On My Bookshelf: Around My Neck

You know I love books and sometimes I don't just read them but wear them around my neck. I thought I'd take you on a tour through the library of some of my favorite tiny wearable books...

We'll start in "the stacks" by JanDaJewelry

Then meander over to the Leather Journals so we can have the journal handy whenever we want.

Or maybe you want a book that's more personal?  How about a sterling silver brag book from Bragaboutit?

I love this handmade copper etched book by Hangingbyathread1

So if you don't have time to read a book, wear one around your neck!

Tuesday Tangle: Pink, Brass and Coiling

I've been away working working working! My creative life has been on hold while I earn some summer money. However, I managed to squeeze out some time to post today. I went out to the studio and played around with the torch a couple of weeks ago. I made these lovely soft pink drops that I used in today's Tangle.

I used a coiling technique with 24 gauge Vintaj colored wire. The lovely brown color of the Vintaj brass complements the soft translucent blush pink glass.  So, I'm calling this "First Blush."

A basic technique like coiling adds to the texture and interest of the piece. You don't have to always make complicated wire stitches to create an interesting design in your work.

Have you created interesting pieces in wire using basic techniques?

Travels....another necklace from The Sisterhood

Here's another necklace I've made from the Sisterhood. It's made from a Jangles pendant, my double dips, a pink lampwork bead that I made and Vintaj brass. I'm calling this one, "Travels."

If you haven't entered to win the Sisterhood of the Traveling Beads, take a look at yesterday's post and enter to win!

Good luck, Sistas!

The ABS Carnival Blog Hop: Statement Necklace

Check out my other Carnival Blogger buddies to see the statement they're making!

Cindy Gimbrone
Cindy Dolezal Designs
Island Girl Insites
Janel Dudley
Jeannie's Blog
Jen Valesquez
Kate Clawson
Marcie Abney
Mary Harding
Nicki's Reef
Sharon's Jewelry Garden

The Empress Models a Statement

You may remember I blogged about The Empress in April. I thought she'd make a good model for the necklaces I design. A picture taken of a necklace flat makes it lifeless and it's difficult to get a good sense of how it will hang. Sort of like this:

The colors are true yet the spirit of the necklace is lost. So enter The Empress:

She brings the necklace to life. You can see how it will hang. It seems clear an additional picture taken on the Empress will show a potential customer how a necklace will look when worn.

What do you think? Has the Empress made a statement?

Wednesday Wire: Crochet to Make a Statement

Designers are combining my two loves, wire and crochet to create lovely statement necklaces. Check out this lovely....

Vintage Inspired Pearl Statement Bib Necklace by Chez Kevito on Etsy (photo courtesy of Chez Kevito.)

Crocheting with wire isn't easy. I've tried several times with no success. I'm not discouraged though. My desire to try again is renewed after seeing how crocheted wire is interpreted into a statement necklace.

If you're an experineced crocheter and want to explore statement necklaces or innovative designs, you might want to check out this book I'm eyeing right now.

Crocheted Wire Jewelry is available on Amazon (photo courtesy of Amazon.).

Do you crochet? If you do, have you tried wire?

Handmade Vogue: Statement Necklaces

Everywhere you go these days you see 'em - they're in vogue - Statement Necklaces.  They're over-the-top, full of chains, beads, flowers, and what-nots. I love 'em!  So much so, I made my first statement necklace in February. I'm hooked now and want to design more but before I do, I've been pouring over the internet and have scooped up inspiration for us both!

Statement necklaces can be worn with anything but keep your shirt simple, button down, small collar or t-shirts make a great canvas to show off your statement.  I'm particularly enamoured of the "lots of chain" necklaces. Like this one....

Betsey Johnson's Picnic Statement Necklace on Zappos (photo courtesy of Zappos.) It's Betsey Johnson what can I say? I should write a whole blog post on how I've loved Betsey Johnson since the 1980's. Her style, her clothes, her jewelry just puts a smile on my face. But I digress from my mission today, to share my inspiration.

Cruising over to Etsy to check out the inspiration there, I found this handcrafted, seed bead encrusted beauty...

Custom Doloris Petunia Necklace on Etsy (photo courtesy of Doloris Petunia)

If you love Steampunk Style, then you'll love what I found on Artfire.

Steampunk Tribal Kuchi Cogs n Gears Statment Necklace by Decibel on Artfire (photo courtesy of Decibel on Artfire)

The Art Bead Scene Carnival Bloggers will show off the statement necklaces they've made this Friday, June 4 in a visual blog hop. We'll have a hop from blog to blog with lots of inspiration for you.

Have you tried making a statement necklace?

Mad for Monday....

This week, I'm mad for smokey quartz

I ordered Smokey Quartz from Rings n Things as part of their May Bloggers program.

After a bit of sketching, I created a 20 inch necklace entitled Smokey Blues.

disclosure of material connection

A Slash of Blue for Rings n Things

Let's just start out with my disclosure of material connection and then on to the good stuff.

I was so excited with the Rings n Things goodie bag I just got, I literally ran to my work bench and made this necklace. I combined the shell pearls, fresh water pearls, and crystals with my lampwork beads to make more of a good thing....borrowing a line from an Emily Dickinson poem, I'm entitling this "A Slash of Blue."

More IS More

I've been checking out necklaces lately at Kohl's, Etsy and Anthropologie. I'm smitten with the necklaces full of large and small pearls. I kept thinking why not make one with the orphan lampwork beads I have? Each time I go to the torch to make glass beads, I make single colored beads to go with whatever multi colored beads I end up making. Well, I have a whole slew of single colored beads and they are just right to combine with the shell pearls I picked up in New York City last Thanksgiving.

I just love this look - it reminds me of the saying, More is Less but here More is More. This more is simply beautiful and is up at my Art Fire Shop.

