Tiny chatons 1.

Last summer (or spring, can't remember clearly) my favourite local bead shop added 6 mm Swarovski chatons to its sortiment. I was absolutely fascinated by those tiny shinies, bought quite a lot of them and started to experiment... Here are some of my results:

1. The easiest way - just bezel a few of them with peyote stitch then join them without further embellishing.

The result is simple but nice. It can be used as a modestly sized "alltagstäugliche" pendant perfect for everyday wear or even  - if using fitting colors e.g. grey or black - for an elegant or business look. 

But what looks rather small for a pendant, as a ring may look a bit oversized - but so funny! I really like this ring, even it can be a bit uncomfortable to wear... 

For this set I've chosen the following colors: Blue zircon, Light turquoise, Pacific opal - the shades of water, cool and clear, they are the best choice for beadweaving on a hot Summer day :)

Leaving the comfort zone

As you might have noticed, my colour palettes are not very creative: most of my beadworks are rather monochromatic, made in different shades of the same colour + an accent metallic colour. They aren't too creatively chosen either: to blue, violet, rose, burgundy, white, black and grey I always added silver;  reddish shades or topaz were paired with gold; and bronze accompanied cream, brown, purple or teal. Green was maybe the only colour that I've paired with all three metallics named above.

Well, that was a long introduction, but slowly I'm getting closer to the actual topic...

It started with a 8 mm "Crystal copper" rivoli, which I wanted to bezel with bicones and 15/0 seed beads (like here). I have already used bicones in this colour together with a "Crystal red magma" rivoli, and the result (the second pic there) was quite good, so I thought this pairing should also work well the other way around - that is, the copper rivoli with red magma bicones. Well, I was wrong: the effect was rather awful. 

So I tried to find bicones in my stash that look good with the copper rivoli: the solution was maybe obvious, but for my stubbornly monochromatic taste a bit unusual: the rivoli had an interesting greenish sheen from a certain view, so dark green bicones matched it really well. (They're called "Turmaline", as far as I know they're already discontinued, but years ago I was fortunate enough to find some) 

The next challenge was to find seed beads which harmonize with both colours. My first idea was gold, but they looked somehow lame together; bronze definitely didn't worked with the rivoli, copper could have been good, but I haven't had any of it... Silver or nickel, maybe? That seemed a weird idea at first, but then I saw a beautiful painting which proved that steel grey and red can look wonderful together, and that helped with the final decision. (Yes, it was again a painting by Jenny Dolfen. And yes, about a certain red-headed character... I'm hopeless ^.^")

Can you see the green sheen of the rivoli?

Don't the great tales never ends?

And apparently, neither do some of the not-so-great-ones. Like the story of this favourite pendant of mine.

It started in 2014, when I made the pendant (how and why, you can read it in this post). It was really precious for me because of two reasons: I thought at this time, this was the apex of my beading "career", I 'll never be able to create something more complicated. Plus, it was special for me, because it was inspired by a tale (the story of Lúthien) which was always close to my heart. (well, in a depressed-and-rebellious-teenager period I had preferred the story of the children of Húrin to the Lay of Leithian, but that's only natural, isn't it?)

OK, back to the topic. The story continued in 2017, when I finally made a matching ring to the pendant (introduced in this post). I was really satisfied with the outcome, but then...


...while I was proudly wearing them together for the first time,  snap! the thread in the pendant broke, and it began to fall apart. I had to dismantle the whole thing cautiously in order to not loosing any beads. Seriously, it was a heartbreaking labour.
And even worse, I had to realize that I may not to remake it, because I couldn't recall any more, how it was made originally. The thread-path was so complicated, that while I was ripping it up, I wasn't able to understand and recreate it.
The situation looked rather hopeless.  Was it true, that "for the less even as for the greater there is some deed that he may accomplish but once only, and in this deed his heart shall rest"? Was maybe this pendant that once-only-deed in my life (me belonging definitely in the category of the least of the lesser...)?! A very disheartening thought.

But no, it just cannot be! -  thought I almost two years later. After all, it's just a friggin' little beaded pendant, not a magical jewel containing unsullied divine light whatsoever... So I took the beads that were since then respectfully stored in a box, and started to make a second version, which imitated closely the first one in look, but not in technique. The result: a pendant made from the beads of the original that looks almost like the original, although the thread-path is totally different (but who would tell it?)
So my special pendant was reborn, "recalled from the death", so to speak.  A very fitting end, if we consider, whose story inspired it originally :)

Could you tell the difference between the old and the new?

Shiny crystals reloaded

Flashback time again...

