Year of Jewelry Project, Week 31 - At The Beach

The theme for this week in the Year of Jewelry Project was right up my alley - At The Beach!  That has Sherri written all over it.  And as if that weren't motivation enough, a customer sent me this sea star palette (by Design Seeds) and asked if I could make her a bracelet in those colors.  Boy howdy!  I started by pulling cord and beads from my stash.  I had a pretty good matching selection of cord, a ton of seed beads and several fun things.  Those pale green beads are vintage (pre-WWII) Japanese.  The glass flower headpin is by Amy Sutton, the owl and the round pendant next to it is by my friend Shelley Graham of Tori Sophia, and the fabulous seahorse and fish ceramics are by Sheri Mallery of Slingin' Mud.  I told you this palette played right into my hand.

I started out using the colors in a pattern of deep waves.  I do love the way the orange color makes everything else pop.  But the waves got me thinking... and I decided to try something different.  I used a wave pattern, but in cord colors graduating from the deepest teal up through the soft greenish color and then into the sandy tan.  When I added beads, I kept them random, again mimicking the colors of deeper water with highlights up through the foamy green and into the sand.  

And for the finishing touch, I added a little orange howlite sea star bead on the chain.

I had such fun with this palette.  I'm keeping this bead and cord out and I hope to make more pieces in these colors and hopefully incorporate one of the artist's beads.  I'll keep you posted.  But for now, I'm putting a done stamp on Year of Jewelry Week 31 - nailed it!

My Favorite Color in Micro Macrame and Giveaway Winner!

This week's theme for the Year of Jewelry Project is "My Favorite Color" and the instructions are to make a piece of jewelry in a color that rocks your world.  There was no question which color I would choose.  I'm just a teal sort of gal.  I did want to have a little fun with it, though, so instead of using one or two colors, I used six colors of cord and five colors of seed beads to knot this micro macrame bracelet.  And added a seahorse charm just because.

I really like how the colors move through the bracelet.  As a little experiment, I made one in white, too.  The two pieces look very different, even though the pattern is the same.  What a difference color makes!

And now for the big announcement!  The winner of this kit & the eClass to go along with it (insert drum roll here)...

And the winner is:  Crystal Thain!!!  Congratulations, Crystal!  If you didn't win this kit and class, don't despair!  I have more kits listed in my Etsy shop and the eClass is available at CraftArtEdu.com.

Happy Birthday, America!

I just love the 4th of July.  I love summertime and the 4th seems to epitomize all that is summer.  Sunny days, blue skies and lush green grass.  Family and picnics.  Small town parades and children with sticky watermelon faces.  And I'm a sap for anything patriotic, so there you have it!  The theme for this week in The Year of Jewelry is "Celebrating my Country", which is right up my alley.

Are you reaching for your lemonade?  Does it remind you of a flag waving on a slow, hot breeze?  Or bunting draped on the grandstands?  

I love to make jewelry created around a theme or color scheme like this.  I can't paint and I can't draw, so this is my artistic outlet.  My mom, on the other hand, sews.  She used to paint, but now that she's discovered quilting, I don't think she'll ever go back.  She uses fabric to express herself and evoke a feeling or a mood, and I don't even know if she's aware of that.  This is her take on patriotic:

Isn't it beautiful?  The movement and the shading of the color values all work so well together.  

One last patriotic piece and I'll leave you to enjoy your holiday.  This piece doesn't have a single bead in it.  Isn't it amazing what you can do with some cord and some knots?

I hope you have a safe and fun 4th!

Year of Jewelry Week 25 - Solstice

The theme for The Year of Jewelry this week is solstice.  Festivities can involve wearing crowns of flowers and celebrating the fertility of the earth.  One Swedish tradition involves a woman gathering seven different kinds of flowers from seven different gardens and putting them under her pillow so she will dream about her future spouse.  I couldn't think of a more perfect piece to represent the summer solstice than this floral pendant by Ke Robinson.  

Ke's paintings are extravagantly full of color and unabashed celebration.  Her pelican paintings are magical and her aquatic scenes are enchanting.  I'm a total fan of her work, can you tell?  Go look at her Facebook page.  I'll wait here for you.  You'll be glad you did, I promise.

You're back?  Was I right?  When Ke offered to send me one of her beads, I jumped on the opportunity!  And I wasn't disappointed.  Her polymer clay pieces are every bit as whimsically colorful as her paintings.  

