Thursday, May 26, 2011

A Glutton for Punishment Part I

I'm not sure if I'm just a glutton for punishment or just plain crazy ! I tend to underestimate my future projects and start out thinking they will be small and manageable however they always end up becoming big, complicated and time consuming.
Several posts back ( Trouble Getting From Dream to Reality )I gave you a glimpse of a vision that I had of a black and white piece. It was a vision that danced in my head like those proverbial sugar plums in the poem "Twas the Night Before Christmas".   But what a challenge it has been, seems I never had just the right things that I needed such as strong enough jumprings, ones that wouldn't come open as soon as the necklace was picked up. So I'd order parts, wait for them to arrive, then sit down and with anticipation of completing the project dive back into putting it together. Part way through it would dawn on me that something was wrong and guess what ? ... I needed something else that wasn't in my vast supplies of beads, findings, wires and parts. SHOOT !!! DRAT !!!  And Double Dang-it !!!
So have to go look around,  find what I think will do the trick, place an order and wait some more.
Photo above..Lovely black and white Venetian glass oval bead will be the center focal point.  Only as the more I worked on it I realized that 1 - the center focal point was being buried beneath the disc bead dangle and 2 - my handmade jumprings,  made from 20 gauge silver plated copper wire, kept coming apart. 

Finally I did manage to put together the center area of the necklace and it has turned out far more complex than I had ever imagined. The heavy weight 18 gauge jumprings from Jewelry Supply that I ended up purchasing are performing well and I haven't had any open up on me yet. Yay!  Unfortunately I've just about used them all in this project and decided to order some more from a different vendor ... the new jumprings are not nearly as nice nor as strong so it's true that sometimes you get what you pay for.


Photo above ... Been busy as a bee wire wrapping black and white disc beads to use as dangles. I decided to add a larger solid back bead for the Venetian bead to hang from as the black and white oval bead needed to be longer. Yes, it's filling in nicely but still needs something.

Photo below... How about some of these Czech pressed glass leaf beads with a silver finish ?  Might add the tiny black hearts as dangles just below the leaves ?


Photo below ... As you can see I added a large black bead at the focal center to make the Venetican oval bead hang lower, it was being hidden by all the black and white disc bead dangles.  Hmm and those lovely little jet black glass hearts that have one side with an aurora borealis finish ?  Well they didn't look so hot as dangles hanging WITH the leaves so I may add them as dangles on their own ... not sure at this stage.  Besides I now need some type of large, fancy link to attach at the side of the necklace. 
Photo below ... As you can see I've attached a few of the silver leaves but it still has a lot of fill work left to be done and there's still the problem of what to add to the loops that I created beneath the silver leaves ... the loops I made to hang the sweet little black glass hearts from.
Stay tuned for Part II as things may change ... oh undoubtedly they will change!

5 comments:

  1. I'm sitting here with my jaw on the ground. What are you planning to do with this little beauty once its done? Will you sell it? Keep it? Its worthy of being displayed in a gallery or museum, and no I'm not just saying that, this is more than jewelry its sculptural art my friend. I would wear this in a NY minute...please let me know if you're planning to list it!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Well, it's starting out beautifully!! By the way, a trick someone taught me with those pesky little jump rings that don't like to stay closed is to brush a dab of superglue or crazy glue right at the opening - it keeps them shut for good!
    Found you via etsy's blog team:)
    www.impactjewelry.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  3. OMG...what an incredible amount of detailed work!!!

    Looks to me like this will be a masterpiece when completed...can't wait to see it!!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. How beautiful! You have so much creative talent and patience for such intricate work. (Sorry about sending you on a frustrating link trail...I know how annoying that is. I do appreciate the visit and your thoughtful/insightful comments.)

    ReplyDelete
  5. You are a steam engine my friend lacking nails and all. It was lovely before but now it's a work of art - it should be in a gallery. I I hate when I order the same thing from different vendors and they are not the same AT ALL WTH??? One of my pet peeves. Then you have the ones you don't want and have to order more of the ones you DO want. ACK! Get in some relaxation this weekend!

    ReplyDelete

Nothing makes me happier than to hear from those who have dropped by my blog for a visit. I love hearing from you.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...