Cleopatra's Conundrum: Scarab Amethyst Necklace

Cleopatra's Conundrum: Scarab Amethyst Necklace

Well, I was almost done with my most recent necklace and then it started developing holes! So, here is a picture of a work in re-progress. I hate making something more than once, but I've changed and maybe now I can more easily see redoing this piece as an opportunity to make it even better. So, I thought I'd show you before I took it all apart.

 The part I've already begun taking apart was where I began. Yes, it's tedious to take apart, but there is $60.00 worth of beads in it! I began with 3 pound Fire Line thread and it quickly developed holes, so I bought some 8 pound. I thought that would be enough to make it last forever, without holes developing. Wrong! So my friend and fellow artist Sue Horine suggested I reach out to Suzanne Golden. What an amazing woman and artist!

Suzanne is as colorful as her pieces, and as generous with her knowledge. When Sue described Suzanne as a mature woman with bright red hair, crazy cool fashion sense (especially her shoes), and a super talented bead weaver, I immediately thought of Betsy Johnson. I know they must be best buds!

Photo: Idiosyncratic Fashionistas

That's Suzanne on the far right. Aren't you immediately in love?!

Here's a sample of her work, and just one doesn't do her portfolio justice! If you want to see more of Suzanne's work, check it out here. I contacted her with my problem on Face book, and she immediately replied with great, new tips for me!






While I'm waiting for my new supplies, I'm planning my next project. In my last post I showed you some of the new beads I received. I can't get the scarabs and amethyst off my mind! My process doesn't usually involve a "plan", and any drawing I might do is on the back of an envelope or napkin. Well, I've changed, I tell ya! I'm so excited about this necklace. It will be in a collar style that is traditional to Egyptian fashion, other than that the concept is all mine inspired by symbols, such as the Egyptian Lily. The lily will be the hardest part of the design because it will require each ring to be hand wrapped with fine copper wire, and I've never painted with lines of beads before! I also still need to decide if I should add the agate fans to the bottom, or some turquoise drops or briolettes, or both. What do you think?

 

Permission as a Strategy

Courtesy LeonieDawson.com

Something  is calling me today to write about permission. Perhaps it is because I'm focused on giving it to myself.

While doing The Desire Map program by Danille LaPorte I've been focused on what I desire, what I deep down want to feel as a result of whatever it is I do. A lot of how I want to feel is about what I DON'T want to feel, or what I'm avoiding feeling. My remedy is two-fold: 1) identify what I want to feel more of 2) ask myself in any given moment "How do I want to feel?"


Danielle asked "Is your focus on being happy, or is your focus on not being unhappy?" Abraham talks about "vibration", and states, "You can't help but experience contrast, so you can't help but ask...You've got to be a vibrational match to what you're asking for." I find this concept really easy to understand with the statement "Worry is praying for what you don't want."

Courtesy AraParisien.wordpress.com

When my answer to how I want to feel doesn't quite work or results in an answer that does not vibrate with what I want (in other words the answer is about how I do not want to feel), then I recognize that I need to find something that works. Without consciously doing it, I've learned to give myself permission to feel the way I want to feel; I'm just today recognizing the new strategy.


The new strategy is working for me in many areas of my life, especially when I'm not confident. I am spiting my negative feelings. I am giving myself permission to apply for jobs I would love to do though I don't feel "credentialed" for; I have looked more deeply at my qualifying life-experience and have been interviewed. I am giving myself permission to make beads and jewelry because I want to not because I'm trying to make money; I made some really nice beads that gave me, and show in the results my feelings of joy, creativity, and freedom. I'm giving myself permission to have faith that the Universe will provide what I need, when I need it; yesterday someone bought one of my pieces of jewelry without using a discount code!

A song that just occurred to me, Do It (Till Your Satisfied). 

Right now I'm working on a necklace with a new technique for wire work. I've also listed some jewelry I made last week. Making jewelry is not as profitable as making beads (though where is the profit really if I keep everything :) ?), but I gave myself permission to have fun and be creative! Here are some pics of the new jewelry; if you want more details please visit my shop here

(Necklace is not yet listed)

Tutorial Tuesday: Scales Pendant

Here in the Mother Lode (Murphys, California to be precise) we have a great little bead shop, Murphy's Bead Gallery. It is a "Gallery" in every sense when you walk in and see the amazing beaded pieces made by the owner Sue Horine.

I go into Sue's shop once a week; she's next door to the Murphy's Music Co. where my son takes guitar lessons. I love to chat with Sue about her art and techniques, as I paw through the beads in baskets and hanging on the walls. I swear I see something new every time. But there's almost always something I fondle every time I go in, and finally give in and buy it.

This week I had to have these turquoise shell coins!

As I created the jump rings I knew I'd need for each of the coins a vision of a mermaid tail came to mind.

I love working with wire, and the idea of a diamond shape covered in scales felt just right to show case the shimmeriness and pearliness of these beads.

I had to decide how big I wanted the pendant to be, and I had a limited number of beads, and then I would need to calculate how big to make the wire frame. I started by thcounting the number of coins I had and what number would make the widest row of the diamond. Then I threaded some coins on a wire, spaced the way I wanted them to hang, and measured that width. The problem was that they wouldn't stay lined up so I decided I needed beads between the coins; I found the perfect shade of metallic turquoise tubes to use as spacers.

I used the grid on my table as a measuring device and cut a length of wire long enough for the diamond shape as well as the bale and wrap. I created the bail by bringing both ends of the frame wire around a mandrel and wrapping them together at the neck using a finer gauge wire that would become the lattice support for the beads on the pendant.

After securing the bail I strengthened the wire, shaped in the diamond. I used a hard rubber mallet and that flat, iron, gadget which is actually a concrete curb shaper from the hardware store. I use my knees as a vice around the shaper's wooden handle (on the back side) and the flat side forms a table like surface.

I moved the bale ends up, and planned to create spirals with them. Now the fun begins. I decided to fill the top of the diamond with these great metallic and textured dark blue rounds. I began coiling one side of the diamond base just far enough to fit the bead in the crook; after coming out the other side of the bead I wrapped again around the frame to the point where the second row of dark blue beads would fit, adding a coin between them.

Then I resumed wrapping wire around the base until the next row would cross under the coin on the first row about 3/4ths of the way down (enough to show as much of the next row while keeping the first row from falling behind it). I continued in this manner, adding a dark blue bead to the beginning and end of each row, and using three lighter blue, smaller tube beads as spacers between the coins.

To finish the pendant I made a spiral from the bail ends and spread the loops at the top to form a "v". Here are back and front views.

I hope you have enjoyed watching me work, and that it inspires you with some design ideas of your own! Here's an image you can pin to your own pinterest boards. Unitl next Tutes and Tubes Tuesday!