Thanks to a very generous an unexpected christmas gift, I spent the holidays playing with swarovski crystal pearls -- and drooling over the blackberry pearls, which I then finally got to see IRL. I decided early on to use some of the pearls for the january palette and here it finally is -- or, well, I couldn't choose so there's two variations and three pics for this month's bead mix.
The last one is the same colours as the first palette, but using different beads and chain.
You can also go with just one of the colours plus black (matte metal or shiny faux pearls):
The cold is getting a bit better (and even more so, my throat which was horrible raw and sore this morning is better) so I thought that I might as well take the opportunity to post a recap already on a friday. Before forgetting as usual. Hope you find something of interesting to read on or via the posts!
It's time for another recap of what I'm blogged about on Manekis Pärlblogg, my blog for beaders and jewellery makers. This time subjects range from sustainable precious metal and jewellery art to silk ribbon projects and new swarovski colours to contests and cake.
The tricky part about the Challenge of Music is to pick just one piece of music. One piece, out of all the great music in the world. This time the theme was instrumental music, but it doesn't really narrow it down very much as I enjoy instrumental music of all kinds, from classical to contemporary electronica. In the end I settled for one thing, a specific sound I adore. The sound of an instrument that goes plink.
I love instruments that go plink, be it a celesta (that lovely instrument you can hear e.g. in Tjajkovskij's The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy),
glockenspiel, music box, harp, clock or synth. There's a little
bit of magic in that sound. Like a beam of moonlight, a lone star shining in the evening sky, dewdrops shimmering on a
spider web or gentle snowfall at night (you know the kind that is silent, but still makes that unmistakable sound). Or the "true" magic you find in the more poetic fantasy stories I read.
Now, The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy is lovely, but it was ruled out as so many associate it with Fantasia (which I've never seen by the way). So what could I find instead? Wintergatan. I actually discovered this group after signing up for the challenge and starting to look around for my challenge piece. I began to think about my favourite instrumental music, both old and new, when Detektivbyrån popped up in my head. Sadly, the band dissolved in 2010, but listening to one of their songs on YouTube I read a comment mentioning on of the band member's new project -- and thus I found Wintergatan. And my chosen piece of music, Sommarfågel (= Summer Bird).
Wintergatan, which means the Milky Way in swedish, is a new band by Martin Molin. This time he's joined by David Zandén, Evelina Hägglund och Marcus Sjöberg. They use instruments like glockenspiel, analog synthesizer, music box, vibraphone, drums, accordion, theremin, vibraphone and many more. Their first album will be out in May so at the moment you can only listen to/buy their double single Sommarfågel & Starmachine2000. You can read more about on their website.
Below, I've also added the video for the second piece of the double single,
Starmachine2000. Not for the song, though nice, but because you
can see how the music box and the punched cards with the melodies were
made after the end of the song.
That's my inspiration. So where did I go with it? Well, first I have to admit that it turned out to be trickier than I thought to make something inspired by Sommarfågel. Maybe it was my trying to hard, maybe it was the fact that the song has several passages, that differ somewhat from each other. In the end, the part that actually captured me the most was the more serene music box melody after the song and introduction of the band (you didn't stop listening when Martin started talking, did you?). I also focused on the sound of the music box, which is at the heart of the melody in Sommarfågel, even when the other instruments take over.
I wish I had the supplies to make something of the first idea that popped into my head -- and that might also be the part that made the challenge hard, having to abandon something I felt immediately -- as it was all about the mechanical motions, clockwork parts and old-fashioned handicraft that's behind music boxes and musical automata like the Peacock Clock at the Ermitage or the Silver Swan. Or a simple modern dancing ballerina jewellery box for that matter.
Alas, my focus had to change and instead I kept focusing on that idea of magic that I find in the type of instruments mentioned initially. Be it real fairytale magic or illusions to create a sense of magic in everyday life. Magic and starlight.
As the challenge was not only about creating jewellery, I thought of other things to do and at first it resulted in a series of digital art doodles:
The I made one more yesterday.