The "silver crystal" used as a pendant

Two years ago I made a necklace inspired by the Sailor Moon-series for a design contest. (you can read about it in this post) The necklace was shiny, cute and fitted the theme well (imho), but to tell it frankly, was also way too flamboyant, multicoloured and flashy for everyday wearing (or even for special occasions). So I take it to pieces, and decided to use the compontens for different, more wearable pieces of jewellery. For example the focal piece (the "silver crystal") became a single pendant which I regularly wear since then.

The original version

But somehow, I grew to like the original design (it sat so nicely on my neck... I have no idea, how is this type of necklaces are called - collar? collier? carcanet?), so in this spring I decided to gave it another go. Since the focal was gone, I made another one - one with the same star-shape as the other components, and this time I used gold-coloured seedies for the connections too, so the overall look was more coherent, than in the first version. The silk ribbons were also omitted (I liked them, but they weren't safe enough for a closure), but their silky shine is echoed by the Swarovski imitation pearls I now used for the connections instead of the clear crystals. For the closure I chose a rose-shaped clasp  - so I you wish, now besides the Sailor girls, Tuxedo Mask too is represented here ;) Even if this rose is silver and not red...

Circulus vitiosus

Um seine Hobbys finanzieren zu können, man muss ja Geld verdienen. Aber neben Arbeit ist es nicht einfach, Zeit für die Hobbys zu finden... Klar, ich habe jetzt ein viel komplizierteres Problem sehr vereinfacht, im Grunde genommen ist es aber doch so. Man hat ja entweder Geld, oder Freizeit, oder Inspiration - aber alle gleichzeitig... das kommt ja selten.

Ich habe aber manches gefädelt, wenn auch nicht viel, konnte aber mich nicht dazu bringen, sie zu posten. Jetzt werde ich versuchen, das Versäumnis nachzuholen.

 Für meine Schwester zu ihrem Namenstag. Ich hatte dann nur eine sehr limitierte Perlenauswahl bei mir, und sollte schnell etwas improvisieren - bin aber zufrieden mit dem Ergebnis. Ich möchte mit dem Muster noch weiter experimentieren, mal sehen, was daraus kommen wird...








Versuche mit 8 mm Chatons. Diese Blauen waren eigentlich nur Probestücke - da sie aber so niedlich geworden sind, werde ich sie behalten.
Dieses Design möchte ich dennoch bei einem größeren Projekt zu verwenden, Gott weiß aber nur, wenn...

Verwendete Materialien: Chaton 8 mm, Bicones 4 mm, Pearls 3 mm, Rocailles 15/0

Helluin

Normally I'm not very fond of special coatings, such as AB effect. Sure, they are beautiful, but too extravagant for me. But this 'light sapphire shimmer' chaton was just too interesting... It reminded me of the star Sirius twinkling in the evening sky  (Being not well-versed in astronomy, it's almost the only star I can recognize...)
Unfortunately couldn't find bicones in the same color, so I've chosen "air blue opal 2 AB" and "aquamarine AB". Totally out of my comfort zone... but the result is kinda pretty, I think. Shiny and flashy, no doubt - but small enough for being not too flamboyant.
Oh yes, as for the name: in The Silmarillion by Tolkien, Helluin is the elvish name for the star Sirius. (hel- meaning 'ice' and 'luin' = 'blue')

Kokoro no kakera

Sounds cute, doesn't it? It means something like "fragment of heart"  in Japanese, and it was mentioned so often in the anime Princess Tutu, that even I could learn it :)

I like this series very much, so it's easy to understand, that the heart-shaped pendants by Swarovski reminded me inmediately of the heart-shards, which have a central role in the story. (In order to defeat a monster, the prince of the tale had sacrificed his own heart. The main character, Ahiru tries to collect the scattered pieces and so returning to him his lost feelings...)

This pendant, however, isn't meant to be a replica of any of the jewels in the film (the heart-shards were there simply red gems, while Tutu's pendant has a totally different design). It's only inspired by the story, nothing more...

Silver-blue set

Well, I can't even count, how many pieces I've made in this colorway...

But this set is not entirely new, I've only switched the satin straps of this bracelet to beaded ones, remade one of the earrings which  was unfortunately broken, and made a ring as addition.
Okay, that sounds like the paradox of Theseus's ship: is it then now a new set or yet the old one? :)

Some more fiery colours...

 This pendant is not a new one, it was made more than a year ago, but I had no idea, how should it be finished, so laid aside, and at the end I totally forgot about it. I found it now, and was really surprised, how nice it looks - it has such an interesting, three-dimensional shape, but unfortunately I couldn't recall, how it was achieved :( (The only thing I remember that I was watching Murdoch Mysteries while beading...). Neither have I an idea, why on earth had I chosen this colour back then. It's "Fireopal", a gorgeous, but definitely not a modest one.

