A chronicle of the meanderings, false starts (which in retrospect, while sort of embarrassing turned out to be highly instructive), epiphanies, selective apathy (still evolving), wild mood swings, opinions (subject to frequent change), and life lessons of an inveterate dabbler (and her latest dabblings).

Sunday, October 9, 2011

A Sea Green Addiction


Whenever I work in copper, which seems to be most of the time anymore, I seem to end up combining it with some shade of blue green--I especially love antiqued copper with pale celadon green.

I recently got my first set of charms from Kristi Bowman-Gruel of Dreamsome on Etsy--I couldn't resist the paisley hearts! I wasn't sure how I would use them, but when I started going through my beads, I really loved them with pale, transparent green. You sure don't need to do much with these charms--actually you want them to have center stage!--so I kept it fairly simple:



My pictures don't show it very well, but they have a very luxurious shine to them. Glossy!

The lady who bought them inquired whether I would be making a coordinating pendant with the focal I also bought from Kristi. Well, I certainly can, I said! It just so happened I had been recently inspired by some designs in Fanciful Devices' Etsy shop--she has some dramatic, curved, kind of yoke things I guess you could call them, such as with this piece. My style isn't so rustic, but I thought a curved portion with lampwork and what have you on it might work nicely with Kristi's pendant. I was only able to use two of the remaining lampwork I had, as the rest of the lot was irregularly sized and this needed to be symmetrical. After spending what seemed like a half hour digging in my tub of copper beads, these curved tube beads seemed to be the thing:

Hearts in the Grass

It feels sort of Egyptian to me. I would like to use this same technique with other pendants--I'm thinking maybe some of my gemstone pendants. I'm going to try something with an aqua terra jasper (sigh. sea green.) oval pendant I have if I can come up with an interesting bail. I have a "thought experiment" in the works for that.



The two pair of earrings below were a prelude to my sea green binge. The earrings directly below include some of my own beadcaps, some copper plated pewter "heart lock" charms from Monsterslayer, recycled glass from Africa via Happy Mango Beads, and some amazonite.

Heart of the Sea


These earrings below are stamped washers and glass tile beads (aqua, of course) fastened on with a bird's nest technique.

Sea Flowers
(What's with me and this "sea" thing? I don't even like water.)


This piece below is my outlier. Around this time, when I start thinking about how close winter is (blech!), I do up something with silver pearls. I made this one ALL silver.

Celtic Winter






(Those silver pearls are so hard to photograph.) Pewter pendant and pewter connector rings from Happy Mango Beads; smaller silver-plated pewter Celtic knot bead from Fusion Beads; clear quartz ovals from Fire Mountain Gems; pewter dotted cubes and "deco" cubes from Monsterslayer; and the pearls are from here and there (Ebay and local stores).

In other news, I should have a new laptop arriving next week. It's my first self-owned laptop--I had one for work once and loved it. My aged Dell desktop unit recently had a meltdown, and the replacement cheap-ass graphics card makes it painfully slow. Rather than pour more money into the old geezer I figured it was time to get a new one. I wanted a laptop so we could make better use of the space in our house (my computer desk is monstrous), and so I wouldn't have to work in the room with the blocked heat vent in the winter. (I sit on a heating pad when I'm in here. Serves me right for getting a leather chair. It's like sitting on a toilet seat.) The rest of the bulky and non-functional furniture is also going bye-bye, to be replaced with things that have accessible storage. We're going lean. If it was spring I'd probably hack all my plants back too but for now they're safe. And if winter wasn't coming I might even cut my hair short, but my neck would get cold. (I probably won't cut it short in the spring either, though, because I'd look like a Monchichi.)



9 comments:

  1. Those paisley heart earrings are gorgeous! I really need to visit Kristi's shop, but that could be dangerous! I seem to go for the greens and blues too.

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  2. I'm with you Keirsten, it's very hard for me not to use those shades of blue and green with the copper. They just compliment it so well. That this is no exception, I LOVE that necklace and I'm proud to have created a component that turned in to such a beautiful finished piece. Thank you!!

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  3. You are really outdoing yourself Miss Keirsten! I love them all! Those paisleys are killing me! And I have a fascination with Fanciful Devices and how she is able to take castoffs and relics and make them so fresh and new. Good stuff.
    And thanks for the Monchichi reference. Now I have those things dancing through my overwrought brain.
    Enjoy the day!
    Erin

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  4. Sono esterrefatta! Crei cose sempre più belle! I cuori degli orecchini li hai incisi tu o hai usato una lastra prestampata? Io sono strabiliata dai tuoi oggetti! Le tue beadcups sono sempre strepitose! Sei un modello per tutte noi!!!

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  5. Scusami, credo di aver capito ora che i cuori non li hai fatti tu... ma il resto sì! Sei comunque un mito!

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  6. What's not to love about green and copper?? My favorite combination - as you know. Your pieces are pretty fabulous!!

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  7. L- I agree with R - what not to lovevabout copper and green that hints at patina. B

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  8. Looks beautiful with the little green beads to add to the ecstatic copper color.Love the color and the texture of copper...when matched with green dress it is taking another dimension.Lovely creations.

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  9. Very beautiful and impressive work. I love all the intricate details.

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