For the last image I used a picture of a frozen brook with a few added stars from the software, but the "stars" in the other pictures are actually grit on a greenhouse window pane. If you're a follower of my blog you know I love my moody greenhouse window photos.
I also made a bracelet last minute, after scrapping several ideas. Not the piece I'm most proud of -- wanted to use other materials, like matte blackened wire, but had to make due with what I had -- and it's going to be redone later, but I wanted to create something a bit more hands-on. Not that the challenge demanded it, but because that's what I wanted to do from the beginning. And that means showing you something I'm not pleased with -- or maybe I should say something I'm not finished with. Because I do think it could be the base of something good. It's not a bad piece of finished jewellery, it's a WIP that can show it's full potential yet.
Here, the feeling of magic and starlight is to be found in the (on the photo hard-to-spot) light rose satin crystals and silver-lined transprent grey mini drops nestled among the peacock keshi pearls and aubergine silk cord, which represent the faster passages and the other instruments.
Funny how I throughout settled for dark colours when I don't actually perceive the music as dark. I find Sommarfågel to be a positive, upbeat piece of music. Maybe the darkness is just a way to make the glimmering shards (i.e. the music box melody) emerge more clearly. Maybe the fast pace of some of the passages felt heavy and that translated into darkness, eventhough it doesn't sound that dark.
~*~
If you've managed to get through this verbose post -- thank you for doing that! -- then you might also want to check out the rest of the challenge participants:
The bead palette of the month is an analogous mix of muted pinks and purples, pefect for elegant, sophisticatad jewellery. The bead choice -- Swarovski crystals and pearls -- add to the sense of luxury.
Satin is a perfect finish for those who prefer toned colours and that special vintage feel. Satin is a haematite grey finish and therefore it's not surprising that dark greys go well together with this mix -- as beads or as findings (e.g. gunmetal or oxidized clasp). If you want to add seeds, on tip could be to look for colour-lined black diamond/transparent grey, e.g. magenta-lined black diamond.
If the mix is too dark for you or you just want to add another colour, one option could be to add "antiqued gold"/brass ox and beige tones. Other options include muted earthy greens like olive and sage or a muted blue like montana or denim.
Below is an example using an "antique gold" toggle clasp and sand-lined crystal hex cuts.
This is the last weekly palette, from now on it's back to the standard schedule again on my other blog, which means monthly palettes. I did intend to do another bead mix this week, but due to the camera incident, I had had to change things a bit. So this week's mix ended up being an autumnal pearl blend.
I will stop moaning about colours looking better IRL, but it is worth mentioning in this case: the heather and burgundy looks better together than the photo might suggest. Some don't like mixing red and purple. As neighbours on the colour wheel, they do match, but it's very much about finding the right hues. In this mix, the dark brown pearls also help softening the mix. If you really don't want to mix the two, the brown pearls look good with just the red or the purple too.
What about the future monthly palettes now that I have no camera? Well, I'm still hoping to find a nice and cheap used camera soon, but there's also my sis' camera that I probably will get more used too -- and I'm thinking of using some of my older bead photos that have been published on this blog before. Only problem is that I don't always have the exact bead colour names and I really do want to use them whenever I can.
I keep going through a lot of photos that's just lying around. This is a series of pics I took of a shell pearl mix I bought from Rings & Things. While I liked the colours enough to buy the strand, the combo wasn't really my favourite. But then I culled one of the colours and suddenly, the colour combo felt more harmonious. That led me to experimenting with different ways of combining the colours, omitting one or two colours at the time. The result of that can be seen in these following photos. (Unfortunately taken outside on a very bright -- and windy! -- day so please excuse the harsh shadows and highlights.)
So what did I learn from that? Well, if you've got a bead mix that doesn't feel just right, try and remove one or more colours and the mix might turn out more appealing and useful for you. On mix can contain several interesting colour combos if you just look for them.
It's of cause easier to do this with "big" beads than with tiny seed beads. With seed beads it's easier to alter a bead mix you don't like by adding more beads, either in a new colour or in one of the colours already found in the mix (though think before you do it or you just end up with a bigger pile of beads in messy colours).
PS! I did end up using one of the two-colour combos above actually: they can be found in this bracelet.
