Decoden: Part Three!

A while back, I posted some decoden phone cases that I made.  I've got another one to share.  I'll keep this brief. 

This is one I made for myself to replace the old one.  Sad to say this, but buying any old case on eBay can sometimes lead to malfunctions.  The one I bought the first time was about $12.  With all the time I spent decorating it, you'd hope that it would hold up.  It did not.  It's construction wasn't that great, so, though it's still pretty to look at, it can't really hold on to a phone. 

I got this new case for half the price of the old one and it is much better constructed.  The decorations themselves, I believe, reflect more of me than the old one.  It was more of a hodge podge.  This one is more in line with my "cautiously optimistic" and "proactively pessimistic" approaches to life.  I like to see the beauties, even in misfortune.  I hope this case never breaks.  Given how many times I've dropped it already and it's remained intact, It's safe to say that I will be able to spend a lot of time with it before it fails me. 

Dinn's Fire Necklace

Since I can't seem to create any sort of Zelda fanart bracelet and keep it for any length of time, I've decided to try for necklaces.  They're guaranteed to be too out there for anyone to want to buy them.  Here's my interpretation of Dinn's fire in necklace form.

Hopefully I can figure out a design for Farore's Wind and Nayru's love relatively soon.  Last thing I need is for someone to see this, buy it and have it missing from my next attempt at photographing the pieces TOGETHER.

Trying to be Manly

I don't make men's jewelry.  It tends to be quite boring.  You either have to stick to a simple, repeating pattern, work with huge, bulky elements that are expensive and difficult to come by, or submit to a completely monotone, unexciting design that would probably be better off not existing for all the attention it draws.  
It's hard to get men's jewelry right.  On one hand, you want to create something to adore, amplify and embellish.  On the other, our culture seems to believe that that sort of thing and men is mutually exclusive...unless they are drag queens.  There's almost no examples of men's jewelry that I can duplicate or expand from.  I had to find inspiration from something else.

I took a look at manly men's bags to get ideas.  What I saw was interesting.  Plain, dull colors (like I expected), boxy minimalist designs (also, like I expected), and something odd.  Quirky things, usually focusing on one major element.  There was the bag that looked like clipart...

It's real!  It just looks like that

It looked like something that it wasn't, such as an envelop, turtle shell, or that Simon game from the 90s.

Courtesy of Zazzle

Courtesy of Style Magazine

Or it was festooned with motifs from cartoons, games and comic books.  It made sense that these recurring themes in men's bags could be applied to jewelry.  I tried.  Let me know what you think?

I chose the skull design because I had plenty of them lying around and because it's a common inclusion in men's casual bags.  Somehow skulls + dark colors = manly, so that's what we went with.  Honestly, I feel that it's unisex, well besides the length of the bracelet.  It's a great deal longer than I usually make because men tend to have larger wrists.  I'm satisfied with how it turned out.  Why don't you guys give it a try.

Centipede: Bracelet

Remember that post I did that talked about taking inspiration from Nature?  Well, right now, I'm really inspired by something a little unexpected:  Bugs.  Not just any bug, but the creepiest, most leg-havingest BAMFs of the bug world.  The Centipede and the Millipede.

So cute!  So sexy.

With interlocking armored plates, vibrant colors and their sinuous movements on their multitude of tiny little legs, these beasts are practically made to inspire jewelry.  Here's my take on the milipede above.

Crawling to an arm near you!

Lots of tiny bicones...

Disappointed

I hate when something I've spent a lot of time on doesn't come out the way I wanted it to.  I put a lot of time, effort and supplies into making these pendants.  I was feeling super inspired and energetic.  I vowed that I'd do it correctly and it'd be awesome and beautiful!

Ooooh!

Ahhhh!

...Oh.

It's CROOKED.  Not woefully so... just a tiny bit.  You can barely even notice it if you're looking at it in person.  But in the photos at a ridiculous magnification like THIS.... you can see it.  I know I'll never be able to sell anything I make from this pendant.

You see, as a person who hand-makes things, I get a great deal more scrutiny than a department store.  It's expected that anything I offer will be PERFECT, even if I offer it cheaper than you could get it from a big box retailer.  Top that off with the high standards that I hold for myself and you've got a recipe for a hissy fit.  Still.  This is fine.  I can still use it to make something...for myself.  It's too junky to try selling.  Maybe next time.

Apple Greens: Playing with Murano glass

For Christmas, I recieved a ton of Murano glass beads from my dear friends, Liz.  Murano glass is a type of bead that is typically hand blown by artisans.  Each bead is completely unique.  I've never really worked with Murano glass before, so I was curious about how to make it work for me.  It was tricky.

Murano glass is heavy, often has slightly irregular shapes and has to be treated carefully in a design.  Because the process of making these beautiful beads is so involved, artists often focus on making truly beautiful beads instead of truly uniform ones.  That can make incorporating them into a necklace design a bit tricky.  Still I pulled it off.  Have a look!

After some careful sanding and selective use of the beads we got this!

Such drama.

Much sparkle.

Alright, that's enough of me imitating the Doge meme.  This necklace was really easy to make and a great break for my wrists since they've been aching an unusual amount recently.  I wish I could post this on my Etsy, but mom snapped it up right away.  Perhaps I'll make something similar sooner or later.

