too many hobbies

Bead Snowflake Ornaments

I found the frames at the local bead store, and I picked out some random beads to go with 'em.  The kids and I had fun putting them together, although the wire was stiffer than the stuff I usually use, so bending the loops at the ends was kind of tough.  My son's favorite is a traditional green and red one:

while my daughter insisted I make a pink one (for which I had to break into my store of leftover beads):

We use those little hooks on our Christmas tree, so I didn't add ribbons to mine, but you could do that if you were feeling fancy, I suppose.

Blue Pearl Necklace ?

As a coda to the blue pearl necklace thing, I still have a few of the roundish blue pearls, and a bunch of these blue blister pearls, with which I hope to make yet another necklace; this time maybe with silver chain, or wire.  I'm not totally decided on that front.

Blister pearls are cultured on the shell of the mussel (What was that?  You thought pearls came from oysters?  Nope.  Most freshwater pearls are cultured from various types of mussels.), which gives them their unique shape.

Blue Pearl Necklace 2

Necklace number two is also knotted, but it's a random pattern of pearls with plenty of string in between.  It's not quite the same thing as an illusion necklace, but it's a lot less substantial, more ethereal, than the traditional knotted pearls of necklace number one.  It looks nice on its own, and complements the first neckace nicely, just as I'd hoped:

Quick note on the colors of the photos for this series of posts: it's not so easy photographing pearls, especially when you're working with a new computer/software combo.  I did my best to level them out, but, while (I think) each individual photo looks okay, all together there's quite a bit of variation.  I hope  between all of the photos you'll be able to get the gist.  I also hope that, as I grow accustomed to the new tools, future photos will be less wonky.

Blue Pearl Necklace 1

Not too long ago my mother and I went to a pearl trunk show at Beadworks on Newbury Street.  She bought some gunmetal grey round pearls, and I took home a signed copy of Nancy Alden's Simply Pearls: Designs for Creating Perfect Pearl Jewelry, and three strands of blue freshwater pearls.

Normally I'm attracted to pinks and beiges when it comes to beads, especially pearls, but for some reason this combo really caught my eye.  I originally thought I'd make one big necklace with all of them, but after some consideration I decided on two or three smaller necklaces that would (hopefully) be complementary, in the hopes that I could wear each one individually, or layer them all for a more ornate look.

The first one is just a simple strand of knotted pearls.  Simple, that is, except for the clasp, which was a find and a half:

All together it's a pretty simple, dare I say, elegant piece, which effect I regularly ruin by wearing it around the house and out grocery shopping and wherever and whenever I happen to feel like it.

Turquoise Necklace

My mom's current racket is buying me beads and getting me to make her jewelry, which suits me fine, because I get to sponge off the leftovers.  Case in point: the above turquoise necklace.  My mom bought a strand of gorgeous turquoise chips, out of which I made her two bracelets:

That's one of them, anyway.  The other one is a double-strand bracelet with red coral and white turquoise beads as well, which I forgot to take a photo of before I gave it to her, along with the other bracelet I made for her with the coral, the white turquoise, and a large green turquoise focal bead.  If I think about it I'll bring my camera over next time I visit her.

In any case, I made the floating turquoise necklace with a few of the leftovers and some silver wire, and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

The current beading project is a bunch of blue pearls that I recently bought.  I plan to use them to make several necklaces; I've made one simple knotted necklace already, and I'm still considering how best to make a coordinating piece with the other pearls.