I bought these biwa pearls -- or, more correctly, stick pearls -- ages ago. They were on sale and I liked both the colours and the shape. Very autumnal, which is something I'm drawn to and often find inspirational. But, alas, so far I've not even used one pearl on that strand. Especially silly considering I've even written this post on stick pearl jewellery projects to inspire others...
Maybe I should just pick out twelve of the most challenging -- and perhaps most forgotten -- "old" beads or other components/supplies in my stash and label them each with a month, from january to december. Sometime during the course of each month I have to use the strand/bag/hank/spool/box -- all of it or some of it -- labelled with the month in question. Or perhaps pick out 24 things and combine them two and two as a monthly variation of a muffin tin challenge [but with the notion that I can add other things freely to the two items assigned to each month]?
Yes, perhaps I should do that. It's a shame, really, to just have these lovely pearls tucked away, collecting dust in a bead tray, when they could make fab jewellery. I know it's not the first time I talk about challenging myself this way, but then forgetting about it.* Perhaps New Year will be a good deadline for actually comitting to such a challenge once and for all?
* = Doesn't apply to the Tangeringe Tango "challenge" -- I've at least one WIP for that one right now and have selected beads and fibre for some more. Including an idea for this gimp cord.
Due to computer issues (the headache inducing kind) I'm writing this in the middle of the night. I hope the fact it's past my bedtime won't make this post too difficult to read.
I like cords and ribbon, but I've never used the sari ribbon I've seen so many other do beautiful jewellery with. So when I read about the Sari ribbon blog party, hosted by Brenda Sue Lansdowne (of B'Sue Boutiques) I thought it was a good incentive to try it myself. I also challenged myself further by choosing to work with a colour I don't normally use. A colour far from the earthtones I'm so fond of.
This is my third hop in less than a month, which meant I didn't have much time to work with the ribbon. I mostly do bead weaving and embroidery at the moment, but that was out of the question this time. As so often when I'm working with something new I tried to keep it simple, getting to know the material rather than go for some grand design I didn't know if it'd work out in the end. Working with what I had at home also added som limitations.
And these three added another obstacle to the whole thing. Especially Julle and Jisse quickly learned that sari ribbon is just so much fun to chew, run off with, catching in the air and just generally play with. At one point, Jisse (the boy in the middle) was hanging from my skirt trying to catch the ribbon I was holding (I was standing up at the moment). Cute, I guess, but awfully irritating when I was racing against the clock yesterday. Well, I guess I should just be glad not all of our eleven cats took the same interest in my new ribbon stash....
I planned several different things, but in the end it boiled down to two finished pieces. For my first necklace, I found the perfect dark heather freshwater pearls to go with the ribbon. When I check colours to see if they match, I often twist the ribbon, cord or bead strands around each other. In this case that became the inspiration for the finished design. I simply stitched a strand of pearls to the ribbon and twisted it, leaving some ribbon on each side for tying in the neck (preferrably with a prettier bow than mine).
I might redo this one as I think the ribbon it too tightly twisted and it looks like the pearls are wrapped around the ribbon rather than the two -- ribbon and pearl strand -- being twisted together as it looks when I first tested the technique.
Pretty soon I knew I'd probably want to make a ribbon flower (check out the blog label ribbon flowers and you'll see why). This was not my original plan. I wanted to do a "loop" flower, but in the end I settled for a smaller flower in a technique known as continuous u-gather. The flower was stitched to a filigree in russian goldplate and then a flower in the same plate was added to the centre, held in place by a fire-polished bead.
The chain is just temporary: I didn't have any in the right colour to match the filigree and because it's so delicate I didn't have any cord or ribbon that seemed to fit.
The flower is a bit uneven, which I probably can blame the kitties for, but I hope it doesn't look too uneven. I can't say that hot pink and gold is a favourite colour combo, but it is eyecatching and very different from what I usually do so it was a fun combo to work with. A happy and warm combo.
All in all, I made two designs that I never would've thought I'd make, had you asked me the day I signed up for the blog hop. Ideas got scrapped, components had to be returned to the stash as they didn't work out, ribbon got mauled by the cats. And in the end I came up with something created by the work process itself in a way. Something I hope you like or might even be inspired by, even if they are simple designs hastily made in the last minute.
