New Necklace and Earrings

As the owner of a bead shop, I make a lot of projects featured in various beading magazines, so that customers can see the designs worked up (they often look so different than they do in the mags!) and get ideas about colors, etc. My latest necklace and earring set all started when I was working on one of these bracelets...

This particular bracelet, a right angle weave (RAW) design, was featured in the October - November, 2013 issue of Beadwork (yes, I'm a little behind on my to-do list!):

RAW bracelet featured in Oct-Nov 2013 Beadwork

 RAW bracelet featured in Oct-Nov 2013 Beadwork

I chose some very luxe-looking, opaque, turquoise and bronze 8mm Czech firepolish beads, and paired them with metallic bronze 3mm Czech firepolish beads, and just love the result. It's so rich-looking, and everyone who sees it just drools over it!

As I was working it up, I was intrigued by the zigzagging shape, and once I completed the 3rd RAW unit, I had a little V-shaped beaded unit in my hand that started my brain thinking about other design possibilities. By the time I had added the 4th and 5th units, I knew that I would be making a necklace from these units.

After completing the bracelet, I started stitching up 3-unit segments with this pattern, using the same beads. I finished by stitching one 5-unit segment.

I tried many different ways to connect these RAW units before hitting upon the one I finally went with: lustrous 12mm bronzite rounds. I then placed genuine turquoise rondelles at the back to complete the design, and chose a Vintaj Natural Brass S-hook and chain for the closure:

Turquoise and brown handwoven necklace by Sweet Freedom Designs

 

detail, Turquoise and brown handwoven necklace by Sweet Freedom Designs

closure, Turquoise and brown handwoven necklace by Sweet Freedom Designs

Then I stitched up a couple of one-unit segments for the earrings, adding the netting embellishment to both sides, so there's no "back" as the earrings sway and move:

Turquoise and bronze handwoven earrings by Sweet Freedom Designs

The necklace and earrings are available separately in my Etsy shop!

New Kumihimo Necklace with Picasso Finish Seed Beads

We recently received these new Miyuki Picasso finish seed beads at the shop, in 2 different sizes and colors. As soon as I saw them, I wanted to make something with them immediately!

Blue Picasso 11/0 seed beads from Miyuki

These are the blue ones; we also received a gorgeous greenish brown color. These are 8/0s, and they are stunning. But as pretty as these are, you should see how the colors show off in the 6/0s!

The blue ones were calling my name, so I walked around the store trying to decide what to make with them, but couldn't find anything. So I headed for my bead stash, and there was the perfect lampwork bead! Of course - I know which beads to hoard!

I didn't want to dilute the impact of the Picasso finish, so I decided to make a kumihimo rope with the seed beads. I used copper findings to finish the 2 pieces of braided rope, and here's the result:

Blue Picasso Seed Bead Kumihimo Necklace

And here's a detail shot of the beautiful lampwork bead (sorry for the reflections - glass is so hard to photograph!)

richly colored and detailed lampwork bead

So now I want to go order the Picasso seed beads in ALL the colors and ALL the sizes!

And on a completely unrelated note, 2 weeks ago I managed to contaminate my brand new, large capacity Lortone tumbler AND all 6 pounds of stainless steel shot. But I didn't know at the time it was contaminated, so I let it sit, with the contamination and shot inside, until yesterday, when I decided to tumble a few chainmaille pieces to shine them up for wearing. They came out absolutely black and sticky, which is making me cry. Just hoping that if I ever get the tumbler and shot clean, I can clean up the sterling chainmaille again. I cannot believe how black it is! But I dunked one of the bracelets in vinegar briefly yesterday, and the tiniest bit of black came off, so I'm hopeful I can fix all of these. But what a mess! I have been trying to clean it for a day and a half now, using either vinegar or pickle, and tumbling away in 30 to 40 minute cycles (or longer, when I get distracted), and every time, black water goes down the drain, and there's just no end in sight! The barrel comes clean after just 2 cycles, but then when I try to clean the shot, it seems like I make no progress at all. Argggghhhhhhhhhhhh!

