Whimsy Wednesday!!

Hello!
Today's Whimsy Wednesday is going to be a little different! It is going to be a two-part blog post, with the second entry capturing the finished creation for Fini Friday!

Today I was playing with cord and beads that I purchased some time ago with a particular idea in mind and find that all is now in order to finish the design! I am still enchanted with the idea that these particular materials sparked. Let me show you:


The glass beads are very organic, hand-made beads from India and I loved the raw textures, including the speck of material that mixed in with the glass while it was fired in the bead to the right. See it?
They reminded me of ocean glass. Paired with the copper rubber cord, which reminded me of well-worn drift wood, or perhaps the wood of an antique treasure chest.... However, and here is where the whimsy comes in, the two things I delighted me the most is that because the beads are both translucent and fit over the cord, they can slide freely AND that beautiful copper colour is visible through those ethereal beads!
See? Here is a photo with more cord showing between the beads...


And so both to wrap this up and set a little intrigue for the next post, I'll give you a sneak peek at the next step towards the finished creation...


You've seen that popcap pendant before in my previous Whimsy Wednesday post experimenting with colored resin.
The popcap is a perfect match for the peach glass beads and the green glass brings out the sparkling green and blue resin! I can't wait to show you what it has grown into on Friday!
See you then!

Fini Friday!

Here we are again at Friday!
I'm squeezing this in-between a bit of work on several different projects and today's post is a glimpse into my creative process. This created started with the hand-stamped lucite pendant with the image of the fabulous woman with the wild hair! I *knew* I had to create something with her.. not the least of which is that she reminds me just a bit of Cyndi Lauper, whom I adore and admire!
At the same time, I picked up the Swarovski crystal pendants that you see hanging off the lucite floral link. They reminded me of jewels of the old Wild, Wild West and were a perfect accent for this deliciously modern, yet art noveau or old west saucy lady! Just recently, I snapped up the lucite floral link, as it is wonderfully detailed and vibrant by itself and I knew it would be a perfect compliment to our heroine. The very interesting and detailed chain you see was also a recent acquisition and I love it when all the materials come together!!!
However, here are the two options I am currently debating...
You see.. the red of the two lucite pieces is really quite an unusual color and so I am debating whether or not the "Light Siam" Swarovski crystal yarn is really a good enough match for it...as you see here


The other alternative is the chain that you see below.. though I would probably add Jet Swarovski bicone beads to give some flash, interest and detail.


So, though this is not a finished piece, there is much progress!!!
I'd love to hear your opinion(s) about which to use - the fiber or the chain and other ideas that you have!

And I'll be certain to show you the finished creation when it is complete!

Have a wonderful weekend!!!

Winter Enchantment!

That's the title of ArtBeads Blog Partners Design Theme and the title of the creation I'm about to unveil!
I've been blessed to have some absolutely gorgeous days (and nights) abounding with winter splendor and I've been storing up that inspiration. I knew I wanted an asymmetrical design, focused on this Antique Brass Fairy Link Charm and offset by the stunning Antique Brass Filigree Snowflake and the beautifully mysterious Antique Brass Vined Heart Link. The Antique Brass tones are reminiscent of the dormant trees and vegetation that peeks out from underneath the glitter of the snow. My color scheme was born! I knew there was no better representation of that incomparable sparkle than Swarovski crystal and so chose Swarovski Margarita and Teardrop Crystal beads. Just to add a little whimsy, I included Leaf Chain in Silver and 4-Leaf Clover Chain in Silver!

As you might recall, I experimented with coloring resin last week and was thrilled that the hand-painting on the Fairy Wings and Clasp turned out so beautifully!
Take a look!



See the icy blue-green on the Fairy's wings? And the flowers sparkling on the clasp? That's the hand-painting I mentioned!

This creation took longer than I anticipated as the design changed and grew while it was coming to life!
For instance, see the chain from which the Faerie hovers in the photo above? As you may notice, those are not the original links that the Silver Leaf Chain hung from. I restrung the leaves onto antique brass jumprings. This solved several problems neatly, but took some time!
Another bunch of details that bear drawing attention to - the wire wrapping!!!
As I was creating the accents and dangles with the Filigree Snowflake, the wrapped loops all end flush with the beads and wire. This is in perfect keeping with the precision of a snowflake crystal. Oooo!! And doesn't that Swarovski Marguerita bead remind of a shiny snowflake falling through the air? Yup! HAD to center that in the middle of the Filigree Snowflake - it was a moral imperative!


However... when it came to the Vined Heart Link, I noticed all the wire-wrapping on the dangles developed tendrils.. that matched the wire-work securing the Swarovski White Opal Heart and that flipped over to holdthe leaf charm. See that, there?


It is always fun to see what develops even with a design that is nearly completely planned out!
So, below you'll find a photo of the complete necklace
Titled: Winter Enchantment
Ingredients: Brass links and Filigree (USA), Swarovski crystal, antique-brass copper wire(USA), Swarovski crystal (White Opal, Crystal AB), non-toxic resin, Czech glass, metal.


I hope you find this creation as Enchanting as I do!

Feel free to browse the other beautiful creations at the ArtBeads Blog Partner Winter Enchantment Gallery here

See you soon!

Legalese: I have received the following products free of charge from ArtBeads.com and I am honestly reviewing them. I have not been paid for my endorsement as it pertains to the products received: Swarovski Crystal Margarita and Teardrop Beads in Crystal AB, Antique Brass Fairy Link Charm, Antique Brass Snowflake Filigree, Antique Brass Vined Heart Link, Silver-Plated Four-Leaf Clover and Leaf Chain.

