Head-to-Head Challenge Update

It's that time again: time to show my progress on the Head-to-Head Challenge Sonya and I are participating in. Except that I can't actually show my progress, because Sonya and I want to be surprised by what each other makes.

Which makes this update kind of silly. Whose idea was this updating nonsense, anyway? (Answer: MINE). Made sense at the time!

I'm going to show an itty bitty piece of my challenge WIP (work in progress), anyway (and none of my fancy photoshopping skills, either!)

You may recall that this is the ceramic bead we are designing our freeform pieces around:

This week, I made the decision to go ahead and design and attach the clasp to the piece, because the type and size of the clasp helps determine the finished length - sometimes I use clasps that can add 2 inches or more to the finished length of a piece! And I did NOT want my piece to end up being too long, so why not go ahead and design a clasp in the middle of the creative process? Why save it 'til last?

Here is what I came up with:

I chose a Swarovski crystal Cosmic Square in Red Magma, which perfectly matches the orange ceramic bead. I attached it using a square stitch "bail," for lack of a better word, and then stitched a matching bar using the same galvanized orange delicas.

Stay tuned - our big reveal is January 14!

And click over to Sonya's blog to see her progress!

Lampwork Disc Earrings

These handmade lampwork discs are summery - pastel blue and green, with a splash of orange.

I added some green vintage glass beads, to make these fun earrings.

Purple Heart

I got this amazing purple lampwork heart from one of Etsy's talented glass artisans (if it's yours, drop me a comment and I'll credit you - I can't find the original transaction!) - I love purple, love hearts, and knew I wanted to design a spectacular necklace to showcase it.

Coin pearls: another one of my favorite things! These peacock-colored coin pearls are richly iridescent, and go with the heart focal perfectly! I put them with white freshwater button pearls and tanzanite-colored Czech firepolished beads, and a bit of sterling silver, to create this feminine, romantic, double-stranded necklace:

It closes with a sterling silver S-hook and sterling silver chain, so the finished length is adjustable.

And it's available on Etsy!

Tangle Tuesday

I have a renewed love of "paradox", so I knew I wanted a triangle to fill with paradox. I decided to divide the tile into 4 triangles, and fill in the string with colors. Then I just filled in the 4 triangles with 4 different tangles, placing betweed and paradox directly across from each other. I played a little bit with perspective (a very weak point for me) in the tangle on the far left.

Multistrand Pearl and Gemstone Bracelet

This multistrand bracelet was made to go with the multistrand pearl and gemstone kumihimo necklace I showed you yesterday.

It contains the same green and white freshwater pearls (such great irridescence and texture!), dumortierite, kyanite, and Swarovski crystals, and closes with a sterling silver lobster claw and extender chain, so that the length is adjustable.

Available on Etsy!

Kumihimo Necklace with Japanese triangles

Furthering my adventures in kumihimo, I wanted to try another interesting bead shape - the Japanese triangle, size 11. (Remember the lentils? - that gorgeous necklace is still available on Etsy!)

kumihimo rope with 11/0 Japanese triangles

This necklace started out to be a simple kumihimo rope, with that gorgeous teardrop lampwork pendant as the focal. But that plan got derailed rather quickly.

Stringing the 11/0 triangles was no easy feat, but nothing compared to the braiding. When I do kumihimo, I like a lot of tension on the braid, so in addition to the weight I suspend from the bottom of the braid, I also grip the braid tightly between the 4th and 5th fingers of my left hand (the thumb and other 2 fingers are holding the disc) - and squeezing the sharp triangle braid as it lengthened was pretty painful on my tender little fingers!

So after about 4 inches of it was braided, I realized I needed a plan B. I attached the focal pendant, braided an equal length of kumihimo on the other side, and capped the braid on both ends. And put on my thinking cap.

The blues in the focal and kumihimo braid go so well with green, and of course, with white pearls, that I fell back on that color combo, and strung a multistrand necklace with green and white freshwater pearls, kyanite, dumortierite, and Swarovski pearls. I had a beautiful sterling silver branch and leaf box clasp that deserved to be showcased in the front of a necklace, so I put the closure in front, and added some dangles. I love how this piece turned out - it is much more interesting than if I had gone with plan A!

multistand pearl, gemstone, and Kumihimo necklace

And, it's available on Etsy!

Holiday Wreath Chainmaille Earrings

Aren't these festive?

These chainmaille wreath earrings were woven with jumprings I cut from red and green artistic wire. They are very lightweight, and I love the red artistic wire earwire with them!

Available on Etsy!