Annie Oakley and the Na'vi

The Wild, Wild West
(sold)

I created the Victorian-styled "shard" escutcheon focal above LAST January (as in 2014), with good intentions regarding doing an Art Jewelry Elements New Year-themed challenge (involving the Roman god of beginnings and transitions, Janus, after whom our month January is named; Janus was often symbolized by images of gates, doors, doorways, etc., hence my idea of a key and keyhole pendant.) I did not get very far. Well, this is how far I got:

Well, lately my "pendant" bin (where the escutcheon resided--what a wonderful word, "escutcheon") has been bulging at the seams, so rather than start pendant bin no. 2, I decided to systematically start using items from the pendant bin until I could easily snap the lid down again. And then after that I could return to my usual indolent and slothful ways.

I began this piece with the escutcheon element and a wonderful vintage skeleton key my Mom found for me (I have a little handful of some absolutely gorgeous little keys from Mom, all with a rich sable-colored patina on them--she is a brilliant treasure hunter), and a strand of small silver leaf jasper rondelles. It was feeling Victorian to me, and I initially assumed it would be "Posh-Victorian," but when I added the mother of pearl button (I really wanted some kind of shiny large translucent gray or cream tablet-type bead under it, but alas I had nothing like that), it struck me more as "Poverty-Stricken Victorian"; and then when (seized by some mysterious urge) I changed gears and went with dark cording and leather lace, it struck me as "Poverty-Stricken Victorian Wild West."

Well, once I strung the buttons on (that's a black agate nugget underneath them) the image of a woman sprang to my mind: a solitary, unconventional woman of the dusty Old West, who lives by her wits and her womanly wiles; but alas has no money with which to buy gems and jewels to adorn herself, so she makes her own from whatever she can find in her pockets, discarded by others, and offered by nature. Or maybe she doesn't live near a Tiffany's. Maybe someone like Annie Oakley, although I don't know whether she was poverty-stricken. Certainly not after Buffalo Bill hired her to shoot things for his Wild West show. But he probably paid her less than he paid the men, because that's just how it always is, so maybe she was poor...Did you know Annie Oakley was so lovely? Here she is:

She is one of the few famous Wild West ladies who did not look like a dude. (The outlaw Belle Starr was a dead ringer for James Mason, and Eleanor Dumont was appropriately referred to as "Madame Mustache.") I'm sure Buffalo Bill felt like he was sitting on a gold mine.

"Well, what does Annie Oakley have to do with the Na'vi?" you ask. Why, absolutely nothing.

Previous to the piece above, I made the pendant below with a glazed stoneware leaf element by Karen Totten, which was also residing in the overfilled pendant bin. The finished pendant immediately made me think of the movie Avatar ("Ah, there's the Annie Oakley-Na'vi link. It's in her MIND.")

Avatar
(sold)

I think the brown cording makes me think of twigs and tree bark, and then of course there's the leaf, and it must be the blue beads that took it from merely "tree" to "Avatar", because the Na'vi are a lovely shade of blue, not unlike these recycled glass disc and tulip beads from Happy Mango Beads and Afrobeadia.

The terra cotta-colored stoneware bead just above Karen's leaf is from jjpotterybeads on Etsy; the tiny multicolored sead beads are Czech Picasso seed beads from beadsandbabble on Etsy; the yummy butterscotch-colored beads are Indonesian glass from Happy Mango Beads; there is a green opal bead from I don't remember where; and the crusty-looking rosy bead is lava. Drilled beach stone from stonestudiostoo at the end of the chain.

I created some interesting-looking cuff-and-anchor elements to cover the knots that fasten the lower portion to the connector rings--I like to use a metal cuff, or cut tube to cover knots sometimes, but I find if there is not a bead under it to hold it in place, the tube won't stay put and it slides down off the knot. On the right side of this pendant, where it is knotted to the ring, there is a beadless section immediately underneath; I needed a way to anchor the cuff to the ring so it would stay put, so I used a double-headed headpin like a little trouser suspender, turning the ends up to hold up the tubes. I thought it actually looked kind of cool. I will probably do it again, but I just remembered this other thing I used to do for hiding knots that is way slicker so maybe not for a while.

