacles, but show as much of the shark as possible.
It needed a lot of fiddling, but I managed. The pendant got the official name "The hug" because to me those two were friends rather than enemies.
If you think the second octopus-shark hug was easier to make with the experience gained, you would be wrong. Lampwork is really slippery and the tentacles had to sit just the right way to hold the shark safely. The loop on the back of the tail is the only spot where the octopus is actually wired to the shark itself.

The second pendant sold and the first one went to a friend (of course she knew about the glued spots).
I'll be honest, I quickly regretted not keeping one for myself, simply because it proved impossible to find another shark like these.

After searching for a long time, I finally found one and was so happy! It was much smaller than the other ones, but so beautiful.
Somehow I never got around to making something with it, though. There was always something else to try out and wirework was already becoming more difficult for me.
When it started getting really hard on my thumb, however, I knew it was now or never before I wouldn't be able to do it anymore at all. It had been a while since I had played with copper and it felt so good, but it took a lot of breaks to get my octopus finished over the next few weeks.

Talking of breaks ... when I was finally done and wanted to take the octopus to the kitchen to oxidize it, I missed that the shark, which had been in the same box, got tangled in some still loose wire ends. Yes, you have be quite stupid not to notice you are holding two things, but sometimes I am.

It could have fallen in the hallway on the one vinyl floor I have, but no, it fell in the kitchen, on the hardest of all my floors.
You know how some things seem to be happening in slow motion and yet it's impossible for you to do anything about them? Like the time I cut my finger and fingernail with the bread knife and my brain only woke up and told me not to cut there when I had already started bleeding like crazy.
There wasn't a chance for me to catch the shark before it hit the tiles and pieces started jumping. The nose and the tail had broken off (seems to be a thing, the same happened to my friend with her dolphin). I could only find the nose and part of the tail, though.

It may sound ridiculous to you, but I was devastated.
I couldn't replace this shark, no matter how much I looked around. There were a few lampwork sharks, both pendants and figurines and they were pretty, no doubt about that, but none of them had this elegance, none of them spoke to me.
I didn't even want to look at the octopus anymore which says a lot.
Then something unexpected happened and yes, I'm totally saying this as a cliffhanger.

See you for part 2, I hope!

Tackle that stash - Mookaite "teeth" earrings

Maybe you remember my mookaite "teeth" necklace that I made a few years ago inspired by a favorite YA novel of my childhood (with regular re-reads) - Rulaman from 1878 about a tribe of cave people set in an area not far from me at all which of course made this an even more fascinating read.
This is an illustration of the fest held after they hunted down the dangerous cave lion to whom they lost so many family members.
The idea that there were cave lions and bears in my area was so exciting to me!

I said then that I might make more using a different Delica color and of course promptly forgot about that until I shared the necklace elsewhere last week.

Last time I used copper and berry for the bead strips holding the stones and even if it doesn't seem this way, I chose the stones by size. The one in the center is the longest and then I chose similarly sized pairs to build the sides.
This time I went for different browns for the strips and as my left over stones were all over the place in regards to size, I thought earrings from teeth would have been something even for Neanderthals - not in combination with metal of course, but after all the plan was not to make authentic Neanderthal jewelry, but to be inspired by it.
Yes, it is indeed believed that they did wear jewelry and makeup.
Of course those earrings would be asymmetrical and probably random in the choice of stones, just the way mine are.

At first I had put three stones on each earring, but I couldn't get the third stone and chain to fall the way I wanted it to, due to the size of the dangles. I think two worked much better.

Here's a longer variation.

Not all of my stash tacklers have to become something big.
My mookaite stash is not even close to being used up with these earrings. I have a little box with different sizes, shapes, and colors.
There are also these beautiful big beads, not many matching pairs among them, but these two cream colored make a really nice one.

Since I got that box in a destash, the beads call to me every, now and then. It will be interesting to see even for myself what the next ones will want to be!

Tackle that stash - Tears of the Jewel Dragon

Sometimes I'm surprised myself when checking for the age of things in my stash.
I still remember ordering two large dragon eyes very vividly because it was so hard to decide on the size and color. Back then I hadn't even given the faintest of interest to off loom beading or bead embroidery and didn't really know what to do with them, especially not with such big ones, but they looked so pretty I couldn't resist.
One of them ended up in a necklace for myself, the first of my very few split loom necklaces, quite early in my bead looming journey. I wouldn't do it like that anymore now, but the necklace has survived my regular "sessions of destruction" so far, instead it's hanging on my wall as a reminder of my first SLN experiment which I don't think I could repeat.
What really surprised me, though, when I looked it up in my purchase history was that I had bought the eyes on June 2, 2013 - the seller is still active, by the way, the price hasn't even gone up that much, but the postage sure has, no surprise there - and shared the finished necklace on my blog on June 28. That was pretty quick given the time the eyes would have taken to get to Germany from the US.