A Drop of Sunshine....

Lately, I'm into very long necklaces with just a crystal or a few charms. When I went to NYC at Thanksgiving, I made sure I hit as many bead shops as possible. That's where I found a set of deep red faceted crystal drops. I love red, it's my favorite color, so I had to buy them.

Color symbolism varies from culture to culture. Popular U.S. culture probably would interpret red to represent blood. the bleeding heart would be a perfect place for a vampire inspired necklace.

But if we're talking about me, Cindy and not when I'm in a bad mood or feeling insecure, I'd prefer to interpret red as representing the sun. When I wear this around my neck it means I'm wearing a drop of sunshine.

Hiding Myself Within....

I hide myself within my flower,

That wearing on your breast,

You, unsuspecting, wear me too --

And angels know the rest.

-Emily Dickinson




Hiding Myself Within... is available on Etsy.

Inspiration: Grandma's Necklace and Artbeads' Cubic Zirconia

Going through my Grandmother's jewelry many years ago and trying to decide what I wanted to keep, I selected a classic design made with cable chain and crystals. I blogged about her necklace before focusing on the staple setting for each crystal.

It's a simple necklace, cable chain, spring clasp and crystals. Looks to me as if the chain and settings for the crystals were plated or maybe gilded but I can't tell for sure. It's very small too, 14 and 1/2 inches, made for a very young woman I assume. My maternal grandmother was married at age 14 and I imagine she could have worn a small necklace.

After drooling over the Cubic Zirconia Beads from Artbeads, I realized the crystals in Grandma's necklace were similar. Using her necklace as inspiration, I designed an edgey, modern version of the necklace for the bleeding heart.

I chose the 6mm connectors in black and garnet.




I used cable chain like my grandmother's but smaller and in sterling silver. I alternated the red and black cubic zirconias and faced the pointed side of the stones outwards giving the necklace an edgey, spikey feel. To soften the edgeyness a bit, I added four vintage stylized red hearts to the end of the string of cubic zirconias.





Both necklace styles show off how versatile cubic zirconias are, they can be classic or combined into an edgey look. Viva la Cubic Zirconia!

Disclosure of Material Connection

Double Dipping - A Necklace called Entwined

Tahitian Plum Double Dips go so well with antiqued brass so I made a circle pendant with them. I twisted the teardrops of the double dip so they were hugging each other. Small gauge brass wire patinas very quickly so I had to be very careful not to overdo it. The result is a new 18 inch necklace that looks vintage and is called "Entwined." Hold onto the good things in life, those you love and dear friends.

Grounded

Mediation and slowing down in general is good for all of us. Inspired to live a slower life, I'm creating a line of reminder jewelry that has style yet serves as a reminder to live life slowly. Each piece will be named after a slow life goal like this one - to stay grounded.


I put this up on my Flickr a couple weeks ago but decided to re-work it slightly and take another picture of it. It's available in my studio at ArtFire.

Secrets Revealed: Stamped Glass Nuggets

I'm revealing all my secrets with the Black Bird Reflections necklace. Last Friday, I showed you how to make the glass nuggets charms. You can use the same technique on larger sized nuggets and make a pendant. But to add interest to a pendant sized nugget, I stamped the blackbird design onto it using Pebo Markers from Markers Supply.

The simple steps to making the pendant are:

1. Choose a favorite rubber stamp.

2. Cover the stamp with enamel using the Pebo marker.

3. Stamp onto the flat part of the glass nugget.

4. Bake at recommended temperature in a kiln or oven as directed on the Pebo marker.

Tip: Grind the groove into the glass nugget before you do the enamel stamping.

Comments on the Comments, Black Bird Reflections and Bones

Thanks to everyone who commented on the stamp books and the watch parts I found at the flea market. Such great stories especially with the stamp books! The vendors at a flea market always inflate the first price they offer. You have to be willing to negotiate and walk away if you truly feel it's too much. Some of the watch cases are 10K gold so I'm willing to pay a little bit more for them. You're better off going to a vendor who is ready and willing to sell what s/he and move the merchandise - some view themselves as antique dealers and you'll never get a good price from them. Know the vendor! That's my flea market tip for today, folks!


Over the past few months, I've experimented with different techniques. A couple are pretty quick and are included in this necklace I'm calling "Black Bird Reflections." The glass nuggets are picked up at a local craft store going out of business. They were purchased for a song (yuck yuck!) Birds sing songs get it? Ok Ok, I'll stop trying to be funny when I'm not ;-)

Anyways, I'm writing up the tutorial which I'll post tomorrow. It's just taking me longer than expected. Mostly because I ditzed last night and watched one extra episode of Bones.




Bones always has what The Teen and I call "gratuitous grossness." That's where they show the decomposed body or burned up body and the audience goes "EWWWWWW!" It's not necessary to the plot really but is an attention getter and maybe appeals to The Horror Genre Fan.

Despite the gratuitous grossness, I love the quirky characters (you know how I love quirkiness) and the jewelry that "Tempie" and "Angela" wear. What bead-obsessed person wouldn't love a show full of fab jewelry?

So while I finish the tutorial - is there a show you love to watch and it has fabulous jewelry and/or fashion?

(Thank you to Starplus for the photo and Photobucket for the smiley love.)

When a rabbit gives you a gift what do you do with it?

You make it into a necklace! Remember I showed you the ceramic components I got from awesome Nancy of The Rabbit Muse? I used the gunmental chain I got from the R&T Bead Tour to make this quick necklace. I use a grass jump ring to pull out the green in the blue-green oval. I've hung a pewter charm with my favorite mantra "be" in the middle. It reminds me to to let go and just "be."

Do you have jewelry that reminds you of something or someone?