Two necklaces

The last few nights I have been working on two necklaces.  The focal beads are large, hollow boro beads and very similar in color.  Since most of my design time is spent going through my stash of stones, pearls, crystals, etc, I decided to put both necklaces together at the same time.  But after getting a pile of beads from my stash that I thought might work, I discovered that the focal beads are just different enough in color that they needed different stones, so there went that idea.  I usually string each strand in the necklace using mostly one stone, with something thrown in for contrast.  The necklace in the top photo has two strands of  amber stones (fossilized coral and sunstone- love them both!), a strand of aquamarine, and a strand of dark purple crystals.  For the necklace in the bottom photos, I mixed it up more, with each of the three strands strung with a mix of all the stones and crystals I used.  I am not sure which method I like best!

new necklace

I finished a necklace tonight.  The focal is a blown boro bead.  I love the organic nature of it, and I found some unpolished labradorite that matched it well.  There are pearls too, and tiny seed beads to bring in another color.  I tried to finish another necklace, but I must have measured wrong and it was too short.  I have to restring it, but it won't take as much time as stringing it in the first place, since I have made all the design decisions.  Shows are coming up fast!

Serendipity, or kumihimo & beads

 Serendipity!  I love it when things come together!  Several years ago I got hooked on kumihimo, a type of braiding, and I made a lot of necklaces.  Most were done with eyelash yarns (I love the texture!) and finished into necklaces, and there were 4 of them still hanging around.  Several weeks ago I made some blown hollow boro beads and accidentally used the wrong mandrels so their holes were much larger than normal.  Last night, lightening struck!  The holes slid over the cones on the ends of the necklaces, and some of the colors matched!  I now have 2 new eye catching necklaces!

Another colorful necklace

I finished another necklace, using my new color wheel to choose the color scheme.  The combination worked out great, but now I have another problem- the photography.  Once again, the deep red beads don't photograph correctly, and the other colors look different too.  I took both these photos exactly the same, one right after the other.  The only difference is the background, and you can see how differently the colors photographed.  I started with one of my blown boro beads and added stones beads in dark and light teal, and a pale transparent teal.  Then I punched it up with small, really dark red beads and seed beads in a shiny, lime green.  I love the necklace.  Now I need to work on getting it to photograph correctly!

Bead show treasures

It seems like every bead show where I exhibit, I find some stones, pearls or other treasure that I "need".  Every year I participate in a few craft shows where I sell jewelry, so I do need to put jewelry together.  At least, that is my excuse for buying more treasures!  I try to buy stones that will coordinate with my glass beads, but once in a while I buy something just because!  These slabs of agate  have been on my mind since I bought them in February.  I finally took some time to see if I could use them with my beads.  The smooth texture of the slabs is a nice contract to the rough texture of my frit beads, and I was happy with the resulting necklace.

One of the fun things about bead shows for me is finding stones or pearls that will combine well with my beads.  Sometimes I know exactly what will work, and sometimes the ideas need to percolate.