Earring Experiments

These are an experiment. I bought some grunge paper the other day and wanted to try a few things with it. Because it's a bit thinner than the GB I thought I might be able to eliminate a couple of steps with my wall paper shapes. Normally I cut out the GB shapes then the wall paper shapes and then glue front and back. A bit time consuming, so I wondered if using the GP I could glue the WP onto the front and back of a long strip of GP , wait for it to dry then cut out the shapes with my cuttlebug. It's not bad but the shapes can't be too intricate otherwise the cuttlebug just won't cut all the way through.I don't know where the pink tinge came from because it's silver with a black stripe.
These are another pair of metal Christmas deccies. They were originally gold so I've painted them with black metallic paint and then smudged with silver rub n buff.
Now these are a new thing. My BFF Carmen very kindly let me go through her wall paper sample books. We've both got about 5 books that are the same, but she has a fantastic book with the most gorgeous embossed wall paper. They are all white and the idea is you apply them to your walls then paint them with your chosen colours. So here I've just left them white and smudged over a black stazon stamp pad to pick up all the raised areas. Added some black bugle beads to give them some weight and Roberts your uncle.
I really like them. I think Carmen better count her wall paper books each time I leave her house. If the embossed one is missing..........it wasn't me, OK?

I Hate the Drawing Board

The drawing board and I are on very intimate terms of late. I'm beginning to dislike the relationship that is developing between us and you know familiarity breeds contempt....and I'm very contemptuous of the stupid drawing board. Remember this necklace below, I really liked it , but it just wasn't to be. It wouldn't sit right and after re-doing it about oh.....maybe ten times, it's now become two different necklaces. Just the very sparkly, silvery, glitzy chain with a black chain twirled around it and the mother of pearl flower as a focal.
These were the two beaded chains that were in the original, now they reside together without the glitzy chain and flower. But I don't like it so it will be going on a trip to the drawing board.
This looks ok but the beads are too heavy for the chain so it's off on a road trip with the above necklace.
I like this one, very plain and simple and after re-stringing because I didn't like the colour of the original focal bead (it was a dull matt silver bead) it's done. But does anyone know if you go on a diet do you loose weight from your neck? It's a choker in every sense of the word! I think there's a saying that goes something like, measure twice, string, crimp and add clasp once.
It's just not my week for beading me thinks. Think I might go and play with wall paper and glue and some new grunge paper (as opposed to grunge board) I bought and see what I can come up with.

Fruit & Veg & Beads.

Sunday Chas and I went for a drive up to the Midland Farmers Markets. Bought fruit and vegies and crusty bread and free range eggs. Prices aren't much cheaper than the supermarkets but it all seems to be much fresher.

So while we were wondering down the aisles, we were almost to the end and lo and behold there was a stall with and million strands of beads just begging me to wander inside and browse. Chas's eyes just glazed over, now if it had been a stall selling soccer paraphernalia..... well I'm sure he would have been as excited as I was at such a find. So I just casually mentioned what a good idea it would be if he took all our shopping bags back to the car while I looked around, thinking this would give me time to look, shop and hide most of my purchases before he got back. Wrong......he walked in just as I was handing over the credit card......damn, I wasn't quick enough. The guy running the stall was telling me that a lot of his regular female customers tell him if they come in with their husband he has to pretend he doesn't know them. And rightly so, what happens in the bead shop stays in the bead shop.

I couple of things I've made over the last few days. These were once a Christmas garland that I pulled apart. Matt gold filagree that I stippled over black alcohol ink and then smudged with silver rub n buff.Added some earring hooks and a very quick pair of earrings were created.

This next piece is nothing like the vision I had in my head. But I like it none the less. I had bought the silver chain a while ago and it's very silver and glitzy, so to tone it down a bit I've twisted two strands of matt black chain that I've added two different beads in shades of black and grey.
I'm not sure about the flower though. It's a smokey grey mother of pearl look. I think I like it. It still needs to have a clasp added to it.
Now I'm off to re-arrange stuff in my 1 metre x 1 metre square crafting area. I'm running out of room because the beads are multiplying faster than rabbits!

Head Out On The Highway

Had a really enjoyable day yesterday. Svetlana and I went on a secondhand/antique shopping expedition to York. She had been there a few weeks previously and saw a piece of antique furniture that she wanted to buy and needed some company on the 95k trip. Set off at 9.00 and had to pass through Guildford and of course we had to stop at the shops there for a quick browse. An hour later and we were on our way again. Arrived in York and called into the shop only to find the piece she wanted was sold. But she managed to find something else, so it certainly wasn't a wasted trip.