After a couple of false starts, I came up with this design.  Oh, you want to see what I didn't like?  Okay, hold  on...

See those snippets off to the left?  Those are tries one and two.  I just wasn't satisfied with the colors in either of them - they were either too insipid for the pendant or fighting for attention.  I finally settled on a chartreuse green and dark greenish blue combination that makes me think of sunlight and shadows on foliage.  I did a spiral knotting technique to produce a fairly substantial necklace and added two more of Ke's beads in fuchsia for an unexpected pop of color along the way.

I used some brass end caps to finish the ends and added a length of chain to make the necklace adjustable.  A lobster clasp just didn't seem special enough, so I fashioned a hook from some brass wire.  A little Vintaj leaf finishes off the chain.

And thank you, Ke, for letting me design with one of your pieces!

Micro Macrame Earrings - Week 23 of The Year of Jewelry

I can't believe we're up to Week 23 of The Year of Jewelry already, but it's true.  One new piece of jewelry, every week, for a year.  No problem!  The suggested theme for this week was Twins, but I always have to be me - just a little bit "off" from the rest.  I decided to make earrings, but just for fun, I added the interesting little twist of different cord colors.  Well, not actually different cord colors - I just reversed the cord colors.  So one pair had green cord with a pop of purple and the other has purple with green.  

I can't believe how different they look with only that one change.

The beads are all the same, I swear.  Anyway, that's my take on "Twins".  Oh, and if you're diggin' the purple and green color scheme, check out the matching bracelet here!

Year of Jewelry Week Week 22 and a Lesson on Bead Cord for Knotting

Our theme for this week at the Year of Jewelry is Circles, Squares, Triangles and I found this great bangle with a square bezel to inspire me.  I used Superlon MICRO bead cord to make an itty bitty piece of macrame, and believe me, keeping that tiny stuff straight is a challenge.  I used 42 cords to make this piece and it's slightly under 1.5".

To give you some perspective, let me show you the four different weights of Superlon cord:

The first spool in turquoise is the S-lon Micro Bead Cord.  It has a diameter of .115mm and there are 287 yards on that spool.  The next spool in blue is Superlon (or S-lon) Fine Bead Cord.  It's somewhere between the Micro and the plain old bead cord and has 118 yards on a spool.  The lilac colored cord spool is the stuff just called Bead Cord (no micro or fine in the title).  This is the weight that I usually use for micro macrame.  It's .5mm and there are 77 yards on that spool.  The last spool in chartreuse is the Superlon Tex 400 cord.  It's .9mm and comes in a 35 yard spool.

The bead cord was the first weight introduced and is available in the most colors.  It will go through most 11/0 seed beads once (as long as you are using quality seed beads like Miyuki or Toho).  The weight and size are really nice for the jewelry pieces I usually make.

The heavier Tex 400 cord is almost twice the thickness of the regular stuff.  It works well for pieces like multi strand necklaces and for bigger, chunkier pieces.  

 

Fine bead cord isn't that much smaller than the regular bead cord, but it feels very different in finished pieces.  Bracelets made with this cord are more flexible and feel more "slinky", if that makes any sense.  

Micro cord is almost like thread.  It is really small.  I can't imagine trying to knot a whole piece using this weight of cord, but it is excellent for fine detail work and makes awesome focal pieces.  I did the same pattern for the pieces in the next photo, but used Tex 400 for the ecru colored one, regular bead cord for the one in purples and micro cord for the little piece. 

There.  Now you're an expert on bead cord and you can better appreciate the fact that the macrame piece on this bangle is 1" square.

Year of Jewelry Week 21 - Cuffs for All

 

The theme for Week 21 of the Year of Jewelry was Cuffs for All.  I had difficulty coming up with a macrame piece without a closure/clasp, so my take on a cuff?  A bracelet that fits like a cuff.

I've been making some pieces use the Superlon fine bead cord - it's almost half the size of the cord I usually work with, which is pretty tiny.  It does, however, allow me to use more cords in my designs without the resulting piece being too big and clunky.  I made this design by adding a couple of cords running through the center of my zigzag bracelet and I really like the effect.

I am loving the color combination, too.  I love to pair chartreuse with different things, but this green and purple is a classic.  I did do another bracelet in this design my usual size bead cord.  How's this for some summery color?

