Welcome to the Bead Peeps Swap and hop reveal 2019. This is the fifth year of the swap and hop and I would like to say that it has been fun participating for five consecutive years. You can see my past Bead peeps Swap and hop reveals here. This year is all about light and hence Aurora jewellery. Before I show you the Beads and jewellery of this year’s hop, here is a bit about my swap partner.
Warning : This is a long post with lots of photos. So get yourself a cool drink and enjoy scrolling 🙂
Swap and hop Partner
My partner this year is Ms. Robin Kae Reed of Artistry: Handcrafted bead designs. She works fulltime as a manager of a small retail business near the University of Notre Dame. In terms of jewellery making, she is a stringer. She includes quotes and keys in her work and prefers working with natural stones like jasper and agate. Hand made metal components and those with fibre can be seen in her work as well. She has been making jewellery for about 10 years and created floral designs and wood/stone decorative bird houses in the past.
Beads and jewellery Swap and hop reveal
What I sent Robin
I chose blue and pink as my colour palette for Robin. I saw that she used blues in her work and felt that she would be comfortable with it. But I also wanted that “Indian Tadka (flavour)”. So I picked fuchsia as the accompaniment. My intention was to challenge Robin while providing her with options to chose from. But sending lot of heavy beads was not practical. Thus, I sent limited items but of various textures to help Robin make an interesting piece.
I sent terracotta beads, cocoons, looped chain in blue and dyed agates, buttons, pompoms, thread beads in pink. Robin wanted Ghungroos and fibre. So I sent twisted cotton cords, Living coral tassels, pure silk jacquard saree ribbon, fabric and thread beads as well. I sent two handmade ceramic beads (Claycult Cambodia) and two pendants and a copper wire clasp made by me which I forgot to take pictures of. Robin sent me the picture below where you can see the mixed media pendant. The second was form folded copper. There was also filigree that I altered with Patina inks.
What Robin sent me
Robin sent me some natural stone beads. Since she did not label them, I am not sure what exactly they are. I guess the pink puffed beads and the brown spikes are jasper. The sea green might be chalcedony. She also sent me very pretty glass crystals, two lampwork beads, metal butterflies and two clasps. If you notice, you can see that we sent each other a blue and pink combination.
Finished jewellery – The struggle
I absolutely struggled with the beads. The crystals were the easiest to work with as I had bought similar beads in Bangkok before. Still, my design ideas flopped, for I was trying to use the beads, the focal and clasp all in one piece. I wanted to limit myself to what Robin sent without using too many beads from my stash. Eventually, I used some of the beads in my Kolam III line thinking I could atleast show them for the reveal. You can see them in the first and last necklaces of the monochromatic pulli kolam post.
But blue was still easy. The pale rose quartz tone (?) was impossible. Regular blog readers would know that I stay far away from pastels and light neutrals. In the past 10 years, I have come to embrace bright pink and accents of light pink. But the light tones here was beyond my perception. Usually, after I make a piece, I show it to my mom if I am doubtful about the structure or colour, never before. But we must have discussed these pink beads (lightest version of the Tumblr pink or millennial pink) a dozen times and none of our ideas worked. Therefore, I let it go for I had made a beautiful pair of sari ribbon earrings and a decent crystal necklace. I told myself that it would be enough.
Contest Time
Then came the whammy. Linda, our bead peeps host announced that this year there would be contests with prizes. There was best overall design, best use of colour, best out of the box design, and more. As a super competitive person I wanted to win and knew that my designs were insufficient. So at nights, after I finished all my college and personal work I would try for an hour. I would make one version, give up, and then redo the next day. I really dug into my stash for other beads and made metal components. This is the hardest that I have worked for any swap so far. Here is the latest iteration, I hope it works.
Aurora jewellery
My process of beginning with a theme/inspiration did not work for this challenge. Instead, I worked by instinct and let things organically fall into place. But once I made all the jewellery and looked at them together, I could see that they belonged with each other. They were a range with similar forms and techniques that provided synergy. To describe them, I could only think of one word – Aurora. I have been fascinated with Aurora Borealis ever since I came across the concept. The strong violets and greens tantalize and attract. But Aurora also refers to the Roman Goddess of Dawn. Her equivalents are the Greek Eos and Hindu Usha(s). Pale salmon, dark copper red, gold and green are the colours associated with them. Goddess Usha is also the deity of new beginnings which is relevant at the moment considering the New year celebrations in India, in different regions fall in April.
Crystal Flower necklace
The Crystal flower necklace has three parts to it. A copper flower pendant with a tab set glass cab and rhinestone. A Lampwork heart hangs from the pendant. The second part is the wire bail with crystals and Czech beads. The third is the looped bead necklace and the clasp. I coloured the kingfisher to add more interest. This Crystal flower necklace is available for sale; Earrings complimentary.
Aurora Borealis Necklace
When I saw the “out of the box design” category, I knew that I had to re-purpose a found object. I chose a glass drawer knob. I wrapped it with wooly wire and the bead chips and crystals sent by Robin. In this iteration, I have used big crystals in an artistic wire bail. It looks really pretty but to my dismay it is not strong. It twisted as I was taking pictures. I plan to remake it in a slightly different avatar for the Art elements monthly challenge, April. Please do come back to see what I make.
Aurora Silk Earrings
The moment I saw the spikes, I decided to make a fibre and wire wrapped earring design. I choose a length of pure silk that I picked up at a waste management center at Arani (silk valley of India). I added seed beads, Czech leaves and bicones and a handmade hook. It is the easiest thing I made for this reveal – it took all of 20 minutes from design to making. I think I need colour, texture and complex elements for something to be “easy” for me. It is so pretty that I could keep it, but if you ask nicely, I’ll sell it to you.
Goddess Earrings
Any and every bead can be made into an earring design. I knew that even the impossible Jasper could fit in beautifully in a pair of earrings. I made this copper wire frame inspired by the Cretan Snake Goddess and added the pink beads. The golden filigree beads bring out the yellow – flame painted parts of the wire and complete the design. The earrings are for sale.
Ushas necklace
One day before the reveal, it struck me that I could still make the rose quartz work. It can be used with black, navy or dark green as an accent. So I pulled dark green glass and a line Czech square crystals. I put it together with salmon pink seed beads and a coloured clasp. It looked like one of my 2010 necklaces. Bleh! I quickly dug through my UFO’s and found this beautiful flame painted, layered copper pendant. A dash of patina inks to create a horizon, a little ruffling and this pendant was born. All it needed was a wire bail to complete the necklace. I really like it now, enough to offer it for sale.
With that we come to the end of my Swap and hop 2019 reveal. Thank you for patiently reading about my challenges and how I overcame them to create my Aurora jewellery. I would love to know that you think. so please share your comments and feedback in the comments box. I would also love your inputs on how to remake the Aurora (drawer knob) necklace. Fingers crossed and hoping to win!
Cheers
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