What's Black and Gold and Red All Over?

This is a slight modification of a Sabine Lippert bracelet design. Sabine is an extraordinary German beadwork and jewelry designer. You'll find many of her patterns at http://www.trytobead.com/ as well as a calendar of her teaching engagements. For this design, I embellished the middle with Swarovski Jet bicones and used Miyuki drops to form a beaded 'prong setting' for the crystals. I have fallen in love with Sabine's intricate beadwork designs and this lacy bracelet is the first of many that I plan to make!

Limon Byzantine and Celtic Flowers

Am I in a citrus-y mood or what? I had started out with the intention that I'd make another Japanese 6:1 bracelet, but my hands had other 'ideas'. I decided that a Byzantine chain, interrupted by Celtic flowers or knots, would be bright, cheerful and not too floral.

I have recently purchased four (4!) books on chain maille. Two are by Scott David Plumlee: Chain and Bead Jewelry, Geometric Connections and Chain and Bead Jewelry, Creative Connections. The other two are Chained by Rebeca Mojica of Blue Buddha Boutique and Link It! by Susan C. Thomas. All three chain maille artists are innovative and exciting designers. Something I admire and aspire to be myself, when/if? I grow up ;P

Wire Work Newbie Tries Her Hand At A Perri Jackson Tutorial

I am sooooo envious of all the superb wire work and metal artists in our community. I have been admiring the designs of so many artisans, but haven't had the nerve to venture into the realm of shaping wire into intricate patterns and sculptural shapes. Then I happened to find Perri Jackson's DNA Twist tutorial (http://www.etsy.com/shop/ShaktipajDesigns?ref=seller_info) and decided to take the plunge. I was skeptical, not about Perri's ability to write and illustrate a tutorial, but about my ability to follow the instructions and replicate the pattern! However, I did exactly as Perri outlined and wound up with my first woven wire pendant. Admittedly, I was afraid to use precious metal wire and crystals on my first attempt, so I used the very inexpensive 'Fun Wire' and seed beads. Hey! Ya gotta start somewhere :P Perri writes her tutorials in such a well conceived and illustrated format, it was a blast from beginning to end!! I think I'll make another one...this time I'm going all in =)

UFO #1

OK, I admit that I have seen more than my fair share of UFOs! All of the UFOs (UnFinished Objects) live on my work bench and make fleeting appearances and then disappear into the cosmos. I made a tentative New Year's resolution: capture any invading UFO that surfaces, quarantine it and probe my bead stash until I find the components necessary to finish it. This is my first 'encounter': a lonely earring without a mate. I was short one of the larger gold pearl beads to complete the pair. After much digging around 'Area 51', aka 'my unlabeled bead boxes', I found the matching bead and made the clone of the first earring. Victory is mine!!!

Florida Orange Juice

It is not even Spring yet, but in Florida the citrus industry is in full bloom! I decided to enter this design into the Florida Beader's Calendar Contest for the February cover. This bracelet is a Japanese 6:1 chain maille weave using non-tarnish silver and tangerine jump rings and is interlaced with sterling silver and Swarovski crystal 'seeds.' Yummy! Ironically, I had a difficult time photographing this piece of jewelry as there hasn't been a lot of sunshine in the Sunshine State lately :P

Un-Seasonal

I wanted to make a necklace that didn't scream "Christmas", but still could be worn during the holidays and look festive! So I chose traditional seasonal colors: red, green and gold but I used more saturated tones, such as garnet, a mottled sage pallet and paired them with pearlescent and metallic gold. The technique is a variation on Chevron chain and I'm planning to make a coordinating set of earrings when I replenish my stock of gold Swarovski pearls. I always seem to run out of components at the critical earring phase! This design is a little more delicate than I usually go for, but I love the colors and it looks great dressed-up or -down :D

Wow! I'm more of a 'Slogger' than a 'Blogger'

I can't believe it's been over a year since I posted anything, bead-related or otherwise! I've changed my Etsy shop, http://www.etsy.com/shop/innermusejewelry, to custom-order only for the forseeable future. I'm taking orders for Swarovski Bead Crochet bracelets in the customer's choice of color(s). I made the decision to limit my store inventory, based on economics. When/if I receive an order, I place an order with the crystal vendor avoiding up-front costs on my part. Hopefully, when the economy turns for the better, I will return to listing my "muse-based" jewelry. In the meantime, I'm still learning new techniques such as more intricate bead stitches, wire-wrapping and chain maille. The 'Persian Paisley' earrings are an example of the Half Persian weave. I got the AR slightly wrong (off by 0.1 on the low end of the AR range) and wound up with a very tight weave for a bracelet. So I decided to make a sculptural pair of earrings :D When life gives you lemons...make lemonade (in this case cherry lemonade!).