As you can tell, I was not so quick using the second eye which had to spent more than 11 1/2 years in my stash drawer!

For a Crafternoon - a virtual meeting with some blogger friends for chatting and crafting - I needed a project and spontaneously chose the dragon eye for bead embroidery.
To be on the safe side, I usually bead a bezel for my cabochons, so the start was easy.
Of course, I wasn't the only one to be reminded of Sauron's eye. The yellow is missing, but this wasn't the path I wanted to go down, anyway. Only what path it should be instead, was beyond me at the time.

For the next meeting two weeks later, I pulled it out again, bezel finished by now.
My favorite way to come up with an idea is to hold the cab up every, now and then and stare at it, sometimes over a few days, and then rummage through my stash drawers to see if anything is screaming at me - textures, shapes, but mostly colors first.
This time I came across my beloved hexagon beads and my first thought was "jewel dragon". Hex beads in a dark red, a silver-lined red and gold, and black AB for depth and contrast. Seed beads in similar colors for extra texture.
It would be so sparkly and shiny, not Sauron at all.

After I had filled about half of the space with beads, the piece screamed free form. I have no idea why bead embroidery is the one technique that makes me go free form the most. Maybe it depends on how I sew on the beads. If I let them flow into all directions without thinking about a pattern first, it seems to break up the strict boundaries of the cab's own shape and it feels wrong to restrict that flow by making it stay within the same shape as the cab. No rules, just vibes. Does that make sense or is that only in my head?
In that case I don't sew on the beads, cut the edges of the beading foundation, then put on the backing and cut around that edge.
Instead I start embroidering, eventually cut the foundation to a shape that speaks to me and then keep embroidering. Sometimes I even cut some more during the process if it feels right. No rules, just vibes.

It took me some days to get all the beads on, also because I couldn't resist holding the piece up to the light all the time to admire the sparkle which was even more beautiful than I had imagined. I wish I could capture that in the pictures.
With focals as big as this one, I usually prefer some kind of beaded rope, but after trying a few things, straps seemed to be working better in this case.

The necklace was finished, wasn't it? Ah, but those who have known me for a while also know that it's very hard for me to resist a dangle or a fringe, and an idea sneaked into my head.

Now the only question is why the Jewel Dragon is crying ...

Count Catula

First of all let me say I'm sorry for not wishing you a Happy New Year yet. You know how it is, life got in the way. So here I am, very late. A Happy New Year!

Now I want to show you some amazing footage from Bran Castle, also known as Dracula's Castle.
Seems as if the castle has a new owner, and I got an exclusive picture of him. I don't know, there is something odd about him, but I can't quite put the finger on it. Wait ... are those cat ears and a tail??

Picture of Bran Castle by Dobre Cezar on Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 3.0 ro)

On top of the hill

Agate Hill is in the middle of nowhere, so nowhere that no one even really knows where that is.
It's not a big hill and there's not much to see, just some stones and a few trees over which the moon and stars shine in the night sky. Of course there also the three houses.
No one knows who is living in the three houses, either. No one noticed how they got built and who built them. They were suddenly there with their icy looking walls and bright red roofs. Sometimes you can hear sounds that make you wonder what's going on there. Gnome workshops? Some of Santa's elves exploring new territory?
Not one has been brave enough yet to knock and say hello ... would you?

Actually that's pretty much how it happened.
The houses were suddenly there. Everything was suddenly there. All I had done was glue the agate "hill" to the backing and bead a bezel for it. The rest was magic. Or my muse. My magic muse?

Every, now and then I wonder if it's a good thing to work like that or if I should challenge myself to plan something, with sketches or a list of what colors I want to use, for example.
On the other hand, those are the pieces that are the most fun to make. Sometimes I'm sorry if I have limited myself by using a piece of backing that isn't big enough for the thoughts in my head. Then again, however, it can be really exciting to take on the challenge if the right idea suddenly pops into your mind.

When the focal was finished (with black faux leather on the back, by the way), I went through my beads for inspiration. The dagger beads had just the right color and luckily I had just ordered the blue crystals that I used in the rope.

Now I only need to find out who lives in those houses.