Today I hope to get another pendant mostly finished, also using an item from the pendant bin. So I better get busy.

Art Jewelry Elements March Component of the Month

Caroline Dewison of BlueberriBeads is March's Component of the Month host at Art Jewelry Elements. Caroline is an artist who makes her home in England, and she works in porcelain, stoneware, earthenware, raku clay, glass and copper. She makes beads and components as well as stunning jewelry--be sure to visit her website and browse through her gallery! I am particularly enamored with her sea urchin beads, particularly this set in "dirty green":

Aren't those the coolest? I need them.

I also adore her little "bird sets"--I love the serene colors in this one:

Well, when I saw the items Caroline was planning to offer for the Component of the Month challenge, I was even more bowled over! Look at these luminous beauties:

Luna moths! Aren't they stunning? Look at the depth of these glazes!!

I also saw sweet little bees and I fell head over heels for the little bees. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of them before I started working on them (I was little excited to get started), but here's a closeup of them in the finished pieces:

As you can see, these two are in copper and gold tones. The copper-toned one on the left (I am amazed by this metallic glaze!) also has matte under-colors of muted mauve and violet. The finish is so rich and I just love the size--perfect for a little assemblage-type pendant, which is what I was thinking of.

Well, the gold one told me to go with mixed metal, and the copper one told me to be a purist. These were so inspiring to work with! Here is the mixed metal one with the gold bee:

I used a copper washer I had textured with a hammer and brass texture sheet for the central portion of the pendant. I applied brass eyelet rivets to the holes, and dangled a big gold pearl, a Hill tribes sterling silver bead, and some other small beads in sterling, copper and brass. (The little bees actually have steel loops at the top, but I wrapped them in copper wire to harmonize with the rest of the pendant.)

I used solid copper ball chain from Rings n Things, which I antiqued in liver of sulfur and tumbled (it really took the patina nicely, and it's clearly raw copper-YAY! I got a whole spool of it), and attached it to a sterling-wrapped brass toggle bar via Melissa Meman's brilliant design for ball chain ends--(they really add so much more than just a commercial ball tip! I love the kind of horseshoe-shape they have.) I tossed in another leafy Hill Tribes silver bead to make the chain portion slightly asymmetrical. I went crazy with my metals--I am realizing I need to do this more often because I really love all three together.

I just discovered these "melon" beads (the elongated silver football shaped-bead the bee hangs from) and I'm obsessed--I got them in both silver and copper. I hammer them gently with my Fretz embossing hammer to give them more of a handmade look--they have a seam, and the hammering actually makes the seam more visible, which I like--they look like a hand-formed, rolled bead then. I love how this piece turned out.

On to my "purist" piece--all glorious copper:

Again I used a washer (a twin to the other one actually--I had both of these in my stash already, I was so excited--work already done!) with tube-riveted holes, and a toggle closure. I wanted to draw out the mauve tones in the bee so I added mauve/berry-colored pearls. I used Melissa's ball chain end loops again, and added a delicious copper globe bead from a strand I recently got from AfroBeadia (these beads are FANTASTIC) with a couple of my copper beadcaps (I don't know why but the idea of a copper beadcap on a copper bead just sends me into orbit.) The bee hangs from a short length of tubing I cut with my saw and textured with my embossing hammer.

I've been wanting to do a necklace like this for a while, with a washer and some dangling bits. I haven't been making much jewelry lately--this is the first weekend I've felt good, and energetic for several weeks. I've had some kind of Everlasting Sinus Bug, I thought it would never end! It's not over yet, but it's much better which I have to take as a good sign.

