 Protective Wisdom (custom work) |
Protective Wisdom Necklace This is the first necklace I made (or one of the first), for my mom, back when I started. Tip: split rings are horrible! Use jump rings! This is strung on tigertail, with those old plastic silver beads, and the gold lobsterclaw clasp that came with the tigertail kit.
|
 Copper Filigree Bracelet |
Copper Filigree Bracelet This is a bracelet designed to help me with my RSI. Copper is known to be good for making your joints work better, and the green crysoprase is a powerful healing gemstone. I have a small jig now; you can see the fancy jig filigrees.
|
 3 Dreamcatcher Pendants, Dreamcatcher Earrings |
Tree of Life Dreamcatcher Necklace (22") and Matching Earrrings Tree of Life Dreamcatcher Neckalce (24") Spiral Dreamcatcher Necklace (27") These are made from earring findings and hung on figaro chain. Traditionally, the center of the dreamcatcher should have a web pattern, but I'm not talented enough to produce that (at this time, anyway). I'm not too happy with the silver wire spirals, either. I have been wearing the 27" version prototype for a while now, and what I was pleasantly surprised to discover is that it chimes faintly as you move. It has a rather soothing sound. The larger ones did not seem to chime so much.
|
 Twilight Symphony in A - Lunata  detail These photos don't capture the depth of the goldstone. They really do look like miniature night skies. |
Twilight Symphony in A - Lunata Necklace This is strung on tigertail, with a hand-made wirework chain and clasp of plated silver. The blue goldstone was on sale at Lima Beads, and I absolutely adore it. It is midnight blue and flecked with tiny stars. It's also man-made from glass, so it doesn't really have any "properties." Except looking great! I've wanted to use my sodalite for a while, as it is supposed to be anti-depressive. But I couldn't until I also aquired the purple sugilite to complete the colour schema. Completed with sterling and silver plated beads. This work might be disassembled to create another piece. I have several groupings of these stones to make into various Twilight Symphonies.
|
 Rosary of Providence (custom work) |
Rosary of Providence I made my mom a rosary for Christmas this year. Because, well, they are a bastion of beads and wirework, and my mom is a very spiritually religious person. Not an extremist, just someone very grounded in her faith. This is made with copper wire, all the bits hand-made (even the jump rings, which i suck at making). The triangular piece in the middle was made on my new jig my friend got me for Christmas. I had a hard time deciding what gemstones and what sizes to use for the decades. Finally, I found limited edition faceted beads (banded agate) that I thought looked lovely, and i snapped them up. And, ha-ha, there were only 48 beads on the string. When I went to get some more, they were gone. So I found the limited edition rutilated quartz faceted beads in the same size. They are actually very similar, and difficult to tell apart. (with the small size and the facets, it's hard to see the rutilations -- needlelike inclusions in the quartz.) So each decade has 8 agates and a rutilated quartz on each end. Then I couldn't find a larger bead that matched well for the dividers. The tiger eye looked good, but everyone, everywhere, is totally out of tiger eye. However, scraping through all my beads, I managed to find 6 8mm tiger eyes -- exactly how many I needed. I also couldnt find any copper rosary pieces, hence the handmade wire designs. But then again, now we can say it's 100% my work. I guess that's providence for ya! My mom wanted a different design for the cross, so I will try to get an updated photo of it.
|
 Creative Energy Necklace (personal work) |
Creative Energy Necklace The Pendant stone and Aquamarine were on sale/freebies from Lima Beads. (Aquamarine is expensive, so I snapped them up, though I'm not partial to the diamond shape.) The creative power of the flourite and the energy power of the citrine combine to give me creative energy.
|
 Jungle Panacea Necklace (custom work)  Jungle Panacea Bracelet |
Jungle Panacea Necklace & Bracelet Adjustable silk necklace, and nylon fishing wire. These are more designs for persons with allergies to base metal. Always a challenge. I ended up buying a lot of chrysoprase that was too small for my intended purpose. So, um... well, I tried to get rid of it :X I tried various strings and hemp for stringing the gemstones, but none worked. I was out of cheap stretchy string... so fishing line it was! Necklace: 16-22" (adjustable) Bracelet: 6 3/4"
|
 Blue Sea Necklace |
Blue Sea Necklace 18" Strung on Tigertail I had several stray beads left over, and I tried to use them up. Yes, that's why there's ONE tiny little turqouise cube. And ONE white round shell bead. Those big silvery beads (they look dark in the pic) are glass.
|
 Panacea (Luna) Bracelet |
Panacea (Luna) Bracelet 7" silver-plated wirework I still have a bunch of crysoprse left over. This is a fairly simple basic wirework bracelet, only fancied up with a wrap on the middle coin bead. I think they are not kidding about this being a powerful healing stone, my elbow has been killing me, but I put this on and it feels better. Well... until I take it off. There is no Citrine on this one. The 18g wire is too large for citrine, as well as the small crysoprase round beads (those are 6mm, I think). I used 20g wire on those, which is a bit delicate. The clasp and coin wires are the stronger 18g.
|
 Panacea (Fiero) Bracelet |
Panacea (Fiero) Bracelet 8" bare copper wirework I wanted to put the citrine on the clasp parts; that didn't work so well, with the 20g wire. For this center coin, I tried a spiral/coil of the end of the wire tail. I don't think this will work well for a bracelet; I think it will be more prone to snagging. It may work for a necklace. I may take out the center bead and re-do it someday. Or maybe I'll just do another one of these with the other wire-wrap design (like above). I gotta tell ya... beading on wire is a LOT more relaxing than wirework!!
