Bead Soup Blog Party 8 :: REVEAL !

“I pray to the birds because they remind me of what I love rather than what I fear. And at the end of my prayers, they teach me how to listen.” 

― Terry Tempest Williams

2012 | 2013

Hi, and welcome to my reveal of the 8th Bead Soup Blog Party ! Enjoy your stay !

As a reminder, the soup the lovely Sandra sent me is here. Sandra set me a challenge - to use yellow, a color which, along with orange, just isn't a color I... dig. Or use. Or think about most of the time. She provided me with a few yellow beads for this purpose, and early on I ran into a setback. Not so much because of the color, but because most of the yellow beads she sent me, along with the pearls and the lovely coral I was so looking forward to using, had holes too small to be strung on 20 gauge wire. 22 would have compromised the strength of the pieces, so I pulled out what little yellow that I do own from my own stash and set out to work, finding creative ways to use the small yellow beads and the pearls in a different way.

This bracelet contains one of the focals Sandra sent me. I wanted to keep the top hole to hang from, as well as keep the bird straight, so rather than hook from the provided bails, I mounted (of sorts) the lovely bird focal on a round mother of pearl doughnut that another good friend of mine (also, aptly, named Sandra, but she will be represented as her online handle of Efte for purposes of clarity). The MOP links came with copper links that covers the inside of the inner hole, so it was easy to punch an hole though the decorative element, afix a wire to the back of the bird, then wire everything up neatly. To make sure nothing came undone, I poured resin on the backside. This bird isn't flying away ! The heart with kanji came from Efte as well, though I used ice enamels to color it. Sandra sent me the flower bead caps separately upon realizing she forgot to send me some, and they worked perfectly in this lovely little bracelet !

The clasp is handmade by the lovely Lisa of Metal Me This, painted with lumiere paints and adorned with a tiny wire nest. Sandra sent me a trio of lovely egg beads, but they were a little big for this purpose, so I painted this smaller trio to match them. The bird spacers are from Sandra as well, but are guarding tiny nests of pearls and hearts rather than spacing anything ! Most of the gemstones on this bracelet were part of my soup, with exceptions of the smaller agate round, the wooden beads, and the round yellow stones, that came from my stash. The three strands were made separately and then I wired them together with jump rings to keep things tidy. this is a substantial piece, as per my usual, and a nice weight on one's wrist. I made this within a week of getting my soup, and have been wearing it nearly constantly since !

But, Audrey, you mentioned three big egg beads, where are they ? Well...

There they are ! I first made this to be an element in the bracelet, but it was much too big to work well. Rather than cut the whole thing apart, I thought to make a ring with a spare bit of bookchain much like I've seen Harry of Oscarcrow do. This is very similar to how I mounted the bird on the bracelet - I used apoxie sculpt to fill the hole, then pressed the focal. I found that it wasn't strong enough in the nest's case, thanks to all the irregularities of the wire wrapping, but it left me an impression that made it easy to simply glue it back in place once the clay had cured. Bookchain is expensive, and having a good way to use up small bits and bobs is very handy !

But, Audrey, those who know me might say. Two whole pieces, and nary a necklace in sight ? Are you well ?

Worry not, my dears.

There's a necklace, as one could expect from me :P The base is assemblage of three different brass pieces - the backplate with the holes, the winged cartouche, and the heart. The heart was painted with vintaj inks in a mix of garnet and black, then had iced enamels applied on. I painted the little bird with lumière paint for the golden, and the leftover red from the heart. I used crystal clay to fix the heart of the winged cartouche, and then went around it with the pearls Sandra sent me to hide how raised up it was. They worked perfectly for this purpose !

The base itself had some red painted onto, then I used tissue decoupage on top of it. Once the two parts were together, I put resin on everything, making sure to not cover the pearls. Then I put the backplate on.

I made the neckline while keeping in mind that the piece was going to be relatively bottom heavy - the sari ribbon on the back keeps the necklace from being harsh on the neck, where the beaded segments offer decoration on the sides. The clasp is the clasp Sandra sent me, though it gained a little birdy friend who made a nest upon it.

The lower part is definitively kitchen sinky. The sari ribbon adds a lot of volume to the bottom part while not adding too much weight. A lot of the gemstone beads that Sandra sent me ended up here, along with a little bottle full of coral. I made yet another little nest for the center tassel part, with a cloisonne bead Efte sent me. The rest came from my own stash. Here's a better look of the whole bottom part pulled out :

And, as a finale, something a little more unusual (well, for me...)

These earrings all use the bead caps and the yellow beads Sandra sent me, as well as some scrap bits of sari and chain. These were actually really fun to do, and I plan to do more of them ! I love to use the little brass spoon Brenda sells as elements like this. They work very well for earrings, or elements in assemblage. Im sure to make a bunch more !

Well, that's about it for me for this year ! Please make sure to visit my partner, Sandra, as well as everyone else involved in the party ! Have fun !

Counting Stars

Lately I been, I been losing sleep
Dreaming about the things that we could be
But baby, I been, I been prayin' hard
Said no more counting dollars
We'll be counting stars
Yeah, we'll be counting stars

I often take things apart. Most of the times, I put them back together in the exact same way that I've first made them, just with better wire / jump rings (I've used some junky things when I started, as we all do, first mistakes and all that.) I don't usually post these since they are simply... well, structure work, so to speak.