Sahara

I've been rather inspired by a lot of golden colors recently.  Maybe it's because I'm longing for the warmth of spring and summer.  Perhaps it's because the snow has blanketed my home and given me aches in my joints that I would sooner forget... Or maybe it's because I have a ton of golden, topaz, and bronze colored beads laying around.  Hmm...

Unrelated, I've been watching National Geographic and they've been hitting all my favorites.  Big cats, deserts, Predators of the Serengeti, The World's Deadliest (Also known as 'everything in or around Africa and Australia').  Couple all that with rediscovering Indiana Jones and you've got a recipe for simple, but magical looking baubles.

That's how we got Sahara.  Once again, findings and pendant rescued from the piles of treasure I've hoarded over the years and put into a useful form.

The majority of the focus for this piece is on that bedazzled pendant.

The aged findings and beads give it a rich, classic feel

I really like this piece.

 I think it would fabulously dress up a rustic, outdoorsy casual outfit. 

Spring Cleaning: Stash Blasting 2

In my last post I told you guys the origin story of this.

Today, as promised, I'm going to show you what I did with it and maybe tell you why I think its current incarnation is much better than any of the other possible ones that were brainstormed.  Ok.  Are you ready?  You sure?  Ok.  Here it is!

I call it the Dragon's Amulet

 I made it into a necklace for a variety of reasons.  Making it into a brooch would have removed much of its Muchness as the Mad Hatter would say.  I rather like 'Muchness', so I'm the last person who'd do something to remove it.  I couldn't make it into an earring set because there was only one and it would rip your earlobe clean off.  I also couldn't figure out how to incorporate it into a bracelet or hair clip without silly things happening. 

Such drama.

Initially, I'd wanted to make it into a necklace anyway.  However, there was the problem of finding components that could stand up to all that was going on with that pendant.  In the end, I had to couple some bead weaving techniques, contrary shapes, careful planning, and math (I hate math, but I swear, I use it more in my hobbies than I do anywhere else in life). 

The result was a piece of jewelry that practically EXPLODES with intricacy and richness. 

Look at how the sun bounces off that antique glass.

Thanks for reading guys!  Happy Crafting!

Spring Cleaning: Stash Blasting

A few weeks ago, I told Rhonda, a fellow blogger and member of the Haute Couture Club of Chicago about how I'd been spring cleaning and trying to find purpose for the beautiful filigree I'd rediscovered.  She was VERY interested in what would come of it.  Rhonda has purchased some jewelry pieces from me before and she's always inquisitive about anything new that I might be doing.  Actually, come to think of it, Rhonda's always curious about anything clothing or fashion related that ANYONE'S doing.

We both needed to join this organization years ago.

WELL.  At any rate, habitual collecting and accessorizing aside, I did promise her that I'd get into making things from my fancy filigree as soon as possible.  Thus, we have this darling. 

FEAST YOUR EYES!

I made this pendant YEARS ago, back when I first discovered the joys of E-6000 glue.  That was...wow, 4 years ago.  Around the last time I attended an anime conventions.  Ugh... Scandalous. 

At that time, I had fallen in love with Visual Kei (Think Hair Metal- except with men in drag... for some reason) and Harajuku fashion trends.  They were so new and different and often included cutesy accessories that look like cakes.  I tried emulating some of their elements in my art and jewelry design with varying success.

Oh how lovely.

 This pendant/brooch/thing was one of the successes.  I'd purchased most of the components online in an eBay auction for broken estate jewelry.  There were some GORGEOUS pieces in that auction.  Most of them, after repairs or repurposing went to my mother or sold immediately.  This one was a bit harder to place.

Check those details.  Mm.  So sexy.

I was at a loss as to what to do with it.  It seemed too pretty to attach to a brooch finding.  That would have been the easy way out, you know?  At the time my stash consisted of Czech glass beads of varying quality and even then I recognized that against this level of intricacy and quality, whatever design I came up with would be a flavorless imitation of 'style'.  So, I held on to it for FOUR YEARS.

Now, I did find something to do with it and it turned out much more brilliant than I imagined.  I will show it to you...in my next post.  Check back on Wednesday for the finished design. 

Miasma Necklace

Stringing has got to be the easiest and most ancient of all the jewelry making methods.  You only need a couple of things to complete a stringing project.  It's simple.  Even the most primitive and ancient of cultures has strung beads of some sort.  Furthermore, stringing gives rise to all other forms of beading.

Just 3 steps.
Obtain String and Bead.
Thread String Through Bead
Tie Off string.

Borrowed from Who Does These Things blog.

The simplicity of strung jewelry makes the whole process VERY zen-like.  You have repetitive motion, repeating patterns, and a small simple task to focus on.   In no time, you have a beautiful, enchanting piece at your fingertips, like this one.  

BAM!  In your face!  Look at those beautiful purple resin swirls!

This particular necklace is one of the few times I've used acrylics to create a jewelry piece.  I tend to stay away from plastic beads because they feel kind of...cheap.  However, recently, Jesse James, Darice, and Blue Moon have been producing high quality acrylic beads.

It's a simple pendant with a slightly tribal feel.

Would you wear it?