Allegory Gallery Design Challenge – Frog Prince Reveal

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Allegory Gallery Design Challenge, Andrew Thornton, Frog Prince Challenge Reveal, Green Girl Studios, Jade Scott

Today is the reveal for the Allegory Gallery Design Challenge – Frog Prince edition.  I love green, so this kit really appealed to me.  Here is a picture of the kit.

Artist Andrew Thornton not only puts together the kits, he also makes one or more handmade pieces to include.  For this kit, he made the two marbled polymer beads in the lower right above as well as this beautiful pendant.

When I separated out the kit beads to see what was there, I just loved them all!  Right away I decided to put three types together in a bracelet by knotting them on the waxed linen.

I randomly strung these lighter and darker rounds with marbled square in the middle.  I used a wooden button for the closure. I really like this bracelet; it will layer well with others.

I fell in love with these little rolled beads in the kit.  I decided to use them as one of the strands in a two strand necklace.

I used the green beads in front separated by silver spacers.  The second strand is some very pretty quartz, also separated by the silver.  I used a Green Girl frog and a Jade Scott crown.  The two strands come together at two diamond beads from the kit (which you can’t see) Then I added a little bling at the back with some silver Czech glass.  I love how this turned out!

I had more ideas for this kit, but not more time.  Please visit the Allegory Gallery Design Challenge page on Facebook to see what other participants have made.  Thanks, Andrew and William, for another fun challenge!

New Year’s Day Necklace

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Jade Scott, Lorelei Eurto, Stinky Dog Beads

This necklace really has nothing to do with New Year’s Day except that I made it today.  I broke out one of my precious Jade Scott pieces. (Warning: do not fall in love with her work.  She has retired.)  A while ago I bought several vintage necklaces to repurpose.

When going through my Jade Scott treasures and coming upon a light colored connector pendant, I thought of these white beads.

I knotted the white beads on blue waxed linen. The writing on the pendant, which says, “be silly, be honest, be kind” is in an army-ish green that I echoed in the bottom beads.  Those are also large holed and were able to go down over the waxed linen knots. I used one glass calla lily bead with tin beads caps that I made from a Lorelei Eurto tutorial. I added a few dangles in front and a really cute floral toggle that I got from Stinky Dog Beads.

I love this fun necklace.  I thank you for visiting and wish you a wonderful 2017.

 

Beet Love

Tags

Earthly Adornments, Jade Scott, Lorelei Eurto, Patricia Healey

[Note: My mother has informed me that this pendant is a radish.  I believe she’s right. But I’m not changing my post name.  I’m not at all clever that often.]

I’ve loved Jade Scott components and jewelry ever since I first saw them.  If you are unfamiliar with her, I have to warn you before you go look at that link to Pinterest that she has left the business, so don’t fall in love now. I’ve done that with a few artists and kept going back to their empty shops in vain, hoping they’d come back one day.  Never happened.

Anyway, I have a nice collection of her components (and a few pieces of her jewelry) and I actually used one the other day.  I mostly just hoard them and go through them once in a while.  Lorelei Eurto made a necklace that used bright, colorful seed beads and a Jade Scott carrot pendant, and I’ve had it in the back of my mind for a long time.  I can no longer find a picture of it; you’d think I would have pinned it!  I recently ordered some vintage Chinese glass beads from Earthly Adornments, and I thought they would be good with my own carrot pendant.  Well, come to find I don’t have a carrot pendant (at least I didn’t find one) but I did have a beet! (Who knows? Maybe Lorelei’s necklace had a beet too!)

I knotted it all on some celadon colored Irish waxed linen and used a Patricia Healey toggle clasp.  This is the kind of necklace I’ve always loved – colorful, casual, easy to wear.  It was fun to use my beet.  It was also fun to look through my Jade Scott stash to find it as well as a lot of Lorelei Eurto Jewelry pictures to try to find the inspiration.  She is another favorite, and I own several of her pieces. Go take a look at her shops.  Her jewelry is amazing!

 

For My Sister

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Jade Scott

A while ago I bought a Jade Scott book pendant intending to make it into a necklace for my sister, a librarian.  I held onto it for a long time dithering about which beads to use and then finally made a short necklace which wasn’t ideal for her current wardrobe.

So of course I held onto the necklace for some more months.  I’m the worst at remaking anything.  I originally used some very small faceted labradorite.  I didn’t have enough to make the necklace longer with just those.  Also, I always want to put things on some sort of fiber rather than wire.  However, the pendant is small which means I want to use small beads.  Small gemstones generally have small holes.  So I vacillated and stalled and wavered (my general jewelry making techniques.)

Finally, today family members, including my sister, went to the Art Fair on the Square. I decided to use that time to, among other things, remake the necklace. My sister is always very appreciative of jewelry that I make for her, but she rarely gives any preference on style, color or any sort of design.  I find making jewelry for other people, even those easily satisfied and non-demanding, stressful.  That is why I tend to just make for myself to keep it fun.

