The Blues. And the Greens.

I've got The Blues. And apparently The Greens, too. See what I mean?

I wanted to make some bracelets, because I haven't in a while, and I wanted to use copper. I love blues and greens with copper so I started looking in my blue and green bins and holy cow! I have a lot of green beads. When did I get those? WHERE did I get those? Alas, I stopped keeping track a long time ago, and figuring out where they all came from would be rather a chore. I do generally know WHAT they are however--the beads in this bracelet are lapis lazuli, blue agate, azurite, blue impression jasper, turquoise, and probably green howlite. (I'm guessing they came mostly from Happy Mango Beads, Lima Beads, and maybe an Etsy shop or two.)

And because one of each thingy is never enough (this one has the same beads, except with some bronzite and a chrysocolla thrown in, royal blue cording instead of brown, and a smattering of tiny lampwork donuts):

And lastly this one (I wasn't quite sick of blue and green yet so I made just one more):

I will be listing these in my shop in the next few days--probably one at a time, so that it's less confusion (they are slightly different sizes).

Buttons

What is it with me and anything shaped like a coin? (Except for actual coins?) Buttons activate some kind of primal gluttony in me for small, disc-shaped items. And then this happens:

And this:

Gray Skies

And even this:

Mother of Pearl

And then I just bought some more...I guess a button addiction is more economically sustainable than, say, a Faberge egg addiction.

Y's, Happy Fish and White Clover

Spring in the Rockies
(SOLD)

Hello there, adoring fans. In case you were wondering, I'm still working my way through my artisan ceramic stash, most recently using some fab stoneware tubes in sea green glazes by Jana Bližňáková of Happy Fish Things. I'm intrigued by Y necklaces (I think they're sexy and I'm all about that) so I thought I would do really elongated shapes with these. For the necklace above, I topped Jana's stoneware tube with an icy tablet of recycled glass from Happy Mango Beads (clear, with just the barest hint of a fluorite-type green), and dangled a few carved amethyst tulips underneath. It says SPRING to me!! I was playing with some dragonfly-wing shapes with copper wire, and initially thought it was going to form one side of the necklace, but then I liked it so much as part of the pendant section I left it there. I added some more clear glass nuggets to the necklace portion, and two long strands of gorgeous little seed beads in pearly lavender. (I'm really into stringing seed beads lately, I love the look).

Glacial Lakes
(SOLD)

For this one, I hit the turquoise hard. (I love these variegated nuggets I got from a local bead store several years ago--I will be beside myself when I run out.) I kept it simple, with leather and copper. Recycled glass tablet in azure from Happy Mango Beads.

Caribbean Adventure

I went all cool greens with this one, with recycled glass rounds and discs (the latter from Happy Mango Beads) in sea green, little rectangular nuggets of pale amazonite in iceberg hues, and a dollop of green dragon blood jasper (the rondelles at the end). I kept it earthy with leather and chubby seed beads in deep cocoa brown.

I'm Going to Sandals

For this one, I was inspired by some ombre-shaded seed beads I found at Michael's, so I decided to do three strands of them (when I love something, I REALLY love it), with a pair of my hand-formed tulip ends. I stacked up some recycled glass discs from Happy Mango Beads in sea green, "Capri blue" and powder blue under the stoneware tube, and then completed the pendant section with a large tablet of faux sea glass in a light azure from Stinky Dog Beads. The wrapped loop I made for the sea glass pendant seemed to need something, so I wrapped it in a bunch of waxed linen cording and more seed beads. Always remember, more is more.

Morning Alpenglow
(SOLD)

And lastly, having used up my set of four Happy Fish tubes, I grabbed a gorgeous little porcelain pendant by Mary Hubbard of White Clover Kiln from my stash--I'd been wanting to use this little gem forever but just didn't have any ideas that seemed worthy of it. It fit right inside this wrapped ring I had made a long time ago for I-don't-know-what. Just futzing, I guess. I didn't want it to get too frothy with the pink, so I used Botswana agate (LOVE that stone) to draw out the gray and slatey violet tones in the swirls of the pendant, and added dark cocoa leather to ground it. I added some 3mm round beads at the ends--I think most of these are also Botswana agate, but I mixed in some rhodochrosite for a little extra pink. A dash of silver seemed right too.