And from that, I made these:

Yes, I've been a busy bee.  And I still have lots more ideas, so stay tuned!

Playing Catch-Up

I've been juggling quite a few things lately, not the least of which is this little guy - my grandson, Carter.  When it comes to choosing between making jewelry and playing with him, he wins ever time, so I've gotten a bit behind on posting my Year of Jewelry projects.  I have been making them, though, all except for the personal talisman one from several weeks ago that I'm still pondering.  Anyway, Week 19 was My Favorite Flower and I made an appropriately floral piece:

I had June brides in mind when I made this bracelet.  It's knotted in white superlon bead cord and accented with white Toho seed beads in different finishes and sizes.  The cascade of lucite roses puts it over the top, I think.

The theme for Week 20 was Made in 10 Minutes.  Whew - this one was hard for me!  I can't even cut the cords for a pair of earrings in much less than that, so micro macrame was out.  I tried a couple different pairs of earrings and they were okay, but nothing special.  I just don't feel like I've put in an effort if it only takes 10 minutes - KWIM?  And then... it hit me...  

I made a prototype tennis racquet string ankle bracelet for my tennis playing daughter a couple of months ago.  Since then she's been wearing it non-stop.  She wears it to her morning workouts three days a week and to tennis practice every day after school.  She wears it in the shower and through all day tennis tournaments.  This baby has been through the wringer!  The clasp is magnetic, but also has a twist lock so it is pretty secure.  It has come unfastened a couple of times over the weeks, but given what it's gone through, I think that's pretty good!

So my Made in 10 Minutes Week 20 project was to make some non-prototype anklets.  I used three colors of string in different solids and combinations and made a handful:

Which took longer than ten minutes *sigh*.  But I could have made one in ten minutes, probably, so I'm counting it.  Week 20 - Done!

Year of Jewelry Week 18 - Pantone 2013

The "assignment" for this week in the Year of Jewelry was to make something in one of the Patone colors for 2013.  I chose Vivacious, a bright shade of fuchsia which is part of the  Pantone Fall 2013 Color Report.  I wanted to do some ombre shading, so I chose the cord range in the photo above.  So far, so good.

 I messed around with the curvy pattern again - its sinuous lines really intrigue me and the shading is such fun.  If you follow my blog and saw my last crash and burn on this pattern, you'll be glad to see I started with LOTS of cord this time.  (If you don't read my blog regularly, you can find out what I'm talking about in this post.)

Oh, and the "failure" piece?  You don't have to worry about him any more - he found a home with a lady who has a 5.25" wrist.  All's well that ends well.

Organically Yours - Year of Jewelry Week 17

 

Our theme for this week for the Year of Jewelry was Organically Yours.  I stink at free-form business, so I decided to take the organic theme literally.  My dad made some antler buttons and some antler tip pendants for me a while back and I thought this would be the perfect project for them.  I painted a couple of lines on the pendant to add some color and interest, and then I sanded most of it back off to keep it looking weathered and rustic.

I wanted just a little more color, so I added a cool recycled glass bead from Ghana.  I love the imperfections in the glass.

My usual nylon cord just didn't seem right for this project, so I dug deep and pulled out some hemp.  It just isn't consistent enough for fussy micro macrame pieces, but it's exactly what this piece needed.

Oh, and those two beads in that last photo?  Bone.  Then one of Dad's buttons for a closure to finish it off.

And there you have it:  Organically Yours.

Year of Jewelry Week 14 - It's Egg-citing Beadweaving Bracelet

OK, OK.  If you've been following my Year of Jewelry exploits, you might realize that I skipped a week.  Week 13 was to make a personal talisman and I just haven't found the perfect piece yet.  Meanwhile, the weeks were starting to pass me by, so I skipped ahead to Week 14 - It's Egg-citing.  And yes, I should have had this piece done last week and I should be working on the piece for this week, but that theme is The Fibonacci Sequence which has me totally baffled, so I floundered a bit.  

All that aside, let me tell you about this bracelet.  The theme was eggs, as in decorated Easter eggs.  I went with circular patterns and used spring colors that would be right at home on an Easter egg.

Let me tell you, this was slow going.  And by that, I mean it took FOREVER.  Eons, at least.

It's a fun piece, though, and I like the outcome.

Now I just have to figure out how to use the Fibonacci Sequence in jewelry.  Uh huh.