Organic wrap bracelet (Jewelry Making Mojo Challenge)

Beacause of the time of year, I've not been good at keeping up with the Jewelry Making Mojo Challenge every week. I still have a WIP from the colour palette week, never got far with the redo assignment and the ancient inspiration week never got beyond a few sketches and a favourite civilization. But this week, I felt it was about time to actually start doing something, regardless of potato work. I ended up with a very simple piece, but on the other hand I like simple jewellery -- and it felt like the right style for the brand I chose.

The assignment of the week was to "Create a piece of jewelry inspired by your favorite clothing catalog or online store". Well, I'm not sure I have a favourite. What little money I have, I spend on beads and not clothes. The clothes I shop are mostly affordable basics like tops and cardies. But even if my interest in fashion is lukewarm to say the least, I do have taste preferences and ever since encounting mori kei, I've got a bit of interest in clothes back. Fashion is boring, personal style is fun. So it's finding interesting styles and gets me interested in clothes. Something that's easy to see if looking at my Hair & clothes pinboard (yeah... hair's another thing I'm not much into, mostly because I suck at making nice updos and don't like to spend time curling, straightening, drying etc).

Anyway, for this assignment, I went to my pinboard and started looking through it. What to choose? One of the lagenlook/romantic country inspired brands (Östebro, Aurea Vita, Ewa i Walla, Rundholz, Ivey Abitz etc) as they're so earthy and poetic? Artka for colourful, "ethnic" (yeah, don't like that word but as it's useful...) inspiration? No, in the end I went with a brand that makes nice, simple clothes for every day: Braintree, a brand of organic, ethical clothing.

I wanted to do something that matches summer outfits like this -- and of cause something that'd follow the same ethics as the brand. It had to be organic. Now, I'm embarrassed to say I don't have that much organic stringing materials (not to mention organic floss: do you know how hard it is to find organic or fairtrade cotton embroidery thread??), but I did find a ball of cotton yarn from Marks & Kattens (M&K Eco) which I felt was a good fit for the clothes.

It would've been pretty to finish the simple wrap bracelet off with a shiny metal charm, but I wanted to stick with the theme and go for something more green. Much metal is recycled today, but it wasn't enough for this design. So I went with an old wooden lentil bead. Wood is of cause only green if the forestry is responsible. Still, green enough for this design.

After making the first bracelet, I also made a second using a laser cut birch wood pendant I've had lying around for ages. Thought the motif suited the ideas behind the design.

The design can perhaps be a tad dull, but I'm seeing them as stackable bracelets to be combines with others -- and I had to make due with what I had at home. You take what you have.

Because the bracelets wrap three times around the wrist, they're also a suitable size for a necklace if one wishes to use it that way instead. Perhaps adding charms or pendants according to whatever fits the outfit of the day. One could of cause do that when wearing them like bracelets too if it feels too plain like this.

Dark metallic bronze bead

Just wanted to add a pic of a wooden bead my sis painted in Magic Metallics dark bronze paint.

She bought the paint for the same reason I bought their steel paint: to paint objects we wanted to add a patina to. These paints contain real metal particles and when treated with the appropriate patina solution, they patinate. Bronze and copper paint turn a beautiful verdigris while the steel paint rust -- like in this example I''ve shown before.

But I must say this paint is very pretty as it is: a matte black with a discrete copper shimmer. In a way it reminds me of my etched goldstone.

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.

Crackle paint cabochons

I've had some crackle medium standing on a shelf for ages. Or at least it feels like that. I bought it just a week or so before reading about a cheaper crackling technique that uses ordinary white glue instead of crackle medium, which can be pretty pricey sometimes. Typical. Anyway, this weekend I finally got around to trying it and these are my very first pieces: two 30 mm wooden discs and two glass pebbles (of the kind used in flower vases etc).

This one is a bit so-so. I tried not to paint over the medium more than once, as recommended, but I think I was too worried about doing it and therefore got a very uneven layer of paint. To the right you can see an unsuccessful attempt to add some colour without blocking out the crackles in the semi-dry paint. Not a smart idea. Better to just paint, allow it to overlap if you have to (and don't do it too much) and then not worry about uneven painting or a few small bare spots. After all, that just add to the old and rustic look.

