My ojime beads

In a previous post, I showed a pic of my dragon ojime bead so I tought it'd be nice to show my other two ojimes too. One thing I like so much about these east asian beads are -- apart from the beautiful, detailed carving -- that I can find my favourite animals in them: cats, dragons and bats. Dragons because they're symbols of power and on of the zodiak animals. Cats stand for luck and bats for happiness and longevity (unlike the europeans who associated them with witchcraft and dark magic, hence the american use of bats for Halloween).

Here's my sweet lucky cat, my maneki neko. I collect cat beads and a good portion of my stash are chinese porcelain lucky cats: there are so many variations of these, I can buy dozens and dozens without ending up with exact duplicates!

Here's my cute bat. We have bats in our barn so for me bats equal beautiful, warm summer nights when the sun barely sinks below the horizon. You know it's summer when the bats start flying in the twilight.

...and here's my dragon again. I love dragons, western and eastern. Can't say that too many times. This one seems almost to chasing his own tail like a cat (or dog).

Haven't used any of them in jewellery. They feel too precious for that. Not just because they weren't exactly my cheapest beads to buy, but because they are so pretty. They have personality and I want them to stay that way, not just become a cog in something bigger, a mere element in a design. Yes, I could string them on a simple necklace, but they'd still just feel purely decorative and diminished if I did that. Not independant (as in free from strings and pins to hold them up) as now. Hard to explain, but that's how it is.

The year of the dragon

I don't think anyone has missed that according to the chinese calendar -- and several other asian ones -- we have recently entered a new year, the year of the dragon. Of cause I love the idea of that, being a dragon lover and all.

The zodiac animal dragon is said to have many positive properties such as power, success, growth, change (to something better) and so on. And thus it's said to be a good thing to start a project or a business in the year of the dragon -- as well as being bort in its year.

This year's dragon is supposedly a water dragon. Water representing things like North, stillness and conservation. According to Wikipedia, "In Chinese Taoist thought, water is representative of intelligence and wisdom, flexibility, softness and pliancy; however, an over-abundance of the element is said to cause difficulty in choosing something and sticking to it. In the same way, Water can be fluid and weak, but can also wield great power when it floods and overwhelms the land." In Feng Shui it often represents wealth and money luck.

I don't believe in astrology -- western nor eastern -- but I do like symbolism so I kind of see it as a motivator, as a good sign that things maybe, maybe might be turning now. That I can get out of this rut and leave my miserable low self esteem behind me. That this is the year. This is the time for change. The time to find my way back again. The time I actually am good enough.

And can it perhaps be a good sign that the last year of the dragon was in 2000, which was a very important and life-changing year for me. It was the year I finished gymnasiet, applied for university, moved out and began my adventures in higher education and an independant life as a young adult. The year I finially decided on my path, that it was the environmental issues, not economy and business administration, that was my true calling. The very path I now worry I might have to give up, not having been able to get a job in that area. You know, the things I whined about here and also moaned about here after having turned 30. But I won't get into self-pitying whine mode now. Try to focus on those positive dragon characteristics.


Anyway, in the spirit of the theme, I thought I'd show you some of my dragons. As a dragon lover I do have a few at home. Not live ones obviously, but beads, pendants, porcelain figurines, books, posters etc. As I've shown some of my beads and pendants before, they won't be the focus here.

This little jug (it fits in the palm of the hand) with a blue-eyed dragon is one I've had since childhood. It might not be an expensive antique, but to me it was and is a treasured piece. In fact, it was one of my first dragons. (A few years ago I also bought two almost paper thing tea cups with similar dragon motifs.)

Like with the red dragon at the top of the post, this metal dragon is one I've bought a few years ago.

This perhaps a bit odd and wingless critter is a sala dragon. I bought it as a souvenir when we visited Sala silver mine. They were made by a local ceramic artist and sold to tourists. Unfortunately, I dropped him in the floor so half his lower jaw is missing...

These two dragons are of the kind you can find many in e.g. new age or gift shops.

One of my newest dragons is this detailed ojime bead. That you can find dragon, bat and cat ojime beads was one of the main reasons I longed to get some of those beads for years.

And that was it. Some of my treasured dragons.

Do you believe in dragons?

I promised dragons, but I've been a bit too busy to write what I wanted about it (been out photographing, baking, making christmas sweets etc). So instead I'll just show this initial "digital doodle" I made on the theme 'believe in dragons'. The dragons is close to invisible compared to my previous dragon doodle, but that's also the idea here: see the dragon if you want to or ignore him if you prefer realism to magic and fairy tales. But he's there if you just choose to look a little closer. (There's a little cartoon kitty too.)

I made a second version of this pic, which I'll show when I get around to write that text.

