Color for My Mother

My mother has an awesome sense of color, and I'm not the only one who thinks so ... a number of decorating magazines over the years have been delighted to photograph her homes! Anyone who has looked at the pictures on this blog knows that I really like to play with color and mix it and generally enjoy myself with it - that all comes from my mother. So this necklace is for her ...

Here is that pile of rectangle beads in all sorts of colors that showed up at the beginning of the month. It took time to sort all those beads out, and these kept calling my name. I took the pile and sorted all the beads into color families, and there were enough for two necklaces, so I divided each family in half and started to work with the two groups. I like this kind of project - the distribution of colors, which I have no control over, helps to give structure to the project. And this project was going to be one necklace for my mother and one for me, related but not identical. Each necklace is over 60" long, meaning that it can be worn doubled or tripled. (In my younger days, I never wore shorter necklaces, and in my older days, I often do.)



  

This version of the necklace takes the color families and keeps them together in blocks. The look is not the same doubled and tripled, because the color blocks fall differently. Between the rectangle beads are golden seed beads.

  

This version of the necklace mixes the colors randomly (well, not completely randomly - random looks better with a little structure). The look is pretty much the same doubled and tripled. Between the rectangle beads are silvery seed beads.

As I was beading these necklaces, I had time to think about my mother and color. When I was a kid, my bedroom was a pale green called celery - I really did not like it (although I loved my dust ruffles, which were dark olive green with dark pink in the box pleats). My bedroom is due to be painted this year, and 40 years later, celery is looking like my first choice. My mother is usually about five years ahead of fashion in color, but I'm a slow learner about some things ...

I think I know which necklace my mother will choose ... I've already put her preferred clasp on it, so we'll see if I'm right!!

A Delivery from the Czech Republic!

This week, the post lady delivered a small box that was stuffed to the brim with beads from the Czech Republic, almost 6 kilos of them, which is over 12 pounds! There were four lots of mixed beads, which means that they have to be sorted, and it is such an entrancing task that even Marcel spent some time separating different colors and shapes. He does colors and then shapes; I do shapes and then colors. (Each of us organizes according to our own lights. I did graduate work at the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis, and one night, one of our profs brought in a bag full of things which she dumped out on the table; our task was to group them in some way we found coherent. I don't remember what was in that bag, but I do remember that no two arrangements were even remotely similar!) And the more time I spend sorting the beads, the longer I can postpone the inevitable stressful moment when I have to actually put them into as-yet-unidentified storage boxes.

 

As I'm handing this mass of glass beads, of course all sorts of ideas are coming to mind, and I'm also discovering some new shapes and techniques. There is one bead that seems to be a slice, glossy on the flat sides, matte on the outside edge. There are also some big-hole beads which will go with the chain mail. There is a terrific assortment of crystals (which I almost never buy - the Swarovski craze has completely passed me by) which has serious possibilities. I really like these mixes, because I get to see some new things that I might not order otherwise.

 

This batch of glass rectangles would make a super long necklace designed to be worn twice or three times around the neck ... a lot of the transparent ones are two-tone ... 

  

And this is a kilo (2.2 pound) of black glass beads - they only have to be sorted by shape, and it appears at first view that a lot of the shapes are crystals ... black is one color that never seems to have very interesting bead forms (or maybe I just don't know where to find them!)

These are the beads that I ordered individually by color and shape - because of the plastic bags, you can't really see much, can you! However, I don't want to open the bags until I'm ready to log the beads in to my database and put them in their plastic boxes, particularly since the invoice only has numbers and no description. But I think it's obvious that there are interesting colors in the bunch ... the two that strike my fancy right away are in the photo below - on the left, those are Baroque Balls in red, black, and gray, and on the right, black glass hearts with copper dots on them (I bought a number of heart beads - it is one of my favorite shapes).
            

Chain Mail, Part 2 - Bracelets

I needed a birthday present yesterday for a friend who wears lots of my charm bracelets, and I thought I would do something different. This bracelet is a classic 2+2 weave in red anodized aluminum (very lightweight and also very strong and solid when linked in pairs). I tried adding some sterling charms to it, but it wasn't the right look. So I put smaller links on the outsides of each pair to give the bracelet some movement (and if I'd had small beads with big enough holes, I would have put those on the smaller links). The clasp is magnetic, which means that the bracelet almost puts itself on the wrist! My friend put the bracelet on right away and wore it all evening - it was very interesting for me to be able to observe how it moved.

This bracelet is a Byzantine weave in three colors, also with a magnetic clasp - there are lots of other possibilities for this weave ... stay tuned.