For both cabs/discs I used a blue base coat, pretty much the only darker colour I have apart from some purple paint. It was really a matter of using what I had at hand. Have to buy some dark brow paint soon as I think it'll make a better base coat, more realistic if nothing else.


I also tried to paint some glass pebbles. Here, I didn't use any base coat. Instead I painted the medium directly on the glass and then painted it over with acrylic paints. Beige on the amber yellow cab and the same blue as above on the clear cab.

I tried to add another layer of paint in a contrasting colour to darken the cracks on a third, green cab (not pictured). Didn't work very well. Perhaps I should've let the first layers of paint dry longer, making sure there's not even a drop of moisture left. Well, you live and you learn...

Have no idea what to do with these cabs. They were test pieces, but it would still be nice to use them in my jewellery.

I'm also planning on doing a few pieces that are only partially crackled, e.g. adding the crackling as a frame around an image or painting. Not exactly sure what I want to do, but playing with crackle medium is fun so I will experiment some more with it.

Easter by the sea

Yesterday, my grandma invited us to lunch and in the afternoon, my sis and I took the opportunity to walk down to the beach (grandma lives in Vejbystrand by the sea -- more precisely by the shoreline surrounding the Skälderviken bay, which divides Bjäre peninsula from Kullen peninsula).


It was a wam day so it wasn't exactly desolate -- many tourists had come down to their summer cabins over the easter break and enjoyed the beautiful, warm day at the beach -- but the water is still relatively cold (we spent some time wading in it) and we didn't see anyone bathing.




The water levels were low so we found quite a bit of shells to sift through. I even found two pieces of sea glass. The bigger piece had probably not been in the water for long as it was still semi-glossy. Here's some of the bits and pieces I took with me. Don't know what to do with them, but at least a few of them will be used in my jewellery one way or another.



I should add that several of these pics are not taken by me, but by my sis (and it's her camera as well, I just borrowed it for a few shots). The shells above were found by her aswell (and photographed by her). They were stacked like that when she found them so the photo isn't arranged.

Found a grub in my wardrobe...

This little critter is one I recently found in a bag of old stuff in one of our wardrobes. I used to make a whole lot of things from scraps of wood ever since I was a little kid as my dad enjoyed woodworking and more in his spare time. My sis and I would make e.g. snails by hammering nails in pieces of wood. Well, this one I made in school. No idea how old I was at the time.

It's made from unfinished wooden beads, a wood rod (rundstav), nails (for attaching nose and as antannae) and some fleece for hair. Not sure larvae have hair on their heads, but some are hairy.


An example of "beadwork" I made long before I became a beader. Woodshop was so much fun! I've actually also found a copper ring and a few of the enamel pendants I made there. Sometimes politicians want to cut lessons in slöjd (textile and woodshop), arguing it's more important to focus on math, language, science and all of that. But for me, slöjd/"sloyd" and art class are important for children. It gives them opportunity to be creative, to have fun, to experiment -- and to learn. Not everyone has parents with a whole room full of tools and materials to work with like me and my sis and especially for those kids, I find art and slöjd to be important parts of children's education.

Anyway, I'm going to take some pics of my other finds as well some day. Until then, if you want to see some jewellery I made in the 90's check out this pic. The bracelet is new, made from readymade charms, but the pendant is made by me in 1993. So when I was 11-12 years old. I also made a Father's Day pendant for dad.

Decoupaged wood beads bracelet

This is another decoupaged piece of jewellery I've made using Décopatch papers (no 287). Normally I really, really dislike elastic jewellery, but as I didn't have any good clasps I choose to string the beads on elastics so I at least could finish my project (it's a long overdue project made with beads I got from Fru Pärla).

I thought my favourite decoupage paper looked pretty good mixed with the caramel brown wooden beads. On the first close-up you can even see how the graining slightly showns through the thin paper. I left one side free so the bracelet can be worn with some beads facing up and other facing down if one prefers that.