Next to the shop was a yard filled with all sorts of interesting bits and bobs and I saw this old washing machine. The name Hotpoint rings a bell with me, maybe my mum had one of these at one time. If my sisters are reading this they'll probably remember because they are much, much older than me, ha, ha (hi sisters..... waving).Now who new there was a road called The Rabbit Proof Fence Road. I thought it was just a movie. Kidding!
I didn't leave the country side empty handed. Some of my stash I bought at various shops, ready to be recycled into glorious pieces of jewelry.

And just so you don't think I've been unproductive this week, here's a few bracelets I made. Below is one with shades of green (nothing like the colours in the photo I might add) with antique gold.
Black and white.
More unrealistic shades of green.
And some wall paper earrings.
So now it's back to the real world of laundry, vacuuming and bill paying.

When Designs go Pear Shaped

See this.....this started life as a bracelet. Pale yellow pearl beads with silver beads and spacers. First it was too big so I pulled it apart, re-arranged things and removed a couple of beads, put it all back together and it was too small. Fiddled around with it some more and got thoroughly frustrated, had a little tanty, stamped my feet and said swear words then added some chain and now it's a necklace and a pretty boring one at that.
See that clasp. I blame that clasp for all my troubles. It just didn't want to be part of a bracelet. It wouldn't play by the rules and just decided it wasn't going to do up properly when it was part of a bracelet.
I like these and I think I'll keep them for me. The reason is they exactly match a shirt I own. I know, pretty bright and larey, so is the shirt. I call it my Couture Hawaiian shirt and it looks good on me. Well I just keep telling myself that.
Spot the mistake? I didn't until I had taken the photo and uploaded it to this post. It's fixed now. That will teach me to rush things.
This is an earring pattern from a magazine called Beginners Guide to Beading. It's an Australian magazine and has quite a lot of info in it, especially for newbies like me. Both of the above earrings are the same design, just different beads.
Must away......Svetlana is coming over for a play date so I'd better tidy up and get organised. If we make anything exciting I'll take photos. The melting pot and wax could be involved.

It's a GB and WP Free Zone Today

Well no grungeboard or wall paper in this necklace. Just traditional beads and baubles and me practicing my stringing. As you all know the photos never do justice to the colours. Shades of deep purple and green with some silver thrown in for contrast.These beads were given to me by my friend Debbie (thanks Debbie).
Silver spacers and what not.
One very large purple fabric bead.
So this next set of photos are of a couple of mandrel sets I bought because I've been wanting to make my own oval jump rings. They seem to be very hard to get here in Perth and I know I could order them on line but I'm one of those people who want it and want it now.
This set has quite a few different shapes of mandrels. Oval, square, triangle and round. I love the square one.
I bought a set of metal Beadolon oval mandrels and commenced my adventure into jump ring making. Ok, wind on the wire as much as you need, slip it off the mandrel and start snipping. Easy peasy, ha......do you think I could slip that wire off the mandrel? No way Jose. It was stuck fast. I don't know if I wound it on too tight but I struggled for about 30 minutes trying to slide if off the mandrel. In the end I had to grip the whole thing with a piece of rubber matting and pries it off.
But I love these rectangle jump rings I made with the Artistic Wire worker and they are perfect for joining my pieces of grungboard/wall paper discs together. It sits nice and flat but with room to move about.
Think I need a manicure judging by that picture of my thumb.

Jailbird Earings

Not much to show for the weekend. In fact a very poor showing. Just one pair of earings.
Silver wall paper with a black stripe. Decided to try a different shape so settled on this oval shape which is about 3.5cm long (approx. 1.5"). Black eyelets and silver earing hooks.
Had a go at doing a wire wrap. Mmmm......back to the drawing board on that one. Added a small black crystal to give them a bit of weight and draw attention away from my wire wrap, ha ha!
Off to work soon so just a short post. This week doesn't look like being terribly productive really. Wednesday is Chas' birthday so tomorrow is shopping for a present, Wednesday is housework and tidying up (the rels are coming) Thursday is work again (yay, money for beads). Tuesday night I have a class with Kelsey. Decorating small dominoes to add to ATC's so maybe something to show on Wednesday.

Think I'll name these Jailbird Earings, the stripes make me think of prison garb. Or mattress ticking....thinking about that now I'm not sure I like them anymore...oh dear.