King's Scale

It's been a very busy year in my life, without much time to make jewelry (that will be changing in 2012!!), but I have learned a new chain mail weave that is very disciplined and creates a flat and substantial chain. Shown here are two necklaces and a bracelet: one necklace is silvered aluminum with multi-colors, one is black with golden and silvered links, and the bracelet is purple, green, and golden. And the next one is going to be the reverse of multi-color: the big rings in all sorts of colors with silvered aluminum on the inside!

Having Fun!

A number of years ago, Marcel gave me a bracelet for Christmas that was made up of sterling silver curved tubes and assorted sterling beads. The stringing material was not optimum for the tubes, and by the third time it broke, I was tired of going back to the jeweler. So I put the beads in a box and there they sat for quite a while. Well, I saw a piece of junk jewelry in a flea market last month, and it gave me some ideas, so I took out the tubes to play with. Using memory wire and an assortment of odd lampworked and cane beads that I only have one or two of, I came up with something that has been so much fun to wear!

It was fun to make, too, so I've ordered a couple of sizes of curved tubes, and I'm planning on a colorful assortment for Christmas sales.

Next week, I'll be heading for the States for an annual conference. Now, I'm a big believer in name tags - one of the things that makes me nuts about group activities in France is that it can be very difficult to identify the people you are with - but I don't love lanyards. However, I'm in the minority on this one, and the lanyard is the nametag holder of choice for this conference. Beading Daily (an on-line newsletter that every beader should subscribe to) talked about lanyards a while back, in the context those worn by people whose badges are part of their business dress (like airport security people), but I thought it would be fun to adopt the idea for this conference. This one practically made itself, and I did the loops on the end precisely so that later the lanyard could become a necklace.

I thought my mother would like one for the same meeting, so I asked her what colors ... she said blue and gray. I played with that one for a while, but what I ended up with I would never have let anyone wear, so when she changed her mind to clear and silver, I was happy (especially since I have boxes of all kinds of clear pressed glass beads!). It didn't photograph nearly as well as the above one, so you'll have to imagine it!

And finally, here's the latest in chain mail ... Byzantine weave. What is interesting is that the bracelet is a random mixture of colors (made to go with a necklace in another weave) that are in the same range (pink, orange, golden, bronze), whereas the necklace is composed of very strong colors (red, blue, purple, silver) that I think would not have been harmonious if they had been used randomly.

And when I get back from the States, I'll have just a bit over a month to get ready for Christmas sales ... more fun!

Working with Stones

Working with stones is like working with miniature sculptures! Interesting forms in different colors and shapes - stone beads add another dimension to the creative process. When I'm working with stones, I think there is nothing better - of course, I think that when I'm working with glass, too. But many forms that are available in stones would be difficult to create in glass, and each substance has its own qualities. One thing everyone should know about stone beads: almost all stones are treated to enhance or add color.

This is moakite in several different forms, including a big wavy coin as a centerpiece, round pillows, and nuggets, with red jasper chips to set off moakite beads.

 The big disks are called green web agate, for obvious reasons, and they are interspersed with free-form chunks of carnelian. Quartz rondelles separate the beads. Very autumn!

 I don't often mix stones and glass, but these vintage blue pressed glass beads looked good with the dark blue sodalite. This necklace uses little copper round beads as separators. Dress up or dress down - a good match for a suit or a pair of jeans.
 

And here is a multi-stone necklace, with V-form beads in rose quartz, red aventurine, amazonite, and dumortierite. This one looks really good with a turtleneck sweater in any  number of soft colors!!

All that Glitters!

Crystals have been hot for quite a while now - kudos to Swarovski for fabulous marketing! I have been very late in getting into the crystal mode, but I do like certain kinds of shiny beads!!

This necklace is winter personified! Foil-lined hexagonal beads in pale blue, silvered bugles, and different blue shades of E beads - these all contribute to an icy, shimmery piece of jewelry!! Foil-lined glass beads are enormously versatile - it's one of the reasons that I like working with them.

 

This looks vintage (but it isn't) ... shades of pinks, violets, and mauves in different faceted forms, strung on pink thread - very ladylike! This one is an adjustable choker - I don't usually do necklaces this short, but it looks elegant right at the base of the throat.

And this one is vintage: blue faceted beads, pear-shape frosty ones, and ruffles (one of my favorite shapes in beads,  and I haven't seen them in years) ...