Pink anemone brooch

I really like these lovely big acrylic/lucite flowers. That's why I bought this one eventhough pink is not my favourite colour.

This just a very simple brooch I made by knotting the acrylic flower to a large coconut button -- it had a perfect curve for letting the flower nest in the middle -- and then adding a few matte crystal long magatama beads in the centre. I think it suits the season with its soft spring colours.

Shopping by colour

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...

A handful of beads

This is the second beaded ball I've ever made. The thing I like about it is the size: it's about 4,5 cm, making it ideal to hold in my hand and play with. To that, I've used soft "unfinished" wooden beads and matte glass drops so it feels very nice and soft to hold.

The bead is a basic 30-bead ball. After it was finished I added large drop beads to each "joint" where the thread was visible between the beads. Not only did they cover the thread, but I think they added a bit to the design as well. My reason for using large beads was to be able to use them as home décor, inspired by a cover of The Bead Book Magazine where large beaded balls made from a variety of beads were used almost like fruit, placed in a bowl.

I can't say I enjoy making these bead balls, but I kind of like them enough to probably make a few more in the future.

A copper bookmark

When writing about bookmark tutorials and projects in Manekis Pärlblogg, I did make a few bookmarks just to illustrate the post (you can see them here). Later I got a copper bookmark from a fellow beader in Malmö and it too became part of a "post illustration" when I showed how to work with double pendants/charms. But this is the first time, I think, that I publish a photo of the bookmark as a whole, not just focusing on the dangle.


I know the moon isn't dark blue, but I still feel like the fairy (or woodland nymph) is standing in front of a full moon. Probably the round shape combined with the midnight blue colour of the MOP charm.

I like the ornate bookmark hooks, but otherwise I prefer simple bookmarks that are easy to put in the pocket, lay on the bookshelf, or place in small bowl on a table. Like the chain or ribbon bookmarks in the other blog post or simply using a piece of paper.

Ribbon and fabric flower jewellery

I've always found ribbon and fabric flowers to be cute, even if I sometimes get bored of the satin roses, sold everywhere. So of cause it was only a matter of time before I started incorporating them in my jewellery (you've already seen my Spring flower earwires).

Above you see one of my first attempts, called Blommor och trä (Flowers and wood). It was at the time just an experiment using store-bought ribbon flowers. These were a style I hadn't seen before so they inspired me more than the usual satin roses, which I had used before in a couple of simple stringed bracelets. I only had three flowers so it was just barely I had enough supplies to make a bracelet to fit me.

It's a simple design with linked dark wooden beads connected to the loops in the leaves of the flowers. I then choose a clasp that was square, as the wooden beads, with a flower-shaped hole.


Now this is a more dramatic piece, using carnation-like ribbon flowers, big shiny black beads and black findings. It has no name, or rather, I seem to give it a new name every time I show it to someone... Here I tried another way of attaching the flowers by pushing the wire through the leaf and make a loop. Nice try, I don't think it'll stand up to much use... But apart from that, I really like the design and overall style.


This necklace above was made for a bead shop contest on the theme Carl von Linné (Linnaeus) and I called it Tidig sommar (Early summer). Here I attached the flowers by skewering the flowers on headpins and linking them with chunky dyed shell nugget beads. Not my favourite bead type, but I thought they looked like grass and fitted the theme (before making this necklace I thought of using the flowers with my rhyolite coins, which didn't work very well).
I also added a "antique gold" butterfly stamping by punching a hole in the tip of the wing and attaching it to the centre flower.

I mostly do symmetrical jewellery so this time I tried to do something asymmetrical, but I think that part failed...


What is this them? Another early attempt at using sation roses ended this way. Started of as a circlet, but ended half the size (a good size to decorate wide candles). Here the roses are kept in place by twisting two blackened iron wires together. Crystal AB drop beads added to give the illusion of dewdrops.

Many different ways to attach flowers in other words. Normally I prefer skewering them or stringing them as it feels more secure that linking them using the ribbon loops/leaves.

~*~

Nowadays I also make jewellery using my own handmade ribbon flowers, but more of that in another post.