Oldies

Here are some things I made some time ago.
Thinking of spring, I called the wire necklace.

The green brooch is called 'Whisper in her ear', a fimo cab I made (Fimo and I are not friends, I can tell you. Alas.) surrounded by seed beads emulating Malachite.

Spring will come, it will, it will (clap your hands everybody, please!). The snake may whisper about immortality and knowledge, but let's hope Eve can deal with all that without losing her marbles, remembering the green of paradise.

Beaded beads

Somehow I can't get myself to start on a larger project. Beaded beads are in the air and all over internet, nice little projects that can carry a lot of energy. I made some. This is my latest, garnets and miyuki cubes with a lovely blue-ish gold finish that goes very well with the reds. With thanks to Natasha for inspiring me!

Holly

Another wire pendant. I was trying to make an acceptable netted wire bezel on an open frame, and this came out.
The picture itself was a bit of a surprise, because within the glass stones there are all kinds of lively creatures.
Holly, it's definitely a She, green with red berries and swirls the colour of the naked branches of the poplars around my house when the sun rises. Ho ho ho, a very early Merry Winter Solstice everyone :)))

Sign of Life

After a long absence at last a sign of life. I have not been very productive lately, but hope to make amends over the winter.
Not that I have been completely idle. I am working on a thingy for a contest at the Beadwork Forum and that one is coming on nicely but no pics allowed.
And I have been playing with wire. Wire is such a nice change from squinting at thread that just won't go through a needle and teenie tiny beads that fall all over the place.
Here are two things I made.
First there's the last one :), a freeform with a glass opalite-esque bead, a chip of some light green stone and some glass beads.

The other one is a bracelet made of jasper beads and copper wire. The copper has aged nicely, I like it looking dull like this for now but who knows I might polish it up and make it shine.

And now you also know what book I have been reading lately:))) Tiffany rocks!

Dark to new moon

A freeform in the moon series I have been working on. I will post it now, since I have already posted it on Deviant Art and Beadwork Forum, but really should make a separate item of the moons in their proper order with their properties and associations. This then is a freeform with a slab of mother of pearl, how moonlike can you get, with seed beads in a wonderful finish and three of my hoarded baroque sweet water pearls. I love those pearls with their irregular shapes!
Dark to new moon, the earth in PMS, loose and wild and free, crying out old pains to find the path to Ariel, unpeel dead hands, dead stringencies. God's Lioness, how one we get! My favorite time of the month really, all those soaring emotions. But hell for anyone around me.

New wirework

Next to a seed bead project that proceeds very very slowly I have been playing with wire again. After having worked on a basis of trial and error I decided I might buy a book to give me a little more to go on and teach me new techniques that I could not figure out from pictures of finished jewellery on the web. Some time ago I came across Sharilyn Miller's blog and really fell for her Elemental Necklace (among other things). Scrutiny of the pictures revealed that there must be a frame hidden underneath all that riot of stones and pearls, that the stones themselves were set in simple basket weave, but how did it all come together? and what gauge to use to carry such a heavy load? etc. So I ordered a book from her hand. A few days ago it came in the mail, and even though I did not have the right wire - believe me, when she says 'dead soft' don't try half hard! - I went ahead and made Something. Tomorrow I will give it to my sister so this is a goodbye picture.

I don't usually follow a tutorial design, but this time I did because it's such a cool, timeless pin. To age it, I held it in a flame. Now it looks as if it has been buried for a long time, an archeological find. In the Allard Pierson museum here in Amsterdam you can find similar pins, from Roman sites. I am quite taken with it, hope my sister - yes, she the Goddess of Felting - will like it and give it a place of honour on one of her fabulous scarves. Another goodbye picture, but this one I will make again for my own pleasure (and probably some more to sell).

Finally a pair of earrings I made some time ago. I love the combination of copper and green, and the glass hearts just needed to be put into some kind of earring. A spring love theme, leaves and hearts.

Cuff

Everyone makes cuffs. Somehow it's something you just have to do, if you don't you're not a real beader. So I "had" to make a cuff.