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?

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!

Saturday night ramblings

That was an epic fail, huh? I dropped out of the advent calendar challenge like the apple onto Newton's head. I'm sorry, but I got overwhelmed by life. As a matter of fact I still am overwhelmed by life, but it's getting a little better, let's say, every other day.

Today the gerbils moved to the new bunny room. I don't quite trust Ponder yet, he gets so excited when his favorite TV program moves that I decided to lock the door again.
My comics are on their shelves, so are my love stories, the Shakespeare collection, and the Patrick Star figure signed by Stephen Hillenburg. And I'm up-to-date with my laundry. Actually I'm feeling pretty good right now.

I also created one or the other thing. I made a few wire knit pendants with crystal trees of life ... lives ... crystal bonsais. I loomed, I told Ponder a lot to stop whatever he was doing (sometimes it involved claws, sometimes his act as the black screen of doom), I gave Esme her meds, kissed Meffi on the head and brushed Greebo (suspecting by now that he's really a Yeti with all that hair) and I watched loads of DVDs giving me more ideas ... if I only knew how to realize them yet ...

I ate too much around Christmas, I rarely check my mailbox (can you tell I'm not expecting a bead order?), and I just turned on the dishwasher.
I still need to pack up a swap piece and the giveaway prizes from the 1st of December (no, I wasn't lazy, but the first two winners I drew never got back to me, not even after several messages).
I fed my chai addiction with more chai.

And right now I'm staring at a bag full of shells, nope, update, I just picked a piece out ...

*elevator music*

.... two hours later ... 

Saturday night ramblings don't really have to make sense, do they? ;-)

Inspiration versus stash

It is a win win situation when that happens. In this case I have three pendants.

I got the everyday design, a lovely big hole lampwork bead by Melissa Vess hanging on a drop, crocheted from fine silver wire. I see it with a blouse and jeans for example.

Wire crochet drop with lampwork bead

I got the unusual one of a kind design, modern, bold, full of contrast between the black and the white parts.

It's made up of a piece of white shell, a matte black agate, both caught in fine silver wire crochet bezels, and opaline and black Swarovski crystals.

Wire crochet one of a kind black and white pendant

Last, but not least I got an elegant and feminine design, dainty and beautiful, made from apatite beads almost hiding away in a little silver wire crochet "bowl", surrounding a white pearl. From that bowl dangles a headpin with five more pearls.

Apatite, pearls and silver wire crochet pendant

And you know what? They are all listed already. Just click the caption under the images!

Got chocolate?

I have been bitten by the needle lace bug, no doubt. And even if you might think, this is getting boring, it's another shell I caught in my net.

The difference is this shell is made from polymer clay and it was not planned. In fact I was working on a clay idea. The first attempt turned out a little too big, so I went for a second one. Suddenly I was hit by a wave of impatience. I grabbed the clay in sight and mixed it all up, then just as suddenly I pressed it on the shell in front of me (now you know the other project incorporates a shell, but that's all I'm telling you in case it doesn't work out ;-)). Carefully I turned my clay to get the pattern on the right side and cut it to the right shape.

I don't know about you, but it definitely reminded me of those chocolate shells ... cravings welled up inside of me. The only chance to take my mind off chocolate was to start netting, so that is what I did. The pink freshwater pearls fit the colors of the shell perfectly.

This month's challenge of the Polymer Clay Smooshers is "Nature". I guess I got my first entry :-) It's listed in my ArtFire studio now.

Guiltfree chocolate necklace

Going through the world with open eyes - gifts from nature

Are you the kind of person that collects things in your vacation?
Pretty rocks in the mountains or on the beach, various shells, pieces of roots for a terrarium ...
I do and I know people who do. I remember friends moving. It was memorable all right, especially the boxes that said "Rock collection" and "Cigar cases collection". Maybe it would have been a good idea to mix the collections. The rock boxes were incredibly heavy, the ones with the cigar cases you could almost lift with two fingers.

I usually held on to just a few because I didn't know where to put them. I still have the first oyster shell I ever found on a Californian beach, for example.
But this year things changed. I got a whole bag full of goodies from a Danish beach - rocks, shells, pieces of shells, seaglass and they were just as beautiful as a gemstone, granted, with less sparkle, but all those shapes, colors, textures fascinated me.
Why shouldn't a rock be worthy of a silver wire bezel? Why throw a piece of shell away when the colors are so lovely?

Here's a little gallery of them now.

Little piece of shell in a wine red wire crochet bezel


Rock in black and brown in a wine red wire crochet bezel


I really had fun with this one. Blue wire for the ocean, a big piece of a shell and for added interest grey freshwater pearls. Modern, yet romantic.


The "tooth". Somehow this pendant reminds me of an ancient monster's tooth. It's a rock in a silver-colored wire crochet bezel.


I absolutely fell in love with these shell pieces. The cream color with the brown stripes is so lovely! I think they make fun earrings with the contrasting colored wire.


This black rock is the one I had mentioned above. Holding it against the light it has an ever so soft shimmer. I don't think I was wrong when teaming it up with fine silver wire, tourmalines in all possible colors and tiny Bali silver beads. Doesn't it make for a stunning contrast?


And last but not least my favorite piece, a shell with a fine silver wire bezel from which tiny labradorite beads and a pink and a white pearl dangle. The shell has a lovely color, one of my friends said it reminded her of sand. It's a very feminine, soft and somehow peaceful piece to me.


I can't wait to get to work on the other gifts of nature and I hope I'll have enough ideas to do them justice.