These flowers are very time-consuming! Here the magnetic clasp saves the day, because there is no need to allow for maneuverability with the clasp - the bracelet is very close to the wrist. These flowers would make fun earrings, and perhaps a pendant.

I was thrilled to discover the web site for one of my Czech manufactures, and there are 10+ pounds of glass beads on their way - that will be a fun day when that box arrives!!

Personal Stash - Part 2

We're still in my personal jewelry drawer - these are the pieces that I didn't photograph properly last time!!

For my 50th birthday, I joined my three college roommates for a weekend on Martha's Vineyard. We had not been together for many a long year, and we had a splendid weekend. To celebrate the occasion, I made each of us a necklace in hematite and quartz - each different but using the same stones. This is the one I made for myself: it is asymmetrical and made to be worn doubled. I originally put a hematite ring on it, but I have to say that this stainless steel donut makes much more of a statement!

Here's one I don't really like. I wanted to try a lariat, so I did a three-strand with small black beads. Each strand is highlighted with either golden, silvered, or coppery seed beads and a matching bead at the end of the strand. I like to wear new models myself to see how they feel, so I wore this, and frankly it's kind of boring. It's still in my drawer, but I have a feeling that one of these days I'll take my scissors to it and do something else with all those little black beads.

The beads with the squiggles came from - you guessed it - Prague! The smaller beads in between are Murano glass, and Marcel gave them to me. This necklace is not too long, and it looks good with a crewneck sweater and jeans.

Vintage,vintage,vintage .... the beige beads with red and black squiggles sat in my bead boxes for years, and then one day, they just jumped right out and lined themselves up with the big chunky red beads and black beads. Vintage is basically just classy recycling!

On my very first tripto Prague, I bought a necklace that was just rondelles in blues, yellows, and greens. I mostly bought it because I liked the boutique, where everything was handmade, and because it wasn't symmetrical. But really it was too short for me - in this lifetime, I do not have a swan neck ... So I redid it, keeping the same sequence of rondelles and adding sterling silver rounds and vintage Czech glass beads in matching colors. Another good one for jeans!

Another one of my early creations ... it's six+ feet of hematite in various shapes and sizes, highlighted with all sorts of small glass beads in different colors. I don't know if I believe in the properties of stones or not, but hematite is considered to be an energy stone, and it does absorb body heat until it gets to your body temperature.

My one and only big-hole necklace - these are pottery beads with faces in them that I bought on eBay years ago and then never knew what to do with them because the holes were so big. Then I discovered rattail satin cord and this whole thing tied up nicely, with a few extra Indian glass beads thrown in to make it long enough to wear double without a clasp. I sort of missed out on the macramé craze - this was my chance to catch up!

And finally, these splendid vintage beads that I collected over a period of time - all the same style, but some are black and bronze and others are bronze and clear/silver. Since I never know exactly which way they will flip when I put the necklace on, the effect is never the same twice but always striking. It's possible that this is my all-time favorite of everything in my jewelry drawer!!

From my personal stash, part 1

The best way to publicize your creations is to wear them as much as possible! When I was still in the world of education, I wore lots of jewelry. Then I moved to France and got into retailing, first a shop and later the Internet and mail order sales. I stopped wearing so much jewelry, especially long necklaces, which tended to get in the way of wrapping gift packages and shipping boxes.

My preferred metal is sterling silver, and I have lots of it. I always wear earrings because I have holes in my earlobes. In the winter, I wear rings, and in the summer, it's bracelets. I almost never wear sets of anything, although a lot of people do, so I generally make a pair of earrings to match necklaces that I plan to sell.

In pulling out necklaces from my jewelry drawers, I realized that there was a lot of black and red in there - no surprise, because I wear a lot of black and red. The black beads did not photograph well, which is why there will be a part 2 to this topic!

This red, orange, and yellow necklace with touches of black was the absolutely first one I ever made! It uses vintage beads of all kinds in what I like to call a studied asymmetry (basically that means that it's not as random as you think), a style that I still use frequently, particularly with odds and ends of vintage beads. It's long enough to double, which is useful for my current lifestyle.

This one didn't photograph so well either, but the beads with the swirls on them came from the famous trip to the Czech bead manufactures (these are hand-made), and they are mixed with smaller beads from Murano that Marcel gave me. This necklace is terrific with jeans and is the right length for a crew neck sweater! I could be happy to go to Murano and learn to play with glass.

