Jewelry

Lately I have been looking to find inspiration from designs of the past. One of the things I have been checking out is vintage jewelry from auction sites like Invaluable.com. They have some beautiful pieces offered for sale. Some of them are really unusual. It encouraged me to look through my jewelry box for vintage and unique items. I like to go to the local auctions and various markets, and have bought some interesting things there.

This is a vintage ring I found at auction. I am not sure what it's story is, but it has different colored stones set around the top, and it is really tall. I thought it was a great find.

 

Some of my favorite pieces of jewelry are one of a kind, and some are just different from anything I see readily available.

This is a piece I found at a second hand store.

 The enamel egg and amber design is similar to one I remember seeing in the book  Africa Adorned by Angela Fisher. I believe it said the style of necklace was given to a woman to commemorate her becoming a mother. 

 These amber rings belonged to my maternal grandmother. She loved big rings. I found the necklace at a flea market. Some of the beads are missing, but the remaining ones are pretty nice.

 My paternal grandmother received this pin when she graduated college in 1930. She had a degree in Spanish, which I find strange because I was never good at languages. I love the pearls in the heart shaped part.

These are some easy to make bracelets. I used sterling wire with trade beads. They are fun to wear with just about everything I own.

 Rubies and opals are my favorite stones. I found the rubies at the gem show in Tucson in 2006. I strung the two strands of faceted beads separately, but I wear them together, usually wrapped around my wrist. They look great with gold bracelets.

These rings came from the local farmers market. They do have some bakery and produce there, but most of the place is odd little shops. When I spotted the rings in the coin shop I bought them because, well,  I love opals.

This is a piece of jewelry that has a pin back as well as the chain. It came from a jewelry shop in an antique mall. I don't know how old it is, but I have had it for 20 years.  I really like the way the different kinds of turquoise are used together. 

Battle of the Beadsmith

Space 25/50

My Battle of the Beadsmith entry this year represented the culmination of a year of intense beading. I had only finished my Bead Dreams entry the week before the April 1st start date, and I made a bracelet for the Etsy Beadweavers spring swap in that time. I had no idea what I was going to make, and at midnight on April 1 I was struck with the idea of a space theme. The free form format I had been playing with seemed a perfect medium, and even though the idea was very self indulgent I went with it. The second week of April I started making my entry for the Fire Mountain seed bead contest, and I spent three weeks on that. It was accepted to the next round of judging, so it was time well spent. That piece was purple flowers, and may have proved a better choice for my Battle piece since my space themed necklace was voted out in round 1. The space necklace was the second in my Earth and Sky series, and I probably should have taken more time with it. The thing about the Battle is all the beautiful beadwork designs are amazing, in some battles especially it is so hard to choose. There are some really unique ideas this year, and once again I am happy just to be included with such talented bead artists. 

 

Waterfall Necklace

Some pictures of Glen Onoko Falls in the Pocono Mountains near Jim Thorpe, Pa.

 The blue bead I found while hiking the trail that gave me the idea to bead the waterfall. I added it to the necklace, under a fern.

Close up of bracelet and necklace

I used labradorite and aquamarine beads along with two hole beads and seed beads to create the waterfall.

 Reverse view

 The sun came out for this picture

The entire piece is free form bead work incorporating brick, peyote, square, herringbone, spiral stitch and fringe. I worked on it over five months and am very happy it was chosen as a finalist.

2015 Beading Contests

Beading contests 2015

End dates for submissions- double check all info with websites, and verify dates for yourself- end dates sometimes are extended. I will update this list when more information becomes available.