|
 Tiger Forest Necklace - Luna |
Tiger Forest Neckalce (Luna) 1004 Strung beads on tigertail --gemstone, silver plated, wood, nut; contains base metals. 19 1/2" Finally, I got to put something together. Michaels was out of 10mm tiger eye, so I had to use 8mm, plus what I had left from the last incompleted project. Oh, they had plenty of small jasper nuggets though.
|
 Tiger Forest Bracelet 1002  Tiger Forest Bracelet 1004 |
Tiger Forest Bracelets (memory wire medium - 2 1/2 turns) I thought memory wire might be simpler to work with than trying to tie off tigertail bracelets. So far, it has been easy to work with (except making the end loops... and getting stabbed in the thumb when the spring steel sprang :X ) The top bracelet has 10mm tiger eye rounds, the bottom has 8mm. Both use small jasper nuggets. Also, the bottom has a citrine endpiece.
|
 Tiger Forest (Fiero) Earrings (large) |
Tiger Forest (Fiero) Earrings Very few people in my family wear earrings (I certainly don't!) but they are reputedly easy to make and good for leftover beads. These are done on copper wire to go with the Copper Tiger Forest wire-work necklace below. |
 Tiger Forest (Flame) Necklace (0310)  (detail) |
Tiger Forest (Flame) Neckalce This is my first-ever full wire-work piece! It's not too bad. The dangly bit was crooked because the wire pins in the jasper aren't the same length, exactly. I fixed that, more or less. The clasp is huge and ugly; I need to re-do it. Wire-wrapping jasper nuggets is a WHOLE lot easier with 18 gauge copper wire than it is with 22 gauge steel. I like how the copper accents the synergy between the tiger eye and jasper, but I'm not real happy with how limited a space I have to work with. There's no tiger eye at all along the sides of the necklace. Also with my wood beads (see below), I got a bunch of really cool nut beads. Those above the wrapped jasper are nuts, not tiger eye. I enjoyed working with copper, possibly more than silver. You can see I made a spiral & triangle wire piece that came out looking nice. And the spiral 'head' for the last dangling pin. I tried making sun-symbol spirals, but only ended up with a sorta starfishy design :/ Lastly, the wires are so bright (both copper and silver plated)... I might want to tarnish them.
|
 Tiger Forest Necklace (0210 wood & silver) |
Tiger Forest Necklace (0210) Luna-Sylvan This used to be another Tiger Forest style necklace with the plastic beads, but I switched those out for real silver-plated beads, and oddly enough, wood beads. The thing about metal beads (and gems) is that they are heavy! The plastic was much lighter, plus I used it for filler around the back, where you can't see the beads anyhow. So the wood goes with the forest theme and colours, and is much lighter than metal. And.... not as cheap as plastic. I'm not really happy with this design. I think it looks awkward.
|
 Baby Blue Necklace & Bracelet (Custom Work) |
This is a necklace I
designed for my aunt, and a matching bracelet. The bracelet is
actually too long; I'm going to have to cut it down. I dangled
the citrine chips from jump rings to make a dangle/extender for the
bracelet. Boy, that was a pain. :X
|
 Blue Moon Bracelet (Custom Work) |
I TRIED to use up
all my moonstones and tiny rose quartz. And the blue-dyed jade puff
coins. But nooo, the person it's for has TINY wrists and wanted a short
bracelet. This is 6" on the elasticky thingies. Which I
have to confess, I do not know how to tie off. Anyway, I came up with the idea to use three strands on the sides. Figuring out how to make that work was a new challenge. Also figuring out how long to cut the strings. 8" strings for a 6" bracelet do NOT work. These were 12" long to start. Oh, and I didn't put citrine in, either. Tsk!
|
 Seafoam Necklace (Personal Work) |
This is
one I made for myself, using some sea glass from a necklace I bought in
Boston years ago. The silver sea-life beads are plastic, from a
$2.50 kit I got a WalMart. Hey, they look nice though.
|
 Sea Rose Bracelet (Custom Work) |
This was a
challenge to create something for someone who is allergic to
nickel. (and no, NOT getting pure gold!) My $2.50 WalMart
bead kit comes to the rescue again with
durable stretchy string, and plastic silver spacer beads. Then I
tried to devise a way to secure it, without metal fasteners. The
citrine chip cinches a loop that fits over the Amazoneite bead.
|
 Mother's EarthSea Necklace (Custom Work) |
This is
the second necklace I made for my mom. I suggested she pick out a
pendant she liked... she just said she didn't want to limit my creative
vision, but would like something medium-sized and smooth to the
touch. I knew this one was for her, because it has the symbol of
the Holy Spirit on it. (That's a dove flying downward, in case
you didn't know.)
|
 Earth's Fire Necklace (Custom Work) |
This is a
necklace my mom commissioned for one of my cousins. She's a
natural redhead, so I think the colours will compliment her
nicely. This is some of my first wirework, making the pendant and
the bead drop hangers.
|
 Blue Tranquility Necklace (Custom Work) |
This is another
commission from my mom for another one of my cousins. I had a
vision of dark blue and gold for some reason. But this is how it
turned out, instead. And, yeah, I used up some leftover beads on
it. The pendant is really cool, its sorta like a geode, but it
isn't hollow with crystals in it, it just has a crystal inclusion in
the stone.
|
 Artist's Success Bracelet (Personal Work) |
I put this together for
myself. It's not that visually appealing, I think.
Sometimes it's tough to get the gemstone "effects" you want in a
matching colour scheme.
|
 Tiger Forest Bracelet (Custom Work) |
This is a piece I made
to compliment a friend's necklace I made last year. When I bought
those jasper nuggets on their string, they really appealed to me to
just wrap around my wrist as a bracelet. But I had to fancy it up
a bit, you know, and the Tigers Eye colours, pattern, and shape work
well with them.
|