Being brave with your Design- Pushing the limits of your materials- "Siren's Song" necklace

Hello friends!

I am excited to share one of my newest designs! I got brave and pushed the limits of my materials so I wanted to encourage you to do the same. After all, some of the best designs come from doing things that may not turn out. My art teacher used to say "No Risk, No Art!" Wow, who knew that would stick?! ;)

 

This design was just one of those things that kind of stuck me as I looked through my bead box. A long while back I received the beautiful patinated wings from my friend, Staci Smith of SL Artisan Accents. I remembered having this gorgeous Mermaid charm from Green Girl Studios and thought that the two would go beautifully together. I was in a really sea inspired mood. I blame that inspiration on Karen, Staci and the new Creation is Messy glass color, Poseidon.

 

Here was the hideous messy of my desk with my lone design in the center lol. 

 

Here is a closer look at my pattern I had laid out. See my mermaid in the center with the wings? Here she was just layed on top. Now to figure out how the heck I was going to assemble her! The hole for the mermaid was at the top of her head. The wings hole was in the center of the wings and on the wing tips. I tried EVERYTHING to get them rigged together. I tried cording, wire working, NOTHING was working :(

Then.... I had a thought.... What if I made a hole in her back with my dremmel? *GASP* Was this a good idea? Well pewter was soft, right? Her design was nice and solid and there was a nice thick spot I could drill inbetween her back and hair. *Inhales deeply* Ok, I'm going to go for it.

I pulled out my dremmel and attached the smallest rounded drill tip I had. I held my breath(literally. Yeah, you may not want to do that part ;)) and gently drilled into her back on one side.  Then I moved her to the other side and began gently drilling.....

I felt the drill release as I had hit the other side! SUCCESS! I moved my dremmel away and peered into her back. Yep, light! I did it! There was still enough of her hair over the hole I created to be substantial! *WHEW*

 

I typed in with text where the hole is since it's a little hard to see.

 

Here you can see the holes in the wings and if you look really closely you can see a little mark on her left arm where the hole is. Now to get her together.

 

I took my c-lon cording and genly wove through each wing and through her back about 3-4 times. I then pulled tightly and tied a knot. I then tied a knot in each loose cord, snipped them a little past the knot and gently melted the ends to prevent fraying.

 

Look how perfect she looks! The wings look like they were created especially for her! :D I was so delighted that not only did my bravery pay off, but at the exquisite design I had just created.

 

I went to work stringing, and wire-wraping, knotting, crimping. I added in a wonderful nested loop connector that I had received from Karen.

 

I tied on some sari silk in some watery colors and used one of my new watery sea anemone ruffled discs.

 

I added a string of my Sea Opal wing dings, a beautiful podish clasp from Bokamo designs, some patinated chain from Karen, and a Lichen spacer from Staci.

Here you can see the whole necklace design :) I just adore this new piece!

I was in my pajamas while I was busily making my necklace, so when my sister showed up I ran to her to model my newest master piece! She arrived  in a pretty black dress with her beautiful olive skin and sparkling blue eyes. I drug her outside in the sunlight and clicked some photos.

 

Here you can see her wearing my necklace along with the earrings I created with the gorgeous earring bases I received from Staci in my happiness box :)

Here is a pic of the earrings.

 

 I encourage you to be brave with your designs and push the limits the next time you sit down to design. 

Anything is possible!

xo Genea

 

Silvered Ivory Stringer on black and opal glass

Hello friends!

I am excited to be writing my first post for Art Jewelry Elements. Today I wanted to share my discoveries about glass with you. While being inspired by my friend, Staci Smith and Karen Totten, I dove into some ideas on making my glass look more like stones and water. 

One of my favorite organic "glass tools" I like to use is, silvered Ivory. Silvered Ivory is Dark Ivory glass rolled in pure silver leaf and pulled into tiny "stringers" of glass for embellishing beads. Silvered Ivory stringer, or SIS, gives beads a gorgeous organic look to them.

 

Here is a simple set of spacers demonstrating the look of SIS. See the beaitful organic bands that line the bead? Dark Ivory glass on it's own "webbs" or "curdles" giving it a beautiful organic look. When you add silver not only does it react with the Ivory glass, but it reacts with the beads base as well! 

I am always excited to sit down at my lampwork table and create because I tend to learn new things every time I sit down. So what is it that I learned? 

 

First off, all glass is different. Each color has it's own chemical make up that may cause it to react differently with different glasses. In the photo you can see that I used SIS on a base of Tuxedo black. You will notice the pretty webbing, but if you look at the edges of the band of SIS you will see that it doesn't spread! Hmmm, how very curious!

I did the same band of SIS on a base of effetre Black and look at the different results! See how the band of SIS is very "webbed" and "frazzly". Cool huh?!

So how does this work with Opal glass? Well I was in a watery mood so I chose a wonderful selection of opal glasses from Creaiton is Messy. 

 

I chose some wonderful soft blues, sea foam greens, teal green, teal blue, and capri blue. You may recognize these beads from my latest Etsy shop update from this week ;)

 

I took the newest Limited Run glass, Moana for a test drive with my SIS to see how it looked. You will notice from the picture that when I used the SIS it did that pretty webbing, but it didn't spread like it does on the effetre black. Hmmm.... On the right you will see that I did get the glass to spread, just how I like! So how did I do it? Well I kinda manipulated the glass to do what I wanted. I used a band of regular Dark Ivory glass first. I melted in the Dark Ivory and let it spread onto the surface.  I then added a line of SIS, and let that melt into the surface on top of the Dark Ivory. VOILA! Just the look I wanted! 

BUT.... I did learn some things on the way.... 

 

Here you can see Kryptonite and the new Messy color, Poseidon.  If you look at Poseidon, you will notice that the glass struck to a hazy opaque. Dang! So how did that happen? From working with the glass I have learned that this tends to happen from "striking" the glass(heating and cooling the glass multiple times). Over heating will also give you the same results of struck glass! In working with these glasses several times  I have also noticed that my propane tank needs to have 5psi of pressure and my oxygen valve (I use an oxygen concentrator) needs to be opened all the way. It seems that a slight dip in propane pressure allows the glass to strike easily as well.

So how the heck do you keep the glass opaly? Well here is what I did. I made my bead like normal, but when I applied the Dark Ivory, I kept my bead hot(not letting it cool past an orange glow). I then applied and melted in the Dark Ivory, let it spread slightly, and then applied the SIS on top. This is one of those glass tricks that you have to have just the right amount of heat. 

Well I hope you have enjoyed learning about silvered ivory and how to design with it on glass.

Thanks for stopping by!

xo Genea