And without further delay:

I decided to stick with labradorite.  I had two strands of this shape which was also bigger.  I wanted to add some color and was looking at my collection of seed beads.  I had this most excellent mix that I thought really complemented the pendant.  I also happened to get those in Jade Scott’s shop.  She sells not only her wonderful pendants and components, but beautiful jewelry and sometimes a great selection of beads.

I have great respect for people who do custom work well.  It took me months to make this one very simple necklace for a relative who asked for nothing specific! But in the end it did turn out cute, and she likes it.

Hamilton Gold

Tags

Andrew Thornton, Hamilton gold, Jade Scott

I had never heard of Hamilton gold before I got some examples of it in the Good Earth and Royal Feather design kits from Andrew Thornton.  I have gotten some of my most interesting beads from Andrew’s design kits and destash sales. Hamilton gold beads are metalized plastic with a gold coating.  That means that although they look luxe, they are lightweight and inexpensive.  After years of loving beads, it’s really fun when I see new things.

I wanted to show a couple good shots of the Hamilton gold because I don’t think the beads showed up as well in the shots of the necklace I made.

When I got the tube shaped beads, I knew I wanted to use a bunch of them together in a necklace, and I decided that a Jade Scott pendant was the perfect accompaniment.  I have to admit I have kind of a large Jade Scott stash and really want to start using some of it so I can see and wear it on a regular basis.

I used some trade beads with colors from the pendant to separate the tubes.

I really love how this necklace turned out.  Although it is a simple design, I’ve started to think I really like simple designs that use quality, unusual and art beads.  I enjoy the more complicated designs I see other people make, and I hope to continue to learn and mix it up.  But I make jewelry for myself, and simple tends to be the easiest to wear.  In addition, it helps to highlight the beads, and that’s what I’m in it for.

 

 

Necklace Display

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Artybecca, Jade Scott, Linsart, Lorelei Eurto, Lynda's Lampwork, Round Rabbit, Staci Louise Originals

A little while ago I bought a small rake at an estate sale.  I don’t know what it was used for originally, but I thought it would make an excellent necklace display for my studio.  I think it turned out great!

Before I became obsessed reading about beads and jewelry, I used to love to read about organization.  I always loved organization tips that allowed a group of jewelry to also feel like decoration.  I think it’s beautiful.

I have a hard time getting good pictures in my studio because there is not a lot of natural light.  That got me thinking that maybe I need better light to create, but I realized I use specialty “natural light” task lamps.  Those are less helpful for photos.  But you get the idea.

The handle of the rake is not much longer than the bottom of this picture, so it wasn’t unwieldy to find a place to hang it.  I just put up some random necklaces to see how it would look.  I can see beads in this shot by Artybecca, Round Rabbit, Linsart, Lynda’s Lampwork, Jade Scott and necklaces by Staci Louise Originals and Lorelei Eurto, as well as a number of older and recycled pieces I’ve made over the years.  My thought is that I’ll store older items and use the display to keep new creations in eyesight for a while.

I feel like I am slowly getting my studio to where I want it to be.  It’s a fun process.

Elephant and Leather

Tags

bitsofniknats, Jade Scott, Jewelry Accord, Niky Sayers, Silver NikNats

I went to my bead table with several pairs of charms to make some earrings. One pair didn’t work out the way I wanted, so I was going to move onto the other pair when I found I had misplaced one of the charms.  I wondered if I had dropped it going upstairs?  Did I knock it off the table while working?  When I got back downstairs to write this post, I realized it was still on the table down here and had never made it up to my bead table.  But I’m easily distracted, so instead of looking for the charm at the time, I just went ahead and made a necklace.

A while ago, I had gotten a Jade Scott elephant pendant.  There is a flower in the middle of the elephant’s ear that reminds me of the color of amazonite.  So I tried various beads, but nothing really struck me as right.  Today I had a string of amazonite ovals I was going to wire wrap, but then I wanted to accent the necklace with either the red from the ear (which I knew would be hard to match) or the olive green.  That led me to taking out my leather.  I had a length of thick olive green, but one of the leather scraps I got from Jewelry Accord caught my eye.

Let me just say here that I love mixes and destashes and odds and ends of every kind.  I love getting a variety of supplies in small quantities.  Each leather scrap mix had several pieces of leather in a size good for one or two projects.  I don’t have to buy a whole bunch of one type, and I get to try different colors, shapes and thicknesses.  It’s perfect.  And speaking of odds and ends, I bought a grouping from Niky Sayers shop bitsofniknats on etsy, and I got this fabulous piece of a clasp or buckle.  (She also makes fabulous jewelry, so you should check out her jewelry shop as well.)  I fell in love with this buckle thing, and have been trying to work it into just about every piece of jewelry I’ve made ever since.  Of course I didn’t get a nice picture of it before I used it.  I knew its rustic look would go great with the leather for a clasp.