Since I found the shape of the fire-pendant so interesting, tried to make something similar - I guess, the technique now used is quite different from the original, but the final result looks not bad... I think, I will make it in silver-white too, but now I was rather in the mood for these coppery reds (which are normally not really my colours). Apparently I've spent too many time  fangirling about Jenny Dolfen's pictures of Maedhros again... XD

From the ashes...

Well, that was a long pause - but I'm alive, and I'm back :) Actually I wasn't that idle in the last weeks (regarding beading and other crafts, I mean), I was just too lazy for blogging about them.
And as for the title: fitting for this re-awakening, flames will spring indeed in this post ;) Well, not actual ones, but sort of...

The colours of fire... glowing, passionate reds, bright oranges and yellows, noble golden and copper - they are undoubtedly beautiful, but somehow not really my colours, in most cases I prefer cold hues.
But sometimes I can't resist, because there are so many gorgeous beads in this shades...

...like for example the new "Scarlet" colour by Swarovski. For me "Light Siam" was a bit too bright, and "Siam" althogh lovely, but for some projects already too dark . But this "Scarlet", it's just a perfect shade of red!
I bought more chatons and rivolis in this colour in order to try them in different combinations.

This was the first try (because I couldn't choose between gold and silver, so black became the "tertius gaudens"). I know, the picture is terrible, but I was in a hurry...
The only problem is (and that's my problem with every reddish jewelry): what shall I do with it? I can't wear it, doesn't fit my style... I could imagine this little cutie for example on the neck of a Spanish senorita, a tango-dancer or something... but definitely not on me :)

 And the next one... if somebody had said a few months ago, that I would use orange in a beaded project, i would have laughed about it. It was totally-absolutely never-ever my colour... But the "Tangerine" Swarovski crystals (maybe it too is a new shade, I don't know) looked so gorgeous in the bead shop, I had to give them a try. And well, if in for a penny, in for a pound... the tangerine rivoli needed some matching bicones too.
The result was this "Blossom of fire", a variation of my "Silver Cristal"-pendant, using bicones in the following shades: sunflower, tangerine, scarlet and garnet (now thinking about it, dark siam would have been better...)

To be continued in the next post... ;)

Kleine Geschenke

Aus verschiedenen Anlässen für meine Schwestern.

Just an other senseless project by me... Somewhere deep inside I know that spending so much money on beads for unwearable, useless, weird-looking jewelry is stupid irresponsibility :( But it's so hard to resist the temptation of a challenge...

As mentioned earlier, I've been watching Sailor Moon, which naturally had an inspirational effect on me from the aspect of beading. Y'know, seeing jewelry and crystals of every sort can really inspire one for beading something shiny or cute...

For example while I was watching the first season, where pratically everybody was searching for the Silver Crystal, I obviously felt urged to buy some "crystal silver shade" Swarovskis and make a pendant. Sounds simple, doesn't it? Well, it wasn't. Actually finding beads in this colour was almost as difficult as finding that crystal itself in the story - I tell you, at the end I could totally sympathise with Beryl & Co... And being obstinate enough, after running around in the city for hours, visiting at least seven shops,  then browsing in different webshops (which I normally don't do), I finally have gathered the desired materials.
Creating the pendant wasn't either an easy task, I had to tear it down three-four times in order to find the best solution - but I'm now pretty satisfied with the result :)






The problem was that I couldn't stop at this point... When I saw the May Design Challenge by Facet Jewelry, I... well, I failed miserably. Few years ago I already vowed not to enter any contests again (because why should I waste beads, time and energy, when I've no chance at all?), but now my conceited, competitive, childish self proved stronger.
I decided to enter the challenge, but well, for a contest one must create something spectacular and extravagant... a simple pendant weren't enough.
I thought that Sailor Moon could actually fit the theme "heroes & villains" - maybe I was mistaken, dunno... Of course they must rather meant Western superheroes, but I'm cosmopolitan ;)
After a lot of musing and planning I decided to make a piece of jewelry inspired by not only Sailor Moon herself, but by her friends and comrades too. So the each smaller element of the necklace represents a Sailor Senshi (inner or outer), made in the signature colours of her outfit (skirt, bow, tiara gem), while the focal piece symbolises the Silver Crystal, thus representing Sailor Moon. I used silk ribbons for the ends - frankly I was just too lazy to make the collar long enough, but I think ribbons really fit the concept, don't you think?
Finding Swarovskis in matching colours was fun, but sometimes challenging - the result isn't perfect, but I sincerely hope not too bad, either...

Some closer pics:

Neptune & Uranus

Mars, Mercury

Venus, Jupiter

Saturn, Pluto

 Sailor Moon & Sailor Chibi Moon

And now? What shall I do with an uncomfortable (heavy and  edgy thanks to the bicones), almost untastefully multi-coloured, flashy necklace?
Sure, tearing apart and re-use it is the only sensible (if heart-wrenching) choice - I just wanted to show you in whole...