Blue Statement Necklace for the FMG Contest: Sneak Peak!

It's been really busy for the past week and a half. I've had to do so many things it's not even funny. This weekend my baby brother graduated from Widener University as an engineer!!! So very proud of him. Anyways, we had to leave at 7:30am to get there by 8:30 so that we would be able to find seats and get situated by 9:00am when the ceremony actually started. It was a beautiful day, not too hot and not too cold but there was a chill in the air.

Waiting at Widener University for the Commencement to begin

 We couldn't stay for the whole ceremony, we waited until 12:00pm and when it was still not over we called my brother and told him to come out.  We congratulated him and took pictures with him and left because we had to go to New Jersey. It took us a good two hours to get there: traffic was just brutal.

Ok, rewind to last Monday or Tuesday, I can't remember, I woke up with intense lower back pain.  I was unproductive for a week! The first couple of days it was excruciating to sit, to stand, to lay down and to bend over to pick something off the ground but towards the end of the week I was doing so much better and then Saturday happened.  Sitting on those seats at the graduation, sitting awkwardly in the car for at least five hours and then going to the movies and sitting on those stupid seats for another three hours: IT. WAS. AGONY! But I'm better now, it still hurts but not to the extent that it did, I'm taking better care of my self so my beading has gone down to a minimum.  I have managed, though, to create most of the individual components for my contest piece.

This was my initial sketch of the piece that I am making, it started out with just an encased rivoli at the center and everything else just fell into place.  As I have made each component the piece has evolved. For example the central rivoli should be relatively small compared to the one that I made:

I just love the brilliant and magical blue of the rivoli which complements the subtle bi-cones that embellish it. This was my second attempt at the central component the first was as follows

The same brilliant rivoli but it is completely embellished with pyrite, I had to disregard this for the central component because it was just too subtle and small.

The smaller of the two main components does not have the same visual impact.

The larger of the two central pieces, two more of the smaller rivolis will be set along side the larger component.

 I have to make a couple of more components, six more to be exact (I hope), and then I need to connect everything together, take pictures, and enter the contest.  It's a lot of pressure because the first place winner will recieve a $1,000 to spend at Fire Mountain Gems.  This could possibly jump start my business!!


I was linking up to my usual blog hops and guess what I discovered??  I was featured at the Fine Craft Guild! It truly is a milestone for me!! Hop over to the Fine Craft Guild, she has a great selection on different topics!!



*Website update: we upgraded that platform that we are going to use so that I can add more items to the shop, however we hit a few snags when we tried to integrate a gallery of sorts.  It might take a bit longer to sort this out, especially since the hubby has started class again*

The Adventures of the Beaded Bead: The Bead Cap

As you may have gathered I have a slight obsession when it comes to bead weaving and those tiny little seed beads.  I love how some thing so tiny can be combined together to create something beautiful: the possibilities are endless!!  I'm going to let all of you on a tiny secret, I'm finally working on a piece that will enter the Fire Mountain Gem's Beading Contest for seed beads.  My color palette is steely grey with a metallic bright blue accent, and of course pyrite has to be involved (what would I do with out it!?!). I have the basic layout ready and I was working on the central drop when I decided that a beaded bead would have to be showcased here.  Half way through, weaving the little beauty, I had a epiphany: that lovely half a beaded bead could work so nicely as a bead cap and bail.  That's when I was derailed from my project, I spent two days of precious time trying to figure out the best stone to be captured by the bead cap. Remember those lovely electroplated quartz daggers?!  The thin ones fit perfectly into the bead cap!  And the final product truly does look like an extravagant embellished dagger.  After I made one, I had to make another, this time I used a quartz briolette instead which was just as equally extravagant. 

This beaded bead cap securely displays the beauty and the exotic nature of the quartz dagger. 

The quartz dagger along with the alluring quartz briolette that sits so comfortably in the bead cap.

The beaded bead cap with the quartz briolette pendant.

These two pendants are just a glimpse of the piece that I am making for the contest it is slightly similar to my A Peacock in Paradise necklace, but it's going to be more elaborate.  But you can be sure to see more of these stunning beaded bead caps!  On a side note, my shop is almost finished (there are slight glitches I need to fix), I hope to have it up and running by next week! YAY!

