April Show Necklaces

Although it is still March, I'm focusing on April.  I'm to be the featured artist in the front window at the Westerly Artist's Gallery, and that, of course, means I've been busy creating new pieces.  Over the next few days, I'll be sharing many of them here.

This first necklace has a quiet elegance.  The beads are a custom-mixed periwinkle with flowers, vines and leaves in hand-done 3-D. Connecting the beads are freshwater pearls, glass O beads, and a lovely deep blue/purple Swarovski crystal.  The round Sterling silver clasp is magnetic, so this piece will be easy to wear.

The next 2 necklaces are what I think of as "lei" necklaces, since they remind me of Hawaiian leis.  The blue one is made of wavy rounds in shades of blue and clear translucent.  The beads are a combination malachite and lapis cut round and separated by silver glass O beads and it is finished with another magnetic clasp.

The green necklace was inspired by a necklace made by Les Fantasisies de Pinklily.  Although I've made other "lei" necklaces before, I had not thought of making the bead pieces in a different shape besides round or oval.  Square (!) is cool and different and changes both the look and the movement of the piece.  I made a square Skinner blend translucent cane and wrapped it in white for contrast.  If you look closely, you can see the green color change gradually from a yello-green to a more blue-green.  The rest of the necklace is made of freshwater pearls and mint-colored glass O beads.

Floral Ikat

As you are probably aware, I really love Ikat canes and the variety of looks one can create.  I have been working on some floral themes, and decided to mix Ikat with flora.  This first pendant has an Ikat background with simple cane leaves and some hand formed little flowers.  Using the same Ikat canes for background, I made this simple pendant and earring set. 

Of course, then I had to make another Ikat stack out of my favorite colors, and decorate with different leaves and flowers.

Fun With a Bull's Eye "Striped" Cane

As sometimes happens, I've gotten caught up in making one type of cane.  Then I play around with it for a while before making jewelry pieces. I've finally gotten a few things done and photographed, and thought I'd share them here.
The photo to the left shows an example of the cane.  As you can probably tell, I started with a Skinner Blend bull's eye cane, wrapped it in a thin sheet of white and then a thin sheet of black, and then compressed from side to side.  The compressing process elongated the cane. Once it reached about 12 inches, I cut the cane in half and then into fourths, and stacked the pieces side-by-side.  I reduced the piece again, and then cut it in half again, and joined the pieces as is depicted in the photo.  You could certainly continue to reduce, cut, and join the pieces, making the striped bull's eye sections narrower and narrower.  This 8-section cane seemed fine for my purposes.

I think it's pretty obvious that I just cut slices of the cane and ran them through the pasta machine to make the pendant and earring set shown on the right.  I like the look, as well as the fact that the cane can run horizontally or vertically and create a different effect.

The pendant and earring set below was made from the cane above, as well as from another Skinner blend bull's eye cane in similar colors.


The last photo shows a pair of earring made from the same cane but with some manipulations. Basically, I rolled and swirled pieces from the original cane into a log, flattened the log very thin in the pasta machine, and then cut slices and placed them off-set next to each other on a clay base.  Fun and interesting process - and I like the result.  I know I'll be making more along these lines.  The design that appears is somewhat of a surprise, since it develops as you slice and place.

New Tree Combos

Recently, I saw a picture of a three-dimensional tree mounted on a canvas background for use as a small wall-hanging.  The work was done by Laura Fesser and is just lovely.  I really liked the effect, and couldn't resist giving it a try as jewelry of some sort.

The photos here show my first 3 "combo" trees. I'll be putting a pin/pendant finding on the backs of these so they can be worn as brooches or hanging from a chain.  I realize my leaf colors may not be authentic in every case, but I couldn't resist including some of my favorite colors.