This necklace is made with Picasso agates in two shapes, each strung individually on a wire. The appeal is the coloring of the stones. The necklace is simple and geometric and goes with just about everything! (It's a piece that I made to sell but it didn't so I kept it. Sometimes I wish that would happen with certain other pieces, but it doesn't always .... )

A very, very long necklace made with all sorts of vintage blue glass beads, as well as some small sterling ones and some chalcedony. I made this one many years ago - I don't know if I'd have the patience today. This one really goes better with off-white, which is my preferred color for shows, because most colors look good on an off-white background. My general look is not usually elegant, but when I need to up the level a bit, this necklace will do it.

I am in awe and admiration of people who work extensively with seed beads - I can't do it. I like to use them for accents and fillers, but I almost never feature them as an important design element. This necklace is the exception. The tube beads with raised dots (also from that famous trip to Prague) were just asking to be connected with rows of seed beads in matching colors. This is a summer necklace, more because of its delicacy than its colors. It's one of my favorites!

I have a thing about yellow glass ... it really appeals to me. It took me years to collect these vintage beads and assemble them into a necklace. This one is long enough to go over my head without a clasp. It's like having sunshine around my neck!!

On My Floor

I spend a lot more time on my floor than I would like to ... it's absolutely amazing how far a bead can fly when the beading needle hits it at the wrong angle or how much a jump ring can roll when the pliers don't have a good grip on it (note that it's the needle's and the pliers' fault, of course!). My beading workspace is a fairly small corner of the room, and there's a lot of stuff around my beading desk, so looking for something that has fallen can mean being on my hands and knees, moving things around to look for the missing object.

So here's my rabbit story: last year, I was in Philadelphia, and the day I left to fly back to France, I called home from the airport to say that I was indeed on my way. Marcel told me that he had let the cat out at lunchtime, and when he called the cat back in, the cat brought a small rabbit with him. The rabbit was still alive, and it took off to hide, right in the room where I bead - Marcel wasn't sure exactly where, but he closed the door to keep the rabbit in there.

The next morning, when I arrived in Paris, I called home to say that I was in the country. I asked about the rabbit: Marcel said that he had opened the door again, and in the morning he found the rabbit done for in the hallway, the cat having done his hunter thing for once in his life. The rabbit had been appropriately disposed of, and I didn't think a lot more about it.

Fast forward about two months. Once again, I was on my hands and knees on the floor, looking for a bead. This one had really gone astray, so I was under my work desk to look in the deepest corners of the room. My desk is a sheet of plate glass that sits on two small bookcases, and I finally got under as far as I could to look behind the bookcases. And behind one of them there was something unidentifiable ... and I thought, what on earth is that ... and suddenly I realized where the rabbit had been hiding until the cat got wise to him ... and the rabbit had clearly been distressed and left lots of evidence of it ... and let's hear it for hand-held portable vacuum cleaners ... and luckily, the bead turned up somewhere else!

From top to bottom:
*Matte glass hearts, turquoise matte 8° seed beads
*An assortment of large stones, jasper rounds, quartz rondelles
*Vintage red and yellow glass beads from an old jewelry shop in Paris - long enough to be worn double or triple

Chain Mail, Part One

Chain mail has been with us for centuries! In all simplicity, it is connecting one ring to another to create armor, jewelry, juggling balls, handbags, you name it. However, connecting one ring to another is a bit more complicated than it might sound. Rings are made from wire, and wire has gauge (thickness); rings also have a diameter measurement that is variable, depending on how the ring is made. The relationship between the gauge and the diameter - a ratio - has an influence on how the linked piece looks and wears; it can also determine how easy or difficult it is to work with the rings.

Rings can be made out of many different materials: gold, silver, copper, brass, bronze, aluminum, steel, rubber, niobium, titanium ... they don't all behave the same way and they certainly don't all cost the same. I have particularly enjoyed working with aluminum, which can be anodized in many colors. There is the fun of trying different patterns AND seeing how the colors play with each other.

Whenever I try something new, I like to wear it for a while to see how it is. I LOVE wearing the anodized aluminum!! It is lightweight (but almost too lightweight for pierced earrings that hook - they tend to fall out of the ear lobe) and a pleasure to wear. And some of the weaves jingle - it's a nice sound.

Learning the different weaves has been an interesting process. A pair of pliers in each hand requires some coordination (which I don't have some days!). The anodized aluminum coating does not stand up to rough handling with the pliers - you have to practice. The rings come cut and slightly open, and every single ring has to be opened or closed to start, and if it is opened, it has to be closed at some point in the process of making the chain.

 

From top to bottom, left to right:

*Chaos Chain in black, turquoise, purple, red, pink

*Box Chain in blue, green, yellow, orange, pink

*Byzantine Chain in red, black

*Spiral Chain in golden, bronze

*A chain whose name I forget because it was the first one I learned, and that's been a while; it's done in purple and blue, and it has teal crystals dangling from it.