Irish Eyes Are Smiling

St. Patrick's day finds us once again over in California and will be having a traditional cornbeef and cabbage dinner at my Niece's house with her and her family. It's always a fun time, only usually my sis is there - snapping away with her camera - catching us all in our green clothes, jewelry and funny glasses - but this isn't the case this year.  I guess we'll have to take our own pics!!

Okay, so last week, after fighting with my tumbler and pulling items from it in every imaginable color - except the bright, shiny silver I was trying for - I decided to bench the silly thing and just go with this beautiful, shiny copper just the way it was! Although it would have been really cool looking had it been oxidized with LOS and them polished up - but, it is what it is!

Week 10 of YOJP 2011 had a theme of "Irish Eyes Are Smiling".  I was inspired to try a design I saw in the Fall issue of Belle ( page 48 - Intention Earrings) but I varied the design slightly as I did not hand stamp any 'intention words' into the hammered copper sheet that I wire wrapped with recycled sari silk ribbon.  I did wire wrap some small new jade roundelles and attach them on the ends so they could dangle freely, adding to the movement of they "Eye Catching" earrings!  I completed the look with my own handcrafted, artisan earring wires in my 'Signature Style' and now that everything is finished, I'm quite pleased with the end result.

You should skip on over to the YOJP 2011 Website and check out all the fabulous designs that folks are making - they're amazing!! 

I hope your St. Patrick's Day is filled with all the green things you can handle (and handle responsibly!!) and that you have a wonderful time with family and friends.

Until Next Time,

Peace, Love and Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

Cheers,

~Shel~

Winter Enchantment – Windswept Dreams Necklace

Our assignment this time around for the Artbeads.com blogging challenge, was the theme “Winter Enchantment” and I found some nice items to try – and boy are they cool!

This project, by the way, is also doubling as my YOJP 2011 Week 9 Entry this week – with the theme being “Windswept”.

I had a ball with this cause I was really jazzed to try out some of the Swarovski Crystal beaded yarns. Here’s what I got:

• Swarovski Crystal 3mm Crystal Beads White Cashmere Yarn

• Swarovski Crystal 3mm Jet Beads Black Cotton Yarn

• Swarovski Light Grey Mohair Yarn with 3mm light grey pearls (ya knew there be pearls in there somewhere, didn’t cha!!?)

• Swarovski Crystal Hematite Mohair Yarn with 3mm hematite beads.

These were really fun to work with. All were soft, and the mohair and cashmere ones are really ‘fuzzy’ and remind me of nice, warm winter sweaters! They would be great to make little “Barbie” necklaces with. Yes, I even make jewelry for Barbie once in a while….I’m such a dork!

I really am a dork, because I forgot to snap my ‘before’ pics when I take all my goodies out of the bag and you get to see everything lined up before I start creating – sorry about that.


For my necklace focal bead I chose a 28mm Jet Swarovski Crystal Twist Pendant – boy does this have some heft to it! LOVE IT! And, the toggle I chose - since I was doubling this for my windswept theme for Week 9 of YOJP 2011 – was this spiral (swirly wind!) Tierracast Spiral Toggle Clasp.

I like the Tierracast toggle design and since it’s light weight (it’s silver plated not true sterling) it feels nice on the back of your next and doesn’t press down on your neck bones in the back. I know that sounds weird,…but trust me,…it’s important!

I gathered up these lovely little, fabulously fuzzy yarns with their tiny little beads and wire wrapped the ends, sliding them into some plain sterling silver cones that I purchased from my friends over at BeadWorld here in Glendale. I also got the nice sterling silver bail that’s holding the Swarovski Crystal pendant on at BeadWorld as well!

I added the pendant and the toggle clasp to the layers of Swarovski yarns and ‘Ta-da’ – it’s a “Winter Enchantment, Windswept Dream!” (it’s more of a little winter enchantment, fluffy, fuzzy looking type of dream necklace than any windswept necklace, but whatcha gonna do!?!) But, it still looks rather ‘Winter-ish’, don’t you think?

I’m really thankful to the folks over at Artbeads.com. I’ve been ordering from them for over 5 or 6 years now and their items are really great, shipping is fast, and their prices are some of the best around. You definitely can’t beat that these days – that’s for sure!

Until Next Time,
Peace, Love, Winter Enchantment and Windswept Dreams of Spring Coming Soon!!
Cheers,

~Shel~

FTC compliance disclosure: the Artbeads.com items mentioned in this post were provided as a promotional gift as part of the Blogging for Beaders Program. These items are for review or design purposes.

Week 8 - YOJP 2011 - The Goddess Freya

Week 8 for YOJP 2011 was the theme “Gods and Goddesses – Freya” and since I can’t really hammer stuff comfortably just yet, I wire wrapped little ‘Freya’ here instead. (I did pick up the hammer and smack her around just slightly – but don’t tell anyone!)

Actually, Freya’s not so little. She measures just a smidge over 2 ½ inches and has two, super gorgeous freshwater cultured pearls and a tiny turquoise nugget bead – all showing themselves off to the world. Created with sterling silver 18g and 24g dead soft round wires, I have chosen this time to give you a small glimpse of my process here – so no laughing at my drawings! (My sis is the artist,…not me!)

Here’s the picture of one of the drawings. See how it looks NOTHING like what “Freya” actually turned out to be? Yep,…that happens pretty much all the time in exactly this same fashion! Then, I took some shots of her ‘naked’ – before she was given a dark patina with liver of sulfur. I kinda like her naked and shiny but she looks more dramatic after she’s been LOS’d. Not sure yet how I’m going to hang this pendant, or from what? Any suggestions?

Two things I learned while creating “Freya”. One: My wire wrapping skills have started to really go down hill and I definitely need to brush up a bit with some online tutorials over at JewelryLessons.com or Beaducation.com, to name a couple. Two: I might draw a pic or something, but I don’t write down all my steps, processes, etc. every time (like some artists I know) and I do things differently each time, even when it’s the same type of design, so creating a tutorial or class on this would be a slight challenge, but something I must get back in the practice of doing again!

I hope you’ve enjoyed Freya – the Goddess of Love and Fertility. She is a beautiful site (to me anyway!) and has her own special personality – just as the ‘real’ Freya does, too!

Until Next Time,

Peace, Love and all Goddesses RULE!

Cheers,

~Shel~