New designs and an Announcement!

Hi everyone,

Would you believe that I am coming up on my 1,000th blog post!!!  Yeah, I don't believe it either and I suddenly feel really, really old LOL!

Anyway, I'm planning something a bit special (hopefully) for that post and I could use some input.  If I could please impose on you to take a quick survey to give me some feedback, it will help me decide what shape the bit 1,000 mark celebration will take.  I have a permanent link over there on the top of the right-hand nav bar or you can click here to take survey.

I'll leave the survey open for the next week or so and as extra added incentive, if you take the survey AND leave a comment, I'll pick a random winner for a bead-related prize!  Of course, your comment has to give me some way to identify/contact you so keep that in mind.

And if you've seen any of my bead porn posts, you know I can definitely BRING IT when it comes to prize materials.

Okay, enough with the business.  On to the photos:

 

 

 

I'm starting to make use of some of the components I've created with my experiments.  These brass scarab charms were painted with nail polish.  I've wired them to capiz shell disks (which in real life match the purple on the scarab but are looking a little more blue in the photos than they actually are) and then I added some matte green lampwork beads and vermeil spacers.

 

 

 

 

These earrings started with abalone teardrops.  I chose bronze Mykonos ceramic tubes to pick up the brown matrix in the abalone and then added tiny faceted purple Czech glass rondelles, vermeil spacers and lavender rubber rings.

 

 

 

These brass sand dollar charms were painted with two shades of nail polish and then sanded to reveal some of the original brass.  I added turquoise capiz shell disks, matte lavender lampwork beads and vermeil spacers.

 

 

 

 

These brass fans were coated with gesso and then painted with various shades of alcohol inks.  Once they were dry, I adde a few streaks of metallic gold alcohol ink as a highlight.  They were then sprayed with a sealant and rubbed with preservation wax.  I added matte teal lampwork beads, gold Mykonos ceramic "gear" spacers and vermeil spacers. 

 

 

This necklace is something I've been struggling with for a while.  This is probably about the fifth iteration of the design and while it's not as spectacular as I would have liked, I think I've at least reached the point where I'm okay with the finished design.  I keep having to remind myself that not everything has to be earth-shatteringly innovative every single time and that I can't let the pursuit of elevating my skill and creativity become a negative force that stifles my process.

 

 

 

 

The center focal is a lovely ceramic pendant from Tracee Dock that I have been hoarding for a long time.  It is deceiving in that you have to look closely to pick up some of the more subtle colors in it, but it has everything from a leafy yellow-green to deep teal and blue to pale pink to lavender and even some tiny spots of a beigy-yellow.

 

 

The first version of the design had sections of turquoise spike dangles in the front to mimic the "ray" effect on the pendant, but it was too messy-looking and distracted from the beauty of the focal.  Then I replaced those sections with the green shell and rose quartz which was sleeker, but still not satisfying.  I finally realized that I was picking up too many of the paler colors so I replaced those that were at the front of the necklace with some deeper teal/blue/green azurite rondelles.

 

 

 

The chain is a darker, patinated copper and the clasp is a Patricia Healey copper toggle that has been heat-patinated.