Rulaman and the mookaite "teeth" necklace

When I was a child, I had one favorite book, well, among all my other favorites ;-) You can tell from how the book looks that it has been read a lot of times. That book is called "Rulaman" and was written in 1878 by David Friedrich Weinland, a German zoologist.
The youth novel is set in the times of the cave people who used to live in our area. While not being without flaws, after all research has continued, it has everything, love, fights with the people from other caves and with dangerous animals, everyday life, betrayal, revenge, birth, death, travel - and the "old Parre", the oldest woman in the family.
I have always been a fan of hers, she's tough until the end.

Illustration from the book (by Heinrich Leutemann)

Now what does Rulaman have to do with a new necklace of mine?
In the book there is one chapter on how the group hunts the dangerous cave lion responsible for the deaths of many family members. His fangs are given to the bravest men. At the time I thought that was utterly fascinating. Today it would probably make me sad.

I had these mookaite "teeth" around for a while. I tried more than once to wrap them in wire, but it never worked out. They were too wide at the top to make a nice wrap, and the shapes, though similar, weren't the same, the bead holes were crooked, at one side instead of through the center, sometimes higher, sometimes lower - I just didn't like the look.
Finally I had an idea, though. How about bead caps? Or even better, to accommodate to the different shapes and bead holes, how about bands of peyote to hold the stones and little "handles" on top which I could make longer or shorter depending on how much of the stone looked out?

It worked like a charm. I used a mix of copper plate and galvanized berry Delicas for a bit of contrast. Galvanized beads are always a risk because the color can rub off, so a silver color is looking through. Using a mix from the start, the small spots where the silver is shining through contribute to a vintage look rather well, I think.
I finished 15 "teeth" before I ran out of beads. I still have more of the stones, however, maybe I'm going to combine them with a different Delica color.
For the chain I chose an antiqued copper tone rolo chain.
Aren't the colors of the mookaite beautiful?

SilhouetteCat and the mermaid

No, they are not a couple even if the title makes it sound like that ;-) Although you never know if they have met under a full moon, SilhouetteCat sitting at the pier maybe, looking down on his friend who has come from the depth of the ocean to say hello? I wonder what kind of conversation they would have.

Let's start with SilhouetteCat.
If you have followed me for a while, you may know that he is one of my favorite HeatherCats and I have made several versions of him.
This one is my second bead embroidered version and the first one in color, all because I couldn't resist turning a shimmering checkerboard cab into a moon.
I hadn't planned a HeatherCat. My first thought had been a tree "holding" the full moon, but luckily I used a big piece of backing as if Mabel, my muse, had been whispering in my ear that a moon needs a cat ...
Once I had beaded the bezel for the moon and added some rows around it, I knew that it reminded me of Heather's SilhouetteCat.

So I added the black cat -  with the body changed a little because I didn't want him to reach up to the moon.
Now some stars. In bead looming, my night skies often have dots for the stars, but this moon was so big that I felt they needed to be bigger, too. I didn't have any cabs that would have worked, though, so I went with more circles (that's probably why people are reminded of Van Gogh's "Starry Night", but if you have a closer look, you see it's not really that similar and it was not my inspiration).
It was also fun to add the fringe. I still have tons of those dagger beads from when an old project fell through, and the color was perfect.

Then I was at the usual point, what kind of rope to use. Of course I thought of my beloved Herringbone, but neither the 4 bead nor the 6 bead rope appealed to me this time because the different blue tones had different sizes.
I remembered, though, that I had just got some faux suede ribbon and there were still a bunch of crimps from my early bead looming days, and indeed the braids looked much better.
Now I'm really happy how the whole piece turned out!

And the braids actually brought me to a WIP that has spent nine months in my infamous WIP drawer - my mermaid.
I hadn't even posted about her here because I thought she would be done much earlier, but I had had the same problem with the rope. Bead loomed strips didn't sit right, the Herringbone ropes didn't look right.

Luckily the other spools of faux suede that I got were a dark teal and a light blue which went perfectly with the colors I used in the mermaid's tail.
Actually, the first idea had been to make just a fish tail with all those sequins, but a tail by itself always looks so cut off, so instead this large mermaid started evolving, getting more and more hair and this big fish tail. It was fun ;-)

It's amazing how satisfying it is to finish a long time WIP because the right idea has finally come along and I'm very glad she made it out of that drawer that has proved to be the end of the line for some other pieces over the years.

The mystery rock

Sometimes it really sucks to get old/er. I've had health issues all my life and always think I should be used to it by now. Guess what - I'm not.
It started out with foot pain which then led to my back going out because I couldn't walk right. It's not as if I haven't felt old sometimes before, but you should have seen me these last few weeks. Once one spot was fine, the next one began hurting and I'm not completely through with this yet.
The worst part about it was that it took away all my motivation to even try doing anything fun, like being creative, as all I did was worrying about how to best care for the cats (luckily I had some help from the family) and not crash when der Dekan tried to hunt my old 2 DM fleamarket cane while I did my best to slowly make it to the kitchen, for example.
I was so sure that both he and I would be dying in an earth shattering fall, him because I would fall on top of him! ;-) Strangely enough, we both made it alive. Gundel was smart enough to stay out of it completely.

