Artists for Animals Auction: November 2 – 8, 2020

Tags

Allegory Gallery, Andrew Thornton, Art beads, Dakota Stones, Inviciti, Kimberly Rogers, Madison Cat Project, Numinosity, vintage beads

I’m starting to take stock of what I have for the upcoming Artists for Animals Auction. I had made a bunch of things for the spring, but that one ended up being canceled due to the pandemic. I’ve made a few more things and will combine them all to have a decent showing. Let’s take a look.

These happy mod earrings with vintage hoops are so fun. I hope someone likes them as much as I do!

This turned out so great, I kind of wanted to keep it. But I hope it can raise some good funds for the kitties! All of my sales will go to Madison Cat Project, a great organization that rehabs cats and finds them home as well as provides affordable spay/neuter services. The kitty charm is from Inviciti.

I could not get a good photo of this necklace; I’ll have to keep trying. But it is so pretty, especially on. I’ve noticed a lot of people on TV wear “y” style necklaces, and I always like them. So I made this one with a lovely bronze heart by Andrew Thornton. So sweet.

Speaking of Andrew Thornton hearts, here are some pretty polymer clay ones with metallic highlights. I love this charm and have used it several times in different pieces. I’ll have to decide if these need something else, but a favorite earring style of mine is hoops with art beads. Simple and beautiful.

Here is another simple pair of earring, but the kind of thing one could wear all the time. These gorgeous hoops are by Miss Fickle Media and the gemstones are from Dakota Stones.

One more pair of hoops by Miss Fickle Media with enamel drops (numisticks) by Kimberly Rogers of numinosity.

Here is a lovely cat necklace with a bunch of mostly Czech glass beads, just the sort of thing I’d make for myself. The bone pendant is from Allegory Gallery.

These funky earrings are cool with the vintage colored and textured metal. I feel an ’80s moment coming on!

Last but not least, here is a sweet wooden paw pendant from Allegory Gallery with some gemstones – I think jasper and moonstone.

That isn’t the last of what I have for the auction, but the last of what I have easily found to post here! I’ll work on getting it all together and ready for the auction. Tune in on the Artists for Animals Facebook page starting November 2nd. There are a lot of artists participating and a variety of handmade things (not just jewelry). It’ll give you something pretty to focus on that week!

Noodling Around On a Saturday

Tags

Andrew Thornton, Metal Me This, vintage beads

I went into my studio without a plan, and after a short while these materials presented themselves.

The large patterned and colored polymer bead is by Andrew Thornton. It makes me think of Moroccan tile. I wanted the necklace to feel old. I’ve been saving the vintage pearl tassel for a long time. I thought perhaps I could use the hand painted tree bark beads from Hawaii that look like fabric, but they did not end up in the design.

I added some patterned bead caps from Metal Me This that I got years ago from Beads & Button. I looked at a large number of vintage metal beads to find something to go above the polymer bead, and found this gorgeous patina treat, and a vintage carved wooden bead as well.

I had wanted to add some of that bright pink color into the design, but the little bright pink beads I had that might have been perfect had holes that were too small for the waxed linen. I’m usually more willing to change design than construction, so they got left behind. I did want to add one more element to the vintage black glass beads. These fancy filigree beads were out from the metal search, so I used a couple of those. I thought I might use another pair further up on the strand, but most of them are copper rather than brassy, and I didn’t want to bring in that metal shade.

I’m really happy with how it came out. I resisted using that tassel for a long time because I wanted to do it justice. I think this is just the right project.

Vintage Beads

Tags

Gaea Handmade, Nancy Adams, Round Rabbit, vintage beads

I was rooting around in my Round Rabbit stash for something I didn’t even end up using. It was so fun, though, to see so many old friends that I ended up using two of them.

First an orange and green pendant struck my eye. I had just gotten some vintage bright orange beads in the same color. This is something I love about Round Rabbit beads; Nancy Adams’ vibrant colors and fresh combinations. Nancy no longer makes beads but still offers handmade goods, so check out her shop. 