Will I be working more with sari ribbon in the future? Most likely, though from now on I'll probably wait for the really good ideas as I don't have a deadline hovering over me. I'm an "ideas first" kind of person, finding it hard to work with kits or choosing materials before choosing my project idea. But I know that sooner or later I do get an idea for the materials I've accumulated. Until then I'll just work with something else (right now embroidery, I think). Sari ribbon sure has potential to inspire me.
*
Before you go, I just wanted to add that you might want to stick around: I'm planning to do a giveaway in the beginning of November, which you perhaps would be interested in. Ok, now go and check out all the other talanted party people in this hop:
I'm blogging a lot this week (blogging and hopping has pretty much been the theme of the week so far). This is a bracelet I came to think of when I saw someone had linked to my mini tut on Pinterest. Don't think I've shown it before. So I just wanted to write a little about it as it was one of those designs where I just went with a whim.
This is one of those "what if...?" designs. It's based on the basic "berries and vines" design, which I've done a few variations of before (it's in the link). For this variation I wondered what would happen if I added not one picot per section, as in my orange bracelet, but one picot on each and every seed bead. A bit fiddly to get some of the beads to fit, but this is how it eventually turned out.
A close-up:
I was keeping my fingers crossed that the bracelet would be just the right length so I could finish with a pink bead, not breaking up the pattern. And it was. The clasp is a simple bead-and-loop clasp, making it blend in with the rest of the bracelet.
It got its name from the fact that the lavender seed beads remind me of lilac blossom somehow. The colours where really a case of using what I had at hand. While I like a muted palette and romantic colours, I don't think I would've worked with this palette in this way otherwise.
It's a pretty chunky and heavy bracelet, but I think it's ok. Could probably develop the design idea more, but for a first test of my idea, I'm pleased with it.
This bracelet is made using bead I thread the same way as in the pink lustre sample I wrote about earlier. For this bracelet I used the same light amethyst copper-lined czech seeds, but added brown dancing FW pearls instead of oval beads.
Being top-drilled, the pearls sit differently than "straight drilled" pearls in the same shape would. I really like that result, though most of all I like the colours and the fact that I finally ended up using these pearls that I've had for ever (and which doesn't look as pretty on their own as mixed with the pinkish amethyst seeds).
I felt a bit nostalgic and perhaps even more inspired when I read a post on finger knitting/crochet over at The Beading Gem's Journal. I used to have so much fun doing finger crochet in school: it was so fast and easy to make that many kids got addicted to it. And they still teach this in school, with new generations falling for the same fun addiction.
So of cause I had to give it a try again after reading that post. I use the "looping method" described at e.g. Craftzine rather than the more common "weaving method". So I began looping my yarn, knowing I still remembered the technique -- though, just to be sure I wasn't remembering it wrong I asked my sis if it was correct. "Of cause it is, have you forgotten how it's done or something?", she retorted. Well, it was perhaps fifteen years since I last made a finger crochet snake so why wouldn't that be possible? Anyway, I hadn't forgotten: I've finger crocheted so much it's forever ingrained in my brain I think.
First (finished) piece I made was the simple bracelet above. It's made using a thick novelty yarn called Fiocco Oro by Gedifra (colour no. 6601), making the bracelet look less airy and loose than finger crochet normally do. Also, because my pinkies are so short, I found it much easier to crochet by just using three fingers instead of four. All pieces below are crocheted like this.
Then, of cause, I had to try adding beads to my finger crochet -- after all I do "regular" bead crochet as well as I've tried adding beads to my knitting nancy. I've got a lack of apropriate stringing materials for this technique so I had to make due with what I found, which was subtle enough to crochet and also thin enough to string beads on. I got out some pearl silk. I wasn't sure I had enough pearls strung so therefore only one loop on each turn was made with a pearl. I think the result is kind of nice (se below for more on the issues I had using this stringing material), but I suspect there'll be some of the same problem floating necklaces can have with beads migrating downwards due to the large loops.
