Bead Soup Blog Party

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

YOJ Weeks 4 and 5

Whew - has been a busy few weeks so I've been playing a lot of catch up..... now it's time to catch up on the YOJ blog posts and these will be short and sweet.

WEEK 4

The theme for week 4 was "Not from the Mall".  Of course I interpreted that to mean not your every day, run of the mill, factory created piece of jewelry ~ something different from the rows upon rows of earrings, pendants, bracelets etc found at your local mall.

I started with some white magnesite stars in a few different sizes, built a frame around the largest star and wrapped it with wire in a shooting star design then linked a few white rondelle and copper beads together.

A little chain, some stars, a handmade clasp and things start falling in to place.



Final results:   cascading shooting stars in an asymmetrical nicely balanced design.


I did learn a new lesson about tumbling this week.  Magnesite has a lot of iron in it.  During the tumbling process with soapy water and steel shot the copper became coated with rust which required a good bit of scrubbing with a wire brush to remove.  I think I'll skip the tumbling stage when working with magnesite in the future!!

WEEK 5

I love the theme for week 5 "Deja Vu" and wanted to make a piece that took me back to a memorable time....a time revisited.  I really loved the mod era of the 1960's - the bright clothes, flower power, peace signs, nehru collars, bell sleeves and of course, bell bottoms !!

Metal embossing is one of my favorite techniques.  I started with a Vintaj 32mm brass blank, 20 gauge brass wire, Vintaj patinas, and an embossing folder with a retro feel, and a few seed beads for movement.



After embossing the metal is painted and, once dried, the excess paint is sanded off.  The difficulty here is making mirror images, something I've been working to improve on.  Mirror images are more difficult than you might think as the brain wants to make identical images - I have to fight with my brain during the entire process !! 



I'm really digging the results - I think they go nicely with the retro 60's dress I found on the web.



WEEK 6

Week 6 = "Embrace"

.......at the moment my only thought about this them is embracing my inner child.........


Embrace your inner child and enjoy your day !!



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