Here are my two little grown-up bees together:

I made them to be worn high up on the neck, where the little bees will draw the eye:

This is a blog hop! Be sure to visit the other participants below:
Niky Sayers – http://silverniknats.blogspot.co.uk
The AJE Team
Caroline Dewison – http://www.blueberribeads.co.uk
Diana Ptaszynski - http://www.suburbangirlstudio.com
Susan Kennedy - http://suebeads.blogspot.co.uk
Kristen Stevens - http://kristen-beadjourney.blogspot.com/
Jenny Davies-Reazor - http://www.jdaviesreazor.com/blog
Melissa Meman –  http://melissameman.blogspot.com
Rebekah Payne - www.treewingsstudio.com
Lesley Watt - http://thegossipinggoddess.blogspot.com/
Linda Landig - http://www.LindasBeadBlog.com

Scorched Earth

I recently stumbled across a shop I saw in my Etsy activity feed, Scorched Earth (apparently I was the last to know about this treasure trove of porcelain awesomeness), and promptly fell in love with everything I saw! So I tried to buy everything I saw. But then common sense prevailed and I decided to just buy 14 things instead. Here is a sampling:

Moss Creek Bobble Drops

I am obsessed with this shape. And the word "bobble."

China Sea Bobble Drops

Petra Carpreau is a genius. And a doll. (You must check out her blog--HERE you go.)

Sour Apple Bobble Drops-like tiny Bartlett pears!

I also love these eggplant-shaped drops so I bought a bunch:

Bronzy Droplets Dutch Blue

These are like creme brulee. I might have to faux-nibble on them, just a bit:

Bronzy Droplets Amber Crackle

I do that, the bead faux-nibble, with yummy noises. Nom nom!

I am thinking these might combine with the last of my "midnight" beads from Kelley Wenzel, in a necklace perhaps:

Scorched Persia and Copper Oxide Drops

And look at these fabulous things! Those are the colors of where I live! Glacial lake green, midnight sky, and white snow.

Glacier Porcelain Tips 

And these look edible, don't they? Pretzel Stix! I will do the Faux-Nibble Nom Nom with them as well.

Bright Orange Porcelain Tips

And lastly, perhaps the piece de la resistance, these little handbag shapes:

Wedge Droppers

I should have gotten these too, dammit:

Hoopy Wedge Connectors "Pillar Box"

So much fabulousness, I was nearly weeping as I filled my shopping cart. (One thing I really like about these droppers, is the heavier gauge steel wire Petra uses--sturdy enough for my peace of mind, and it will just look better with the heavier gauges of wire I tend to use in my jewelry.) And as if the fabulousness weren't enough, prices and shipping are also very affordable! Hence the 14 items. I'm going to have to buy more storage soon. I'm thinking something like this:

Baby Bjorn, available at Zappos

Hearts and Flowers

I haven't made bracelets in a long time. Here are a couple I made yesterday and today. The one above features one my flower clasps, with pearls, turquoise lampwork spacers by Meital, and some kind of mystery stone I can't remember the name of. I'm guessing it's a jasper (if anybody recognizes it, let me know! It has a lot of turquoise veining in it, along with the brick red and cream.)

For the one below, I started out with my double-sided heart charm and stared at it for a long time. Slept on it (not literally). And this is what I had decided when I woke up.

A little handful of ceramic beads by Gaea Cannady (that I have of course been hoarding forever), a couple of Czech glass beads in lilac, and a smaller copper-plated pewter heart lock charm. I love the combination of matte and shiny finish beads in Gaea's bundles, I love to put them together. I used one of my hook and eye clasps (kind of experimenting there) for it, and a bunch of my tiny beadcaps.

Here's the other side of the charm:

I'm in love with rivets. Functional AND decorative!

I'm pretty excited that it's only Saturday. Hopefully the rest of the weekend will be productive. Really hoping that the day job will slow down like I think it will and I can take a few days here and there to add some things to the shop. I've been so focused on trying to figure out how to make things from metal that I'm out of practice actually putting a whole piece of jewelry together.