Isn’t it cool?  I get such a kick out of it!  Here is a picture of the whole necklace. It’s always a challenge to get a good shot of something long like a necklace. Also, it seems like there are two kinds of light here – none and too bright.

I’m really happy with this necklace.  It’s got a casual, rustic elegance I love.  I’m looking forward to working more with leather.  I’m also thrilled that I made something with a Jade Scott item that I believe I will actually wear and not take apart.  I’m not going to lie; I was a bit shocked when I went to my Jade Scott stash to get the elephant pendant.  I’ve got a lot!  I have an idea for another necklace I hope to make soon so another of her pendants can see the light of day.

 

“Unattainable” Beads

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Gail Lannum, Jade Scott, JoAnne Zekowski, Sarah Moran, Z-Beads

Are there beads you feel are unattainable?  Maybe they are by an artist who only seems to sell at the bead shows you never get to go to.  Maybe they are a popular artist whose work is snapped up the minute it is listed, and that’s always when you are at work or out of bead money.  Do you have those bead artists whose work you swoon over online but never think you will own any?  I do.

But I am here to tell you that I have attained some!  I remember when I first saw a Jade Scott pendant.  I haunted her shop, which was always empty.  I worried she had stopped making beads.  But then I figured it out, got on her update mailing list and have a nice stash.  I saw some JoAnne Zekowski beads on someone’s blog, and found she didn’t have much of an online presence.  I hunted her down at a bead show and now hoard a small batch of her beads.

Well, I’ve reached another seemingly unattainable beads milestone.  I recently bought a strand of Sarah Moran lampwork beads.  I have admired her work online. Then I subscribed to her blog so I could see all the updates of new beads and drool and swoon.  I thought that “someday” I would own some.  Well someday is NOW!  I own the Birthday Cake beads, and I couldn’t be more thrilled.  First and foremost, please click on that link.  I will post pictures I’ve taken of them, but my pictures are kind of crap.  The colors aren’t showing true at all.  I’ve taken pictures on different days in different light, but I’m just not a good enough photographer.  The website pictures are a true representation of what the beads look like in person.

Another view:

And the best part?  There is a mini-me bead that wasn’t shown in the photos, so that means I can use it and still have the full strand left!  I like to have my beads and wear them too.  One time I bought two complete sets of handmade charms because I was using one charm in a project, and it made me sad to know I would no longer have a complete set.  It’s a sickness.

Who are your “unattainable” beads artists?  i’d love to know.

Multi-strand Necklace

Tags

Jade Scott, multi-strand jewelry, Nancy Schindler Adams, Round Rabbit

I struggle with multi-strand jewelry.  My problem is part a rigid idea of perfection in my mind and part a need to increase my skill in making multi-strand pieces.  I fell in love with these round abstract pendants from Nancy Schindler Adams of Round Rabbit.  Everything about them just makes my heart go pitter-pat.  (I also have an idea for the little hankie pendant, but that is further down on my to-do list.) 

The mix of colors in the pendants is so great, I wanted to use multiple strands for at least one of them to bring that out.  I looked through my stash and found several beads to use with the top pendant.  I had decided on two strands, and was sort of waiting for a third strand with a bit of the right yellow to come my way.  Jade Scott has recently been putting great beads (other than what she makes) in her shop.  When I got my order last week, I was ready to go.  

I really like the way it turned out.  I like the various colors, textures and sizes in the strands.  I think the strands mesh together in a nice way, and I’m actually satisfied with how they hang.  Amazing!

It’s great when an idea turns out because it encourages me to continue down my path of learning, experimenting and getting things done.  

I Got Ambitious

Tags

Green Girl Studios, Jade Scott, Marie Dodd, MissFickleMedia, Natalie Pappas, NKP Designs

I was more prolific than usual.  I’m usually good for one piece of jewelry before I have to go do something else, but one day recently I made three things. I also took more time to practice editing photos.  But they are still not great. It’s all about the light.  I did try to hang my earrings because that seems to be a nice way to display them.  But hanging them off something (I employed a kabob skewer between two cans of beans) rather than on something they can also lean against was problematic outside due to a slight wind.  They kept moving = blurry photos.

My first pair of earrings feature stamped rounds by Maire Dodd from MissFickleMedia.

I wrote recently about Jade Scott‘s resin and metal work.  She also makes lovely enamel components.  I finally used a pair of green petals I have for these earrings.

Then, I made the necklace with the large beads and pendant I referenced a few posts ago.  I found the beads!  I had put them into a new box of mixed items when cleaning up one day.  I also used a green bead by Natalie Pappas of NKP Designs that I think looks like a delicious little lettuce.

I also used a fabulous pewter toggle clasp on this necklace by Green Girl Studios.  It is a little nesting bird.  So clever!

It was fun to use some things I’ve had for a while.  There are so many ways to design any one piece of jewelry, and I want to start using more of what I have.  Then in theory it should also be easier to organize it because it won’t be overflowing everywhere!