So, in between tumbling cycles today, I'll be weighing out and tubing 15/0 seed beads for the shop - I ordered every single iris blend available in 15/0s after being frustrated when trying to find exactly the right shade of 15/0 for a project I was doing 2 weeks ago. 

Oh yeah, my new Picasso Lampwork Kumihimo Necklace is available in my Etsy shop!

Happy Holidays!!

Swirls of Color!

This necklace is my newest listing on Zibbet:

Swirls of Color - a handmade beaded necklace

Bold, colorful lampwork pendant

Colorful handmade lampwork discs and faceted Picasso Czech glass rounds finish the design

Swirling colors - in the handmade lampwork pendant and in the faceted Picasso Czech glass rounds. I added some Swarovski crystals, pewter-colored seed beads, and colorful handmade lampwork discs. The sterling silver S-hook and chain closure allows for an adjustable length.

Gold and Silver Kumihimo with Long Magatamas

I put the finishing touches on the long Magatama kumihimo necklace this morning:

Gold and Silver Kumihimo necklace with Long Magatamas

As I feared, the long Magatamas made the rope too thick for any of the beadcaps I had readily available, so I set out to make some.

I have hundreds of these little metal floral caps (the bronze one in the center is their natural color) - they enamel beautifully, but lacking any silver or gold enamel, I had to go to plan B. Gilder's paste. Not my favorite: it's messy! I hate mess!

I tried both the silver and the gold Gilder's paste - I really wanted to use silver, but it didn't give a nice shiny finish like the gold, so I went with the gold.

I topped the caps with sterling silver Origami-style beads (I don't know why, but I call these beads "tumbleweeds") and a 5 mm gold round. I added sterling silver chain and a sterling silver S-hook around the back. The chain has a nice open weave, so the necklace is fully adjustable up to 20 inches.

I love how these Magatamas produced a beautiful texture, and a nice spiral.

It's available in my Etsy shop!

Purple Spiral Necklace with Top-drilled crystals

I love top-drilled Swarovski crystals. But I have no idea how to use them. Am I the only one that buys beads and doesn't know how to use them?

I bought hundreds of these 6 years ago at a gem show, in probably 30 different colors. They fascinated me! And they have been sitting there, mocking me, ever since. And no one at the bead shop buys them, either - I think folks are confused by top-drills. That's my theory, anyway.

So, I decided to play with some of these last week, and since I am on a purple kick, I chose the lilac ones.
I decided I would cluster them in the center, like ripe grapes, because they REALLY have an impact when they are clustered together!

I chose a simple, "skinny" spiral to complement these sparkly crystals:

I added some 6mm Czech pressed glass beads, in a pretty tanzanite color, throughout the rope as accents.

This pretty, dainty handwoven necklace is available on Etsy!

5x5 Metal Component Challenge Reveal, Chapter 3 (The copper disc with the strange cutouts)

Welcome to Chapter 3 of my 5x5 Metal Component Design Challenge Reveal
(Chapter 1, the filigree ring, is here;
Chapter 2, the copper square and the "X", is here)

Here is the copper disc component:

• It is BIG - 38 mm in diameter
• It is domed
• It is shiny and polished on the convex side, but dirty-looking and dull on the reverse
• It has a large, pre-drilled square hole in the center
• It has bizarro, offset triangular cutouts on the side

My initial plan for this piece, before I received it, and realized how big it was, was to use it as a beadcap.

Then it arrived.

True confession time: I hated those cutouts, and could NOT see past them - all I could think about was getting rid of them, or hiding them. They were THE ENEMY.

I tried wrapping stuff around the disc, using the notches as guides. I tried wire, wire with beads, sari ribbon, and probably other stuff (it is all a blur........) Nothing really worked for me.

I made a paper mock-up of the disc, and started playing - I cut out more triangular wedges. And more - soon, I was left with a funny-looking flower: the copper center with the predrilled hole, and skinny petals (all that remained after I cut the final wedge out of this piece). I didn't care for the looks of this weird flower at all.

Back to square one.

Pulling from my design inspiration for the filigree ring, I started strolling around the bead shop, trying to see what could fit inside the disc (and cover up those dang cutouts!). I found a gorgeous handmade blue lampwork button - it wasn't quite large enough to hide the cutouts, but it was close!