Toast and Taffy, Right Where You Need It

I'm totally into ceramic beads right now, and Mary Ann Carroll's are some of my favorites! I've combined two of her beads in this toasty little bracelet--the big textured focal (like a waffle!), and the little button-shaped bead with the dollop of turquoise in the middle. My Mom said it reminded her of saltwater taffy--what do you know, it DOES look like a piece of taffy! That makes me like it even more. And here it is on your wrist, so easy to nibble on if you have the urge. It's so tempting.

Toast and Turquoise

I've combined the ceramic beads with bone beads, turquoise magnesite half domes, and a little disc of turquoise sitting atop a wood disc (I used the same technique as for the necklace I posted about earlier--I did a mini "snake" and fastened the discs to it with a headpin). The bracelet fastens with a brass toggle clasp I made myself. All metal is solid brass, lightly antiqued and hand-polished.

I made one other bracelet. SLAVED over it. And I hate it. Not sure what to do with it. Tried some ribbon on it and it just doesn't look good. Hate it when that happens.

All Day Freshness

I was trying to get my Fresh on in the Etsy shop--lotta old stuff in there. I've wanted to make a pile of earrings to try to give it a boost, since I've been so lax on making new stuff. I guess this last weekend was the weekend for the earring muse. I just started throwing stuff together. Some of it I like, some not so much.

Here's what I did:

Javanese Glass Beads with Sterling Silver

Ceramic Beads with Javanese Glass Discs and Sterling Silver.

(Polka dotted Javanese glass beads and Chinese ceramic beads from Happy Mango Beads).

Ceramic beads in blue green with copper

Blue and White Ceramic Coins with Copper

Toast and Turquoise Earrings with Artisan Ceramic Beads

(Ceramic beads above by Macarroll on Etsy).

"My Wicked Heart" Earrings with Copper Kidney Earwires

Boro Glass Lampwork in Cobalt and Amber with Sterling Silver Earwires

(Lampwork by Beingbeads on Etsy).

Phew. There's a few more pairs half-finished at home. I'm getting spoiled with this instant gratification--not looking forward to spending all day on a pendant!

Coupla New Things and a SALE!!

I made these earrings over the weekend.

Glazed ceramic hearts in speckled turquoise with copper.

Kyanite flowers with antiqued copper.

I finished my "Color Challenge" pieces based on the paint chips Erin Prais-Hintz sent me, but I can't share them with you until December 3. Bah. I've done two, I'm trying to find a way to make myself love the third paint chip. Haven't found it yet but I'm determined.

Lastly, my entire shop will be on sale at 20% off from midnight November 24 through 11:00 p.m. November 29 for Black Friday/Cyber Monday. Come take advantage of me!!! I'll be out of town for the holiday, though, from November 24 until Sunday, November 28, and I'll probably be completely fried from driving 9 hours (in a mostly straight line, without ever leaving the state; how 'bout that?) so I won't get any sale items in the mail until probably Monday or Tuesday.

Summers Studio Pendant No. 2

This pendant started out as a bracelet. I was going to make a triple stranded bracelet with these wonderful minty porcelain beads by Macarroll, with teal quartz and amethyst glass. I started out with the main strand (minus the pendant focal), and a strand of amethyst glass tile beads with silver heishi, and another strand with tiny antiqued silver rounds and green aventurine pebbles. When I looked at it lying there on my glass top Japanese-style work bench, however, I thought to myself, "That really ought to be a necklace." And then I remembered my one remaining Summers Studio lentil bead, and ran (seriously, I did) and got it. I thought it looked decidedly fabulous with the other beads, so I started trying to figure out how to work it in. I ended up omitting the third strand with the aventurine pebbles, and just went with the amethyst glass tile beads. I threw in a few lilac pearls for variety, and a couple faceted glass beads in an ultra pale lilac (which I bought at the bead store a couple years ago thinking, under the fluorescent lights, that they were blue green).