Whimsy Wednesday-Part Deux

Hello Hello!!
And here, as promised, are the pictures of this week's Whimsy Wednesday creations!
Four-leaf clovers have been on my mind lately and when I saw Swarovski's lucky charms, I knew I had to play with some!

Here they are:
Ingredients: Emerald (of course!) Swarovski Crystal Four-Leaf Clovers, metal, plated silver surgical steel earwires.


I loved this design so much, I opted for the same thing, just a size bigger on the sparkly crystal clover!


I found that I really liked the clean lines of both the crystals and the metal drops, so I continued with 'the riff'.
Ingredients: Peridot Swarovski Crystal Four-Leaf Clovers, metal, plated silver surgical steel earwires


And finally, a bracelet!!!
Title: Heart's Luck
Ingredients: Emerald (of course!), Fern Green and Peridot Swarovski Crystal Four-Leaf Clovers, sterling silver, metal.

These will be up in my Etsy Shoppe by the end of the weekend, in time for Saint Patrick's Day!

Whimsy Wednesday!

Hello!!
Whimsy Wednesday will be a little late this week!
I have whimsy-ness to show you!
I have 4 leaf clovers and sparkly-ness abounding!!

However, the Photo-Force is not with me this evening and so I shall have to show you these beauties on the morrow!

See you tomorrow!

Fini Friday!

Hello!
The latter part of this week feels compressed from 2 days into one long ThurFriday! Not certain how that happened but here we are!! Sampler Night at The Healing Loft went well!! We met up with old friends, met new friends and had fun! The next Sampler Night is April 7th and we'll have our creations there again!

I have a beautiful blister pearl necklace to show you today. Because of the sudden flurry of activity in the last 48 hours or so, I did not have a chance to finish it. I have a few ideas on how to finish it, but while I'm disappointed that it is not done, I am somewhat relieved as I'd like more time to research how to end the necklace. I think you'll see what I mean in a moment...



In keeping with the rich simplicity of the pendant, I paired shell and mother-of-pearl with sterling and Bali silver for the dangles. All of these are suspended from individual strands of 3 softly-coloured satin cord. I liked the contrast of the colours as each brought out different hues of the pearl and shell focal. I like the flowing drape of the cords loosely weaving themselves together and so that is the intricacy that I am considering in terms of finishing the necklace as it flows to the clasp.

I'll show you "how it all ends" next week!

I hope this is a fabulous weekend for you-all!

Whimsy Wednesday!

Hello Hello!

I have a charming pair of earrings and an experiment to show you today!
The earrings are a bit more on the dainty and subtle side of whimsical, but I find them endearing and I hope you do, too!!
The star has an almost bubbled-looking copper finish on one side and is white, the base glass colour on the back. (You can juuust see that white peeking through the copper finish and around the sides!) I've been waiting for an excuse and idea to use these unusual Czech-pressed stars and when my eyes fell upon a spool of copper chain in my collection, I knew I'd found it!
It seemed a natural fit to dangle the star inside the hoop and I suspended the star independent of the hoop to maintain the motion of the dangle.
I wanted to do something a little extraordinary with the design, while keeping it classic and dainty and the use of the white wire (also copper-how perfect is that?!) was the perfectly whimsical, funky touch I was looking for.

Title: White Noise
Ingredients: Copper, Czech-pressed glass, silver plated surgical steel earwires



The title for these earrings popped to mind, but I wanted to do a little research as to why that title seemed so perfect to me. Here is the definition of white noise from Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary:
a : a heterogeneous mixture of sound waves extending over a wide frequency range.
b : a constant background noise; especially : one that drowns out other sounds.
The most obvious inspiration in the title is the white of both wire and glass star. However, given that coils of copper have been used as generators for motors and mechanical things (mechanical things tend to generate vibration and sound in addition to whatever they are created to do) and we have been listening to the stars in Outer Space for some time now, searching for a good alien conversation *grin* (the "white noise of Space"... or perhaps that's what the aliens think of OUR constant questing for them!), I think the title matches the creation quite well!



This is the results of an experiment that I'm happy to say turned out quite well~ I'd been experimenting with resin off and on for a while but stopped in discouragement mid-last year when several experiments, most notably with resin and beads turned out rather poorly. However, I'd been seeing artists around the the 'Net experimenting with combining resin and all sorts of things and was determined to try again! I ordered some colours, pigments and powders, oh my! and locked myself in my lab!!! *insert Mad Scientist/Artist laugh here*
Given that, you may understand how pleased I was that all turned out well!
You'll see the fairy and the clasp right above her in a creation and my blog very soon. But I'm also looking forward to how I can use the vintage brooch you see on the far left, the coin from Aruba that was given to me many eons ago, fancy-ing up the triangle earrings on the right, drilling and finishing the pop-cap pendants and etc. YAY! Fun STUFF!

So, there we have it! A little bit of colour, a little glitter and a successful experiment along with an winsome pair of earrings!

See you on Fini Friday!

P.S. If you happen to be in the Minneapolis/Saint Paul area of the Twin Cities, MN, USA do stop by and see us at The Healing Loft tomorrow night for Sampler Night . In addition to all the usual offerings, we'll have a hand-picked menagerie of Creations there looking to find their people! Hope to see you there!