Dreaming of dragons

Here's another on of my "digital doodles". Initially, the idea was to make some sort of christmas greeting, but it kind of turned into a dark dragon image instead... I guess there might be a reason for that: love dragons, there's a couple among the stickers available at Picnik -- and I'm re-reading some of the fantasy books in my bookshelf (as a substitute to buying something new). No dragons in them, but magic and dragons are like personifications of magic and non-realistic fiction. And apparently the dragon stickers were more inspirational than the Christmas stickers -- and not having PSE anymore, I can't work with layers upon layers of my own images, am limited to using what's available at Picnik. The free version of Picnik even; I don't have access to any premium features.

I'll get back to my reading, there's a little something about it I'd like to share, but not today. Today all you get is a black dragon against a blood red sky. No jewellery, no beads -- not even any embroidery floss (eventhough I got a whole bunch from Mollie, having won them in a giveaway at her blog, Wild Olive. There'll be another dragon tomorrow. More low-key and more in line with the things I'm contemplating, re-reading Moonlight and vines. Not my favourite author, I'm afraid, but de Lint did strike a chord with me yesterday.

Well, anyway, maybe this can still become a Christmas card? For dragon lovers, presumably. Just write an appropriate holiday greeting instead of (the barely legible) Dreaming of dragons. I'm listening to the christmas channel on Sveriges Radio's web radio so maybe that can get me in the mood to make a christmas dragon "card". Surely there must be christmas dragons?

It's party time!

I hope you've been looking forward to today. It's the day of the big reveal. 362 bloggers from around the world showing what they've made with their bead soups. For a full list of participants and links to their blogs, please see Friday's post or the BSBP site.

Every participant has been paired up with a partner to swap a mouth-watering and inspiring batch of bead soup to. Each soup had to include a focal and a fancy clasp -- which were mandatory to use -- and some matching beads and components. My partner was Sue of Hello Gorgeous in Wales, who sent me this lovely and challenging soup, which also included candy from Pwllheli (which I ate before I thought of taking photos of the whole package!) and dragons: a coaster and pin. I love dragons.

What I especially liked about my soup was the blend of things I like and things I don't use very often. I love autumn colours and -- this I hadn't told Sue -- soosho/tri-colour jade is one of the relatively few stone beads I really, really enjoy working with. On the other hand, the beads were big. I often go for the more dainty sizes even if I wish I would try bigger beads sometimes. So that was a big unusual, trying to design with larger beads than normal. The focal had colours and patterns that really spoke to me. It's not the type of focal I usually work with, but I fell for it instantly. And finally, the silver clasp. I rarely work with silver. A price issue of cause, but also because I prefer the colour of brass, copper and blackened metal. I also rarely work with this type of big focal toggle clasps -- and it was the clasp that was the toughest thing to design for.

I ended up making two pieces as I felt the clasp would do nice as a focal itself. It might have worked in the same piece as the shell focal without the two trying to overpower each other, but I made the easy choice of separating them into two projects. First I made a necklace:

For this necklace, I linked the "jade" rounds with oxidized brass heart links. While I knew pretty much from the start that I wanted to link rather than string the stone beads, it took a long time before I settled with this design. I tried so many things, but in the end I felt it was best to keep it simple. And anyway, battling with my natural impulse to work symmetrically (which I wrote about here), it still took some time to do as I kept reorganizing the order of the beads. Again and again. Ending with a compromise of sorts: it's a very tame asymmetry in colours in that necklace.

I also linked the focal to one of  the heart links. The focal has an oxidized brass rose tied to the centre hole and a bead dangling from the bottom to add weight and stability.

I added twist threads to either side of the bead chain for two reasons: 1) I ran out of beads and brass links. 2) I didn't want any big beads in the back. It's not comfortable -- and I had found some silky thread in by yarn and ribbon bag, which matched the shell focal perfectly in colour. Fearing adding other beads would disturb the design, fibre felt like a better solution than adding beads and links in a different shape and size.

I'm not sure whether I'll keep the ends dangling like that. At one point I wanted to just have the twisted cord and use it as closure, tying a nice bow in the back. But the beads are so heavy I feared the silky cord just wasn't going to work. Instead I added crimp ends and a simple little brass s-hook. I still have the cord end, which I can tie over the clasp. But should I keep them or not? What do you -- who actually reads all this text, not just look at the pictures -- think? I'd love to hear it.

With this design it's really hard to get a good photo unless you hang the necklace up. On a model or something else, just not lay it flat. That's also why there's a towel in the last photo: I needed something with pile to keep the beads from rolling away.

So that was the necklace. What happened with the clasp?

Oh, how many times have I re-made this one? At first I found the perfect beads. At least when it came to material: the vesuvianite looked fab against the silver. But I only had some chips and no idea incorporating them worked. Moving on. I wanted really bad to use the smoky beads eventhough I didn't have to. I think that hampered me as I focused on just using semi-precious when it really isn't something I use very often. Then finally overcame that hurdle and opted for fire-polished, reflecting the facets in the quartz beads. But, again, didn't really work. In the end, I got back to just using the only smokey quartz beads I have in my stash, interspersed with sterling silver beads. And I lost one of the bead soup beads in the process. It disappeared without a trace! I've looked everywhere. Well, I guess the cats will find it sooner or later...