About a week ago then, I have started working on a new Dawn doll and it felt so good to feel my creative flow coming back.
Two days ago, however, I suddenly felt the urge to make a piece of jewelry. I think it has been before Easter that I last made something, definitely too long!
Going through my cab drawer, I found a rock that I have had for years and years. I even had turned it into a pendant once before, but was never completely happy with that.
I probably bought it as a worry stone back then because it's really smooth.
The last time I had used either brass or bronze wire - it was ten years ago, I only remember how hard it was on my hands - and dark red Swarovski bicones for a wire crochet bezel, and I stuck with the color combo of gold and red for this bead embroidery pendant.

I still love the mystery rock, even if I have no idea what kind of stone it is. What do you think?

Tackle that stash - Mod Heart

Usually I start a stash tackler by going through my stash to see if anything is talking to me.
This time I started with a leftover piece of bead embroidery foundation. When I made my little hedgehog (that I didn't blog about), I didn't know at first what it would be become and how big it would be. Well, not very big as it turned out, so I had a piece of foundation with a hole in the middle and no idea what to do with it - until I cut it in half and ended up with two quite weird shapes.

I took one of them to my cab drawer to see if I had one that was right in size and would give me a good idea when a small rhodonite donut jumped into the way - not the slightest idea how this ever got to me - and thus turned on the experimenting mode.

This was a rather interesting journey. The first steps were easy. I glued the donut on, then I looked for bezel colors. Funnily enough, I had matte seed beads that matched the color of the rhodonite almost perfectly. They came from one of the surprise bead mixes that I like to order, and until now I had been pretty sure I would not be able to use them anytime soon. Does the bead store know my stash better than I do? ;-)
Now what colors to use with them?
I wanted a bit of color and a bit of shine (my way to say that I love to use metallic accents). Was it coincidence that most of the colors I picked were already waiting in my work area? And was it coincidence that I had just found the dark red fire polished crystals again? Of which one fit perfectly into the hole of the donut?
This was almost getting a little spooky!

From there, I was just following the flow. I had cut the edges of the foundation randomly, now I needed to fit a pattern into that.
After doing a few swirls I noticed that I was reminded of clothes patterns from the mod era, almost a little psychedelic, although those clothes would probably have been a lot more colorful.

In the end, the focal needed a chain, and there was really only one way to attach it.
I struggled a bit with the temptation to add a drop dangle to the tip (which isn't really a tip, it's just an illusion thanks to the crystal, the back looks more like a member of the Barbapapa family ;-)) or a fringe from tiny seed beads or fine chain, but then it seemed to me that would have been too much.

This was a fun experiment. Maybe I should try this more often, after all I still have the second half to begin with. I'll let you know how it goes.

The winged scarab

Khepri was the god of the morning sun in ancient Egypt. He was believed to push the new-born sun across the sky in the shape of a scarab the way real scarab beetles roll balls of dung from which their young emerge.
Khepri was depicted either as a god with a human figure and a scarab face or simply the scarab itself.
This is of course only the short version of his story.

When I put a little sodalite cabochon on my backing, nothing could have been more far from my mind than Khepri. It had been supposed to be a little in between project, a small cab on a small piece of leftover backing, with a bezel and maybe some edging for a pendant or part of a ring.
My plans changed rather quickly, though, when I had chosen a combination of blue and gold for the bezel and added tiny golden beads which turned the humble sodalite in a kind of scarab.

It was then when I remembered the winged scarab and went to look for some beads that would work for the wings.
I don't often use bugles, but have some choice in different colors from ordering surprise or destash lots.
After exchanging the backing because my piece was much to small for the new idea, I had to decide how to shape the wings and if I wanted to add the morning sun. Just in time I remembered having red magnesite around which would work perfectly for the sun.
When I had finished scarab and sun, I chose colors for the wings that reminded me of ancient Egypt, turquoise - shiny and matte with an AB finish - gold and purple.

The result was not at all what I had expected when randomly picking the sodalite from my stash.
Next - pendant or necklace? A bail seemed wrong, so it had to be a necklace, and if you have seen my last necklaces, you will have noticed that I love Herringbone ropes for my focal pieces. In this case, I added some dumortierite beads - for lack of lapislazuli.
I'm really happy with how this piece has turned out in the end!

