ellarien: red beads (beading)

Necklaces 35 and 36 Necklaces 35 and 36
Gold- and silver-tone chain; choker and 30+ inch necklace.



I needed to make something quick and pretty tonight, and mixed metals are supposed to be "in" right now.

Recycling

Nov. 8th, 2009 09:15 pm
ellarien: red beads (beading)

Necklace 34 Necklace 34
Tinted faux pearls from the 1980s, modern luster glass and metal spacers.



I had three rather sad strands of glass pearls from the early 80s, and I saw a necklace in a store that looked exactly like those three strands joined end to end. I fancied the idea up a bit with the luster glass; the hardest part was figuring out how to join an endless loop.
ellarien: red beads (beading)

Necklaces 32 and 33 Necklaces 32 and 33
Garnets and metal/silver plated spacers; blue aventurine likewise.
Bracelet 2 Bracelet 2
Silver plated chain and spacer bars; Swarovski crystal.



The bracelet is more satisfactory now that I've shortened the chain sections.

Unbookpost

Nov. 5th, 2009 09:39 pm
ellarien: red beads (beading)
We've had three days in a row of high temperatures around 90F, which is officially too hot for November even in these parts. There's a lot of tree pollen around, apparently, which probably helps to explain the way I've been feeling lately.

I have lots of ideas for jewelry, but the bracelet I'm working on at the moment isn't quite working out yet. It's about an inch too long, so that when fastened it can slip off over my hand with a little wriggling, and though I could fix that easily enough I'm not completely convinced the concept is a success. It's three strands with silver-plated spacer bars, with the middle section being little green Swarovski crystals and the rest being fine silver-plated chain. The problem -- apart from the length -- is that the crystal section is too stiff, with the stringing wire threaded double most of the way (after a mighty struggle to get the loops pulled snug at the second end), and the chain sections are too floppy and prone to twist. I think bracelets are harder than necklaces because the length is more critical, and also they have to bend more, particularly around my rather skinny wrists.

Update

Oct. 29th, 2009 09:48 pm
ellarien: red beads (beading)
I have reassembled the necklace, but I'm not sure the crimp is going to hold. Maybe it's just too much weight for a single strand and crimp, particularly with the pre-bent wire. I may have to wear it around the house for a while and see what happens, and maybe restring the whole thing with double wire, or even hook it together with looped pins.

The promised contractor appears to have cut a book-sized patch of drywall out of my bathroom wall and stuck it back with the local equivalent of polyfilla. So far so good on gurglings and eruptions, but I hope someone is going to reinstate the wall a bit better than it currently is.
ellarien: red beads (beading)
I wore this necklace today, or at least this morning, and it was working pretty well with the peat-colored cords and dark red sweater until I was walking to the lunch table in the University's swankiest restaurant -- the one where the faculty are waited on by nicely-dressed students -- with my boss and a bunch of out-of-town visitors. At that point one of the crimps let go, scattering beads in all directions. I think we recovered all the important ones and quite a lot of the spacers, and it wasn't a particularly formal group, but it was still embarrassing. By the looks of it, that crimp may never have been properly squished at all. I suppose I should be thankful it didn't succumb to gravity on the bus, or in the middle of the street.
ellarien: red beads (beading)

Necklace 31 Necklace 31
Black glass, hematite, black-and-white jasper, silver plated chain and filigree.

ellarien: red beads (beading)

Necklace 30 Necklace 30
Silver-plated rings.



More trendy than original, this one, but I quite like the effect.
ellarien: red beads (beading)
Sooner or later, my scientist/geek nature gets mixed up in my creative endeavors. At the moment, I have the urge to find or construct a balance accurate enough to let me construct an asymmetric necklace that hangs naturally where it's intended to, by weighing the already-constructed part and adding beads to the other side until it matches. I don't think my fifteen-year-old digital kitchen scale is up to the job; the postal scale in the employee lounge at work might be, but that would mean taking in a selection of loose beads, which is a lot of messing about ...

Bracelet

Oct. 16th, 2009 09:05 pm
ellarien: red beads (beading)

Bracelet Bracelet
Aventurine, murano-style glass, Swarovski crystal.



It fastens with two fairly hefty lobster clasps, which makes it a little awkward to get on and off, and it's definitely a special-occasions thing, but it's wearable.

Tuesday

Oct. 14th, 2009 12:16 am
ellarien: cactus (desert)
No rain here, nor any prospect of it. That doesn't seem to compute; usually when California gets a good storm we get at least some cloud and wind a couple of days later, but not this time, apparently. In fact, our temperatures are supposed to be heading up into the nineties again.

This evening's project is meant to be a rather trendy (and heavy) cuff bracelet, but I'm not yet happy with the way it closes, so no pictures until I decide whether it can be salvaged or whether it's just been a waste of chain and eye pins. I also have ambitions to essay one of the currently-fashionable necklaces with a sheaf of random chains, a strand or two of beads, and a cluster of charms. Trouble is, I'm not sure where or how I could wear such a thing. The summer necklaces were all carefully calibrated to work with low-necked summer dresses; I don't do low necklines in winter. (I probably wouldn't do them in summer if I could find enough high-necked dresses that worked.)

29

Oct. 8th, 2009 08:34 pm
ellarien: red beads (beading)

Necklace 29 Necklace 29
Amethyst and silver plating, rather chunkier than the other one.

ellarien: red beads (beading)

Necklace 28 Necklace 28
A chunky autumn medley of wood, glass, seeds and red agate.

ellarien: red beads (beading)

Necklace 25 Necklace 25
Glass, silver-plated chain



I had a bit of a break from beading over the summer, but I went shopping yesterday and discovered that Michael's have revamped their bead range ...
ellarien: red beads (beading)
"Aventurine" is not a very useful description of eye color. I have in my bead stash aventurine that is grass-green, pumpkin-orange, and smoky blue; I've seen but not purchased rich purple beads that were also labeled as aventurine, though I suspect those may have been dyed.
ellarien: red beads (beading)

Necklace 24 Necklace 24
Indian seed beads on thread.



My first venture into seed beads and thread. I'm not completely satisfied with the finishing, and it remains to be seen whether the glue-soaked knots will hold, but the basic idea has been in the back of my mind for months. That's twenty-four 15-inch strands, with at least a couple of hundred beads on each.

Shiny!

Jun. 15th, 2009 10:17 pm
ellarien: red beads (beading)
I treated myself to a little genuine Swarovski crystal, and it arrived today.


A handful of fire A handful of fire
Swarovski crystal: fire opal, topaz, light topaz



I'm not much for flash and glitter as a rule, preferring the subtler sheens and hues of natural semi-precious stones and shell, but these are rather lovely.
ellarien: red beads (beading)

Necklace 21 Necklace 21
Red poppy jasper, black spacers.

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Reading, writing, plant photography, and the small details of my life, with digressions into science and computing.

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