Clarsach necklace

Mum plays the clarsach, so I wanted to make a clarsach focal for her Christmas necklace. It took a few goes to get something I was happy with.

Clarsach - attempt 1

First go: light grey transparent lentil with harp in tuxedo. I intended it to be hades, but used the wrong stringer :p
I got the bottom of the harp too hot and the stringer fuzzed out.

Clarsach - attempt 2

More light grey and hades, this time with white strings. It didn’t work well – the white’s so soft that it balled up too fast on the surface. Rather messy result.

Clarsach - attempt 3, front

This one nearly made it. I really like the harp shape – I used a twistie with various browns and neutrals in it. Hades for the strings and for the notes on the back. I used CiM chalcedony for the base colour, and I didn’t use this bead because I wanted something more transparent. I think you can keep chalcedony a little more translucent if you’re careful, but certain opalinos opacify on me unless I remember to put them near the front of the kiln (a lot easier when I was batch annealing!). Kryptonite does it too.

Clarsach - attempt 3, back

Showing the notes on the back. In the end I made these beads up into quick pendants by putting them on headpins and gave them to mum too, because she wanted to keep them.

Clarsach necklace

Here’s the final necklace. I used CiM peacock green – utterly beautiful colour, and one that doesn’t opacify in my kiln. I kept the harp simple and more stylised – too many strings just messes up the look. There are some musical notes around the harp. I used another of Diane’s silk ribbons, a hammered silver ring, large Greek silvered ceramic beads, sterling findings and a sterling swan neck clasp to finish it off.

Clarsach necklace, view 2

Psst, I do like WordPress’s ability to schedule posts. It lets me space them out rather than do two or three on the days I have time to write them. I only noticed it recently!

Necklace for Carys

This is a necklace I made as a Christmas present for my boyfriend’s sister Carys.

Necklace for Carys

The lampwork beads are transparent mid blue, and the lentil focal has white stringer scrolls. I also used small blue-clear Czech crystals, Greek silvered ceramic spacers and blue silver-lined seed beads. With sterling silver findings and one of Diane’s silk strings.

Necklace for Carys - detail

I kept it simple and I think it worked really well.

UKJC Secret Santa 2010

Here’s what I made for the UKJC Secret Santa. (See there for the album of what everyone made). We send the present to our recipient anonymously, they post a photo when they receive it, and we have a big guessing game until we know who made what.

UKJC Secret Santa, for Maggie

I made a necklace for Maggie using amber and triton swirled lampwork beads, peacock iridescent discs, carnelian discs, Greek ceramic spacers, sterling silver and another of Diane’s beautiful silk ribbons. I’d got the discs some time before and was pleased how well they matched!

UKJC Secret Santa, view 2

And here’s what I received! Made by Tabby. Isn’t it lovely? Silver necklace with seahorse and starfish.

UKJC Secret Santa by Tabby

FHF Secret Santa 2010

FHF Secret Santa 2010

This is where I was going with my dark steel grey muddling. The next lot of beads I tried used white for the core. If I’d been thinking clearly I would have done that first! They have various layers of scrollwork in hades, tuxedo and white. I made a kalera with an effect I rather liked by doing tuxedo scrollwork on the white, then encasing it in dark steel grey, then white scrolls and hades dots on the surface. Having tuxedo inside like that essentially gives you dark shadowy grey scrolls under the surface, since tuxedo is less dense than hades and not purple like Effetre black. (The thicker your encasing, the less noticeable it will be under the dark steel grey though).

For my FHF Secret Santa gift I made this necklace. It has a kalera like the one mentioned above, plus some spacers to go with it. I strung it on one of Diane’s silk strings (SowZerE) and paired it with small sterling silver beads and findings, plus a hammered ring. The sterling beads are tight enough on the silk string that they can be used to space everything out without any knots.

