Slow Summer

I usually create a lot of necklaces during the summer while watching Red Sox games. I haven't watched as many because I have been working on week nights quite a bit. But I'm on vacation for one more week, so I'm back at it.

Rene said she wanted a long, big green necklace. This one will be one she can wear singled, doubled or tripled. I  will put the 3 feature beads, which are pendant like, spaced one third apart from each other so she can have the three featured in the middle. There's all kinds of materials here: chrysophase, clay, stones, plastic, glass, wood, then some polished gold colored beads too to break up the green. I just grabbed all the materials and mostly randomly spread them around the board then went back and spaced everything a little more strategically wherever it needed filling in.

I hope it comes out as good as it looks like it may!

Blue Shimmer

Shimmery beads from both shell and plastic, little blue bugle beads, some glass. Blue, taupe, white and green.

Turtle Time

Isn't this one sweet? I think so. Lots of gold finish beads: small round, square, and long, along with the turtle. Then glass beads along with some acrylic. Fun!

Pink and Brown

This is a recycled necklace. My aunt gave me a bunch of her vintage broken costume jewelry, which is where the brown comes from. The pink ovals are from a $2 necklace at Family Dollar, which I then took apart.

Shanghai Red

I needed a red necklace to go with anything black or red. It's handy. Just red wooden beads in different sizes with black matte plastic beads as spacers.

Everything Necklace - light colors

I like making necklaces that can go with just about any outfit because they have so many colors in them. This is one of them and I used many light colors. It's a good way to make something out of a bunch of stray beads.

Purple Blocks

Antique gold costume beads, purple wooden blocks, heavy wire. You can only wear this one for a while before it weighs you down but it's a major statement.

The Little Butterfly

All little beads: copper finish, glass, plastic, bugle and the pendant is metal with a painted finish, purchased from an oriental items vendor at Fanueil Hall ages ago.

Desert Reptile - Sedona Series - clay pendant with lizard, wooden beads

Desert Reptile - Sedona Series - clay pendant with lizard, multi-colored wooden beads

Another featured beads purchased at Tlaquepaque. This one is clay and features a desert lizard. I used orange and green wooden sphere beads, eggshell wooden mini pony beads, yellow and orange mini pony beads, circle brown wooden beads and small rectangle wooden beads along with clear-silver bugle beads. I may or may not be giving this to Chrissy, but only if she swears she'll wear it and it won't just disappear in the Vortex of her bedroom.

Birdie's Party Dress

Birdie's Party Dress is another Mad Men creation. Betty wears a white party dress with green, blue, yellow and brown polka dots when she (& Don, sorta) host a dinner party for Sterling Cooper fellas and their chicks (except Duck, who doesn't have a date...) She sorta has a Betty Friedan-ish Feminine Mystique ennui freak out and stays in her dress swilling wine for a few days. It doesn't make the dress any less cute, though...

Costume tessalated brown bead, green wooden, blue plastic, yellow glass sphere beads, white mini pony beads, clear-silver bugle beads.

Orange Turquoise Canyon Necklace

Orange Turquoise Canyon Necklace - orange turquoise from Arizona

The center bead is orange turquoise that I purchased at a trading post on the way to the Grand Canyon. I used clear glass and copper pony beads, one inch silver bugle beads, silver sheen acrylic. I used gold crimping beads in the center and up the top, silver in the middle and 18 nylon wrapped wire. I was pretty sure, and guessed right, that Mom would want this one. So, it is hers. Sorry, fans of this one!

Chunks of Color - mixed colors and materials

Chunks of Color - mixed materials and colors

I was watching Mad Men while I made this one, just like I did with "Secretary Jane" and "Birdie's Party Dress". This one isn't as directly inspired as those two, but I just was thinking of the dramatic colors and glamour of the ladies' early 60s dresses when I made this.