The button was mostly blue, but also had some seafoam green, and flashes of reddish-purple (the center of the button contains dichroic glass!) - it is a gorgeous work of art.

I spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out the best way to attach the button to the disc. The disc had the pre-drilled hole in the center, but nothing on the back to attach wire to. I didn't want to carry wire around those cutouts just to attach the button. Think...think....

And check my secret stash again .... and there it was: a copper Susan Lenart Kazmer pendant I had purchased (impulse buy!) at Michael's years ago. At the time, I knew I could make a similar copper pendant, and probably should save my pennies ... but then I rationalized: she already did the hard work; why should I? (When I take on projects like this, they always take WAY more time than I thought they would, so I figured this was a great investment, time-wise!) And after I bought it? I squirreled it away for a special occasion, and soon forgot about it. Sounds familiar, right?

the disc, the pendant, & the button

The disc is the perfect size to attach to the U-shaped middle portion of this pendant! This pic shows the dingy, dull appearance of the concave side of the disc; I used my Dremel and radial disc to polish this up to a gorgeous shine before I started wiring.

In looking at the pendant, I felt like I wanted to" soften" the overall appearance of hard glass on hard copper disc on hard copper pendant. The pendant had that nice curly "tunnel" across the top, and I had some pretty blue sari ribbon, so I decided to see if I could incorporate a little sari ribbon into the design. (I am all but clueless when it comes to sari ribbon artistry!)

sari ribbon in the tunnel - I like it!

To attach the button and the disc to the pendant, I decided to use the same blue wire I used on the filigree ring necklace, because I wanted it to show as little as possible on the front of the button, and it wouldn't show at all on the back - so color didn't matter there. When wiring the button to the disc (and the pendant, since it was all done in one step) I added a 4 mm Czech firepolish bead in the center of the button (in a deep indigo color that matches the blue around the edge of the button) - I wanted as little of the wire to show on the front as possible.

the copper disc and button wired to the pendant

Y'all know I couldn't stand those triangular cutouts - I decided to stick a small piece of sari ribbon behind the button - and just like that: no cutouts! Victory! Aren't these colors and textures fantastic?

Since there was only a single hole drilled through the copper disc, it took a lot of wiring to get the disc and button securely and stably attached to the pendant.

Detail of the wire attachment:

And now - I'm in the home stretch on this one. I wanted to make a simple necklace for the pendant, because the pendant has a whole lot going on. I envisioned a simple copper chain, with some dangles for movement, color, and interest.

It's a little hard to tell, but the dangles include more of the beautiful tourmaline from yesterday's necklace, plus some kyanite, peacock freshwater pearls, tanzanite-colored Czech glass, and a few of the deep indigo Czech firepolish beads I used on the button. I clustered all the dangles at the front of the necklace, and saved one kyanite dangle for the back.

The necklace closes with an S-hook, and I left a generous length of chain so that the length is widely adjustable.

I absolutely love this necklace, but nevertheless, I'm letting it go: it's available in my Etsy shop!

Stay tuned tomorrow for Chapter 4: the filigree "diamond".

Looking for Chapter 1 (the filigreed ring)? Here it is.
Looking for Chapter 2 (the copper square and the "X")? It's right here.

And don't forget to check out our feature (pages 21-26) in the May Issue of Bead Chat Magazine:

5x5 Metal Component Challenge Reveal, Chapter 2 (The square copper thing and the X)

Welcome to Chapter 2 of my 5x5 Metal Component Design Challenge Reveal
 (Chapter 1, the filigree ring, is here)

As a reminder, here are the components again:

 

 metal components for 5x5 challenge

After finishing my design with the filigree ring (yesterday's post), I decided to work next with the square copper thing at the bottom of this photo. I would stop calling it the "square copper thingy" if I only knew what it really was!

The location of its very tiny holes suggested it was meant to hang, like a pendant. (Although, at one point, I was so stumped I thought about cutting off those holes AND the supporting copper legs they were on, leaving just a plain copper square! I decided that would be a little too easy.) This square component was easily twice as thick as the 24g sheet copper I usually work with, for what that's worth. Thick, and heavy!