I got a bit carried away here ... I was poking around in my bead boxes, and I found myself with a handful of lampworked glass beads in various colors, each with gold or silver glitter. So I started playing with them, and I found a box of copper-lined E beads to set them off. But the necklace wasn't long enough, so I started adding vintage crystals of various shapes and coatings, and by the time I was done, I found myself with a long rope of lots of glitter - all it needs is something dressy in just about any color!!

Doing My Colors

Several decades ago, Color Me Beautiful was a fairly revolutionary concept, and of course I did my colors - being a brunette, it was no big surprise that I was a Winter: white, black, bright colors, silver jewelry, etc. The concept evolved, and a friend of mine who underwent the entire training process told me that actually I was not a 100% Winter but that I had a little Autumn mixed in there. Well, one of my grandmothers was a redhead, so that's not too surprising. And this fall, that Autumn side of me seems to be coming to the forefront!

These beads came from a shop in Prague last spring. I was in a jewelry/bead shop on the Place Wenceslas, and the stairs to the upper level were roped off, with a sign saying that there were more beads upstairs and ask the salesperson for help. So I asked the young woman in that part of the shop if she would open up the upstairs for me; her reply was along the lines of "was I really going to buy any beads (or was I just going to waste her time)"? Well, she had to follow me around with a basket to keep up with all the beads I was tossing at her, and yes, it was worth her time!

These oval slices of Czech glass are in all different tones of early autumn leaves, with just enough blue to recall a clear autumn sky! (I've lived in Brittany now for more than 15 years, and still the autumn is when I'm most nostalgic for the USA ... we do not have autumn color - when it stops being green here, it's pretty much brown!)

And this one is made up of a variety of glass beads, including red millefiori chunks, glass double pyramids that look like agates in reds and beiges with light striping, and little brown barrel-shaped glass beads to enhance the autumnal effect.

Of course, there are lots of other things sitting on the bead board, and not all of them are "Autumn" ... we're back at work, so stay tuned!

A Display Opportunity

It took me a very long time to figure out the best way to set up a display for shows. I was always looking for something out of the ordinary, which a lot of times ended up looking more bizarre than anything else. I admired the way other exhibitors artfully used large shells or wooden Christmas trees or an elegant suspension, but I finally realized that a set-up like that only worked if what was being presented was all the same style. In terms of style, my jewelry has lots of color, and that's about the only consistent theme. So what I have discovered is that I do best with black and white as a background and the simplest possible display pieces.

I am part of the retailers' group of Plomelin, the town I live in, and the local optician offered me the opportunity to do a window - couldn't pass that up! But I've never done a display window with my beads, and it took some thinking; luckily, his major display piece is white, and so my display forms fit right in. I had enough to select a dozen necklaces and a dozen pair of earrings (no bracelets this time, but I'm out of them anyway), but I had to ponder what extra touches to add. I finally came up with some silvered chunks that I had bought a box of to decorate for Christmas and never used, and those filled in the empty spaces on the shelves. To add visual appeal and to show off (frankly!), I took two square glass vases and filled them with all the rest of my necklaces. (I was tempted to just fill them with beads, but the idea of having to sort all those beads later was too overwhelming. In any case, getting all the necklaces out of my work space has given me a bit of time to reorganize!)

Then I had rather a difficult time getting a photo, as the glass window reflected everything. I managed to get a couple off-center this morning, finally, before the sun was shining directly on the window! I like driving by and seeing the window filled with my creations ...

A New Season

To wrap up the last post ... my mother and I took a splendid cruise together at the beginning of May down the blue Danube. I brought both necklaces with me and gave her first choice (of course, she had already read the post, so she was prepared!). She picked the one with the blocks of color, which is the one that I had put her preferred clasp on ...

Now the summer crafts season is starting, and I did a small show last week, for which it was necessary to show some new merchandise, since the potential clients all saw my stock last December. I decided to focus on bracelets:

The one on the top is a large-link bracelet with a toggle clasp - each link has attached to it an aluminum ring in a bright color with a large-hole bead in a very bright color. I sold it right away, and I think I'll have to make another one for myself! The third one down is the same basic bracelet but with a different kind of bead. The other two are charm bracelets, one with glass and sterling hearts (which continues to be one of my favorite forms) and the other with small rounds in assorted stones.

On the high tech front was this necklace, a chain mail variation done with aluminum links in black and hot pink and small rubber o-rings in purple and orange.

Below is a very interesting necklace (more interesting than the photo, perhaps ... ) of teardrop beads in a frosted silver gray with little color dots on them, interspersed with small beads in frosted colors. I haven't worn this one yet, but I'd like to put it on with red or blue.

I have another small show coming up next week, and then I want to do one good-sized crafts market this summer. I'm also planning to start selling on line ... stay tuned!