Beads and Bread: skye jewels

Friday, February 1, 2013

AW-Hand Dyed Seam Binding Challenge

What? Two posts in one day? Say it ain't so! Yep! I actually FINISHED two projects due on the same day!
So, if you're looking for the AJE Blog Reveal, go here.

At the beginning of the year, I told myself that I would not enter so many challenges. Really. And then Karen Lackey posted this great challenge over on Artisan Whimsey for seam binding. Huh? Ok, Not a Sewer here....I vaguely understand that it's something to strengthen the seams of clothes...right?
Well, in the jewelry world, Karen has taken it to new heights. She hand dyes it and comes up with the lovely, yummy colors.Please go check out her Etsy Shop. The color she chose for the challenge was a soft, pretty aqua blue. Which leads me to my next challenge. See, I don't do soft colors....I'm a primary, earthy toned kinda girl. Love purples. Love burgundy, matte raku....not so much on the soft, pastel colors. So that was another personal challenge, to see if I could actually work with a soft color palette. Sigh...ok, I'm in. Just can't stop myself.
Here's a pic of what Karen sent to me...

See? So soft and pretty!
Ok, so I stretched myself outside of all previous boundaries. I used fabric, I used netting, and I used kumihimo with fabric. Wanna see?? Of course you do!

As soon as I saw the color of the seam binding in person, it reminded me of a beautiful pendant I had of Marie Voyer-Cramp's. If you've never seen her lovely wooden pendants, you can check them out at Skye Jewels. I wanted to keep to the delicate, ethereal feel of the lightweight pendant, but I didn't want to just string it on the seam binding.

I have used netting in a few pieces, but I've never done tubular netting like this.

I used eyelash yarn, bronze pearls and faceted brown agate gemstones, along with the seam binding in the kumihimo side.

Yes, I know that end of the kumi looks like a hot mess....but this was a learning experience, right?

I didn't really know how to attach the clasp, so a simple knot on each side is what worked.

This pic is just to show you how pretty the seam binding is with the wing of the butterfly....

Here's a close-up of the netting and the kumi.

And there you have it. Am I totally pleased? Not with the endings, but absolutely with where this challenge took me.And....I still have more left!!! Hope you enjoyed the ride with me.

Blessings, Shirley

Saturday, August 25, 2012

Echo Creative Club

I have the pleasure of being a guest blogger for Jeannie Dukic's Echo Creative Club. Jeannie not only sent me some of her Fractured Beads, she also sent a beautiful pendant by Marie Voyeur-Cramp of Skye Jewels.

Jeannie wanted me to use her beads with the pendant. No prob. Got this in the bag. Hmmm....well, my first challenge was how I was going to hang the pendant. Oh, I'll bezel it. I've been bezeling everying in sight. Except...it didn't want to be bezeled. It was a horrible failure. Not a prob. I'll hang it from the hole....that is not centered with the butterfly. I'm just the tiniest bit ocd on stuff like that. The hubs to the rescue, drilled a hole on the other side so my butterfly would hang straight up and down.

I thought I would use a RAW rope that I've made a couple of times recently, and include the beads into it.

Hmm, nope, they didn't like that. Tried putting them at the beginning of the rope, just before the pendant. Nope.

Getting just a bit anxious here, cause Jeannie asked me to put them all together. But, well, those pretty beads wanted to be the center of attention all by themselves. So of course I listened!

I've recently learned kumihimo, and absolutely love it.

I love the echo of the dark brown that shows through the fracture of Jeannie's beads. I didn't have that exact color, so I picked it up in the golden seed beads, and also in the raku beads that have the brown, and blue hues. I also used a dark brown and golden tan cording for it.

See how happy it is? This is a new favorite in my wardrobe!

Next up is Marie's pendant...

Isn't she pretty? A beautiful garden of colors for my butterfly!

A flowery beaded button for the clasp.

See, all nice and straight! :)

My last piece is a new look for me. I really love where these beads took me.

A CRAW bracelet! For my non-seed beader friends, that would be Cubic Right Angle Weave. And it is a very special one, because the awesome Heather Collin wrote the tutorial for this after I asked her a question! You won't really be able to see the swirl pattern, since I used such soft colors, but it is there, I promise.