The Necklace

OK, I made a necklace today with my remaining Alisha White copper green discs. Here it is:

The Necklace

Alas, I had to use them all so no pendant in the offing. Large iceberg blue lampwork spacers by StudioRent.

Kelley's Beads: Azure Islands

These beads by Kelley Wenzel have been sitting on my work table since February. I kept looking at them, wanting so badly to do something with them, but I just didn't have the right accompaniments for them.

I finally found the right counterpoint: BONE. Yeah, that's right. Big, fat bone beads. Just look at them. A nice warm ivory, like white sand beaches...so right with the pale Caribbean blue of the lampwork. A little blue opalite, some blush-hued golden jade roundels, and more BONE!!! Bone tubes. They're from Africa, so maybe it's wildebeest bone, kudu (lesser or greater), or maybe eland. Maybe even okapi. Or maybe steenbok. The dik-dik and klipspringer are probably too small. Lotta goats in Africa. Maybe it's goat bone. "Goat bone" has a real ring to it.

The photos don't do the lampwork justice--there's a surprising amount of blush pink in the beads, hence the peachy-pink golden jade. Perfect with a Mai Tai.


This item is sold.
 

Inspiration Is a Lethargic and Dawdling Mistress

It has taken her nearly three months to provide me with a design for Kelley Wenzel's fabulous aqua lampwork nugget beads. They've been sitting on my Japanese-style glass top work bench since early February, within easy reach for fondling and thought experiments regarding how they might be best displayed. For a few weeks I was thinking of doing a variation on the tried and true turquoise-and-coral Southwest tradition, but with glass and carnelian instead. Then I got this fabu pewter pendant from Happy Mango Beads and the muse grabbed me by the throat. And this is what I coughed up:

Also a little red agate, one little dark red seed bead, a scattering of glass tile beads in aqua, and silver accents.

The rest of my hoard from Kelley's Beads sits forlorn on the work bench, awaiting their turn. I do pet them from time to time, so they don't lose hope. I'm kind of counting on Happy Mango to give me another jump start. Some more pewter pendants are sitting in close proximity to them on the bench, so I'm hoping they'll migrate towards each other and spontaneously merge into something divine.

All the Charm of Barbed Wire, But Without the Pointy Parts

I saw a nifty pendant somewhere (can't remember who did it, or I'd give her credit) where the artist had made some simple ring-shaped connectors out of wire. Looked sort of messy, like a bird's nest with an unfortunate big hole in the middle. I wanted to do earrings with them, so yesterday on my lunch hour I set about figuring it out. I couldn't get that same messy look, although I was able to make a ring shape. So to bump up the messy factor (judging by my house and my car and my hair you'd think I'd be really good at messy wire work) I sort of wrapped the end of the wire around in an irregular fashion. Well I'll be darned if that doesn't look like barbed wire, I said. Hmm, not quite the nature-inspired look I was thinking of. More a self-mutilation-inspired look. But people are into that, right?

I had been wanting to combine some vivid teal green/blue colors with the steel, so this is my first pair. Going to do it again with fuschia, and white and amber, and green, and...

Liquid Sunshine

Otherwise known as rain here in the northwest United States.

This bracelet took its inspiration from the sun totem bead in the center (from Happy Mango).



I was dying to use some of the sesame jasper buttons I found locally--I was surprised they had so much pale blue-green in them. I thought they would look cool with one of the pewter totem beads I got from Happy Mango, which are apparently inspired by northwest Native American totems. It would have made more sense to use the orca one, or a salmon one (what with the watery blue greens and grays I wanted to use), but I really wanted to use a round one, which meant the sun one. But wait! This made sense. Northwest, sun, gray, vague blue-green...that IS sun in the northwest!! Very, very diffused sunshine. Like diffused by thick layers of clouds. So, it's like a joke. (Ironically the sun is shining here and it's 46 degrees. Might have to leave the house.)