Chrysalis for the Curious: April 2013

Sunday, April 21, 2013

Recycled Blue Jean Necklace

Recycled Blue Jean Necklace with Jasper Pendant

One day I got an idea for a necklace with denim cord and started looking around the internet to find something suitable for my design. I couldn't find anything even close to what was swirling around in my brain, so I decided to make my own. My husband volunteered some retired blue jeans he was saving for summer painting chores. The denim is torn or cut into long strips, which I wound around one another and secured with cotton cord. Some of the detail from a back pocket of my old jeans is woven into the front of the cord, and each end is embellished with rusty orange silk ribbon. The pendant is a freeform green snakeskin jasper pendant with patches of rust brown and blue.

Saturday, April 20, 2013

More Curious Bracelets

Turquoise Apatite Bracelet with Copper Focal

As bracelets are my favorite jewelry piece to make, and my recent bracelet post did so well, I decided to do a follow up. The bracelet above is designed around a copper metal clay focal piece by my friend, Kristi Bowman, using turquoise and apatite. I use different shaped accent beads of solid copper and a mala prayer bead from Nepal, added several dangles of turquoise, apatite, coral and Czech glass.

The bracelet below is a result of a sudden impulse to clean off my beading table. Rather than hunt down the proper containers for all these stragglers, I put them to good use in a multi-stone mixed bracelet with some rustic copper components. I am considering a few different names for this piece, maybe Goulash, Dim Sum, or Smorgasbord? Any of which sound better than "Left Overs". Every once in awhile I will design a multi-stone piece because people seem to like the seeming randomness of them. Of course, they are not random at all and it takes time to put together a pleasing arrangement. But this is the first time I did one to clean off my bead table. I may have to make it a regular event.