Electroplated Druzy Quartz Pendant:

Ok, so I know that druzy has been "in" for a while and I was late as usual to jump on the bandwagon.  I saw these wonderful druzy's and I just knew that I would somehow manage to use them in my designs.  As usual I decided that I would use my beloved peyote stitch to bezel the irregular stone, and I was able to complete my quest but I found myself in a quandary (I love thesaurus.com to death, it saves me from using boring words all the time!) in which I must ask your help as a consumer.

Electroplated Quartz Druzy
Encased using Peyote Stitch

Would you buy a pendant with an open back, secured only by the peyote encasing? or would you rather have the stone secured to some sort of leather backing (like in bead embroidery)?  The hydro stone's were quite different, they were symmetrical on both sides, front and back, so the peyote encased it perfectly, the encasement on flat back stone's is incomparable since the tight pull of the peyote does not fully catch the stone and there in lies the problem.

Open Back Peyote Stitch Encasement

So here is what I would like to know, do you prefer
1. Open back using peyote only
2. Bead Embroidered, leather backing
3. Doesn't matter, as long as it is well made

Peyote Pendent Frenzy: Chalcedony, Amethyst, Onyx, and Quartz

I believe it was last year when I stumbled upon a stall at the International Gem and Jewelry Show called Best   in Gems. Usually when I see a vendor that is selling loose cut gemstones I try to avoid them because if I fall in love with a $200 gemstone I would be a goner, anyways, what caught my eyes were three large bins each with a sign 60% off the marked price.  My inner brown instincts kicked in and I bee-lined for the bins. Oh it was HEAVEN!  There were so many different types of gemstones just waiting to be picked up and loved and taken home to be transformed into stunning jewelry. (I know, I talk about gemstones as if they were kittens) What I fell in love with instantly were the hydro stones, the chalcedony, amethyst, aquamarine, onyx and quartz.  I knew immediately that they would make gorgeous pendants if they were bezeled using peyote stitch! And I was right, I love each and every one of these stones to death! I have only made three pendents and have quite a few left to bezel but I hope you enjoy this man made beauty as much as I did.

The first pendant I created was from the blue chalcedony, which is by far one of my favorite pieces I have created
it took my days to figure out how best to encase this rich, opaque stone.
The embellished pyrite gives the pendant a finished feel: cooler and edgier! 

The second pendent I created was the amethyst, as much as I wanted to add pyrite to this one
it just didn't seem to take to the color scheme.
I might have to re-bezel this one in a silver tone to add the pyrite, I'm not entirely sure.

This third pendant, the onyx, was one of my least favorites
It has a tremendous "Bollywood" feel to it,
maybe it's just me and biased view.

 A little explanation on the hydro stone.  A hydro stone is made by crushing bits and pieces of raw gemstone, and re-bonding it to a desired shape.  These stones are not naturally this big, if they were they would cost a fortune.  The hydro version is may be cheaper but it has the same elegance that a natural stone would have.  I still have to finish up my aquamarine pendent as well as my quartz pendants.

*The hubby and I are working tirelessly on my shop, we will not be using the Etsy platform for various reasons.  We are sincerely hoping to launch the shop by this weekend!! If it does then that means a GIVEAWAY!! YAAY!! Stay tuned... the fun is about to begin!*

Triangle Studs

Triangle Olive Green Studs
Bead woven with Swarovski Crystals

Yellow Triangle Studs
Bead woven using Delicas and Swarovski Crystals

These little studs were fashioned using the triangle motif in the Galaxy bead by Gill Slone,  The color ways were inspired by the two other studs that I have created using 8mm Swarovski rivolis which can be seen here, along with the visually aesthetic necklace here.  These studs however won't be going in to my jewelry shop {the hubby and I are working tirelessly on it to get it up and running as soon as possible!} unless I find a better glue to set the post onto the back.  The glue that I'm using right now isn't doing a great job, maybe I just need to let it cure a bit before finishing up the back. I'll test that theory out as well on some other crystals that I have laying around.  I would love it if you left opinions one these designs! I'm always looking for ways to improve my technique along with my skill set especially since I'm taking blogging seriously again so any input is valuable input at this time.