Before I end, I must show Goch. He's the dragon I got from Sue and of cause he wanted some bling too so I gave hime a necklace made from a scrap of gold-filled dainty chain and an abused gold-plated crimp cover. (The coaster he's sitting on is also a gift from Sue.)

~*~

Wondering where to go next? My suggestion would be the fabulous and generous hostess of this blog party, Lori Anderson, and my likewise fabulous partner Sue Hodgkinson. Below is a pic that will give you an idea about what Sue had to work with. A complete list of participants can be found on Lori's blog.

My delicious bead soup

 I was going to show a few pics of my bead soup from Sue, which I recieved yesterday, but to make a long story short I've only got one pic ready right now. So I'll get back to it tomorrow instead when I've got some more time to edit the other photos and write some more about what I got in my lovely soup and how I'm thinking about using it (no definite ideas yet). As I have one pic to show, though, I'll do that already today. Looks fab, don't you think? (And, look, a dragon!)

My poor dragon!

I decided to change the pic that goes with my Blogger profile today. Eventhough it means my sweet little blue dragon will no longer accompany any comments I make on other Blogspot blogs or show up in the FriendsConnect grids. Or anywhere else you might see Blogge profile photos. Not sure which of the pics I'll keep as my profile pic, but I thought my dragon deserved this post. He's been with me for several years by now. First as a forum avatar and then as my Blogger profile.

Blue isn't my colour (though I think black and blue is a cool colour combo). The reason I began using this pic was probably the work I put in to it. No, I didn't draw it. It's actually an engraved shots glass to begin with. I saw a photo of it at an auction site and stole the pic, saving it on my computer knowing I couldn't afford those pretty glasses. Then I began manipulating the pic quite a lot to get to this stage (you really can't see it's a photo of a glass, can you?). If you know why I'm so fond of Photoshop Elements, this is one of the reasons. A lot of work, but I was very pleased with the result.

What am I using instead? If you don't want to check out my Blogger profile you can see the new "avatar" below. It's a manipulated version of a photo I'll show you some day soon. Hrmp, the "paper grain effect" was probably a bad call... The pic probably says more about my jewellery styles than the dragon, though. Regardsless of the bad choice of effect filter.

Heat patina on stainless steel

Patinating metal using a torch is so much fun. I've tried both copper and stainless steel and really like the colours I can get on the latter. Here's just one example where I've used a dragon pendant I bought in a bead shop. Degreased it a bit and then I just heated it with my butane torch, making sure I kept moving the torch over the whole pendant.

I still can't control the outcome exactly, but it's a lot of fun so I don't mind if the result differs from want I wanted. For my first try, I used a thin steel sheet I picked up at the local craft shop. Very useful as there was room to experiment and test in what order the colours would appear. As you can see in my two photos, the back of the pendant also changed colour, but not as much as the front, where the heat was directed.



If you want instructions, you can find them e.g. at the M.A.I.L website. It not only covers "torching" but also how to heat metal in an oven or kiln etc. There's also an article on heat colouring jump rings using a skillet and stove top.

And one thing: if you try this, make sure you know what metal you're using. For example, never, ever heat galvy steel as you might release nasty zinc fumes. You really don't want to inhale those! Some stainless steel items in bead and jewellery shops are also chrome plated -- something that isn't always mentioned in the descriptions...

Dragon and the snowdrops

This is my sweet little green dragon. I took the photo February 28, 2009. Last Sunday, the 28, it looked more like this is our garden. I just can't wait for the spring flowers now!

By the way, the dragon is mine, but not made by me. I got him in an international swap/gift exchange some years ago when I was active at the big B&B/BeadStyle/Art Jewelry forum (before they split into separate forums). I'm so embarressed to say this, but I don't remember who sent him... I've lost the package with her name! The only thing I do remember is that the person sending it was American. If you, reading this, are the one who sent a beaded dragon to a Swedish beader named Kristina or know who might have been my "secret santa", please write me a note because I really would like to know.

(And if you want to make a dragon of your own, here's the instructions -- or read my link tips here.)

Natural MOP goes with...

As a newbie I once bought some round naturally beige mother-of-pearl beads. Something I shouldn't have because I soon realised I didn't have anything to go with them. Nothing seemed to match both the colour and shine. They ended up on the bottom of a bead box. Soon I got the same problem with tiger eye beads. I've never bought much tiger eye, except some dark red beads, since.

This winter I got some tiger eye chips in my advent calendar and this time I think I have found a match. Both for the chips I just got and those MOP beads that have just been laying around for ever. Mix two "problem beads" and problem solved. Now I just have to figure out what other colours -- if any -- I want to add. Must say the beads look better together IRL than on photo. Think I got the stone beads a tad too dark.

I actually did buy some more natural MOP. A pair of dragon pendants, half-drilled. I can't resist dragons, even if they're in a colour or material I've had problems using before! Maybe I'll use this cute fellow with my new bead mix, but I'm not sure yet. He seems to like the beads, though.