Jan. 31, 2015 International Bead Awards, Perlen Poesie - On a Journey of Discovery
https://www.perlen-poesie.com/iba-2015

Jan. 31, 2015. Beadworkers Guild UK 15th anniversary Swarovski contest
http://www.beadworkersguild.org.uk/crystal-anniversary-competition.php

March 25, 2015 Bead Dreams Bead and Button magazine
http://www.beadandbuttonshow.com/en/Events/Contests/2010/12/BeadDreams%20Competition.aspx

April 1, 2015 Piecework pincushion contest.  
http://interweave.upickem.net/engine/YourSubmission.aspx?contestid=150175

April 30, 2015 Fire Mountain Gems seed bead contest
http://www.firemountaingems.com/beadingcontests/current

May 15, 2015. This is a Facebook contest inspired by Earth Day and sponsored by Happy Mango beads.
http://www.happymangobeads.com/trash_to_treasure_beading_contest.aspx

This is a monthly design contest sponsored by Preciosa Ornela, makers of Czech glass beads. Each month features a different theme and entries must be comprised of Preciosa beads.
http://www.preciosa-ornela.com/en/contest

June 15, 2015.  Fashion Colorworks
http://www.mylovelybeads.com/contest/2015/rules.php?year=2015

Ugly Necklace

The Ugly Necklace contest, sponsored by the Land of Odds bead store, has to be the most unusual competition that I have entered. The idea is to defy all design principles and create a necklace that is the opposite of anything someone would like. And you have to write a poem about the necklace. There were points given for the use of small beads so I opted to use mostly seed beads. I tried to pick bland colors, and ones that didn't match. I also made three competing focal points and placed them all on the same side of the necklace.  I followed the ideas given in the Principles of Design, but tried to do the opposite. It is a hard thing to do but somehow my necklace was deemed ugly enough to be chosen as a finalist. The five finalists are up for public voting on the website until December 15th.  I was not sure if the poem was supposed to Vogon poetry or Shakespeare, so I just wrote something that described the necklace.

Flowers and a Red Dot

The beads were so pretty

In tubes of colors by themselves

But then I mixed them up 

To create chaos from the mess

Samples of stitches

And abandoned designs

Gathered together

In discordant lines

I jumped right into ugly

And passed flowers on the way

Now the question remaining-

Have you seen uglier today?

Snowdrops and Ivy

Last weekend I went to Bead Fest Philadelphia. I had not been to a bead show since Tuscon in 2006. I was excited to be able to do some bead buying in person since the bead shopping around here is limited to chain craft stores. Judging from the crowds at the seed bead bead booths I wasn't the only one who felt that way. They had more than enough beads at the show that I easily blew my budget. Even though it's only a fraction of the mega show held in Arizona every February, I was still overwhelmed by all the beads. I bought a few tubes of colors I thought I needed and some other random treasure. There were lots of stone beads and I bought a few strands even though I have no thoughts yet on how I will use them. 
The winners of the Bead Star competition were on display, and one of my floral necklaces, Late Winter Garden, won second place in the glass bead category. 

There were a lot of beautiful necklaces there. I really liked a couple in the Emerging Artists category. It was great to see my necklace next to the other winning designs, and nice to live so close to the show!

Summer necklace

The results for the Fashion Colorworks contest have been posted and my necklace was chosen as second place winner! I am very happy with that result. I worked on this necklace during the winter months, and the bright colors were a welcome relief from the snow covered view outside my window. I made quite a few flowers in various shades of orchid and cayenne, and bought as many colors that might have been sand as I could find. 
The flowers I didn't use are all together in a bowl on my work table.

This is one of my favorite contests and I enjoyed using colors that I wouldn't normally pick. All of the entries are displayed on the My Lovely Beads website. 

