New Necklaces

I've been giving some new beads for necklaces a try, and thought I'd share what I've been doing. The Westerly Art Gallery put out a prospectus for entries into their Regional Show, and I entered these three very different pieces. I was pleased the aquamarine necklace was juried into the show, and I just found out that it has sold. Nice news! For the curls on this necklace, I made a jelly roll cane with translucent and white polymer. I mixed a new turquoise tinsel embossing powder from Ranger into the translucent, and spread an aqua colored glitter between the translucent and white polymer layers before rolling them up. I formed the cane into a rectangle and wrapped the slices over a small wooden dowel. The crystal aquamarine pearls between the slices added a nice touch.

I really think this second necklace is fun! It took me a while to figure out how to fold the clay so that the form stayed open while also remaining connected to the other components. The different colors in each folded section help the design stand out. I can envision this design in other places besides jewelry. How about as drawer knobs? Or perhaps an item on the end of a lamp or fan pull? Fun to make once you get the hang of it, and rather versatile.

Although it may be a bit hard to tell from the photo, the design on these beads is raised in a bas-relief method usually called the Sutton slice. Getting all the pieces from the texture plate to translate to the base often takes care and patience. I found the trickiest part was getting the design to flow all the way around and not stop abruptly at the seam. Some of the patternas worked better than others. Since I tend to think of black and white as a summer combo, I thought this piece had a summery feel.