My Larimar princess pendant

The first time I heard of Larimar was about 5 years ago when I went to a local lapidary show. I had just joined a lapidary club then, and I saw these beautiful blue cabochons on sale at the show. One senior member of the club went by and gave me a little education session about Larimar. At the time I was a novice and had no idea how to set stones, but I bought a couple anyway because they're just so pretty. Anyhow, a couple of years ago, I wrapped one with sterling silver wire and added a few tiny pearls, silver beads, and Swarovski beads and stones, and kept it for myself. The pendant reminds me of a princess in a fairy tale, with its delicate colours and sparkles. The colours are closer to real life in the second photo, but the wirework shows up better on the darker background of the first photo. I still have a few cabs in my stash but haven't decided what to do with them.

Another steampunk pendant - Time Fairy

Finished this pendant necklace a few days ago, and named it "Time Fairy". Some of you may remember a mixed media collage I did recently, with the same name, which I posted on May 14th. I took a picture of it, reduced it in size, printed it out, and turned it into an oblong cabochon using polymer clay and resin. Added bits and pieces and made it into a pendant. It's really difficult to photograph the cab because of its highly reflective surface. In real life, the picture in the cab actually looks a lot clearer, and the piece is also quite sparkly because of all the crystals. The little key at the top of the pendant was bright golden in colour when I bought it, and I used a combination of ammonia and a Verdigris solution to give it this lovely patina, which I'm really pleased with. The style is obviously quite different from my other steampunk pendant "Cheshire Cat", as I wanted to experiment and see which I like better. What do you think? I really enjoy making these and have another design in mind which I will get to when I have time. Again, please click on the pictures for larger views. Hope you like!

Madam Rose of Shanghai

Well, as the Bead & Button Show is well on its way and the winners of Bead Dreams 2010 have been announced, I guess I can now post pictures of my entry "Madam Rose", which has been accepted as a finalist in the wirework category of this year's competition. I made the enamel pendant last year, and the story behind the piece was posted in my blog a little while back (see post 3rd August 2009). It took me several months to collect all the stones and beads, and another couple of months to assemble the piece. The necklace was constructed with wire wrapping techniques using sterling silver wire, patinaed with liver of sulphur then polished again. It didn't receive a ribbon in the competition, but I'm happy to have got through as a finalist and had the opportunity to have the piece exhibited at the Bead & Button Show. Just wish I could be there! Please click on the pictures if you'd like a larger view.

Cheshire Cat - my first steampunk pendant

This is my first ever steampunk pendant, inspired by the recent Steampunk Alice in Wonderland beading challenge on the Australian Beading Forum. The cat's face was a small cabochon I made with white polymer clay, then painted with acrylics and watercolours, and sealed with a thin layer of resin. I used a fair bit of pearlescent watercolours (Twinkling H2O) so it's quite shimmering in real life. There are stripes on the cat's face which are difficult to see in the photos. The whole pendant is actually quite small, with the head and body measuring about 4.5cm in total length. The ears were made from cut out sections of a flattened bead cap, and the components were secured with beaded bezels using mainly size 11 and 15 seedies. I stuck a few Swarovski flatbacks on the watch movement to give it some extra sparkles. I even "sacrifice" a couple of my vintage Swarovski beads for the necklace part to tie in with the vintage theme. I really enjoyed making this and will no doubt make more, maybe a more serious one next time? Please click on the photos if you would like a larger view. Hope you like him!

A few silver clay pendants

Thought I would show you a few silver clay pendants I made ages ago. The first one I did in stages. I made the leaf first, fired it, and thought it looked a little boring, so I added the cubic zirconium. I wore it a couple of times but still wasn't happy with it. Finally added a bug. Someone once asked me if I coated a real bug with silver clay paste then fired it to make the pendant - eeeewwww, no way! I'm happy to say that the bug was made with wire and lump clay, and no insects were injured or killed in the process. The cabochons in the second and third pendants (rhodonite and snowflake obsidian respectively) were cut by me from roughs, and I'm quite proud of how nicely they're polished. These days I rarely cut stones as it is rather time consuming, and I rather spend my time making the actual jewelry. The silver clay roses and the snake were moulded/hand carved by me too. Hope you like them.

Time Fairy - My steampunk collage.

With all these steampunk talks and challenges on the Australian Beading Forum, I've been wanting to make something with this theme. Decided to try a mixed media collage using colour pencils, acrylics and water colours, as well as cut outs of bits and pieces and some rubber stamps and embossing powder. The inspiration came from a quote I found on the internet, by an actor named Jeremy Irons:

"We all have our time machines. Some take us back, they're called memories. Some take us forward, they're called dreams."

This is a work in progress. I plan to reduce the size of the collage, turn it into a resin coated cabochon, and use it as the focal for a necklace. I decided to draw the fairy myself and took photos of the watch parts, so I can use the collage whatever ways I like without having to worry about copyright issues. This is the first collage I've ever made, and I really enjoyed it and will definitely do more.

Tibetan style wire wrapped necklace

This necklace was made for one of the challenges on the Australian Beading Forum. From memory I think the theme was "Oriental". I decided to make an antique Tibetan style necklace, using a largish Peruvian opal bead I bought a while ago as the focal. Teamed it with coral, turquoise coloured howlite beads, small sterling silver beads, and a few cubic zirconium. The piece was constructed with sterling silver wire, patinaed with liver of sulphur then polished. I haven't actually been to Tibet but did visit a Tibetan village in Sichuan province in China a couple of years ago. Somehow these were the colours that stuck in my mind. I would love to go to Tibet one day but am just a little worried about altitude sickness as I did suffer a little from that even when we were in Sichuan. Please click on the photos if you would like a larger view.