Charade - a small homage of mine

It's really incredible that I have never used a quote from this movie when I still did the quotes of the week because it is one of my all time favorites.
Cary Grant? Audrey Hepburn? Excitement, mystery, love, and wit? I'm in, thank you very much.
I'm of course talking about Charade from 1963, and if you have never seen that movie, but still want to, you should stop reading or looking. Spoiler alert!

In short, Audrey Hepburn - Reggie - discovers that her husband, whom she has decided to divorce because it's always secrecy and lies with him, is not only dead, but has also left her nothing but an empty flat and a few things in a small bag.
He also happens to have been a thief who stole from his accomplices, and now those are chasing after her because they are convinced that she has the stolen money or at least knows where it is. Throw in a fake agent and Cary Grant as the suspicious helper, whom she can never be sure about although she has fallen in love with him, put them all in 1960s Paris, and you're in for a wild ride - "the best Hitchcock movie that Hitchcock never made".

For a "movie showcase" in one of my Facebook sales groups, we were supposed to design pieces inspired by movies, and Charade was the second one to pop into my mind (the first one was Jaws, and maybe I'll do another post about what I made based on that).
All I could think was "stamps" and "Eiffel Tower", and without planning exactly how I wanted to put those two together, I got myself some Eiffel Tower charms and pulled out the family's old stamp collection.
You see, Reggie's husband used the gold to buy three very rare and valuable stamps which are on an envelope for everyone to see, but it takes them the whole movie through to realize it.
By then, Reggie has given the stamps to her friend's little son who is a collector (just like my siblings and I used to be as kids), and he has traded them with a stamp dealer. It's one of my favorite scenes of the movie how they go to the shop and the dealer describes each stamp lovingly before he gives them back saying that he had already waited for them because he knew it had to be a mistake.
When Reggie says that she's sorry, he says: "Oh no. For a few minutes, they were mine. That's enough."
My collector's heart is really feeling these words, every time again.

I had thought it would be easier to pick stamps from the collection that would go well together in color and design for the right feel, but not only didn't I want to break up some of the series, I also thought huge and colorful stamps with astronauts or exotic animals wouldn't quite work in this design ;-)
I finally picked three stamps, and after a failed first attempt, which made me do a few things a little differently the second time, it was really fun to work on this pendant. It's one of the pieces that is not just an ordinary design to me, but something very personal. If you have watched a movie often, do you also have memories of the circumstances when watching it or of the emotions?

If the pendant stays with me, which it probably will as I doubt that it evokes the same feelings in others, it will still be useful to remember what I learned from making it - how to seal the stamps, how to attach them, and more.

By the way, here's an article about the wonderful scene with the stamp dealer. I'm not the only one who loves it.
And here's another one explaining a bit about the stamps they used in the movie which is actually very interesting.

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.

Vampire Bat Angie

I have to admit it to myself, I am not very good with jewelry at the moment. There's a pair of earrings in my drawer that is only waiting for me to decide on earwires. There are also a few small beaded hearts in a baggie waiting to be used in something. I keep picking things up and putting them down again.

Feeling so little motivation right now has a lot to do with what's going on, in the big world and in my small world.
Luckily that doesn't seem to mean that I can't get creative at all. My muse obviously thought that it was about time for me to work on a doll design that - together with two others - has been on my table for months now. This time I actually doodled a sketch of three outfits (during a meeting when I wasn't needed) that had already been in my head even months before that, more to remind me than to follow them in detail.
My doll outfits develop during the process, and not even I can tell what they are going to look like in the end.

For this one, I used an Angie doll for the very first time, a lovely Topper brunette with the head mold P10.
Her hair color doomed her to become the bat lady. You may remember that I have become quite fascinated with bead embroidery wings (ooh, just had an idea for another design), and I definitely saw Angie mostly in black with bat wings. If I still rerooted heads, I might even have been tempted to give her black hair. And call her Angelina for a more romantic vampire name.

The first decision was about the dress being tight or an opulent ball gown style, the flowing nightgown style was out right from the start. One thought that popped into my head, probably because I had been watching old Addams Family episodes on YouTube, had been a dress like that of Morticia, but first, Morticia is not a vampire, and second, I want to make my own designs.
So the dress finally became tight, but there is no plunging neckline, no long sleeves - not only because they are difficult to make with beads as the arms are so close to the body, but because I wanted the contrast of the arms against the wings - and instead of the "tentacles" at the bottom the skirt flares out at a higher point and is a little longer at the back.

To sew crystals to part of the skirt, was a spontaneous decision. Black and siam red is a combo that is irresistible to me. Only when it got dark and I turned the light on, I noticed that I had used both dark and regular siam crystals. It's hard to believe as in these pictures the dark siam seems almost black, but in daylight you have to look very close to tell them apart if you use black thread. Luckily, I liked the effect of different "blood drops" and therefore just added a few more of the light siam crystals instead of ripping everything out.

As usual, I beaded and beaded on the dress until then it was almost too late to make the shoes. Will I ever learn?
Then I realized that I have never thought about vampires' shoes before. Ballerinas, high heels, slippers? I took the easy way out with some simple sandals because they aren't seen underneath the long dress, anyway. They have slim ankle straps, soles and two straps across the toes.

Much more interesting are the wings, at least to me.
I haven't succeeded in getting a good video (yet, I will keep trying) that shows the sparkle of the silver lined red bugle beads against the AB shimmer of the shiny black sequins.
I could have used matte black sequins or shiny ones without the AB finish, but I love the effect of black exploding into color with a small movement.

