Mood:
luckyNow Playing: New Order and Joy Division
Topic: Happy Kat!
My bead muse refuses to leave me alone. Yesterday I laid out all my bead tools, my design board and design mat, a tray of findings and some of my recent bead purchases. Usually this array is enough to induce a creative block and I run from the table screaming "Bead overload! No F*****G clue what to do with all of them!" And then I can't decide what to do with them and I put them away.
No such luck this time, instead I gaze at the array of stones, crystals, chains, wires and other assorted stuff and my mind is all "I can make earrings with that!" and I can thread these on wires and interlace them for a bracelet!" and WOW! I can make a matching set of bracelet earrings and necklace with THIS" and then promptly began to work and then proceeded to completely loose track of time.
So i have the start of the heart of stars piece, I have a pair of earrings made with an ammolite shell fossil bisected down the middle showing the interior chambers, I have a bracelet of jasper and i have a really cool four piece set made dyed shells cut into tooth like shapes.
I also took a bunch of feathers and turned them into usable jewelry components. Feathers are fiends when it comes to using them in jewelry. There are many methods of incorporating them into the piece, most of the methods suck. Over the years I have bought feathered jewelry to see how others have done it, and they suffer the same way I do. Feathers can be wrapped in wire, but that's bulky and thin wire can cut the feathers. Feathers can be jammed into the holes of beads and then glued in place, but then the bead's hole is useless and filled with glue. There are feather cones, but they limit the design options. You can jam the feathers into a crimp bead and then the wire/fireline/nymo thread/tigertail/whatever into the other end of the crimp bead and then crimp the crap out of it, but jamming all that into a crimp bead is almost impossible as everything tries to fall out while working on it. I finally discovered a way to handle the feathered fiends.
I use fold over crimps with a hole in the top, a dab of tacky glue, and two pairs of pliers. A dab of glue goes into the crimp, the feathers are laid in place where the glue holds them, the sides are folded over and voilà! Feathers have become workable jewelry components with no limitations in their use.
Fold over crimps are usually sold as cord ends or cord tips and used with thicker leather, linen, silk, or cotton cording. As I have found out, they can also be used for feathers. Here's the Fire Mountain Gem's web page with these fold over: http://www.firemountaingems.com/details.asp?PN=H201949FN
I think these feathers will look great with some of the natural tumbled and polished stones I have. I enjoy working with real stones and they make such a fascinating contrast to the rich sparkle of swarovski crystals. Adding the warmth of real feathers gives the pieces and extra textural dimension and adds a touch of softness to the designs. The feathers can be a focal point or an accent, depending on the size of the feather.
Which reminds me, when it warms up i need to go to the park to collect more feathers. A molting duck is a great source for lots of feathers, and there are more than enough ducks at Waterloo Park. One afternoon gives me enough duck feathers to last a looooooong time.
That's all for today.
