Kingman Turquoise w/Copper Dangles & "Wild Blueberry" Seed Bead Choker...

I love this combination, but then I am colour-challenged in a big way. I still can't quite edit in the purpleness of the purple, but this is reeeeeeeeally purple... "Wild Blueberry" is the name of these seed beads which I got a while back from Spirit Bear Beads. I got the copper dangle eye pins also a while back from Magpie Gemstones. Unfortunately, they're not carrying them any longer. They sure were/are cool, and yeah, I shoulda got more when I had the chance.

Kingman turquoise chips strung on pure copper eye pins with dangles, Wild Blueberry glass seed beads, copper jump rings and clasp, about 19" in length, the centre dangle drops another inch; $29 plus shipping & handling. Please email me for availability or if you'd like me to make you a custom version... like, you know, maybe in another colour... :-).

Thanks for looking!

Nacozari & Kingman Turquoise necklace...

I accomplished one thing today: a month ago, I'd received some incredibly deep blue, rough-edged Nacozari turquoise slices and, after contemplating them every day, finally broke up the string and today did something with them -- well, one at any rate.

Nacozari turquoise slab pendant, tumbled Kingman turquoise chips, mossy-green Japanese seed beads, pewter and/or zinc beads, pewter clasp. The necklace is about 21" long and the pendant hangs another 2". $79 plus shipping and handling. Individual slabs (drilled lengthwise) are available for $10 each. I take PayPal. Please email me for availability.

Thanks for looking!

Bracelet or Necklace... Necklace or Bracelet...???

The eternal dilemma: I have perhaps only one string of a given bead. Do I go for a bracelet, maybe even two or three, or one necklace? Should I stretch that single necklace to two with judicious use of other semi-precious beads in the back, or use lower-cost seed beads in the back where they are less noticeable -- and jazz up with pewter or semi-precious beads? If I go the seed bead route, do I use more subdued colours or go nuts with an unexpected hit of colour?

Bracelet or necklace for this one? Still haven't decided, hence no clasp, yet. Raw amethyst focal, amethyst rondelles, high-cut faceted citrines, melon-cut quartz crystals, pewter findings and vintage seed beads from Black Tulip.

Hmm, nice artsy effect -- love Picmonkey! -- but you can see more clearly below in the closeup where the colours are pretty much dead on. 

Here is something even more dilemma-inducing for me: bracelet or choker? Kingman turquoise chips, amethyst rondelles, hand-cut Tibetan quartz crystal rounds, pewter beads:

Two Kingman turquoise bracelets, 7-1/2" and 8-1/2" long. The matte seed beads here are a deep almost lusciously lilac colour, maybe even rhododendron blue-purple. Indescribable at any rate. No amount of editing seems to work on it. But I think it looks crazy-good with the Kingman turquoise:

I'd bought a few strings of vintage 8/0 and 6/0 seed beads from Naomi at Black Tulip Designs a while back to try and decided they are perfect for my necklaces. At the Art Waves show in London on Saturday, I went nuts stocking up. Some of the beads are 100 years old and none of them are colours you can get nowadays other than sorta kinda in the Japanese seed bead ranges. What I like about Naomi's beads are the softer, random shapes and rich but muted, knocked back or greyed colours, which somehow go really well with my jewellery designs. After trying the Japanese beads out, I found that neither the precision cuts nor the acidic colours work as well with the types of semi-precious I prefer, like the softly rounded Kingman chips, the raw amethyst and wonky hand-cut melon quartz I've used in these examples. 

White Pearls, "Black" Pearls -- no, not the ship -- & Turquoise

I had a commission to do for today's market, riffing on a so-called black (aka a dark iridescent purple) and white pearl necklace with plain zinc spacers that Nancy had designed before leaving town and me to my own much less creative devices. I substituted these mini-bump spacers for no other reason than I'm almost out of the plain ones.

Then I wondered what these very pretty 5mm pearls would look like with the same Kingman turquoise chips I've been playing with for the past week or so. Needs more work in the colour-correcting department, but I think it came out okay.

Thanks for looking!

Campitos & Kingman Turquoise...

Made more bracelets today using up odds and ends of beads, playing with colours, but trying not to think too much and see what happens. Three cheers for www.picmonkey.com's photo-sharpening feature but I still can't quite get the colour right. Literally these colours should be a degree or two warmer, but I can't seem to make it happen.

Large Campitos nuggets interspersed with Kingman splinter chips, sponge coral rondelles flanking a Southwestern-style pewter cross bead.
8" in length; $79.00

Fat Kingman turquoise nuggety chips and more of those gorgeous crab fire agate rounds from Nelson Gemstones flanking a "flying" pewter bird. These Kingman nuggets here and in yesterday's bracelets are all from a string of slightly paler and bluer turquoise than the others that I've been using.
8" in length; $39.00

One side enhanced lapis lazuli rounds and the other pale green so-called new jade (possibly dyed serpentinite?) softly-rounded wheels flanking a "flying" pewter bird.
7-3/4" in length; $43.00

Enhanced lapis lazuli rounds, pewter flower beads and tiny brass spacers flank a glass skull bead.
7-3/4" in length; $45.00

Closeup of the glass skull.

A closer closeup of the glass skull.

Email me for availability or to commission a custom piece -- or even if you see some beads you'd like. I design these so that I can lengthen them a bit without too much trouble; as well, there's always the option of restringing a particular design and adding a bead or two -- or taking something out.

Thanks for looking!

Ethnic/Tribal-Inspired Necklaces...

I'm finally on a roll. There's been no typing for the past few days -- I don't know whether that's good or bad, but it's only the beginning of the month, so maybe I'm entitled to a few days off -- and I've been making necklaces. It's also been raining and cold out so no reason to set foot outside for days here. I have the new store that I hope will take some of these styles, as well as a few other venues I have in mind for which I need to make stock to take in to see if they're interested. Earrings to follow.

Apologies that the pictures are a little out of focus: my camera batteries died so I had to use my cell phone. 

Three days' production... Yay for rain days



Matte black agate saucer beads, zinc & silver-plated Tibetan-style beads, brass spacers strung on
adjustable black Greek leather



Yellow and pinky-orange matte seedbead necklaces with assorted silver-plated and Tibetan-style zinc beads, both necklaces have blue sponge coral beads, the yellow necklace includes aquaterra and brass beads



Matte blue-green seed beads with Tibetan-style zinc beads.
I'm looking at this now and thinking it would look better with a few brass beads. Next iteration. Funny how you see all the mistakes/what-ifs when you take a picture.



My favourite. Matte blue seedbeads (not quite as bright blue as they appear here) zinc and pewter beads. Beautiful pewter bird beads look like they're sitting on nests.

Large Kingman turquoise chip necklace with aquaterra beads and Tibetan-style zinc/silver-plated beads

 

Large Kingman chip necklace with white seedbeads



Small Kingman chip necklace with matte black glass bugle/tube beads

 

Amethyst rounds & peridot chips, white clear matte seedbeads, Tibetan-style zinc/silver-plated beads,
pewter heart clasp

Thanks for looking!