I spent what seemed like HOURS trying to decide how to finish the ends of the beaded portions (so hard to make it look NICE and also be durable), and settled on wire guards and crimps/crimp covers. I didn't like the way it looked though--wire guards are not very pretty--so I covered the wire guards with some gorgeous pewter ring beads I got from Happy Mango Beads -- they slid right over them. But then the rings were wanting to slide up the chain (seriously cool stuff from Ornamentea), so I had to add the little pearls (on my hand-forged sterling ball head pins) to keep them from moving. Phew.  This took me all weekend to figure out. And some of it had already been sitting there for a couple weeks already -- some green and purple stuff I had big, vague plans for.

I rather like it. Those silver plated heishi from Happy Mango are so rustic (I think they're silver over copper), they lend an earthy, funky feel to stuff that keeps it from being too formal looking. It almost has an industrial flavor. Those Kenyans. Nothing like Kenyan heishi. (Sounds like a matter for the DEA.)

A Brief, Dizzying, Barely Controlled Fall Into the Terrifying World of Multi-Color

I decided to take a page from the design sensibility of the fabulous Lorelei Eurto, and take a small, wavering step away from my beloved Woobie, Monochrome/Duochrome. Just for the day.

It was terrifying.

This is what issued from my fevered brain during my descent into madness, into the topsy-turvy world of More Than Two Colors.

The bracelet above features, from upper right, denim blue coral, little Czech rounds in Montana blue, striped lampwork from Blue Seraphim, some weird seed-like bead I got from Ben Franklin (the store, not the man), green magnesite, lampwork from Kelley Wenzel, wood, a pewter Celtic charm, lampwork from Being Beads, more Montana blue Czech glass and wood, and lastly another lampwork Bead from Kelley Wenzel. Rolo chain from Lima Beads. As you can see I cheated just a little and kept everything pretty much in muted, earthy tones, even the (gulp) blue.

I stepped out just a tad further on this one, with the brighter blue of the little sodalite rounds, but I still had one hand on the Woobie. The beads are (deep breath) first, a lovely lampwork bead at center by Kelley Wenzel, yellow turquoise (which would be green in this case), golden jade, carnelian, sodalite, blue aventurine, chrysanthemum stone, brecciated jasper, Czech pressed and fire-polished glass, striped Javanese glass beads, mahogany obsidian, and green magnesite. This is going to be a FPITA to price out. Perhaps one of the reasons I avoid using a lot of different kinds of beads in something. Oh, and that's annealed steel wire. I formed and hammered every one of those little rat bastard spirals.


This one technically has more than two colors--brown, cream, and green, but one could argue that the brown/cream distinction is mere semantics and I cheated. So sue me. The stones/beads starting from the big barrel bead in the middle are an etched agate barrel (from my recent goodie bag from Kelley Wenzel) which looks amazingly like an ancient African clay bead, a half-dome "shell cap", more yellow (a/k/a green) turquoise, a commercial lampwork bead (I think) from Bead Outlet, a fabulous ceramic bead from Macarrol, lampwork from Kelley Wenzel (right next to the clasp), wood, and lampwork from Blue Seraphim.


I started to feel panicky after this however so I retreated back to the safety of Just Two Colors, and made these. The first one is just basically pink and green. Unless you count copper as a color. Large lampwork bead from Bebes Glass Beads (it's actually a nice olive green, can't see it here), pink jasper nuggets, commercial lampwork from Bead Outlet, yellow (i.e., green) turquoise, another nubby green "seed" bead, and dangling cherry quartz, moukaite, apple green howlite, green magnesite and pearls. Rolo chain from Ornamentea. (I don't really care for any of the pictures I took today--I was all happy because there was bright overcast light but it just looked like fake light. Going to have to redo them all one day.)


I don't like this one. I don't really like yellow and green together all by themselves but I felt constrained by the verdite. I don't want to take it apart because of all the silver I used. If anybody has any suggestions for making it less putrid, I'd be thrilled. I'm not going to list it until it's less putrid.


I have other bead combinations lying around that involve more than two colors but I ran out of time and energy to make them into anything. I'm soooo slow. However, I think I had best come off the color highwire for awhile and do some monochrome. I miss my Woobie.