Breaking From Tradition - Some Previously Revealed, And Something New

I want a tutu.  And some kick ass boots like these girls.

That beady superhero, Cynthia Machata, sent a group of her friends some really cool howlite spikes and said, "Go forth, and play!"  

These were bold gemstones. Large, double holed, and gently squared off.  Below is a pair of the black spikes, although I got a mix of black and white spikes. 

They were far too funky to make something safe and predictable. So I pulled out my funky alter ego (currently taking suggestions as to what my alter ego's name should be...) and went at it. 

I revealed the first thing I made a while back.  If you want to read the whole post, here's the link, but here are a couple of pictures:





This necklace went to a gallery, where the owner asked that question: "Do you have earrings to go with this?"  Well, no, but give me 24 hours, and I whipped up some options (along with the blog post about it):





The gallery took the black pair.  The white pair has been among my inventory at my recent art shows, where people have thought they look like chickens, faces, and Madonna's 1980's bra.  The imagination of art show patrons never ceases to amaze me!

Anyway, that left me with two black spikes.  I thought about doing a quick peyote bezel around them to make earrings, but instead decided to join them with a square stitch belt.

It's a deceptively simple pendant that could go on a leather strand (appropriate for its punky nature), a black cable wire, or a beadwoven necklace (tubular herringbone, perhaps?) Deceptively simple because those suckers got a little squirrely and squirmy when I was trying to weave them together and weave the thread through the holes to keep everything firmly anchored.  Anyway, I love the illusion that I've embellished a larger double-pointed bead, rather than creating it from two separate spikes.

A million thanks, and a million and one hugs to Cynthia for the inspirational fun!  Wanna see who else played along, and what they created?  Here's the list!

Therese (Therese's Treasures) http://theresestreasures59.blogspot.com/

Bobbie (Beadsong Jewelry) http://beadsong.blogspot.com/

Christine (One Kiss Creations) http://onekisscreations.blogspot.com/

Janet (Honey from the Bee) http://www.honeyfromthebee.com/

Cynthia (Antiquity Travelers) http://antiquitytravelers.blogspot.com/

Do You Have Earrings That Match?

Last week I took some new work into one of the galleries that carry my jewelry. They chose several necklaces, among other things, and asked if I had earrings to match.

Um, not for all of the necklaces they chose. But I could in a day or so!

What better excuse to go home and play with the beads, right? This was one of the pieces I needed to coordinate with, and I was extra excited to figure out how to make earrings with the cool howlite double-holed spikes.

Luckily, I had two white spikes and two black spikes left over from the batch Cynthia sent to me. So, because to me, more is never too much, I made TWO pairs or earrings for the shop owners to chose between.

The black pair is now in the gallery. The white ones are mine, at least for the time being!  There were a lot of little pieces of copper wire that sacrificed themselves as I tried to figure out how best to work with the two holes (cross them over above the bead? loop them around? cross them behind the bead somehow?), but I'm happy with the result. Next bead show, I'm on the lookout for more double-holed beads to experiment with!

So how about you? Do you make earrings to match the necklaces and bracelets that you make?  Or do you create earrings you love and then make something else to go with them?

A Spike In Activity (Bad Pun, Fun Beads)

A while back, the fabulous Cynthia Machata of Antiquity Travelers reached out to some bloggy friends with an offer -- would we be interested in trying to make something with some howlite spikes she'd found at her local bead store? I took her up on the offer so fast, I think my keyboard was smoking...Subtle, I was not.

So here's what arrived in the mail:

Actually, this is only a portion of what was in the package. Cynthia sent both black dyed and natural white howlite. I just forgot to take a picture of the whole pack before jumping in. Bad, bad beady swapper, I know.

I've done several necklaces with a sterling armature that I shape and then use as a framework for freeform peyote (see some of them in posts here and here). It's a fun technique that seemed well suited to these spikes. But these beauties cried out for copper.

To keep the focus on the cool spikes, I decided to keep the accent beads black and white as well. 

A lot more beading could have gone onto this frame, but less was more here.

I have two black spikes left over, lurking on my worktable. I think they're destined to be some bold earrings, but you never know what'll happen.

Want to see what Cynthia made with her spikes?  Go here. And keep your eyes open for gemstone spikes at your local bead store -- they are big fun to work with!