Well that's all I got. I have another set of three tubes from Jana, that are a more vivid green--they remind me of bamboo. I think I'm going to use those horizontally...stay tuned!

Pendants with Happy Fish Things!

I have embarked on a mission to use up my two bins (ahem) of ceramic artist components--first up, Jana Bližňáková of Happy Fish Things and Happy Fish with Heart! I decided to knot them--I find knotting so meditative! Needed a little of that.

This was the first one I made, with one of a pair of Jana's feather/wing-like elements (with their size and lightness, you could use them for fabulous earrings too, but I wanted to make them go farther, and I thought they'd be great in a more petite necklace). I just love the fine black tracery in the glaze. Sublime! I combined it with a pewter heart connector from Happy Mango Beads, Indonesian glass beads in variegated turquoise (also from Happy Mango--aren't they fabulous? I love how obviously handmade they are), blackstone nuggets, transparent straw-hued Delicas, sterling silver, black Greek leather and waxed linen cording.

Heart Takes Flight

Here is the second one--I had these wonderful Czech glass leaves in autumn tones hanging out in my workspace (where did I get those???...) and when I saw them together, I had to do it! I went back to my Happy Mango turquoise seed beads for a splash of matchy-matchy, added a little Red Creek jasper and a couple of carved black horn feathers, and finished the stringing with glossy black 1 mm leather cord and 11/0 matte black seed beads. I anchored the ends to a pair of my hand-textured silver connector rings, adding some nut brown 2 mm Greek leather with my coil ends, and a short length of sterling silver connector chain terminating in one of my hand-forged sterling hook and eye clasps. Sterling silver accent beads.

Autumn on the Wing
(sold)

I also had two of these fantastically delicate cherry-blossom-style pieces of Jana's left in my ceramics bin (I had only used one so far). The glaze on this one was a bit lighter than the other--a soft teal fading into a diaphanous sea green. It reminded me so much of the sea, I thought some recycled glass rounds with their sea-glass feel would be a nice addition, and I had some in a lovely celadon that went nicely with the glaze. I decided to stay with lighter colors, knotting it all together with Irish waxed linen cording in ivory, and adding Czech Picasso 3-cut glass seed beads in sea green and cobalt blue from Stinky Dog Beads. For a second it was a tossup between teal Greek leather and this lovely mint -- the mint seemed to make the whole thing pop more so I went with that. It's finished the same as the pieces above, with connector rings, coil ends, and extender chain. (That's a dollop of kyanite on the clasp ring.)

Serenity Now! Right Here Under My Beach Umbrella

The other cherry blossom was in slightly more saturated, vivid hues of turquoise and teal, so I used bolder colors. I'm obsessed with these Czech "wampum" beads from Stinky Dog Beads (they make the most wonderfully mellow clacking sound as they move together). I love the Southwest palette! I added black accents to ground it--black Indonesian glass nuggets from Happy Mango (I love the soft sheen on them), more of my 11/0 matte black Japanese seed beads from Fusion Beads, black Irish waxed linen cording, and black Greek leather--and of course sterling silver (I love that little star jasmine charm--it makes me think of a marshal's badge!). The sweet little Czech glass bird bead is also from Stinky Dog Beads.

Marshal Miss Kitty

I had two of these lovely crackle-glaze medallions in teal and turquoise tones--I love Jana's muted flower pattern, it makes me think of a batik. I thought the vibrant glaze could hold its own against some genuine turquoise, so I went to my favorite blocky turquoise heishi and paired them with garnets--I adore turquoise and garnets together! It's sort of a twist on the traditional Southwest palette, I guess. I love the juxtaposition of the opaque, matte turquoise with the translucent glossy garnets. To bring in some lightness, I teamed them up with vintage Ghanaian glass seed beads in ivory from Afrobeadia, sterling silver, matte black 11/0 seed beads, black waxed linen cord and black Greek leather.