That left me with enough strung pearls to make a matching bracelet. This time I added pearls on every loop, which made a significant difference in the result. Just too bad the pearl silk turned out to be a poor choice: if a loop becomes snagged, if so just on a finger nail, it pulls on the whole cord making big unsightly loops. So does some of the pearls themselves as well. A loop is easily pulled back into the cord, but really, you don't want a piece of jewellery that distorts that easily. Add to that the fact that these pieces, necklace and bracelet, keeps stretching! Ok with a necklace, but my bracelet is now far too large.
I wasn't about to give up my efforts to create a beaded version of finger crochet. This time I wanted to work in monochrome as it would highlight the texture and shapes rather than the cord itself. In the end, I got out some C-lon cord in black and strung matte black 8/0 japanese seeds on it. These beads are smaller than the pearls and together with the somewhat more rigid cord, the look is completely different from the pearl bracelet eventhough I used one bead per loop here aswell.
The stiffer stringing material also makes this cord stretchy, but not in the way the silk is stretchy. Rather, this cord is "bouncy" and when not worn it pulls together, almost like elastics when not stretched out. I think it'll stop doing that once I've used the bracelet some time and it's not a problem -- other than when you want to get a good pic of it. It's not slowly but constantly growing like my pearl bracelet; it keeps it's lenght and shape much better.
My conclusions so far are that finger crochet is a fun technique that can be used for jewellery that appeal to adults, it's not just a thing for kids. Just as with many other things, it's just a matter of what materials you use and how you use the finished cord.
Also, it is possible to add beads to the cord, but be aware that big beads can thug the cord so it distorts and note also that small beads can "sneak" through the loops: you can't expect a "perfect result" with evenly spaced beads as when using a knitting nancy, instead the beads will slide along each loop and perhaps even end up in a loop belonging to another bead. A good thing about using beads was that I found it easier to pick upp the string to push it over my finger when grabbing hold of the bead rather than the cord/string. (I use a pretty tight tension regardless of that technique I work with and it's not that easy grabbing hold of string that's sitting tight against my fingers.)
This will absolutely be something I'll continue working with, eventhough I'll probably not do it as often. If nothing else, it's a nice way of killing time or relaxing when I don't feel like beading. And, yes, I'll keep experimenting with bead finger crochet.
So... I thought I'd go outside and photograph some of my beads and things for this blog. For some reason it's always slightly windy when I decide to do this, though I don't always notice until I actually get the beads out. Then comes along a gust of wind that does this... The white paper I use as background was lifted by a gust of wind and half a strand of pretty new shell pearls was scattered across the somewhat oil and gas stained gravel outside the bead room. Luckily, this time it was rather big beads and in colours that was easy to spot against the greyish stones and decaying leaves. Plus I'd actually counted the beads so I knew exactly how many to look for. A good thing because a few beads, not just seed beads, have actually disappeared from me when falling on the ground.
Anyway, before I continued my photo session I installed a bead collecting soft "safety net". Which doubled as a soft and comfy "rug" for my bare feet. Worked very well, stray beads rolled into the depressions instead of scattering and disappering. Plus the soft material meant I didn't risk denting or scratching the beads on impact either. Just too bad I put the front side down. Now it's a bit dirty to put back in my lawn chair... Well, I saved my beads and that's what counts.
I tend to shop for things I want and in a lesser degree I shop for specific projects. Well, I've realised that when I shop for those things I want, I tend to end up with a shopping cart of matching colours. It's like I one day just love light browns and fresh spring greens and then the next time I want to shop my wishlist is filled with teal and greyish blue beads and then one day I have money and buy some nice stuff, ending up with it being all pinks and purples. This time it ended up being all about brown brass and deep tones of burgundy and aubergine (and a bit of crystal celsian).
Of cause, you might argue that I have colour preferences so it's no wonder I end up doing this, but what amazes me is the fact that I don't always see this when I shop -- I discover it when I open the package. And also, it's a new theme every time. Ok, partially it is the fact that I love colour and I always get new ideas and find things I like about a colour I haven't fancied before. But I don't shop with the intention of getting items that will look good together, colourwise, it just happens...
