Inspiration FINALLY struck for one of
Leann Weih's gorgeous porcelain lentil beads. I've been hoarding this, and another similar one, since last September. (You can visit Leann's Etsy shop
HERE). I had some ideas knocking around in my head, but none of them felt right. I was absently pawing through my pendant collection again on Saturday, and opened Leann's package again. I had an idea, grabbed some aqua terra jasper beads, and decided that's what I would combine it with. I started on it this morning, and I had already wrapped one jasper bead when I thought it was missing something. I wanted to include some blue in the piece, to bring out the subtle washed denim hue in the focal. But gee, what did I have in that color? Gosh, how about that big fat ziplock bag of denim blue coral roundels? Oh yeah, those! Well, I laid those out together and I liked it. And then the aqua terra jasper didn't work anymore, but it still needed a little green. So I grabbed a couple of the matte finish Chinese jade I picked up locally--the color matched the green glaze exactly, and I threw in some green button pearls I tarted up with tiny antiqued copper bead caps. I had a couple of these floral copper toggle clasps I bought ages ago because they were on sale, never really thinking I would use them, but they were perfect for this piece--the flower is even kind of similar to the flower on the lentil focal. A teensy bit of antiqued copper rolo from
Ornamentea, and it was done.
The bead caps on the blue coral and Chinese jade are more of mine (looks like I'll be spending another lunch hour at the office with my metal punch). The necklace measures a little shy of 18" long, but because the wonderful rolo chain from Ornamentea has open links, it's easy to change the length of it without having to cut any links. Oh, and by the way, fired up the propane torch--the little button-like thing at the base of Leann's bead is a hammered ball of copper I made myself with my torch!! I can't believe I waited so long to fire it up. It was easier than opening a bag of chips. Unscrew the top, pop on the head, turn up the dial, click the starter. Voila. Fire. The copper melted beautifully. I'm looking forward to melting all of the copper I have.
WOW, Love it! So spring like and refreshing. You complimented LeAnn's lentil bead perfectly.
ReplyDeleteThat is such a soothing color combination. I am dreaming of seas... Enjoy the day! Erin
ReplyDeleteLovely Keirsten ! The blue colour is so soft and calm. And the pendant is really gorgeous. Bravo for your first "fire up", that is, in fact, a great moment to dare to do it.
ReplyDeleteFantastic colours and beautiful design. I couldn't feel more pleased to see my lentil as a focal in such a beautiful design. The wire wrap you did for the lentil is especially nice. I'm trying to figure out just how you did that :-) Glad you got your torch out. Melting things is fun!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful bead, and you really did it justice! Nice work!
ReplyDeleteGlad you like it Leann! All I did for the wire wrap on the focal was make a long ball headpin out of 18 gauge copper wire, make a triple loop at the top leaving plenty of room between loops and bead, and then wrapped the neck of the loop with 22 gauge wire. (I was chicken to wrap it down with the heavier wire for fear of cracking the bead).
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