Star Power

This is the other medallion. I wanted to go warm with it, so I pawed through my enormous bin of Indonesian glass beads from Happy Mango until I found my favorite ones, in cocoa brown with stripes of pumpkin, saffron and ivory. To echo the teal in the medallion, I added large and small Indonesian glass beads in translucent teal (from Happy Mango Beads) and 11/0 Japanese seed beads in a similar color; and riffing off the colors in the brown striped beads I added more 11/0 seed beads in a warm maize color, Ghanaian seed beads in ivory, a few 8/10 seeds in root beer brown here and there, and deertan lace in a golden buff color. I added a pewter Celtic knot bead from Happy Mango, and finished it off as I did the others, with sterling silver rings, coils, chain and hook-and-eye clasp. (That little Czech glass flower in teal on the clasp is from Stinky Dog Beads.)

The Warm and Cool of It

I have more awesome stuff of Jana's left--this is what's on my worktable now:

Self-Discipline. Of a sort.

Bird on Some Wire (Sold)

I am still working my way through my pendant stash. This necklace started with a bird element in raku by Duane Collins of Elements Pottery. I suspended it from a large brass ring I soldered myself (yay!), and surrounded it with recycled glass from Happy Mango Beads, lava, moss agate, more brass, and more artisan elements--a clay pottery bead by JJPotteryBeads and a "belly" dangle by Petra Carpreau of ScorchedEarthonEtsy.

Where does the "self-discipline" come in, you say? Well, lately, after finishing a necklace, I have been marching right back to my pendant bin to choose another pendant, which I then put on my workbench, and there it stays until it becomes a full-blown necklace. And they haven't been staying there for months, as has been the case in the past, but just a week or two. I do not put it back in the bin if I'm temporarily stymied; I keep laboring stubbornly away at it. In fact, I reworked the pendant portion on the bird necklace above like seven times. (I feel less inhibited about doing that when I'm using waxed linen and I have entire spools of it--it's not like cutting up sterling silver wire.)

The next item I pulled out of my pendant bin was a stunning geometric pendant in raku-glazed porcelain from SpinningStarStudio. I even had raku spacers from the same shop. I started right away with the big dotted lampwork focal, and added this and that. It sat on the ottoman for a week, and every night when I got home from work I would stare at it and change around the beads. This is like the umpteenth "dry fit" version of this before I knotted it. Then I reworked the pendant portion a few times as well (AFTER it was knotted together), literally cutting it up and changing it.

High Priestess of Something-or-Other

The lampwork bead, believe it or not, is from Michael's (it was one of three items in the bead section that were not atrocious--the Michael's franchise did NOT score a win with our new local store). The other turquoise stones are genuine turquoise (a local bead shop bought them in bulk and I loaded up on several strands), two earthy bulls-eye donuts from Jana of HappyFishWithHeart attached back to back, sand-hued seed beads from Happy Mango Beads, a little silver and a little copper, a few square raku spacers also from SpinningStarStudio, and some altered bone spacers (I sanded, scored, and antiqued them to coordinate with Jana's donuts). I knotted it all onto black waxed linen cording, and finished it off with some Greek leather and copper chain. It is long. Priestess-long. I'm into that lately....It is actually NOT sold, and is available HERE.

I picture it layered with other necklaces. The way a Priestess of Something-or-Other might do.

With a long tunic. Or a floor length Priestess dress.

I got a little carried away.

I also thought I might make a bracelet to go with my Annie Oakley necklace (see my previous post). I rather like the bracelet more than the necklace! In fact it may upstage the necklace a bit.

Annie Oakley's Wrist (SOLD)

I picture it on her slender wrist as she lines up her shot....

(I am thrilled to be finally achieving my half-hearted goal of using my hoard of drilled beach stones from StoneStudiosToo. So hard to let them go...Gorgeous mother of pearl buttons from OritDotan.)

Right now I have a sweet little round pendant by Mary Welsh Hubbard of White Clover Kiln sitting on my work table, with a half-formed idea in my head for it. I WILL PREVAIL!!! And after that I really gotta make some earrings.

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.

(Sold)

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:

(Sold)

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:

(Sold)

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!