I haven't been able to fully finish playing around with all the beads - partly because the two separate projects I had planned didn't work and I ended up combining them. Let's start with what I didn't use, shall we? I'm a big, BIG fan of Artbeads' glass bead collection, especially their Swarovski crystals. So when I tried the 6mm jet bicones, I knew I was going to get nothing less than the best. I was right, of course, but it's hard to find a lot that I have that these go with. :/ I'm planning on putting them into a future steampunk project, since they ended up not working this time. Ah well. It happens!
The other beads I tried and didn't use were both pressed Czech glass coins. The green tiger's eye beads are great to look at, but I'm not liking the shape too much. I think 12mm was a bit big for me. I also got them in jet/red stripes. I think these aren't quite as pretty as the green, but that's just a color preference issue. Maybe I'll use them for a holiday bracelet.
Now for the finished project! At first I was going to make two different necklaces. Both would have a pendant as the focus. The first necklace would be gunmetal and silver and have a handmade drawing as a pendant with crystals dangling from it. The other would have a leaf-shaped pendant and the coin-shaped beads.
Well, that didn't work at all. Here's what I came up with after a long, long time:
All together now: Oooooooh!
I combined the two pendants. One is a frame, the other is a leaf that I absolutely fell head over heals in love with. I'm very proud of the frame pendant. I did all the designing and coloring myself, and I went through about 7 designs before I found one I liked. I'm not much of an artist either, so this is a huge accomplishment for me. To put the picture onto the frame, I used a tiiiiny bit of glue, and then Glossy Accents to embellish it. It protects the picture really well, and it was easy to put on. However, I think I'm a little bit fail because it's a tad uneven in places, so I need to go back and fix that.
Some of the other bits of art I almost went with.
Twisting chain together to create color and accent worked really well for me at Matsuri Con with my key necklaces, so I thought I'd try it again here. I like it, and think it works well. :) The base metal chain is super sturdy, and it doesn't bother my neck at all.
As an aside, I think this blog is going to become a bit more active. I'm trying to decide what kind of content to add. We'll see. :)
(Let's go ahead and put the legal stuff here, shall we? I am not being paid by Artbeads.com for my opinion on their items. I have received the above pictured items free of charge and am reviewing them honestly. Anything else in these photos was bought and paid for by me from other locations.)
