A New Year, New Ideas, New Designs - Part 1 Vintage Necklaces

I've recently done quite a lot of shopping on Etsy, in fact I've done most of my Christmas shopping there. I love the fact that it's the artist that gets paid rather than some shop owner and the fact that there is so much variety of everything.

The necklaces below will all be available in my shop on Etsy.

Butterfly on a Rock

The first necklace includes a vintage butterfly charm sitting on a pale green piece of sea glass that has been wrapped in vintage brass filigree. Vintage beads and cabochons are attached to the sea glass with vintage chain. At the top of the 'pendant' is a little connector and two more vintage beads and two Erinite Swarovski beads with more vintage chain.



Amber Dragonfly

More vintage chain, a vintage dragonfly with wonderful detail, sitting on a vintage amber coloured glass cabochon encased in vintage filigree. Three lovely vintage glass cabochons in varying shades of amber are attached to the dragonfly like a 'tail' with vintage chain - the same chain that has been used for the necklace. The necklace chain is quite short as the dragonfly and it's tail give it length.





Peacock Dragonfly

Sorry guys, I just love dragonflies. This one sits on a piece of bottle green sea glass that again (yes, you guessed right) has been encased with vintage filigree. There's a tail with three vintage beads in shades of jade, peacock blue and pale green with another tiny vintage dragonfly flying after the big one. Vintage chain for the necklace, again quite short.



Emerald Dragonfly (necklace and earring set)

More dragonflies. :-)

Necklace: I've encased a beautiful large vintage emerald glass cabochon in yet more wire filigree, hung a vintage bead with a lily bead cap from it and attached a medium sized dragonfly to that. At the top of the pendant there are two filigree beads followed by three faceted Czech glass beads, the golden ones are vintage. The chain (vintage) is again quite short.

Earrings: I've used beautiful vintage ear wires that actually close at the back and have little sparkly glass gems set in a bezel at the front. I've used the same beads as in the necklace and added two tiny dragonflies to fly from the bottom.

Green Jewel

This is a very simple necklace, slightly longer than the others with vintage chain and a bit of sea glass held with a vintage filigree of a very pretty Victorian design. The chain is vintage, the toggle clasp new, but no less pretty for that.

Teal Seaweed Scarf

As promised here are the pictures of MY teal seaweed scarf. It's made completely of cotton wool - very soft Debbie Bliss cotton for the main 'body' of the scarf and very thin embroidery cotton and Magatama drops in various shades of green and blue for embellishment.

The last of 2007

Here's some jewellery I prepared earlier. ;-)

Blackberry Heaven

The first creation is a bracelet made of memory wire, silver plated curved beads, little round spacer beads and vintage blackberry AB beads. These are absolutely wonderful. They are black with a gorgeous AB coating. The bracelet is very light and there's nothing like this out there.



Circles within Circles

This is one of mine. :-) I love circles and used all the rings I had in my secret stash to make this. There are vintage flat rings, round rings that are either plain, hammered or patterned of different sizes, and a single oval ring, but all are connected with oval jump rings that have been soldered by a little pixie I know. To finish it off I've used my favourite 'Chanel' toggle clasp and I added a little tail to the back of the necklace with another set of rings attached.


Bracelets

Oyster Cult

I got myself some gorgeous pearls and had to make something with them. The colouring of the large pearls used in the bracelet below reminded me of oysters. I have teemed them up with smaller copper coloured pearls, old rose gold and green Givre daggers and beads, little faceted pale green round beads and Magatama drops. The bracelet has a lovely fluid feel and look to it that is organic and sparkly at the same time.

Early Autumn

This bracelet combines all the colours of early Autumn - from pale golds to greens to ambers and reds. I have used small green and chocolate brown freshwater pearls, deep red carnelian drops, golden shimmery amber, and Magatama drops in pale frosted amber and translucent gold.



Roses are Red (or sometimes white)

The following bracelet reminds me of a brother Grimm story called 'Snow-White and Rose-Red', which I read as a child. I've used a vintage chain with modern findings, pearlescent Magatama drops interspersed with ruby red Swarovski bicones. I love the slightly spiky look the bracelet has, although, trust me it doesn't feel like it. :-)


Honey Dew

The colours of the next bracelet are very soft and it looks almost edible. I've used Citrine, mother of pearl (round beads and chips), white jade (round beads and chips), honey coloured jade and topaz chips with glass pearls and deep chocolate brown Magatama drops.



Red Clusters

The next bracelet is a very different design from the others. I've used connectors made with deep ruby red Swarovski beads and copper bead caps to link clusters of beads (Magatama drops, tear drop beads, frosted and crackled round beads in shades of red that have been strung on bits of copper chain). A lovely coppery flower charm finishes off the design.



Starshine

This bracelet is mine. I made it for selling but found when I got ready for a Christmas party that I needed something to go with my gorgeous vintage butterfly necklace. This was the perfect match. I have used icy heart and star charms on bronze chain with pearlescent Magatama drops in creamy and stark white and very, very pale green.




Snow and Ice

Here's another white creation. I have used a mix of silver grey Keishi and small nugget freshwater pearls in grey and larger ones in white, white carved bone beads, and Matagama drops in pearlescent white and very, very pale green. I love the icy look and shimmer of the bracelet on the silver plated chain which is finished with a little snowflake charm.




Chocolate and Blueberries

Another 'yummy' creation. I've used shell beads in blue and dark chocolate brown, mixed them with dark amber and blue crackle beads and chocolate brown freshwater pearls and daggers in metallic brown and peacock blue. Frosted intense blue Magatama drops finish it off and give it an organic feel.

Wire (Crochet) and Sea Glass
And finally, here are some more of my sea glass creations. There are more to come. I've made some more this year which will be in a new blog entry.

By the Sea
I love this necklace, it's so special. Very heavy, too. I've used an oval frosted stone found by the seaside (see the upcoming 'Trips in 2007' blog entry) in Southwold, a piece of sea glass (probably found by Alison somewhere on the beach in Nice, and a gorgeous rock quartz nugget (very large) all encased in antique gold wire crochet. The chain is vintage brass and the 'pendant' was finished off with Magatama drops in cream and white, white jade and carved bone beads, and glass pearls. The clasp is particularly pretty with lovely little swirls.


Sea Bed
Another sea glass creation, this time with a large piece in pale green, wire encased and embellished with (real) amber, chalcedony and sapphire nuggets, with a pale blue glass pearl, Miyuki delicas, and an Art glass bead thrown in for good measure.