New Polymer Beaded Necklace Design

I enjoy making canes, particularly the wedge canes that work so well in flowers and similar designs. Of course, once I have a cane made, I have to play around with a slice or two to see what shapes might appear.  That's pretty much how these 2 necklaces evolved.  I had made new canes and was folding and bending slices in different ways, then combining them, when the design on the cane slices led to the curved shape you can see in these 2 pieces.  I had to make a lot of individual beads before I could construct the necklaces.  It was fun to watch them lined up on folded card stock for baking.

The necklaces, while very similar, are strung slightly differently.  The pattern on the piece with the pistachio green and deep periwinkle beads just flows all the way around the necklace, each piece separated from the next by light green fire-polish crystals and deep periwinkle glass pearls.  I really like the way the deep purplish lines radiate into the cream section on each bead, and lend a feeling of motion and continuity to the piece.

The purple and fuchsia polymer beaded necklace has the beads facing in opposite directions along each side, meeting in the middle in front. The lines from the wedge cane in this example fill the whole space of the bead and look almost velvety.  Glass pearls in mid-cream and deep purple pull the piece together.

I have found that good magnetic closures are working well and make it easy for anyone to be able to wear these pieces.

Symmetry in Fuchsia and Blues

It's been a while since I've made "just beads" rather than pendants, earrings and bracelets with their various components. I made this sweet wedge cane and decided to whip up some beads.  I particularly liked the way this cane looked with  deep fuchsia.  As you can see in the photos, some of the deeper color almost looks like velvet.

Obviously, I couldn't stop at just a couple of beads, and then I needed to put them together so they could be worn. Hence, a necklace in simple stringing.  The crystals, pearls, and sterling silver spaceers add a special sparkle.  I have a couple of the beads left over, and I see earrings in their future.

See What Wedge Canes Can Do!

Wedge canes are one of my favorite cane-types to make.   They can be fashioned into petals or flowers or leaves, or used in designs or kaleidoscope canes.  I start with a Skinner Blend bull's eye cane, cut it into quarters, and mush these wedges together.  Depending on how you decide to form each wedge, and whether you are using one or two bull's eye canes as a starting base, the variations are amazing.  I love the multiple thin lines that create illusions of even more color.

This is all preamble to the three necklaces I have to share with you today.  I decided to see how various uses of a wedge cane would look. Of course, knowing my penchant for circles, I suppose it makes sense that these three pieces all have a circular theme.
The green piece is perhaps the most elaborate, with the chain and dangles.  You can see the cane design, in which I used a wrap of white and black.  It also made a great twisted snake for a snail spiral, so I had to add that, too.



Enter a purple/blue mix. I had fun with this one, making a flower cane from the wedges, and opening the snail spiral for added interest.




Last is the red pendant.  This one is larger than the other two, and seemed to want more backing to add support and structure.  Here, again, is the snail spiral and some round shapes derived from the cane.

A "Spidery Mum" Cane

In my June post, you may have noticed the cane I made that Ron Lohocky used on some of his wonderful heart pins.  I've been on a bit of roll making more of these canes - and figuring out what to do with them. I call this cane a "spider mum" cane because it looks to me like the long thin petals on a spider chrysanthemum.  These are a variation of the wedge cane that I like to make and use in many of my flowers. This particular variation is based on one Marie-france Tournat posted on her blog, Polymeramoi.  By the way, hers is an excellent blog and definitely worth a visit.

 Back to the spider mums....I started experimenting with different pieces, and have some here to share.  You did see some flower shapes from these canes on the Brass Bracelet Forms piece I posted a couple of weeks ago.  Here, I made some flat brass channel cuffs and some earrings using the canes.

The mobius shape on these earrings is one I've used before and I really like. This time, I flattened 2 sides so the pieces are not completely symmetrical.

 I also had to try the ruffled flowers as earrings.  The red and blue pairs are petals within petals.  I just used 2 layers, but you could certainly add more.  The centers are small silver balls and pearls. 

The other two cream and colored pairs are posts and have two petals attached to each other vertically.  There really is no limit to what you can do with polymer and polymer canes. Let your imagination run free - and experiment!

Floral Swirls

As you've seen in recent posts, I've been playing with circles and wavy shapes.  It's fun exploring something a bit different - or at least different for me.  Earlier this week, I taught a workshop on a petal cane made from bull's eye wedges.  I loved what the students in the class developed, and came home with a new cane of my own.  What to do with it?  Somehow, the ideas of petals and wavy shapes merged, and I came up with these floral swirls.   I made the swirling vines out of Kato clay to give the pieces a strong and flexible base.  The flower petals are made of custom-mixed Premo! colors.



Once I had the floral swirls assembled and baked, I knew they needed something special in the centers.  I had planned on using pearls or crystals, but they just didn't "do the trick."  Looking through my stash, I discovered I had these tiny micro-beads, so decided to give them a try.  I think they work perfectly. I've strung these pendants on simple chains, through they would look good on wire or even a thin ribbon.   Light and airy, I think they're perfect for spring and summer wear.