You know I love making accessories, but they wouldn't have worked in this case.
Angelina just got a small choker with a "vampire bite".

I am still contemplating either trying my hand on some red lips and vampire teeth for her myself or outsourcing the task to someone who's quite probably better at it.
Even that doesn't happen, however, I am really happy with my dark beauty!

Update April 2024:
I finally tried my hand at a vampire smile, but after many attempts, I gave up on the teeth because they didn't go together with the eyes, and I really didn't want to mess up the eyes. A wide smile didn't fit and just two white dots looked ridiculous, at least to me, as if she had crumbs on her mouth or something.
The red lips, however, work much better with her overall look than the pink ones did!

Angie and Dawn were registered trademarks of the Topper Company. I am not affiliated with Topper in any way.

On the wall

Isn't it funny how sometimes you can look at something and you just don't know what to do with it? I guess it happens to most if not all creative people.
And sometimes it takes years and years and years, then suddenly - boom.
I remember getting those moonstones, being intrigued by the different colors and the - for me - unusual shape. Unusual because I used round stones. The shape (and size), however, were a big problem for me as I couldn't come up with a way to incorporate it into one of my pieces.
Back then, I only did wire crocheting and knitting, and my only attempt of working with the moonstones was kind of okay, but definitely not okay enough. After having looked at the piece - it was a wire knit collar - again and again for some years, I finally ripped it up and the moonstones went back into the drawer.

The other day, however, I was looking for something in that drawer, taking out this and that, and when I held the baggie with moonstones in my hand, it was like an epiphany - a dry stone wall!
It was rather fitting that I had Midsomer Murders on for background entertainment. Rural England, here I come ;-)

Luck was on my side, the wall became straight. It just needed someone or something sitting on it. Wait, how about a cat?? That's of course a joke. A cat was the first choice, and with me having a black glass cab around in my "workbox" - mere coincidence actually - it clearly wanted to be black.
To enhance the 3D effect, I added more an extra layer of seed beads for the head and thighs and an additional layer of matte crystals for the tail. Also the cat got two rows of seed beads added around, so it wouldn't blend into the background.

I love the background. Those hexagon beads have some major sparkle which is increased by the random embroidering. You hardly notice the little "stars". It was so time consuming, but well worth it in my opinion.

While this is also a cat silhouette, it's not a HeatherCat, by the way. If it were, there would be a moon. Silhouette HeatherCats insist on a moon ;-)

Turning this into a pendant was more difficult than I had thought. Beaded ropes didn't work for me, the bails I tried weren't any better. In the end, I decided to get one of those faux silk chains and bead a tube bail for it.
Now I wish there were more moonstones left over because I am very tempted to make another dry stone wall. Didn't I have some Tila beads somewhere .....

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.

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.

One of a kind versus repeating a design

April is almost over and it's time for the monthly blog carnival over at the Jewelry Artisans Community.
This month it's about one of a kind items versus repeating a design.

In the old days of JAC (actually when it still had a different name) there was a time when newbies got a mentor if they wanted to, someone who had been around in the biz for a while, someone who helped out with tips, who could answer questions and offer encouragement.
I remember two things that my mentor told me.
1. You can't milk a dying dinosaur. That one was about my camera that was on the way out when it started to tint my pictures in a lovely soft purple. It had been my first digital camera and it was hard to say goodbye to it, but the purple didn't go away. This dino was dying indeed.
2. If you have sold something, make it again right away. Ah. That one I wasn't so sure about. Even back then I had a hard time making earrings because that meant making the same thing twice.

Time showed that #2 really wasn't for me.
Of course some pieces look similar. A wire knit bezel is a wire knit bezel, no matter if it has a jasper or an agate sitting in the middle. I still like to experiment with that, though. Adding a bit here, manipulating the stitches there. A wire crochet rope is a wire crochet rope, but you can add beads in different ways. You get the idea.

True, sometimes I like to make a series. There are the Rainbow Fairies, a series of wire crochet ropes in different colors with matching bead mixes. To be honest, I don't think these days I would still have the patience to make ten ropes in a few days, not mentioning that my wrists would be very unforgiving about that. There are the single pearls in wire crochet settings. There are wire knit bracelets with lampwork beads for buttons.
That doesn't happen very often, though. How many times have I said that I need to make this or that in a different color or with different beads and how many times have I found something else I wanted to try before getting around to it?

Another thing is that I almost never use patterns and I don't write patterns except of course for my bead loomed items.
Many times I simply don't know how I made something. It's that adding a bit here and manipulating there again. I often say I let the hook and wire take over, and that means that afterwards I have no idea how those two have been taking me to where we ended up. Often it's impossible to tell from the finished piece what exactly I have done, and I definitely never count stitches because that would break my concentration during the process. Well, unless I make earrings. Don't even ask how often an earring got made into a pendant because I suddenly noticed that I stopped counting.

Mind you, I'm not saying at all that it is wrong to repeat a design, and I'm also not saying that it is better or more artistic to make one of a kind pieces.
I think everyone has to find their own way, and my way is mostly not to repeat the exact same design.
No rule without exception, though .................... ;-)

You'd like to know what other JAC members have to say about this?

Violetmoon's Corner
Echoes of Ela
Jewelry Art by Dawn