Byzantine in all its colored splendor!

The project: a 60" necklace in Byzantine weave, multi-colored but no black or silver. No problem for the weave ... Byzantine flows smoothly in the making, drapes well, and is generally quite a pleasant weave to work with from the creation point of view.

Multicolored: always an interesting challenge! As I have said more than once, random looks better when it has a little structure to it. The weave works up in pairs of rings, and 12 rings made a unit, so the colors need to be a different number to not fall into a regular pattern. I settled on five bright colors, five slightly pastel, and gold for accents. I set up a pattern to alternate the two sets of colors, and then I tried a random generator tool to place the various colors (which was interesting, but not very successful - however, it did take me back to my high school math days and probability and statistics problems!). The color placement needs to take into account where the colors fall when the necklace is doubled or tripled - that's the tough part! This was my color worksheet:

I was quite taken with the end result ...

... and so was my client!

New Chain Mail Weaves

I'm always interested in trying new weaves. At the same time, I have to pay attention to the size of my rings. Many/most weaves are more or less possible depending on the ratio between the wire gauge and the inner diameter of the ring. I don't have the space or the budget to stock all sizes (let alone all sizes in all colors!), so I try to stick with just a few sizes, which is probably just as well, as it keeps me focused.



I've been looking for new weaves for another project of mixed weaves (more later!), which took me first to this double spiral chain. It has to be done in three colors to see the effect. It's a hard weave to get started,but when it's on its way, it practically weaves itself. It uses bigger rings than I normally use, so it won't work for my project, but it's a nice chain to wear, and I'm planning to get this size ring in other colors. Because the rings are larger and the weave is a bit looser, it takes fewer rings for a completed piece. I'm pondering on how to do a rainbow chain with this one.

This weave, which has several names and I'll stick with inverted round, fits the bill nicely for my project. It uses the ring size I want and it has a round volume, which is to say that it is not a flat weave - it feels rather like a box weave. This particular necklace was also an experiment in overlapping blocks of color. The weave is tighter than many, so it uses more rings, and I had to make up a way to finish the ends, which seems to work.







Time to get to work on my new big project!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Just a small show Valentine's Day weekend, but it's an opportunity to play with hearts, one of my favorite shapes!

Frosted pink and white glass beads, old stock from a now-defunct Paris jewelry shop - what could be more Valentine's Day??

 These thick black glass hearts have an AB (aurora borealis) finish on one side - perfect with the silvered tubes in this memory wire bracelet.

Old Czech glass hearts with new Czech clear ovals ...

Foil glass hearts, in shades of black, silver, clear, and purple.

Can't forget the earrings!

And best of all, a few new "épingles de pardon"- after all, they are for sweethearts! (Check out my post about these traditional trinkets from Brittany - click here.) I was pleased to make one with all hearts!

Brin de Magie !

Two years ago I wrote about a Christmas market that was on a farm - it was a wonderful weekend but it was a one-time only affair. This year, with one of the organisers of that market, I have been working on a Christmas market (marché de Noël, in France) in the form of a pop-up shop in Quimper. Pop-up shops are a recent phenomenon in France, and they are still relatively rare out here in the provinces. Our shop will be called Brin de Magie ! (just like two years ago) - "a bit of magic!" - and we will be open for the three weeks before Christmas. We have grouped about 20 artists and craftspersons, as well as several not-for-profits who have hand-made items to sell from the countries with which they are associated, and some local authors. If your French is up to it, you can read about it all by clicking here or by checking out our Facebook page - at the very least, you can look at the pictures (and Like in French is J'aime, so don't hesitate!). We're posting new artists every day until we open, and we'll continue to post photos of events along the way.

And so of course I'm not just organizing, I'm selling too! I've been on a push this fall to prepare enough goodies for three weeks of sales (not that I really know what that is ... ). I'm really excited about new designs, and I've been pleased to be able to do some work with stones again - it's been a while. Working with stones is rather like building sculptures - there is something about the heft that develops the sense of working with your hands!

Malachite rectangles with blue and black agates.

Black stones in various forms.

Triangles in African jade, yellow jade, and dyed howlite.

Chunks of coral with black agate and quartz.

An assortment of stones!

And I found a project that I started a number of years ago that got me started with chain mail - I had a group of agate rings that I tried to put together in some kind of a necklace, but I never managed to make it work. Several years, lots of aluminum rings, and many pairs of pliers later, I have finally finished it, and here it is!

The Project

The project (for a client): create a 60" necklace in several chain mail weaves in metallic colors with a patchwork effect.

The calculations: balance of colors and weaves when the necklace is doubled or tripled. Rather fun working with felt-tips for design!