I mistakenly thought the outer line was army green on first look, but it is really a dark purple. I decided that army green would work well anyway, and mixed some vintage green lucite with the  orange glass. After I had knotted a bit, I decided the orange was becoming too overwhelming, so I decided to make the rest of the necklace with just the green beads. I didn’t make sure I had knotted the same number of orange on each side, but when I noticed I was one off, it reminded me of a decorating and art technique I’ve seen that I like where paint isn’t even and just stops at different places. It doesn’t sound good the way I’m describing it, but it always looks good when I see it. So I decided to leave it. 

I was looking for something purple to dangle off the bottom of the pendant. After checking gemstones, glass and vintage plastic, I decided on these ceramic beads by Gaea in purple and green. I finished it off with a green vintage lucite box clasp. I just love the color combination!

I had some vintage glass beads from a broken necklace I got in a destash sitting on my table. When I saw a little blueish-purple Round Rabbit connector I thought would go well with them, I tried it out and liked the effect. 

I thought these delicate beads called for a shorter necklace and made it adjustable to sit at or just below my throat. Vintage glass has such a wonderful look to it.

 

Pinterest Interest and Other Random Stuff

Tags

Antelope Beads, Australian Art Beads, Bead Soup Blog Party, Ceramic Art Bead Market, Heather Powers, Helen Backhouse, Humblebeads, Kim Snider, Lori Anderson, Mandrel Beads, Melissa Gabelle, plastic beads, Staci Louise Smith, The Clay Hen, vintage beads

I get notification from Pinterest when someone repins a pin, and I find it fascinating what people repin.  It’s also fun when the notice is that someone repinned a piece of jewelry I made.  It’s still a thrill for me that someone would like what I made enough to pin it!

My most repinned pin as far as I can tell is this leather bracelet tutorial from Antelope Beads.  As of this writing, 154 repins!

Photo and bracelet from Antelope Beads

Just recently my pin of a gorgeous necklace Staci Louise Smith made for Lori Anderson’s Bead Soup Blog Party in 2011 is on the uptick; suddenly 23 repins. It’s fun to revisit these things each time I get a notification.  Most of my pins have few or no repins, so it’s notable when one gets into the double digits.  My jewelry board only has 303 followers, so those larger numbers are pretty good. The repins come in batches.  Someone repins and then other people see that, etc.

A couple of years ago when Pinterest first started trying to monetize their site, I wrote a post about moving away from it.  I didn’t begrudge them trying to make money, just the way they were doing it.  Because my alternative went kaput, I’ve made my peace with Pinterest.  Although my home page is crowded with sponsored and suggested pins I may not care about, I’m still able to scroll through and find a few things I like from boards I follow, and it’s a good way for me to save my own pins and likes for lots of inspiration and just plain eye candy when I want to enjoy it.

Now on to the Random Stuff.  I haven’t done a new beads post for a while, and I’ve amassed some things I thought I’d show.  Before I start, I want to acknowledge that my pictures are crap. I continue to struggle with photos, mainly (though not totally) due to lack of decent light. I keep working on it.

I’ve become a big fan of Melissa Gabelle of The Clay Hen.  I primarily buy from her on Facebook groups Australian Art Beads and Ceramic Art Bead Market.  But I was writing a post about something I made with her beads when I discovered she also has an etsy shop and couldn’t resist making an order.

I was also pleased to learn that Helen Backhouse recently opened a shop.  I had seen people using her beads left and right, and wondered how to get my hands on some.  Now here they are!  These actually came in pairs, but since I rarely make earrings, I gave one of each to my mom.  We’re both using them as pendants!  I had to show how beautiful they are front and back.

I also recently got a scrumptious order from Humblebeads. Heather Powers constantly comes up with new and beautiful creations.  I love her disc beads. They can add a nice accent to so many styles and designs.

Heather also provided inspiration for using these next beads by Kim Snider of Mandrel Beads. If you like her work, join her Facebook Group where she does trunk shows. You’ll increase your chances of getting some!

I continue to be enthralled with plastic.  Recently the owner of a local bead store that closed down (boo!) a while ago was selling off some leftover stock, and I picked up these (among other things.)

I also got a kumihimo disc because I don’t have enough techniques that I haven’t done anything about. Ha!

Because, as you can probably tell, I am an equal opportunity bead lover, I also recently picked up some vintage necklaces of various materials for a song in a Facebook destash.  These will be great to take apart and repurpose.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this somewhat random post.  Thanks for stopping by!