Materials: golden glass, orange wood, turquoise glass, purple patterned clay, Oriental sea green clay, mini pony beads in copper, clear mini pony beads, black sheen bugle beads.

Canyon Oranges and Blues - Turquoise Weave Ceramic Bead Necklace - Sedona Series

Canyon Oranges and Blues - Turquoise Weave Ceramic Bead Necklace - Sedona Series - turquoise, orange, navy

The "Sedona Series" includes feature beads from the bead store I went to in Tlaquepaque of Sedona. The turquoise colored center bead is ceramic. I also used mini pony beads, glass navy beads and 1 inch long clear bugle beads.

Rene's Sedona Necklace - Abalone, Silver & Sea Green

I think my roommate's a good necklace-making muse, since she loves necklaces and I know she'll wear them. She also likes them funky and chunky, so it's fun to make ones for her. I purchased this Abalone shell at a bead store in Tlaquepaque Arts & Crafts village in Sedona. I used tiny white pearlized snail shells and pearlized green mini pony beads. I used 18 nylon wrapped wire and crimping beads to suspend the tiny beads on the necklace.

DFG's Cape Necklace - emerald green beads

I was flipping through this month's "Bazaar" magazine and saw a brilliant emerald and platinum necklace for a bigillion dollars from some posh place. While I haven't the means or the know-how when it comes to precious stones and metals, I do have quite a few gorgeous emerald green glass beads. I used those to make this necklace, along with some clear mini lime green pony beads and clear-silver bugle beads. This one is for DFG.

Aleesh's Cape Necklace - shell, mauve & orange

Aleesh's Cape Necklace - mauve wooden beads, clear orange, purple and taupe acrylic mini pony beads, tiny snail shells, clear-silver bugle beads.

A asked for something "shell-y" but "not too shell-y." I had to remake this one three times because I was unsatisfied with my first two configurations. The first center was a shell but it looked all wrong. The second time I used white mini ponies but didn't like that. Finally figured it out - 3rd time's a charm and I quite like this piece, if I do say so myself! I hope a likes it, too.

DTC cape necklace - taupe and purple

My girlfriends and I went down to Cape Cod for the weekend and I made everyone necklaces. This one's "DTC's Cape Necklace - taupe and purple." I let everyone see my collection of beads and asked colors and types they liked. Then I went about putting them together.

This one is glass, stone, rose shaped and tiny circle acrylic, along with silver-clear bugle beads. (The whole "Cape" series uses silver-clear bugle beads for spacing. It's their connection.)

secretary jane

SECRETARY JANE - orange, green, and yellow costume beads, clear spacer beads, long silver tubes, nylon wrapped wire, 10 inches.

Before Jane became Mrs Sterling-take-two, she was Don's secretary. And one episode, she wore a dress with orange, yellow and green squares on a white dress. I watched that episode on-demand while making necklaces and got inspired. So, there you go.

painting plus oranges

PAINTING PLUS ORANGES - snail shells, blue wood beads, grey iridescent, white pearlizes, blue glass, orange tiny pony beads and medium thick wire, 9 inches long.

While home with a visit from the Tummy Trolls, I watched a lot of TV and made necklaces. This one was inspired while watching Simon Schama's Power of Art documentary on Mark Rothko. View the painting that inspired this necklace here. I also added my own spattering of oranges because that's what I was supposed to do, according to the necklace making muses.

Back at it! New Necklaces for 2009

It's been a while since I posted any new necklaces, but now that baseball season is in full swing, I'll be watching games and making necklaces, as usual.

Person admiring a necklace: Oh that's pretty! How long did that take you to make?
Me: [shrug] Couple innings.

Go Sox!

I've done some fun stuff with sets of three/mix and match/wear singly necklaces that I'll be posting soon. I've collected or received a ton of new beads, including lots of pretty or funky or dazzling pendants made from all sorts of paterilas, in the last few months and can't wait to start putting them out there for all to see.

Stay tuned!

yours,
Bridge