Caribbean Sands Bracelet

I had had the two seed bead-and-swarovski strands sitting around, ostensibly for a necklace. I finally broke down and combined them, along with raku and tigers-eye beads, into a twisted little bracelet. It reminds me of the tropics, but kinda of the desert. It reminded my partner of Davy Jones' ship from the newer Pirates of the Caribbean movie.

Hence the name.

As previously mentioned, it's glass, crystal (swarovski 4s and 6es), tigers-eye, and raku ceramic beads.

African Lantern Earrings

These beads were thanks to my partner. We were visiting a bead store and, in an effort to stretch my creative horizons, I asked him to pick out some things that he liked that he thought I would never choose for myself.

He chose these agate beads. I thanked him, bought them, and then left them in my bead stash while I worked on all of the glowy yellow, twilight purple, or watery blue elements that I had bought for myself.

One day, however, I took these out and messed with them, and the design came naturally. Like all my lantern earrings, these feature copper bead caps. There's also copper chain, 4mm swarovskis, and snakeskin agate beads. They're about 4.5 cm long, and the agate beads are about 1 cm in diameter.

Geology Pendant

I used to want to be a geologist, and glass (even picasso finish glass...well, maybe picasso finish glass...) doesn't hold a candle to real stone to me. I made this pendant, and, as with so many pendants, I still don't know what to do with it. (Hey, I just thought of something! Pendant <--> pendulous... there must be some kind of etymological relationship. Does 'pending' get involved too? I bet they're all from Latin. Yep, they are. Actually, seems the jury's still out on 'pending'-- it may be from French. Which may ultimately be from Latin anyway.)

This pendant is based on a design from a wirework magazine-- I don't have it with me at the moment, so I can't tell you whom it's by-- but I've added some design elements (particularly the curled wire). I really do like this thing and all its earth tones, oranges and yellows and coppers. Its focal point is a picture jasper bead (ha, try googling 'picture jasper' and see how many stone images you come up with... There's a preponderance of young actors named Jasper or playing characters named Jasper, it seems) with more jasper, size 4 and 6 swarovskis, picasso finish glass and non-picasso finish glass, and lots of 26-gauge copper wire (with a little 22). It's about 4 cm in diameter.

Ooh, shiny!

I love these things way too much.

Lookit all the colors!

Carmine Blossom Earrings

I like a lot of my earrings. They're cute, pretty, or fun. But I really like these because of how they stand out. Also, I feel like I can wear a green shirt and these earrings and have a floral outfit, which is kinda neat.

The large flowers are glass, and everything else is copper, except for the fire opal and gold shadow swarovskis. These earrings are 4.5 cm long and the flowers are about 1.3 cm in diameter.

Cyclamen Interlock Bracelet

This is what happens when someone has size 8s, size 11s, size 4 crystals, and a lot of time to play with Right Angle Weave. It's a slightly modified RAW-- only the size 8s connect the squares to one another. The swarovski cyclamen opal bicones sit right on top. Aren't they a spectacular color?

A word of warning to anyone trying Right Angle Weave: too much shiny? Yeah, looks tacky. Matte is your friend.

Don't ask me how I know.

Crystal Chaos Bracelet

This is my first (and only serious, at least so far) foray into free-form peyote stitch. It's pretty fun, and it suits my chaotic nature.

It's all size 11 and size 8 seed beads, with a few glass beads and the occasional swarovski (6 and 4) thrown in and some copper 20 gauge wire to shape it. I found the basic idea in a beading book, but I have since returned the book to the library and I forget the original author! Good stuff, though.

It's really fun to wear.

Simple Pink Bracelet

I seem to be in a Right Angle Weave mood today, 'cause here's one of my other RAW bracelets. This is about as simple as you can get. 3 x 3 RAW base in size 11 matte raspberry seed beads, embellished with size 5 swarovskis, with no AB for once.