Sometimes you make a piece that you love, a piece that you are rather proud of. But you realize, in time, that the piece is, well, a little flawed.

 

I do adore this piece, I really do, but there were many things wrong with it for many reasons. There was just too much... stuff. The focal was very heavy, the wrap around part kept coming up to choke me from the weight of the focal... So while i did adore this piece, I rarely did wear it.

So I decided to see how I could tweak and improve it. For one, my wire wrapping skillls have evolved a lot ever since I have made this piece, and a lot of things needed to do. By the time I had unwired everything that was on it, plus the bracelet I had made at the same time that I never wore for similar reasons, this was what I had.

o.o;;; I like my things big and loaded, but... yes. Overkill. This is what I wanted to accomplish -

1. Resolve the weight issue, most of all. Neck pains while wearing necklaces is bad juju.
2. Resolve the focal pulling up, while still allowing it to be seen

So, I got to work.... And this is what I came up with :

 

There's a lot less things wired up on there, for one. I used Iced Enamels on the star tag, I used less of the titanium quartz spikes but bigger ones, and I wire wrapped them up a little more elaborately. Instead of wiring everything up. I used spare bits of chain to create volume and movement. The bookchain was a chance stroke of genius, and I am rather pleased with it.

A Dreaming Little Bird

Will the day come when the cooped bird
in the cage has a dream?
If I can stay by your side when you shed tears,
my will to stay here shall never waver.

This is my second piece for the march challenge over at B'Sue Boutique Creative Group - kitchen sink jewelry. Im glad I managed to wriggle this one in before the end of the month !

It all started with the cameo. I've always thought this cameo in perticular and wanted to use it... But how ? When ? My jewelry isn't very classical, how can I fit a cameo in this mess ?? (Ha.)

Well, my perception of cameos was drastically altered by my mother. See, my mother LOVED cameos. She had so many of them. Necklace, brooches, earrings, pins... She was in love with them, and my father brought her to many of them. They are these small, dainty little things.

Nothing like this piece, I can tell you ! This was so much fun to make. The frame was used upside down to give me more hanging opportunities. I didn't like the way it sad in the frame, so I used crystal clay and embelished it with transparent chatons. That gives it a completely different look ! The frame itself is glued on a tiny necklace stamping from B'Sue, that was wrapped with some green brass filigree that I got in a muse box.

This is my first time manipulating filigree like this, and it was easier than I thought !

The three little nests were wired by hand, and were actually my very first case of actual feline help in jewelry execution. You have to work with a lot of wire to make these, and it's too much for a cat to resist ! One nest is made with opalite round beads with copper wire, which I darkened with Swellegant afterward.  The second nest is brass wire with spectra beads (the big ones, the small ones would be better if you want tiny little nests). The third nest is copper with spectra beads, once more.

I,ve hung keys that I got from one of the muse boxes I brought from Brenda (she offer special ones to the facebook group every friday), and I glued some lovebirds on one of the keys. Make it look extra fancy, doesn't it ? :)

The word sticks were painted by hand. I think I need a little more practice, but it gives it a whole different style, doesn't it ? The 'bird' stick has a bird stamping glued on it - I simply cut the loop off neatly. I used vintaj patina on all of these pieces - the verdigris color. Hm, this is Brenda's favorite color, isn't it ? Wonder what's up with that...

The flowers are bead caps that I've had for... oh, forever and a day. I always loved them, but I never thought of using them this way before. The center are spectra beads, and they are glued on for the most part. (I know, I know, bad Audrey, kitchen sink is wiring...)

The chain is bookchain, and oh god I am IN LOVE with the stuff ! It is such amazing chain... a nice weight, feels so good in your hand. I am definitively investing in more of this when I can. The chain is wrapped with sari ribbon for texture.

When You Wish Upon A Star...

...It doesn't matter where you are.

So, hey, long time no actual... stuff, right ? Well, that is not really the case - just that most of it is tied to reveal dates. This piece is not, though, so I can actually share it. Yay yay.

This piece started as a simple entry for Brenda's march challenge - about kitchen sink jewelry. What in the ever loving hell is kitchen sink jewelry ? Well, I'll leave that for the master to clarify.

Then it kind of ran away from me. I didn't expect kitchen sink to be so addicting. I had issues with the mail that delayed the completion a lot, for one (thank you, Canada Post, nearly failing me as always). Brenda's geisha was a definite inspiration, but I wanted to put my own spin on it.

And so resulted a monster that did not even attempt to pretend to fit on the form. Hope none of you are too badly shocked.

The necklace wraps around, as you can see, to show off the lovely handmade clasp from Catherine Pruitt of BooBeads. Love love love love LOVE these claps. I want all of them, ktnxbye. It says 'Follow your own star', and I wired an opalite star to it. Some ribbon is looped though the lower part of the chain, and you can see the little rounds peeking on top.

I basically threw on everything that I liked on this. Blue beads, opalite, star beads, little bottles, keys... You know, everything but the kitchen sink ! My first attempt was too ambitious - it was too heavy to wear ! So I had to take everything off and start over.

The focal is a bezel that I painted with the vintaj inks, scattered some of my star chain and some of my spacers on, then poured resin into. The moon maiden and the wish charm where glued on at the very end, when my maiden finally decided to show up in my mailbox.

So what did I do with all the extra crap ?

Heh. :P That's not even all of it... I've got some things to unwire still.