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.

From Beyond :)

A good omen for the day! Thanks to the Lady of Lost and Found!

Found on A Path to Spirit, a great surprise to colour my day in blues and greens.

Wire

Sooner or later beadwork leads to a fling with wire. If only to make bead fringe, or clasps, you can't ignore wire for long.
And I saw such wonderful things with wire that my fingers itched to give it a try. Putting beads on a head pin was familiar stuff, my sister gave me a pair of chain nose pliers and some wire for my birthday when I was a teen. But coiling, twisting, was another matter. And I had these lovely stones lying around that just were not flat enough to use in beadwork.
A lot of trial and error followed once I had decided to try and make real real beadwork pendant. I made one using a bead and Szilviabead's excellent tutorial on Deviant Art. But how to bezel? I studied pictures, tried the classic three-wire bezel (which I did not like, too many loose ends to wrap up) and the good old puzzle wrap. And a netted bezel, this one. It's far from perfect, just as the stone is far from perfect - it's chipped on the back side. But I liked it, broken stone and broken wire becoming whole. This one I often wear. The wire is silver plated so sooner or later the copper underneath will show through, to give it a warm glow. That will only add to the charm of it, like a few gray hairs or wrinkles give a face warmth and personality. "Be whole again" I wrote when I put this one in my Deviant Art gallery. And that's what it means.
Silver plated wire, glass beads, a freshwater pearl, and a lovely fluorite.

Mother of Pearl

Ahh this one makes me nostalgic. My first mother of pearl pendant. True, there's a definite Triz influence here, but the way I found to make these pretty but irregular vintage facet beads lie the way I wanted them to was my own invention.
My sister models here. It was in those days of confusion when my sisters visited regularly to keep an eye on things and me. I had just finished this pendant, made with a beautiful mother of pearl cab. She tried it on, for the picture, and I had a hard time getting it back! Later I made another one for her, different but roughly the same technique.
And this one was the first beaded pendant I sold. I put this picture on my facebook page and the next day I Had Mail. Now the pendant's alive and well and living in Bruxelles.