Ready for spring

The last time I had expressed the hope that I would be ready to show something new soon, based on one of the designs I had shared.
For this I used some beads that I have probably had around almost from the start of my jewelry making. It was at a Sunday market in a small town nearby where I found a strand of blue goldstone. Back then, I had only seen red goldstone before, and I really loved that deep blue. If only I had known that these beads would haunt me for years, I am almost sure that these haven't been the last ones because they have been hiding in old pieces that I set aside for ripping up before.
My problem was that I never had a really good idea for them.
I finally found a good use for them, though, even if it meant that I was shamelessly hiding that beautiful blue in the process.

They are perfect to incorporate them in these beaded buds, and as I had three of them, I decided against another pair of earrings and instead made this necklace
With the necklace, I'm also once again embracing my asymmetric side which doesn't happen that often, both with the position of the buds and with the different colors.
Originally, the third bud was supposed to be bronze colored, but I didn't have the necessary size 15 seed beads for that, and I simply couldn't wait for an order because I was afraid the necklace would end up in the infamous WIP drawer.
Now I'm thinking the gunmetal makes for a very nice contrast, too. What do you think?

Erm ... a Happy New Year?

I admit that the year is already feeling rather used AND it is definitely trying to show 2021 that it can do even "better" than its predecessor.
In short, I am still struggling with life as I had mentioned before in December. Private matters, but also what is going in the world, often I just want to hide under my blanket in bed. It's exhausting, it's scary, and sometimes it's hard for me to find the motivation for the smallest things.

Just now I managed to cut up cardboard boxes again and it was pretty amazing to see that most of the boxes were for the cats and just two small ones for me, something for the household (yay?) and a gift. So spoilt, but what would I do without them?
Now that der Dekan has become a tiny bit calmer - as in being crazy in segments rather than for five hours in a row - I even had the chance to get a little creative again.
I participated in an Art Nouveau inspired showcase on Facebook and was determined to make some new items and to use some of my old stash. It took me a while to get into the flow of creating and reach that meditative state, actually one of the designs needed experimenting and cost me some nerves before it finally worked the way I wanted it to, but then it felt so good.

I am sure I have mentioned before that I don't like making earrings, sometimes simply because I forget how I made the first one, but bead embroidery has helped me a lot with that. It's more work for me with having to sew on the backing, but it is really satisfying to end up with two matching earrings!

So here are the pieces I have made so far in 2022, and I'm working on something else based on one of these designs to use up some leftover beads, so hopefully there will be something new to show again soon.

Stay safe and healthy out there and take care!

By the way, I have finally caved and can now also be found on Instagram where I don't just share my work, but also brat ... sorry, cat pictures and items from my personal collections.

The beach is calling

Our bi-monthly challenge mistress at the Jewelry Artisans Community has been messing with our minds. The challenge is bi-monthly, by the way, not the mistress. See how my mind is already messed up?? ;-)
Let me try this again. Every two months we have a theme challenge at JAC and the good lady chose matching earrings. Great. We all know that matching earrings can be very hit and miss for me. Nevertheless I made some, only to find that she had changed the theme to beach to make it easier for us busy people. Serves me right for skipping that one post.

Beach, beach, beach, there was the beach in Wales we never found despite the signs (I still think they were fake and just meant to lure me into a field full of cows). The only beach I really remember was the one near Bodega Bay. Such a long time ago that I was there the last time, more than 20 years!
Seagulls, weird stuff on the sand - probably algae and remains of jellyfish - sand dollars, other birds and shells ... I knew it would be shells.
Shells are so easy to use in jewelry and I had a bunch of bigger ones that I had been gifted by a co-worker. I have netted shells and crocheted around them with wire, I made them from polymer clay, but you may have noticed, I'm having a lot of fun with bead embroidery lately. Sorry if it gets boring, guys.

The hardest part was to choose one of the shells, and once I had glued it onto the backing, the next hardest part was to decide what to do with it now. Actually I thought it was pretty without adding too much to it, and as luck had it, I happened to have the perfect beads to make a bezel in the colors of the shell itself. For a moment I was tempted to just leave it like that, but then added one single row of bronze metallic beads for contrast.
Now it needed a few pearls. I know, I know, that's not original at all, but shells just scream for pearls.
My first idea was to add one row, but then my dangle addiction raised its omnipresent head and I couldn't stop myself from making a little fringe in the center.

The last decision to make was the chain. I thought about a bail, hidden or not, two bails, chain, cord, everything I didn't have, so I ordered beads for a simple beaded rope.
Voilà, here we go!
Do you think it will please the challenge mistress?

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!