Belle Epoch Necklace

Two things happened recently that inspired this necklace. The first was two friends sending me boxes of beads and findings, because they were things they couldn't use. Between the two, I scored a huge stash of agate, jade and quartz beads, faceted glass beads, painted wood beads, and a large collection of silver coins with bales already attached, from several foreign countries. Also my mother gave me a inexpensive (from a Big Box Store) heart bracelet that she didn't want. So, a ton of new stuff to play with, which is always fun.

The second, was finding a site on Pinterest that showed dozens and dozens of period clothing, hats  and jewelry from the Edwardian and the Belle Epoch eras...approximately late 1800s to the outbreak of WWI. These are my favorite eras for ideas in unique color combinations, designs to tweak and adapt for stencils, appliques, and beading on clothing of my own. Also for wire jewelry ideas. Obviously, there is NO way I can copy the amazing work by jewelers of that time. Those pieces are works of art, and most reside in museums. But I can simplify...a lot...the swirls and leaf/vine shapes of those Art Nouveau and Edwardian pieces.

Which brings me to this latest necklace, made from agate beads, faceted glass beads, glass leaves and flowers, turquoise chips, dusky-blue ceramic beads, drop pearls, two slides with rhinestones, "silver" worked wire, purchased chain, one of the dozen lanyard clips included in one of the gift box stashes, and faux-silver marcasite hearts from that bracelet of my mom's. As you can tell, I am all into recycling, upcycling...or whatever they call it these days.

Work table...necklace in progress.

The lovely green pearls did not end up in the finished work.  The three connected hearts to the left of the photo are what is left of the little bracelet my mom gave me to play with.

And here is the finished piece.

And here is an FYI: My Etsy site is temporarily closed. I am in the process of updating all of my jewelry pieces and revamping the site. This piece is the first one in that process. I got to the point where the site looked dated, and a lot of the jewelry were things that had been on and off the site since I opened it, about three years ago, and hadn't sold. Also, I am trying VERY hard to improve the quality and workmanship. Which is another reason why most of the old pieces will be taken apart and made into something else. I was new to a lot of the techniques needed, and have improved, I hope, since then. Still improving and learning, which is a lot of fun. And I'm still collecting bits and bobs, haunting junk/antique stores for that special find...like the mason jar full of broken bits I just scored the other day for $9, which ended up being 75% usable for upcycling. I don't usually get that lucky, and end up tossing or giving to the Goodwill almost half to 75%, with only that last 25% being anything I would want in a piece.

So, thanks to my mom, friends, and a lucky junk store find, I have lots of new things to play with, and an eye-candy web site to inspire me to keep pushing that design envelope.

Embellished Sweatshirt

I confess, I love vintage and period clothing (also jewelry, but that's no secret either). I love the craftsmanship, the artistry, and the embellishments that make those pieces of clothing so wonderful. However, I live my life in sweatshirts, T-shirts, tank tops and jeans. Add to that list an ever-growing number of jackets, and that is my wardrobe. Most of the time those sweatshirts, T-shirts, tanks and jeans are full of cat or horse hair, hay flakes and pine shavings, and during the summer, bits of garden vegetation, seed pods, and oak twigs.

I love the idea of skirts and dresses. I really do. I buy them, thinking I'll wear them, but I rarely do. Instead they linger at the back of my closet, forlorn and neglected.

The conclusion I came to was, if I want to attempt to incorporate any kind of embellishment on my clothing, it would have to be on the garments I wear all the time. Granted, I'm not going to go clean stalls in something I've labored over for hours, but when I do head into town, or my husband and I go out to dinner or the movies, I will have something unique to wear. Because, the bottom line is, I am bored with most of the clothing I see in stores.

**Insert quick rant here**

 Let's bring back "dressing." Making an effort. Don't just slouch off to town or to dinner in tatty old T-shirts, grubby jeans, and messy hair. I'm not advocating the Barbie look, or expect people to dress like Donna Reed in My Three Sons. But yikes, some of the stuff I see people wearing while out and about makes my teeth hurt. Look in a mirror, people!

**Rant over** 

Back to embellished clothing. The Alabama Chanin books, and Rice over at the Voodoo Cafe, have been a huge influence on my quest for unique clothing. The techniques in the book are easy, but time-consuming. The results are grand. Even in small doses, the embellishments add so much to any piece you put them on. They also lend themselves very well to individual styles. My pieces, even using the same techniques, look very different from, say, what Rice, or anyone else, will create. I have made two boleros from the pattern included in the book, and one tank top. In this case, I attacked a $4 sweatshirt I bought at the Goodwill.

Here is the sweatshirt, and the stenciled bit of purple T-shirt sleeve I had left over from the Tibetan Bolero. The gold paint is by Lumiere.

The start of the stitching, and the reverse applique done. And some beads sew on. I blush to admit it, but, other than the metallic thread, I just used doubled regular sewing thread. Whatever I had on hand. The purple thread is poly, and the turquoise is cotton. In all honesty, these pieces I still consider experiments, so I'm not overly concerned with their longevity. If the center piece manages to last longer than the sweatshirt, I will cut it out and sew it to something else.

Here it is with the stitched curlicues. It took me awhile to figure out how to tie in the center design with the rest of the shirt. The curlicues are what I finally ended up with. They turned out so nice, I decided I would use them again on something else. Eventually I will add stitching, curlicues and beads to the back neckline, so that it sorta matches the front neckline. By the time I got done doing this, my eyes were crossed and my fingers tender. I needed to take a break and do something else. I will come back to this and tie up that one loose end.