Announcing the Winner of Blog Giveaway for 8/10/09

Thank you to all who entered my first ever Blog Giveaway! Unfortunately, there can be only one winner of the Agave Tile Pendant necklace. But don't get discouraged...I plan to have future Blog Giveaways as time and energy permit:o) So without further ado, the winner is:

Beth who wrote: "It's a beautiful necklace! I would love to be entered into your drawing. What a fun contest and good way to show your creations!"

Congratulations Beth! Please contact me with your mailing address and I'll get this to you ASAP!

Stay tuned for more Giveaways!!!

Embracing My 'Monkdom'

I have a confession to make, as a jewelry designer, I tend toward symmetry when I create. Not that there's anything wrong with balance, even an asymmetrical jewelry piece needs to have balance in some component(s)/property(ies), otherwise one side will be heavier, etc. I guess I shouldn't sound apologetic or feel I have to justify myself or my creations, but I didn't always used to approach beading with such an eye for symmetry. In fact, my first design that I made (and sold!) was a 3-strand, asymmetrical necklace. I used vintage, polymer clay, Czech glass, metal and stone chip beads in a multitude of shapes/colors/finishes/sizes. I really miss that piece, not only because it was my first handcrafted jewelry item, but also because I feel that it represents the entropy that I fight against in my current design 'phase'. That is why I can totally relate to Monk, the OCD TV detective, at least when it comes to beading. My 'Monkdom', as I refer to this-dare I say 'disorder' (kind of an oxymoron dontcha think?)-represents my battle to keep chaos at bay, especially when challenged with a tube of mixed seed beads. By definition, the tube to which I refer is a random assortment of beads. When I decided to make a simple necklace design to offer as my first Blog giveaway, I envisioned creating a necklace composed around a scrabble tile pendant strung randomly with seed beads from 'The Mixture'. Dutifully, I poured out 'The Mixture' into a pile on my bead mat and began to add beads with little regard to the color, shape or size. I managed to get about 3 inches into the chain (which is a long way when you're talking seed beads!) and froze. My gleeful abandon at stringing beads in free form fashion abruptly halted and I yielded to my 'Monkdom'. I proceeded to undo all that had once been spontaneous, but I didn't stop there! Taking it to the next level, as Monk so often does, I began to sort the beads into groups. I took the elementary school "Which one is NOT like the other" class lesson and elevated it into it's own OCD category (top left photo). As with all 'confessions', there comes the wave of relief that the 'genie is out of the bottle' and recovery is now a possibility because the problem has been identified! So, if you would like to win this Symmetrical Seed Bead Necklace with Agave Scrabble tile pendant (see finished piece in top right photo), leave a comment on my blog and I'll select an entry and announce the winner on Aug. 10, 2009. The winning entry will be chosen by placing all the entrants' names in a hat and 'randomly' drawing a name. See I'm letting go already. Baby steps!;o)

My First Blog-EVER!

I have just dipped my toe in the blogging waters. I haven't quite figured out the intricacies of blogging yet, so bear with me as I navigate through. My site is called Inner Muse Jewelry Designs because I wanted to let my 'inner muse' out after spending years in the science/technology arena. I make and sell handcrafted jewelry items and accessories using a variety of techniques and resources. I've been beading for about 3 years now, having taught myself bead crochet. I don't recommend starting out your beading endeavors with this technique unless you enjoy pulling your hair out:o) I managed to stick with it until I finally mastered the basics and have since moved on to various other beading techniques. The photo on the right is one of the first bracelet designs I made using bead crochet. I combined the spiral bead crochet tube with a beautiful lampwork bead by Jane Buelow of Breezeway beads. Whenever I'm not beading, I feel like I'm missing out, so off I go to work on one of my jewelry designs!