This piece really stumped me, again. But, building on my success with the blue lampwork flower and the filigree ring, I decided to see what I could find to "stick on" the pendant. I rummaged through the bead shop, and came up empty, inspiration-wise. Then I decided to dig into my super-secret stash, and I struck gold. Well, not literally - but sort of ... I found a beautiful vintage BSK earring, in green and gold.

vintage BSK leaf earring

BSK was founded in New York in 1948 and did business until the mid 1980s - the letters "BSK" stand for the initials of the three owners: Benny Steinberg, Slovitt and Kaslo. BSK was known for its colorful enamel designs, simple silvertone and goldtone pieces, and stunning designs - all at a competitive price point (the collections were widely sold in department stores, including Woolworth's.) I actually had/have both earrings AND the gorgeous matching brooch - I love the colors and design, and had squirreled them away for "later". I guess "later" is finally here!

Y'all probably know I'm big on making paper mock-ups of my metal designs, so that all my mistakes happen on paper (theoretically), instead of ruining my metal pieces. And since I only had one of these copper square thingies to play with, I decided I better experiment on paper:

I played around with clipping the earring on the paper model, and liked the result, so I decided to proceed.

The first step was to patinate the copper square so that it matched the earring. Learning from my experience with the filigree ring, I first took a rough emery board to the copper square, and roughed it up pretty well. Then I used antique gold Gilder's Paste, to get a nice brassy gold tone. Perfect! (I sealed it).

Next, I put some thought into how I would attach the earring to the copper square, and decided that I would NOT remove the earring clip - if I wired the clip to the back of the square, no wire would show from the front, leaving an unobstructed view of the pretty earring.

I placed the earring on the paper square, and marked my ideal placement for drilling holes. Good thing I did this on paper first - when I punched the holes in the paper (on either side of the widest point in the clip-on attachment) they turned out to be wider than the earring itself, so they showed from the front. Oops! I experimented a bit more with hole placement, and finally figured out the optimum placement for 2 holes, without them showing from the front.

the copper shows through where I buffed the holes - but it won't show on the finished piece!

At some point around this time, the patinated copper square, now gold, ended up next to the "X" on my workbench, and I saw that the "X" was a good size, proportionately, to hang the metal square from. (Wow, that is an awkward sentence - sorry!) I decided to figure out a way to use the "X" as a bail for the square.

The metal "X" is 78 mm long!

I had initially tried to think of other uses for the "X", and had made a paper mock-up to fiddle with. One of my ideas was to wrap it around a ring mandrel and turn it into a ring, with the ends of the X crossing on top - but it turned out to look more like some sort of weapon, and I couldn't figure out a way to de-weaponize it (that made me happy, design-wise) - so I had abandoned the ring idea.

The marks you see on the "X" in the pic above are where I decided to amputate its legs, in order to turn it into a bail. I cut them off with the jeweler's saw, and filed them with the Dremel. Then I turned the remaining legs under with roundnose pliers, to make loops for hanging. I did this because the legs were a little too narrow for me to feel safe drilling them (my first choice) - and I'm really glad I did this, because turning the ends under also shortened the "X" to a perfect size.

In the process of turning the ends under, I got some pretty ugly tool marks on the right side of the "X" (the left side in the pics) - I tried to remove these by buffing/polishing with the Dremel and my radial disc attachments (these things are THE BOMB):

Dremel with radial discs

The disc colors correspond with different grits, so you use them sequentially from coarsest (yellow) to finest (green).  They'll buff out scratches, remove firescale - I love them! You can get a brilliant, mirror shine with these babies! When I touched the yellow discs to the "X", they instantly removed whatever coating was giving the "X" its antiquey brass color, revealing a rich bright gold that perfectly matched the patina I'd applied to the copper square. Wow.