 

Here are a couple of closeups of the curlicues and beading as they progressed. The curlicues were done freehand, like doodling with thread. Lots of fun.

So, now that this little project is almost done, I'm off to do something else. I have three costumes to work on, and an experiment I want to try with stitching on the stenciled T-shirt material. I figure I'm on a quest to stamp out boring clothes. At least in my own closet. If I'm lucky, I might inspire someone else to give it a go, branch out...make an effort. Not sure my pieces will be that influential, but wouldn't that just be the icing on the cake!

Go, be creative. Make an effort. It's not that hard, I promise.

Keys

Over the years I have collected a small stash of old keys. Some are pretty beat up, some are pristine and quite lovely, with beautiful decorations. I have used some of the smaller keys on charm bracelets, but for the most part, they have been stuffed in one of the small drawers in one of my multi-drawered plastic storage units...you know, the ones sold in hardware departments for screws, washers, nuts, etc.

Since the Steampunk trend went mainstream, keys are now everywhere, which made me reluctant to dig mine out and use them. The jewelry market is buried under a glut of items made with keys, so what more could I possibly add? However, I was, well, bored the other day, and decided what the hell, I'll play with my keys and see what I come up with. And that was, earrings. I left the keys "as is" and just added beads and wire. I had fun, and the earrings came out funky, which is not usually something I do.

So, here they are: Old keys, beads (some vintage), crystals, colored jump rings, and surgical steel ear wires.

Ice Princess Necklace

Newest item up on the Etsy site. This necklace is made up almost completely of recycled bits and pieces from vintage or near vintage costume jewelry. The pendant was an old brooch, I'm guessing from the late 1950s or 1960s. Not sure. The two light blue dangles were a pair of earrings. The dark blue dangles from an old necklace, and the powder blue beads on the links I made, were from a huge, multi-strand necklace my mom gave me...I think. It's been a while since I acquired it, so I'm not sure on that either. People give me stuff all the time, and it can be years before I finally getting around to using it. By that time I can't remember who gave it to me.

The Process

I noticed that on a lot of blogs by artists, they post pictures of the process they go through in order to create a piece, whether painting, drawing, collage, sewing, or...jewelry. So, I thought maybe I should do the same, and talk a little about how I work. Not riveting stuff, but since I like to see how people go through the creative process, I thought others might like to see mine.

I try to do a lot of recycling in my pieces. I haunt junk shops, antique stores, and garage sales—why let all that great old stuff go to waste? When I do this, I have a price ceiling...I won’t pay more than $20 for anything...whether it’s a bag of parts, or a complete piece that I can take apart and turn into many pieces. Usually I end up spending anywhere from $1 to $10 average. Many of my friends pick up things for me, or if they are thinking of sending old stuff to the Goodwill, they let me look it over first. That’s always fun.

When I start a piece, I have a vague idea of what I want, and then I start pulling out beads, bits, charms, old pendants, buttons, etc. and play around with them. It’s usually the color that grabs me, and I go from there. An arrangement will finally satisfy me, and then I put the whole thing together. Next, I take it for a test run. I wear it, making sure everything stays where it’s supposed to, and that it drapes/hangs nicely, and is comfortable—nothing poking anywhere. If that all checks out, then it’s done, and I put it up on my Etsy shop. If no one seems interested after a certain length of time, I may take the piece apart and make something else.

So, that’s it. Here are the elements I used in the necklace pictured.

Red sections from an old necklace (ca. 1960s, I think) that I took apart. It has purple, light purple, and red sections. I used only the red, so have lots of other sections left over to use on something else. That old necklace was long, and I have made other pieces from it already. Since it was given to me by a friend, it didn’t cost me a dime.

Gold metal leaves that I inherited from my husband’s mother after she passed away. She had a ton of craft stuff, and Robert’s sisters were kind enough to share it with me. I’ve used these leaves on lots of things, and will be sad when they are finally gone.

“Gold” covered copper wire. I am still learning how to work with wire, which has a mind of its own. The links for this necklace were made with 1” pieces of wire, a black bead added, then twisted in an S-curve. I like making my own links, because I can add any type of bead/chip I want, to match the rest of the elements.

Misc. beads and small metal leaves. These are all over-the-counter bits, purchased at either Michael’s, JoAnn’s or Craft Warehouse. So are the jump rings, clasp, and head-pins.

The pictures are of the work in progress, and then the finished piece. I wear a lot of black, so I’m thinking this little gem I will keep for myself. But since I am getting rather addicted to making chain and bead links, another one will be in the works soon. Who knows, I may like the next one better and give this one up.

Commissioned Necklace

This is a commissioned necklace I just completed. It is very similar to a bracelet I did, and then enlarged into a necklace at the request of a customer. She wore it, and a friend of hers admired it and wanted one "just like that one." Well, I can't do exact replicas of a piece, because I use found elements. However, I did have enough of the frosted flower beads in another color, and pretty much the last of my glass leaf dangles, to do one more necklace. And so, here it is. It will go to its new home tomorrow.

After two such pieces, I'm really getting the hang of making wire link chain. Next time, I want to make something using gold wire instead of silver.

Bracelet to Necklace

This piece was originally a bracelet. I took it, along with two necklaces, to my writer's group meeting, for a "show and tell." One of the ladies liked the design of the bracelet, but wanted it as a choker instead. I didn't have enough of the frosted petal beads to make a whole new piece, but did have enough to add length to the bracelet. So, I took it home, reworked it, and voila...the finished choker. Better still, the lady loved it. That made me smile and feel good to be me.