The choices:
*weaves that were roughly comparable in volume - chaos, orbital, byzantine;

*metallic colors - silver, gold, bronze, in various combinations;

*patchwork - using different colors for different weaves in different lengths.

The necklace: very exciting!

Doubled and tripled:

The clasp is a big ring, so one end of the necklace can be pulled through to do other things, like be wrapped into a knot. 

 

I spent at least four months pondering this project, but when it came together, it flowed - I can't wait to do another one! 

Chain Mail Again!

About three weeks ago, I was asked to participate in an outdoor art fair. I had about ten days' notice and nothing in stock. I thought it would be a good moment to try some of the display tips from a recent webinar that I followed, so I decided to offer only chain mail. I spent a week doing nothing but opening and closing rings and thinking about what could be a drop-dead eye-catcher piece.

The weather forecast for the Sunday of the art fair was ghastly, and Saturday morning I opened my e-mail to find that the fair had been cancelled, a wise decision as it turned out - the pouring rain and howling winds on Sunday morning were enough to keep any and everybody at home warm and dry. I'm very philosophic about this sort of thing - making the jewelry was time well spent, as it gives me more stock for the next show (though I didn't get to try out my idea for an eye-catcher).

So I did pastels ... interesting to see how the same colors have a different effect according to the weave and the color distribution. The byzantine necklace on the left is made with square wire rings, whereas the chaos weave one on the right is made with round wire rings - the square wire has more reflective surfaces and so it glitters more.

And I had some interesting glass pendants to play with ...

I'm delighted to have found these large metal beads again - they go perfectly with the aluminum rings!

  

The box chain uses as much as 50% more rings than some of the other chains because the weave is tight.

And this flat weave is very elegant ...

A friend of mine who has done all the color training tells me that purple is a color that most people can wear, and I love all the colors that it mixes with.

And finally, there is always something new to play with! The idea for this one has been lurking in the back of my mind for a while. It's a simple chain with larger square wire rings linked through chain links, in a mix of colors. When I finished one "layer" of colored rings, I wondered what I would get if I picked up the alternate chain links and added another layer - and here's what happened!

Thinking about Bill

From time to time, people ask me to restring a necklace and, in the process, to redesign it - the French call this "re-looking" (the word applies to any "redo", whether clothing, furnishings, or whatever). It's something I enjoy doing, because usually the pieces are old and I get a chance to handle interesting beads from another era or culture. And because I'm working with someone specific in mind, it provides an opportunity to reflect on that person while I work.

So a friend asked me to restring a necklace that her husband Bill had made for her. The clasp was scratching her, making the necklace uncomfortable to wear. As long as I was doing that, she wanted to add some silver beads to the mix; at the same time, there were design elements, like double strands in places, that she particularly liked and wanted to keep.

Bill died two years ago. I didn't know him as much as I would have liked. I only knew him at group gatherings, where he didn't say much but didn't miss much either. I knew from things that my friend told me in passing that Bill was competent in whatever he undertook to do, that he had an artistic bent, and that he was very manual.

The necklace arrived in the mail, and I unwrapped it. Old Indian trade beads were the focus, a real treat for me, since it was the first time I had ever handled any. And what a surprise! Bill and I were kindred spirits in the design department: what I like to call a studied asymmetry. His color sense was very appealing, particularly the little touches of blue. I too liked his double strands - they added texture to the piece. Furthermore, Bill's stringing technique was excellent, and the problem with the clasp he would have fixed with just a little snip of his wire cutters if he were still alive.

After Bill died, I learned more about him. He was a real cowboy who made his own way in the world, doing construction and wood-working along the way. This led to an encounter with an artist from whom he took lessons, where he met his future wife. They were married in six weeks and were together almost 50 years when he died. During those 50 years, they developed an eclectic assortment of interests, from Indian arts to travel to poodles. I think everything they did together was an adventure shared and a richer experience because of it.

For this necklace, I wanted to leave the essence of Bill, his design, and his work, so I decided to restring it in pretty much the same way he had, simply replacing some of the beads with silver ones. I also wanted to make sure that all the original beads in the necklace were returned to my friend, because Bill chose them for her, so I used the ones I took out of the necklace to make a pair of earrings in somewhat of an Indian style, and the few that remained ended up on a small ring with fillers to use on a keychain or as an amulet or however she would like.

I can see Bill clearly in my mind: wiry, weathered, in jeans, smoking a cigarette. And under my fingers, I was able to touch a little of Bill, connecting just a bit to his artistic spirit. I couldn't do much for my friend when Bill died - there are thousands of miles between us geographically. But at least I could give her back Bill's necklace ready to wear again - I think Bill would approve of my work.