I've just returned home from an overseas holiday with my husband and parents. Time seems to pass by so quickly when one's having fun. Anyhow, thought I would show you a necklace I made a while ago for one of the challenges on the Australian Beading Forum, the theme of which was "On the Forest Floor". I made the large swirly lentil beads out of polymer clay, sanded them with successive grits of sandpapers, and buffed them with a felt wheel on a dremel-like tool. They're somewhat difficult to photograph because of their shiny surfaces. At one stage, I was really into making these beads. There's something very soothing and meditative about swirling and gently compressing a bead under an acrylic sheet, and watching it take shape. As a result, I have a little collection of such beads. Did an open beaded bezel around the central bead, and connected all the beads with more seed bead work. The colours of the lentil beads were supposed to reflect those on the floor of a woodland forest, somewhere in Europe maybe? And I can just imagine the song "Teddy Bears' Picnic" playing in the background. What do you think? Thanks for looking and again please click on the photos if you would like a larger view.
I bought a few outfits recently in orange and/or blue colours, and decided to make a pendant to go with them. Blue has always been my favorite colour, but I don't wear orange very often. With Tangerine being the Pantone colour of the year, however, I'm seeing orange everywhere this season, and am liking it more and more. Anyhow, I've kept the design simple for everyday wear, and didn't string a necklace as I plan to wear it with chains of different lengths to suit the clothes. The main orange cabochon is cat's eye. The small blue "cab" below it is a translucent button - I didn't have a small cab in suitable colour, so I painted the back of a translucent button with acrylic paint, sealed it with DG3, and stuck a blue crystal at the front. I've included a couple of photos of me wearing it. Hope you like and thanks for looking.