Blue hollow necklace

Blue hollow necklace, take 1

Transparent dark turquoise hollow with white stringer. It has Greek silvered ceramic curved beads and a couple of small clear triangular seed beads. I should mention that I love silvered ceramic. It lets you get substantial silvery beads that are affordable and easy to wear, while being much more durable than silver plate. You don’t have to worry about what metals it’s made up of either – the coating is fine silver. Because the beads are ceramic, the irregularities you get are very different from those in a solid metal bead (casting lines in mass-produced beads for example), and I like that. I think they suit lampwork well.

The necklace as shown here is a prototype and needs changing a bit because it is very front-heavy and the clasp has a tendency to slide around. (I used the same swan neck hook that’s on my pumpkin necklace, which is why it isn’t in this photo). That’s another reason I like knots, because they keep the beads spaced out and in the same position on the string, so the necklace doesn’t rotate.

I always get myself into confusions when trying to string necklaces like this – I like my lampwork on chunkier cords, but I also want to be able to use small accent beads, which of course have very small holes! The cord here is 1.5mm waxed cotton and is thin enough for a variety of things to fit on it, but for this necklace I think something more substantial was required because the weight in one place makes it hang in far too narrow a curve.

Redo from start, I think.

Pumpkins!

For Hallowe’en I made myself a new pumpkin necklace and earrings (last year I made polymer clay pumpkin jewellery).

Pumpkin necklace

I used CiM creamsicle for the focal and earring beads. Really like this colour, it’s darker than dark yellow but lighter than orange, which is pretty much where I like it. Full orange is a bit bright for me! I only had one skinny rod of it, though, so the spacers are pastel yellow.

The pumpkin focal is a hollow bead that I ran over a groovy marver and then razored to deepen the lines. I added black stringer in the grooves and leaves made with vine cane. The small earring pumpkins are just razored.

The other spacers are transparent dark grass green and CiM clockwork. Clockwork is a lovely colour. It comes out a misty semi-transparent deep orange that just glows.

I strung the necklace on knotted brown cotton cord, with the addition of triangular seed beads in a variety of greeny-yellow shades. I like knotted necklaces for lampwork because they make sure everything stays balanced and are very comfortable to wear. I made a sterling silver swan neck clasp for it – I also find these very comfortable and easy to put on and take off, with no danger of them coming undone unexpectedly.

There’s an extra loop of cord at the back because I was putting it together when I was rather tired and I carefully measured and knotted off the end… then cut the wrong side! So I had to add another bit to make it the right length. The earrings are crimped on to beading wire.

Normally I wouldn’t think of wearing yellow or orange… this necklace is an exception and I love it! A couple of people mentioned to me that it looks Christmassy, probably because of the combination of green and orange, so I declared it Festive Pumpkins and wore it at Christmas too :)

Any other holidays I could make vaguely pumpkin-related for it?

Dragonscale necklace

Here’s the necklace I made in the end for my mum.

Dragonscale necklace

It has etched dragonscale beads in petrol green and CiM mink, with spacers in mink, ivory and petrol green. The mink spacers are etched. There are also Greek ceramic spacers in mottled heather and fine silver. It is strung on brown leather thong with a sterling clasp.

Birthday necklaces

[June 24-30]

Necklace for Anna:

Anna birthday necklace

Ivory and dark turquoise beads – lentil with raked dots, 4 rounds with raked dots, 4 plain spacers. The beads were etched. Combined with Greek ceramic beads in blues and fine silver, strung on silver leather with a sterling clasp. I just sat down and made all the beads for this without having much clue what I was going to make beforehand. I’ve done the raked design once before and quite like it, and I’m very pleased how the necklace turned out!

Necklace for Sus:

Sus birthday necklace

Totoro bead in Vetrofond periwinkle, 4 gravity swirled rounds, 4 periwinkle spacers. Combined with Greek ceramic beads in greens and fine silver, strung on knotted waxed cotton cord with a sterling clasp.

Sus birthday necklace: Totoro closeup

Prototype:

Totoro necklace prototype

This was my first try at the Totoro necklace. It’s lariat-style on green silk rattail with small spacers in pale blue, kryptonite, pink lady, mystic pink, dark lavender and baby blue. I decided it didn’t work very well – I think it needed larger beads as it looks very thin and sparse in person.