The "X" before buffing/polishing, next to the patinated square

After polishing the X, I remembered I needed to drill holes in its center to hang the copper square, so I drilled those holes, and went back and rebuffed and polished the middle of the "X" again.

you can still see the tool marks (at far left) - but they aren't too bad

Here is how the pendant looked after I wired the earring to the square, and then wired the square to the "X" (adding a couple of palace green Swarovski crystals for a little flash).  (I had to use 24g wire to connect the square to the "X", because the pre-drilled holes in the square were so small):

 front of BSK leaf pendant

the back of my BSK leaf pendant (formerly, the "copper square thingy")
The square and the X looked like brushed gold! So shiny - I love them (Sorry, Heidi and Joan - I gotta have the shiny!)

OK - the hard part was done - now to make a necklace for this pendant.

I wanted to pull out more green, and had some beautiful irregular tourmaline nuggets that were perfect. I didn't have any brass chain, and the gold chain I had didn't really match, and I didn't want to string or weave anything ... so after some thought about how to convert brass wire into a necklace, the light bulb finally came on: Girl, you DO know how to cut jump rings and make chainmaille, don't you? Duh.

I haven't done chainmaille in 2 years. No wonder I almost forgot! And I LOVE chainmaille! (except for the ring-cutting part.)

I cut several hundred brass rings, and decided to weave a byzantine chain, since it is the easiest for me to incorporate beaded links:

chainmaille and tourmaline necklace with vintage leaf pendant

brass toggle clasp for chainmaille and tourmaline necklace

So there you have it: the copper square thingy and the dreaded "X" components. Done! 3 components down, 2 to go!

OMG I am long-winded.

Oh yeah - almost forgot. This necklace (and the matching bracelet and earrings) are available in my Etsy shop!

Tomorrow: Chapter 3: the copper disc with the weird cut-outs.

Looking for Chapter 1 (the filigree ring)? - here it is! 

And don't forget to check out our feature in the May Issue of Bead Chat Magazine (we're on pages 21-26):

5x5 Metal Component Challenge Reveal, Chapter 1 (The filigree ring)

Last week, I told you about the Artisan Whimsy 5x5 Metal Component Challenge: 5 members of Artisan Whimsy were randomly chosen to design with 5 different mystery metal components (we all received the same 5 components.)

Our results are published in the May issue of Bead Chat Magazine.

May, 2013, issue of Bead Chat Magazine. Our 5x5 challenge is showcased on pp 21-26 

I'm breaking down my blog reveal  into 5 parts, because y'all know how I tend to ramble on (and on) with the details....

Here's the pic of the 5 components that was posted in on Artisan Whimsy:

These components were generously provided by Heather Marston - thanks, Heather!

Between the time I learned I was chosen for the challenge and the time I received the components, I kept looking at this pic, trying to "pre-design," to coin a word. We all do that right - when shopping in a bead shop, you see a great bead, and try to imagine designs in your head, right? Well, this was only slightly different - I only had a photo to work with, but still....the suspense was killing me, and I knew we didn't have long to work with these components before the deadline, so I was worried about the time crunch. Hence: imaginary designing in my head: "predesigning."

In my head, the filigreed ring at middle left above was about an inch in diameter, and the copper ring (with those crazy triangular notches) beside it slightly smaller - like a large beadcap. I had all kinds of ideas for that copper beadcap, and the filigreed ring, too!

And then the components arrived.

They are huge. HUGE!

5x5 metal challenge components, with a dime for size reference

One thing participants were asked to do, in addition to testing and designing with these components, was to describe our thoughts and processes as we worked with the pieces. Here are some of my initial thoughts:

• OMG, these are HUGE.
• This giant filigree ring is SPLIT!
• There's only one of each of these components, so I can't screw up.
• There's only one of each of these components, so I can't make earrings (unless I suddenly meet a pirate).
• The square copper thing is really thick, and its holes are so tiny!
• What the hell is this "X" thing, and what am I going to do with it?
• What have I gotten myself into to now??!?

The filigreed ring was 47mm wide (almost 2 inches) - and the copper disc? 38 mm - that would be one giant beadcap!

I spent a lot of time just turning the pieces over in my hands, and playing with them on the workbench. Placing them beside each other, thinking ... and not accomplishing much! I acted like they were some sort of metal Rubik's Cube, and if I just got them in the right configuration, they would magically come together and reveal all. And it's funny, but several other people that saw them did the same thing! Weird.

