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Allegory Gallery – Bead in the New Year 2020 #2

17 Friday Jan 2020

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1928 Jewelry Company, A Tisket A Tasket Design Kit, Allegory Gallery, Allegory Gallery Design Challenges, Allegory Gallery wooden pendant, Andrew Thornton, B'sue Boutiques, Bead in the New Year, Beading from Nature, Crystal McDougald, Julie Schmidt Bowen, Miriam Haskell, Tanya McGuire, vintage glass

I’m having great fun again this year following the daily creative prompts offered by Allegory Gallery for Bead in the New Year. Without further ado, let’s look at the makes for this week. (I forgot to post this last week, but here it is now.)

Day #6 – Fashion a design using all glass

This is almost all glass, would not exist without this challenge, and I’m in love with the fun, colorful appearance. 

This necklace features a large hollow lampwork focal by Tanya McGuire, vintage red glass, lampwork rondelles by Julie Schmidt Bowen, vintage blue dimpled Miriam Haskell glass, and glass beaded chain. I love how I was able to pull all the colors out of Tanya’s bead with all the other glass. The bright colors make me smile.

Day #7 – Utilize your favorite gemstone in a new piece

Rubies are my favorite gemstone. I don’t have a ton of them, but I try to get a few whenever I can. I had two large, rough rubies I got some years ago that have been waiting for me to use them. I wanted them front and center without too much distraction. I considered leather, but I couldn’t find the right design. Then I spied this lightweight (aluminum?) fringy chain I got from B’Sue Boutiques. I added a large spacer from my little Bali silver stash between the two rubies. Both the rubies and the spacer are from Andrew Thornton: Project Destash.

I like how each ruby is a different shade. They have large facets on the sides and are just gorgeous.

Day #8 – Use a stringing material you don’t normally use

I don’t use a lot of ribbon, though I love the look of fibers. Here I’ve used a strand of multicolor ribbon wrapped with metallic thread. When it hangs, you can see the connection point between colors where the ribbon is more rough looking. I really like the funkiness of it. I had been planning to do some rosary style chain with this pendant but hadn’t gotten it done yet. I like that this is something different than what I usually do. Cat pendant is 1928 Jewelry Company from B’Sue Boutiques.

Day #9 – Produce a piece using gemstone chip beads

Here is what I wrote on a post about this necklace:

I chose blue beads to go with this red “Resist” pendant by Andrew Thornton. I usually avoid colors associated with a specific thing (holidays, sports teams, etc.). Red, white and blue are often associated with patriotism in the US. I thought those colors were appropriate for this pendant. Unfortunately, I think many people misinterpret what patriotism is. It’s not a call to isolate ourselves and harm others. It is a call to celebrate and lift up the best of ourselves. Other than indigenous people and people who were forced to come here, the US is made up of people who came here from somewhere else for a better life. THAT’S what the US is about. Supporting, celebrating and building on that is patriotic. Learning from the bad things our country has done and not repeating or continuing them is patriotism.

Day #10 – Challenge yourself by using sari silk ribbon

Another chance to use ribbon! I used this vintage component with champagne colored ribbon. I was going to make it more structured, but I decided I got more the shabby chic look I was going for if I left the ribbon loose and tied the bracelet on. It fits great and the tails from the tied area look very boho.

Day #11 – Create a piece using one of our Luxury Bead Blends

I was looking through my Allegory Gallery Luxury Bead Blends, including those from kits. Ninety-five percent of this necklace is from the A Tisket, A Tasket kit, including many beads from the Luxury Bead Blend. I have happy associations with pastels, spring and bunnies, so I really enjoyed using these beads.

Day #12 – Make a project from a craft book

I had many candidates for this prompt already. Then a few days ago, I got my end of year book sale mystery box from Allegory Gallery. Oh. My. Goodness. I got so many wonderful books! I am now absolutely buzzing with inspiration from craft books. When I saw this project below, it really caught my eye. Not only is it a great bracelet, but I happened to have those very statement links! For all I know they were available everywhere at one time, but I bought them more than 15 years ago in what was primarily a garden shop, so I was really surprised to see them in this book. When I looked for them, I could only find four; maybe that’s all I bought.