Flat Totoro!

Flat Totoro

A different style of Totoro :)

Busy busy!

I had a very busy time over Christmas. In the end we got the bits and pieces for making my lampwork enclosure from B&Q instead, since the carpenter completely failed to give us the quote he said he would… and we never heard from him again! So there was some excitement and a lot of hefting involved in getting large pieces of MDF and cement board home on public transport. (Our ‘local’ B&Q is not particularly local). Most of my Christmas presents from my boyfriend were construction materials and tools! I hadn’t done anything more DIY than putting together flat pack furniture, so it’s all been rather interesting. I’m not entirely finished yet, but everything’s cut to size and sanded. The sanding has taken a while and been exceedingly messy, as sanding is. I’d have got it done faster if I didn’t have to cover everything with dust sheets each time before I could begin! Then there was all the hoovering after. The sanding itself was quite fun though – Black & Decker power sander go VROOOM.

I finally got hold of the correct fan too (don’t ask – motto of the story is to always go for the eBay seller, since they actually care about negative feedback!) so that’s sitting in its box waiting for me to attach the power lead.

Christmas was also hectic because I had the bright idea to make some of the presents. This always takes longer than expected. I also got a very last minute commission from my mum to make a necklace using my polymer clay tree cane for my brother’s girlfriend and ‘a few’ other necklaces she could give to other people. I went for the simple as possible option – polymer clay beads on leather or waxed cotton cord, with hook fastenings. I did make the hooks. I’d been experimenting with the polymer clay version of mokume gane, a Japanese metalworking technique (mokume = woodgrain), so I made a whole load of lentil beads decorated with thin slices from my mokume block and some quick small spacers using the stripy offcuts from the sides.

Blue mokume and winter necklaces

I also made a green mokume block and used it to decorate a pair of glass tumblers as part of my parents’ presents.

Green mokume

I shall end with a picture of my glass. Oooo, glass. I’m not buying any more until after I’m up and running and have a good idea of what colours I want more of.

Glass stash!

What we have here in the first photo is my Effetre starter pack, split into transparent and opaque (the pringles tubes!) and between them is a mixed selection of Effetre stringers. Then there’s a CiM selection pack (so pretty!) and a small Reichenbach 104 selection pack. In front there’s some frit in tubs from Tuffnell’s, three Val Cox frit blends, two sets of shards from Rachel Elliott, and the rods at the front are CoE 96 from A String of Beads.

Photo 2: the top half are colours I ordered with my starter pack and expect to be staples – dark ivory, turquoise, ivory, white, black, clear, petrol green. Then there’s some I got later – Effetre straw yellow, light brown transparent, ink blue, light silver plum, and at the bottom some Double Helix Aurae. I’ll be saving that one up for after I’ve had some practice! (Double Helix does silver-rich reactive glasses that do some amazing things. Also on the expensive side!)

Did I mention oooooh, glass?

I am also going to the UK Flame Off in Towcester in April. Demonstrations! Torches to try out! Vendors and the lampworkers’ village to make me spend all my money! I’m staying overnight on Friday and will be there both days. It’s very exciting!

(If you want to see what I’ve been making before I get round to mentioning it here, have a peek at my Flickr photostream).

Pumpkins!

I made these pumpkin beads to wear to a Halloween party. I used this tutorial from Polymer Clay Central to construct the cane, then reduced it to different sizes. You can see some of the offcuts and stages in construction in the first photo below, along with the beads ready to go in the oven.

Pumpkins - construction and necklace

The beads were hurriedly baked the morning before the party, and even more hurriedly strung on brown cord. The earrings were put together once I’d actually arrived, so there wasn’t any opportunity for more than a basic knot. I’m going to redo them a little more neatly and also treat the cord ends to stop them fraying.

I love the way that polymer clay lets you either blend colours by squishing them into each other, or lay them side by side, totally unblended. The moment of cutting the waste ends off a newly assembled or reduced cane to see the finished article is purely gleeful!