I did have a hard time finding 5s in a nice gradient, though-- I went into the bead shop planning on green, and I left with pink. Ah well, I have grown to like pink over the years. And it is a nice smooth gradient.

Did you know that AB stands for Aurora Borealis? I didn't, for the longest time. I'm a huge fan of AB, though. If you left things up to me, I'd buy out the bead shop and embellish a floor-length dress in 2xABs. Then I'd wear it. Everywhere.

Shiiiiiny.

Spring Blossom Bracelet

This is an example of what one can do given enough microscopic bits of glass and string. Oh, and a few shiny yellow size 6 swarovskis.

This bracelet utilizes two major off-loom beadweaving techniques. The first is right-angle weave. RAW is really a remarkable thing, once you get the hang of it. It can cover a lot of space very quickly, and, if woven with appropriate tension, the finished fabric is supple and perfect for embellishing. The base of this bracelet is one long strand of RAW made out of these lovely subdued yellow matte beads.

The other technique was a nemesis of mine for some time: herringbone, or ndebele weave. I've grown to really like ndebele, as it creates very strong structures and is good for sculptural work. The flowers start with tiny 10-bead ndebele cylinders (no love for the brick stitch required to start ndebele, though. Mrrr.) and then branch off into little petals. I'm very happy with them (I engineered them myself, though they're such a simple structure I'm sure other people have, too,) and they look particularly great with the sparklies in the middle.

I really like the combination of colors for this bracelet-- I'm all about combining blue and yellow.

Constructed Angel Bracelet

This has the same clear-and-copper theme as the earrings of the same name. It's all chain, randomly strung copper beads, size 6 (and one size 4) Crystal AB bicones, bead caps, and just a few moonstone-like Czech glass drops. It's about 20cm long, which, I guess, says more about my wrist than anything.

Constructed Angel Earrings

These were inspired by a large (well... large for a solitary hobby-crafter, anyway) of copper beads and AB Crystal swarovskis. I love the combination of crystal and copper, but these didn't do it for me until I added in the tiny copper spirals.

I've got this strange Steampunk-y (or CLAMP-y, I suppose) image in my head of an angel partially made of machinery (or at least in very industrial-looking armor) but sparkly things and a lot of white light surrounding him/her. These earrings sorta invoke that for me.

They're about 3.5cm long, with tiny little .5cm spirals. They're made of hollow copper beads, 6 mm swarovski bicones in Crystal AB, and yellow Japanese size 8 seed beads. 

Steampunk Kanzashi

I am continually inspired by Steampunk and other styles where hardware becomes jewelry. I enjoy the feeling of going into a male-dominated hardware store, making my purchase with care, and then using the metallic things I bought for the typically feminine art of jewelrymaking. I like the contrast between masculine and feminine, hard and soft, geometric and organic.

Thusly the Steampunk Kanzashi was born, bringing into play my other constant artistic influence, traditional Japanese aesthetics. That and the fact that I noticed that even in modern Japan, many women like hair ornaments that involve small swingy, dangly things, and I think that looks neat.

It's about 4.5 cm across, and the central nut has an interior diameter of 2 cm. The entire dangle extends for about 5.5 cm from where it meets the nut.

The decorative elements were already strung together when I bought the hair comb on a whim. I always seem to have pendants lying around, ostensibly for necklaces, that never get used as such. I found this interesting piece, lashed it to the comb with 28 g copper wire (utilizing the wire already in place) and it was done.

It consists of: a nut, a smaller nut-washer-thing, 28 g copper wire stringing and nesting a few slightly opalescent pink glass drops I bought at the last bead show I visited, jump rings, copper chain, a Sand Opal 4mm Swarovski, and, on the dangles, a 6mm pink Swarovski and a 4mm Cantaloupe Swarovski that changes color between blue and green depending on the amount of sunlight it's recieving!

I love it. I'd wear it constantly if my hair wasn't so slippery.

If you're interested in kanzashi and what they are, check out this site.
New to Steampunk? Visit the ever-helpful and/or interesting  Wikipedia.