I decided I needed to just dive in, and since the filigreed ring was the most familiar piece, I'd start there.

The ring itself was large (47mm), open, and flimsy - in order to be usable, I had to get it securely closed, so I decided to try wiring it together:

 I knew that whatever technique I used to close it, my results would still show, so I tried to be as unobtrusive as possible. I used a small piece of craft wire, and wrapped it through a couple of the ring's holes, a couple of times, carefully tucking the ends in. This was a really tight fit - the ring may be large, but the holes are tiny!

OK - what now?

I thought about beadweaving - just embellishing, and embellishing, and turning it into a pendant. Much like the way I embellished this (much smaller) Vintaj Natural Brass filigreed ring to make a ring for a beaded toggle:

Beadweaven toggle (beadweaving on a filigree ring)

But one of the things I wanted to do with this design challenge was push myself, and do new things, and I bead around filigreed rings all the time, so I ruled this out.

I thought about doing some abstract wirework/ wire weaving on the ring - going in and out of the holes, and across the ring, but I ultimately ruled that out, too.

I gave SERIOUS thought to poking a hole in the middle of the X, and turning these 2 components into the world's largest toggle! (But then I compared their size to my wrist, and when the toggle is larger than your arm, it's time to rethink your plan!)

 giant toggle!

As the clock ticked, I decided to use Gilder's Paste to color the ring (with no further plan in mind!) I was initially going to use an antique greenish shade, but at the last minute I switched to Iris Blue - which was a fortuitous decision.

The Gilder's Paste didn't take to the ring very well - I probably should have roughed up the metal some, but there wasn't much metal to rough up! I got maybe 90% of the ring to turn blue, but the rest remained stubbornly bronze. Plus, the parts that wouldn't turn were on the front (as determined by my placement of the craft wire when I wired the ring closed - that had to be the back side, right?)

I fretted, stewed, and then remembered the Perfect Pearls - I pulled them out, and applied the blue Perfect Pearls on top of the unsealed Gilder's Paste. It was a perfect match, and adhered beautifully. Now my ring was 100% blue. So I spent a couple of days sealing it (application of sealer to one side, then 4-6 hours for drying [we were having extremely rainy humid weather], followed by flipping, sealing the other side, waiting.... etc - I wanted to have 2 full coats of sealer. If you've ever had this stuff rub off your jewelry and onto your clothes or skin, you know why!)

Now that I had a blue ring, what to do with it? I held it, turning it over and over - stumped. I walked around the bead shop with it and found the perfect blue floral lampwork bead - the blues matched perfectly, and the bead was almost the perfect size - a few mm larger would have been ideal, but beggars can't be choosers!

handmade blue lampwork flower bead wired in center of patinated filigreed ring

Connecting to the ring was problematic (as connections often are, for me!) - I wanted my chosen method to jive with my color scheme; basically, I wanted something blue. My blue artistic wire wasn't a good match, but I had some blue Parawire that was closer. Not perfect, but close enough.

I wired the lampwork flower into the filigree ring, and then started working on making a necklace with my new blue flower pendant. I liked this large link copper chain with the pendant - the large links mimicked the roundness of the ring. I decided to try patinating the chain with ammonia fumes (I rejected the Gilder's Paste and Perfect Pearls for this project - too much territory to cover, and too many overlapping pieces: I was worried about adequate coverage)

Fortune smiled on me, as the ammonia fumes not only worked, but turned the chain the same blue as the ring. Yay! I really like the rustic look I achieved with the ammonia fume patina.

ammonia fume-patinated blue copper chain

I patinated a copper S-hook with Perfect Pearls (blue, again) - and voilà! A simple, rustic, blue floral necklace.

And it's available in my Etsy shop!

We've all had a lot of fun with this challenge; some of us are blogging about it, and some aren't (it's not a formal blog hop.) Here's where you can read more about my creative fellow 5x5-ers:

Heidi Kingman
Charlie (Charlene) Jacka
Sharyl McMilian-Nelson
Joan Williams

Stay tuned for Chapter 2 (the copper square thingy)! And don't forget to check out the May issue of Bead Chat!