Bead Fest Inspiration!

As you may know, whenever you go to a big show like Bead Fest, even if you don't get to take classes, you come away with massive amounts of creative energy and inspiration!  When I got home, I cleaned and organized my house non-stop for two days before I took a break!  Then I started working on the design for this necklace!

I was influenced greatly by our own Jenny Davies-Reazor - I love how she combines gemstones with her own ceramic lovelies to create amazing necklaces!  And I was also influenced by Deryn Boyd Mentock.  I have taken a few classes with her, in person and on-line, and I really like her style (although it's not necessarily mine) and love learning her techniques!

While I was at Bead Fest, I only purchased three strands of gemstones from Holy and Pure Gemstone (like them) specifically for this bead!

I then went to work with my little bead board, trying to come up with a pleasing combination of beads.  At first, I was only using the three strands that I purchased and just wasn't happy with the combinations I was coming up with!  Here's two collages that show the process I went through!

 I solicited a little input from my facebook friends, and decided to really mix up the beads and not stick with the three strands originally purchased.  I used copper wire that I patinaed with liver of sulpher - I really like the antiqued look of copper rather than super-shiny for this necklace! 

I made my own clasp as well - just a simple one, but I like it!  I hammered it with my rawhide mallet to harden it and patinaed it as well.

I'm very happy with the final design.  This did take me a couple of days, and even though my bead stash seems huge to me, I think I could use a few more strands of gemstones in my pile so I have more options! 

Here's the finished necklace, I really like!

What's your process when you make a piece of jewelry - do you lay it out, switch out beads, ask for advice?

Fly Away

Sweet freedom whispered in my ear 
You're a butterfly 
And butterflies are free to fly 

Fly away, high away, bye bye 

Elton John

On May  3rd and 4th I will be helping fellow AJE team member, Kristi Bowman, with her booth at the Whole Bead Show in Lynnwood, WA. I'm looking forward to spending a couple of days with Kristi and getting a behind the scenes view of what it is like to be a vendor at a bead show.

In preparation, I have been making some jewelry to wear to the show, using Kristi's metal clay components.  I took pictures of each step of the design, so I could share my thinking, as it developed during the process. I began with Kristi's bronze clay butterfly.  I've been hoarding this for awhile, so it was time to put this little beauty to use.

My first step is the jewelry design equivalent of brainstorming.  Anything goes.  I think freely and creatively at this point and pull out all the beads that could conceivably be used in the design.  In this instance I wanted a peach and turquoise necklace.  Here's my brainstorm pile of possibilities.

I bought the burnt orange leather cording on the way home from work yesterday.  Unfortunately, it was only available in a 1 mm size and I was worried it might be too thick.

My fears were well founded.  Only the large turquoise beads fit on the leather.  Drat! After some thought, I figured I could string about 5-6 inches of beads on either side of the butterfly, using brass colored stringing wire.  Then I could use the rust orange leather to complete the back of the necklace.

So with this new plan in mind, I started editing my beads and organizing them.  I was looking for beads whose size would be proportional to the fairly small butterfly pendant.  I also wanted a variety of shapes and textures. I chose oblong, textured turquoise beads and round peach beads that are part opaque and part  translucent.  I added some light peach teardrop shaped beads that create a zig-zag pattern and some slightly darker turquoise cube shaped beads.

I decided I wanted some dangles on either side of the pendant, so I threaded some beads onto ball end brass head pins and laid them out by jump rings that I attached to each wing.

At this point I had some tentative designs floating through my head, so it was time to get started.  I attached the dangles to the jump rings and crimped on my stringing wire,

I came up with two possible designs and strung them both to see which I liked best.  I chose the one on the left, although, in the end, I tweaked it again.  Once I decided on the final version, I strung both sides to match.

Then it was time to add the leather.  I tied largish loops on the ends of the leather and made a small loop of the stringing wire around the leather.  I crimped the stringing wire and covered the crimps with crimp covers. On the other end, I tied knots as close to the ends of the leather as possible and then glued the leather inside the brass bead caps.  I added the clasp on one side and a short chain on the other side, so the necklace would be adjustable.  I made a little dangle to decorate the end of the chain.

Now I'm all ready to help Kristi at the show.  Well....not quite ready.  I still need earrings.  Come back to the AJE blog on Sunday for our earring reveal blog hop.  I'm making earrings to accompany my new necklace!