Some New Pendants

Well, I was having a hard time getting the lid to close on my "artisan ceramics" and "pendants" containers, so I decided I'd better get busy. I had been thinking of this pendant for a long time-- a graceful rectangular polymer clay pendant by Erin Prais-Hintz of Tesori Trovati, from her "Forest Finery" series called "Simply Oak":

I wanted to match the gunmetal color on the pendant frame, so I fished out some pewter-colored buttons I've had in my stash forever, and knotted them together with dark brown waxed linen cording.

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Miraculously I had glass seed beads from Fusion Beads in a matte, metallic denim color that EXACTLY matched the subtly varying blues in the pendant, and some sweet little carnelian nuggets.

I finished it off with some no-nonsense silver-plated steel chain.

Next, I dipped into my hoard of Karen Totten ceramic components, and plucked out this little gem:

I circled it for a day, trying it with this bead and that bead, this cording and that, arranging and rearranging. I came back to it the next day, and this was what I eventually arrived at as it grew dark outside:

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Recycled glass beads from Ghana via Happy Mango Beads; two more little glazed lozenge beads by Karen; lovely matte glass seed beads in sand hues also from Happy Mango; ceramic discs in coffee glaze from somewhere like Michael's, I don't remember; sterling silver wire and tiny sterling silver beads; waxed linen cording and leather; and a little drilled beach stone at the end, just for fun.

I started out with way more beads than I ended up with--I kept paring down, paring down, and the sterling wire and beads were a last-minute addition related to covering up some knots. I rather like the extra interest the little silver "bubbles" added here and there. I used double-ended 18 gauge fine silver headpins to fasten the leather into loops, and tossed in some of my embossed beadcaps.

I am especially fond of the nekkid sections of cording--I guess that would be "negative space," jewelry-style!

I have more Karen Totten in my container and I'm not afraid to use it. Anymore. This exotic little "Forest Fossil Ring" was next:

I held it in my hand for an evening, scrutinizing it under a full spectrum bulb, trying to tease out the colors. I eventually decided to combine it with both lighter and darker greens, antiqued copper, and brownish-rose colors, and follow the same basic design scheme as for the previous necklace. Here is the final product, completed on New Year's Day:

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Stones include prehnite nuggets and irregular heishi, red lava, and dragon's blood jasper (the little green barrels). I knotted them onto Irish waxed linen cording in forest green and antique rose, and finished the back with dark reddish-brown leather cording.

I used one of my petaled beadcaps to add interest to the base of the focal, and linked everything together with my embossed copper rings.

I actually think I might be liking this one even more than the other one. I am in love with these lava beads.

I like the visual rhythm the prehnite disc beads give to it. I found these at a bead show, and also got strands of bronzite and Botswana agate in the same cut at that show. I love them. I am hatching a plan for the Botswana agate that might involve Karen Totten again. I'm on a Starry Road bender!

Hearts and Rivets: They Go Together

I've been wanting to do some riveted heart pendants for some time. Today I got busy. I LOVE doing these hearts because I don't have to use my saw on them! I hate sawing. I cut them out entirely with my metal shears--my straight cut and my left curve shears. I cleaned up the little tooth marks from the shears with fine grit sandpaper, they came right out. Voila! No sawing. I love the sort of blocky edges I get with the shears--the hammering with the texture sheets then softens that out a bit.

I layered these hearts using rivets (actually, copper tacks from the hardware store!), and then created a loop by attaching a wire figure-8 with the rivet. (I learned that from a Sharilyn Miller DVD, Ethnic Style Jewelry--lots of handy stuff!)

On a couple of them, I only used one rivet to attach both the second heart and the figure-8; on the big one, I used two rivets to attach them separately.

The smallest heart I will use as a bracelet charm--I'm always a little frustrated using one-sided charms on bracelets, because with the way bracelets move around, you see the wrong side of the charm as often as you see the front. I wanted to make double-sided charms, but you can't really do that with a single sheet and the texture sheet/hammering method, because hammering the second side takes the texture out of the first side. So I thought I would just use two separate hearts, attached with a rivet, with the figure-8 loop in between. (And now I like that "3-D" look so much, I wish I had put the figure-8 in the middle with the other two too. I think I may do that from now on.)

I also textured and antiqued some copper strips to turn my copper flowers into clasps or usable components. I just have to rivet the strips to the flowers now, and decide how to configure them.

Then I have to use them in something. That's the hard part! I'm thinking of opening a second shop for components--then YOU would have to figure out what to do with them. :-)

I Dub Thee, Lynda, the Queen of Fauxtiquities

I was cruising around on Flickr, and discovered an artist who makes the most astounding beads and focals from polymer clay--looks like she robbed an archeological site of its most luminous treasures! Everybody, meet Lynda of Diva Designs.

I just fell in love with her focals in particular, and found myself often oohing and aahing over her things on Flickr.  In a fit of wonderment over the pendant focal below, I fervently declared her the Queen of Fauxtiquities:

Look at the HIEROGLYPHICS on there!!!  I adore hieroglyphics.

She was so thrilled with this moniker (which I confess I didn't think up myself--rather I had heard it elsewhere and appropriately appended it to her) that she offered me one of her beads as a thank you!! Well I just about DIED.  Of course I wanted the dragonfly one above but it was sold.  DAMMIT.  So I went "shopping" on her Flickr site.  Well, in addition to the stamped/embossed styles above, she has a whole line of image transfer beads and focals.  I decided to go with something that would force me to design something I wouldn't normally do.  I chose the one below:

It also has a spot of lovely brick red on it (it's on the right in this photo, pictured with one of its fellows):

I got it the other day in the mail from Lynda and have been fondling it regularly ever since.  Mine mine MINE!!! Love the silver eyelet detail at either end.  I have a design in my mind for it and hope to get to it this weekend.

There is so much fabulousness in her Flickr stream, I can't fit it all here. But I'm sure as heck going to try. Look at this:

And this:

And this:

And this!

I could go on and on:

And on:

Phew! And there's lots more!!! But I'll stop now before I become slavishly fawning, or before I reach my Blogger photo limit.

I highly encourage you to check out Lynda's Flickr photostream, stop by her blog, and visit her Etsy shop. Her designs are a feast for the eyes! She even has tutorials for sale in her Etsy shop on how to create your own image transfer components with polymer clay.

Have fun!!