Glorious Green...

My daughter keeps asking me what my favorite color in the whole world is... and I do not have an answer.. ! I love all the colors.. even the most dull shades of a color...

But if you ask me what green is my favorite, I would have to say, the camouflage, military green... while I like the green in nature, when it comes to green on other items , like clothes, curtains or other stuff, I would not pick anything green... unless it was this particular shade !!

Too many people in my family think I have weird taste in colors - but none of them are artistically inclined, as I am ... ! And I do tend to gravitate towards shades that are not the norm..burnt orange is another favorite ...!

Anyway, when I saw these beads in my favorite green, I had to pick them up... And the oddly faceted bigger beads were from an assortment that my sister had sent over... the assortment was of amber and green beads ..and there were only 4 of these particular beads... I loved them a lot and were saving them for something special..

I think this necklace was the perfect fit !! ..I gave a double strand in two shapes, balanced the bigger beads with smaller silver spacers , and small beads with heavier spacers. I am happy with the set... can't think of improving them because, usually , once I have done a set, I can re-design them in my mind, a few different ways..

And it is going to someone very special too..so am absolutely thrilled... I am posting a close-up of the necklace ..just love it :)

Country Chic With Cold Porcelain

 I had just started packing up my big order of sets for different individuals, gifted by the same person, and I got another bigger order, this time multiple sets for three people....

I know one of them very well, so I could easily sketch out different designs for her...but I needed more pointers for the other two.. favorite colors, and dislikes and such..best part was , that they did not want me to limit my imagination in any way, and were willing to take a chance with my love for introducing cold Porcelain elements in my designs...

I don not necessarily add it everywhere, but I do love to make something unique that is not available easily..

This pendant was inspired by the series of Beatrix Potter books that we gifted our daughter for her birthday.. I love the country style paintings..and this way, I got to indulge in three loves - painting, sculpting and also making jewelry...

The antique finish on the hollow pendant base is something I love.. Tinted CP and filled the base , smoothed it out.

Next, I chose the beads for the necklace... Then colored CP for the focal flower the same as the beads. Then tinted green CP for leaves...



Once that was done, painted the background , then added the tiny details, the miniature focal flower and studded it with stone..added the leaves....

It did look a little too dark, so added a tiny flower and gave it an orange and yellow color to make it pop..painted the leaves and other details so it would look aesthetic and not too busy..

Finally sealed it with Renaissance wax , once it was cured.

Spikes and Wire-work ...

These designs were also part of the aforementioned 

order.

So I had some lovely rose-red beads in a beautifully faceted shape . So teamed them up with some spikes in German silver, added ethnic style spacers in the same metal and made matching earrings.

Since the beads were light weight, the silver gave a nice balance. I prefer ornaments a bit on the heavier side, than be too lightweight and having to tug them back when the flip over ..

On the other hand, I like to have earrings in a good size, but not too heavy enough to hurt.




The next set , was made of beautiful acrylic beads, with an engraved design..

Though I love most types of beads, acrylic beads are never my first choice...but these caught my eye, particularly because the holes were on the diagonal  and I loved the engraved feel... also they had an ancient look to them, which I find very attractive..

So I used copper wire to fashion the connectors and used black crystals to lift the whole design...
I also managed to twist the copper wire at the ends to mimic the engravings on the acrylic beads. While I used antique finish ready-made ear hooks, I made the hook and the eye for the necklace, myself.

Featured in The Bead Chat Magazine - August 2014

My work has been featured once more, in the August 2014  edition of the bead Chat magazine.

The link to the magazine is HERE

I have posted the screen shots of the magazine pages that my work was featured on... but please go ahead and get a peep at the entire magazine.. the articles are superb and so are the beautiful creations on every page... !

The first one is the ring that I made entirely out of Cold Porcelain. I had posted the making of the ring and pictures of the  work in progress earlier.In case you want to check it out, the link is here..

The second one featured, is a double stranded agate with German silver inclusions. This is one of my favorites from among my personal collection.


Since the picture of my necklace is not quite clear among the other works, I decided to include an image of it with this post.. so here it is...