Battle of the Beadsmith

I kept a few guidelines in my mind as I worked on this piece- a comment from an interview with Kris Empting-Obenland about having stayed within her comfort zone when choosing colors to work in, Steven's sage words to "just make something pretty," and my own idea that the entries for this competition are all over the top in terms of the amount of work and the complexities of the designs. Originally I thought I should attempt to make something that had red carpet glamour. Unfortunately, that isn't my style. Having gathered lots of shiny baubles and gemstones I spent many directionless days wrapping cabs and playing with crystals with very little satisfaction. Finally I gave up and started using my favorite colors from the beads that I had picked out to correspond to the Pantone colors of the year. Since I have been on a flower trend, and there was a time limitation, I decided to eliminate the learning curve and make what I was comfortable with.
 I am drawn to using primarily seed beads without a fabric base in my work. I had a difficult time finding some of the colors I needed in Miyuki beads since both local bead stores closed in April, so I used some Toho beads I had in my stash. I was able to convince my daughter to pose for the photos, and she gave me her top model poses and faces, somewhat obscured by foliage and flowers.
The pictures of the designs are being posted on Facebook this week, and the work very impressive. I am excited to be included in this group of talented bead artists.

March

Spring rains have finally replaced the snow and the first greens are slowly appearing. My bead board is still covered in orchid, cayenne and sand. This month I have been exploring the colors available in Czech seed beads and I discovered the best opaque orchid yet, and decided that as for reds, the Czech colors are the most vibrant. There just is no replacing the qualities of glass mixed with gold by using dyes. Next to the Czech beads the Japanese reds look very weak. I also have been using the pearl cream and eggshell colors over the vanilla or ivory available in Japanese. The Preciosa beads also seem to have larger center holes than some of the Miyuki do which was a surprise. I have finished an entry for the My Lovely Beads contest in the first triad, now I am moving towards working in the blue, freesia, and hemlock color scheme. The flowers should be up soon, and that palette has good spring colors.

Only one month until the closing date for the Fire Mountain contest, and with the start of April I also get to begin my beading for The Battle of the Beadsmith.  I have been paired against Glenda MacNaughton from Australia. Her Etsy shop, Daxbeadartpatterns is filled with some beautiful designs, and I can't wait to see her Battle entry. I am not sure what I am making, but I have some ideas to try. It should be a busy month.

February

Snow and more snow and still more snow to come. One of the few good things about it is that the light is much brighter all around with so much snow on the ground. I have started buying cut flowers just because there is so little color anywhere outside. 

Between the weather and mercury retrograde it has been a long month during which I have made little progress. I did finish a necklace with hellebores and snowdrops that I am considering entering into the Bead and Button contest, but the $50 entry fee is a bit of a deterrent. Completing the project in a timely manner satisfies the challenge of my being able to enter, should I decide to.

 I have spent most of my bead time these past few weeks trying to figure out what beads work for the radiant orchid, sand and cayenne triad. My local bead store decided to go out of business (too much snow and ice) so I have been buying more beads than usual before they are gone. My latest choice for radiant orchid is the Miyuki duracoat semi frost s/l lilac 11-4426 and semi frost s/l lavender 11-4248 mixed with some Toho gilt lined lavender opal, all size 11. I have made sample flowers with every shade of pink to purple in French, Japanese and Czech beads I have been able to find and depending on the light any one of them could be a good match, but few match each other. My preferred size beads are the 15's, and I haven't had much luck finding a bright orchid in them. The s/l mulberry 1655 is close, but not very radiant. I don't know why I am so obsessed with this, but my choice for African violet last year was so different from what other people had I am determined to get it right. I made a set of color swatches by saving screen shots of the Pantone colors on my iPod, then I printed it out on high quality. The radiant orchid was the same as my swatch from Lowes, so I am hoping all the other colors translated as well it did. I have been matching them to beads as well, and they aren't the colors I would have thought. I just bought many more beads that might be sand, but I haven't made samples yet. 

Snowdrop, the 2nd time around

This is my new and improved version of a snowdrop, made into a piece of wearable art.

I used a 6 3/4 inch stainless steel stick pin for the base form. Bending the pin was hard because I needed it to be a certain shape, determined by the beadwork. I discarded three attempts before I got it right. Another change from the original involved using size 11 rounds for the flower instead of delicas. This gave the flower a fuller look, and it held the shape better. I had many more greens to choose from, so I tried to match the colors of the leaves by using an iridescent matte green while keeping the other greens the same as the original. Overall, I was happy with the pin and may try other bulbs in the future.