Crystal McDougald project from Beading by Nature – this piece inspired my project!

To replace the fifth connector, I added a tin connector I made. I tried a few different things for the dangles and decided on these vintage set glass charms. I chose “joy” as my word of intention for 2020, so I added that charm by the clasp. So fun to finally use these. This book is full of great projects.

I haven’t been doing the prompts daily (or in order) this week, but I will catch up this weekend. Look for another post with more work from these prompts. It’s so much fun! To see what others are making, check out the Allegory Gallery Design Challenges page.

Contrast and Shine

11 Sunday Feb 2018

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Autochthonous Evolved, Julie Schmidt Bowen

I’m lucky enough to have scored some lovely pendants by Julie Schmidt Bowen of Autochthonous Evolved. Recently she paired some of her lampwork beads with drilled rocks (and seriously wonderful wire wrapping) to create pendants. I love the hard and soft together. This photo doesn’t do justice to the luminous quality of her lampwork bead. It really has a light inside of it. The gray, mottled rock is the perfect foil for the delicateness of the glass. 

In deciding what to use to complete the necklace, I wanted to bring out that contrast. I chose some vintage German glass beads with an AB type coating. The lampwork bead has these same colors. I thought about adding some granite beads, but that would be carrying the hard/soft theme too far and hitting the necklace over the head with it. 

I also used matte grey seed beads in between the glass. I like the overall soft color of this necklace. I had quite a number of these vintage glass beads and have enjoyed using them. In two other necklaces, I was using them to represent snow. I do think they look like snow but also like the smell of new flowers or the feel of a soft breeze on an early spring day.

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A Perfect Match

05 Monday Sep 2016

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Autochthonous Evolved, Julie Schmidt Bowen, My Elements, Yvonne Irvin-Faus

Sometimes things just come together perfectly.  I was so thrilled with how this necklace came together that I submitted it to a magazine.  I never heard anything one way or the other, so I’m going to show it here now because it’s too cool not to share with the world (or at least the people reading my blog!)

I got a beautiful lampwork focal by Julie Schmidt Bowen of Autochthonous Evolved.  Like most things, I put it in my stash so it could wait for its project to come along.  And it did!  I then bought separately, not thinking about the glass focal, a group of beautiful acrylic MyElements components by Yvonne Irvin-Faus. I realized they were such a fabulous match!

BeadLove - AutoEv and MyElements

I still can’t get over how much they match; it’s like they were made for each other.  I added some dangles and a bead I got from My Elements.

BeadLove - AutoEv MyEl full

I alternated some turquoise enamel components to bring out that little swirl in the lampwork focal, and finished it all off with some black chain from My Elements. Sometimes things come together so easily, and that’s really fun.

Productive Weekend

15 Monday Aug 2016

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Andrew Thornton, Autochthonous Evolved, Julie Schmidt Bowen

I had an especially productive weekend mostly because I had a good patch healthwise and partly because as I clean and organize my studio, work is easier. I made a bunch of pieces for an upcoming blog hop as well as got in some practice with a silk thread and made a couple of other quick pieces.

Lately, my mom has been on a ball chain kick.  She’s making all sorts of cute necklaces on a variety of cool ball chain.  That has influenced me. So a while ago I bought this fabulous vintage glass ball pendant that I thought would be cool on some colored ball chain.  It turned out to be too heavy, but when I got a great lampwork pendant by Julie Schmidt Bowen of Autochthonous Evolved, I realized those ball chain colors were perfect for it!

BeadLove - Julie Schmidt Bowen ball chain

It’s perfect, right?  I really love this easy to wear, great looking necklace.  It’s got good mojo too.

Then I was going through my boxes of Czech glass because, frankly, they are out of control.  I saw these white and coral kind of big beads and the little matte gold ones I got to go with them, and I decided to put something together.  I can’t describe the quality I was going for with these except to say that there is a certain 1970s vibe I liked about them.  I laid out a pattern and then looked for a pendant.  I tried a variety but thought this owl pendant by Andrew Thornton was just the ticket.

BeadLove - Andrew Thornton owl

I’m pleased with how both of these came out.  They were quite quick but have just the look I had in mind. I love when that happens!

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