Hello friends!
I was just working on some jewelry and while I worked I thought you might like to learn some of the things I did while re-vamping an older design.
This re-working a design came from Mom asking me to re-work the "Coffee Lover's Cup" necklace I made for her for her birthday one year. It featured some of my fanciful coffee bean beads with affections towards the fuel for my creative machine, COFFEE!
I know some people freak out about cutting up older jewelry and making it into something new or cutting it up all together. Don't be afraid, this is where your new self can make improvements. We learn new things all the time so why not put that wisdom to work!
Here is a little inspiration for ya!
Here is mom's old necklace design. It was pretty, but the beads flipped and you couldn't see all of the amazing details.
Here you can see the new improvements! I added a Wooly Wire™ wrapped hoop to the center. This hoop allowed all of the focal dangles to hang in a way that you could see them all and they laid nice and flat.
I added a Wooly Wire™ wrap around the little lentil beads in the middle of the beaded strands to hold them flat. As pretty as lentils are they don't make the greatest necklace beads because they do tend to flip. I cut off some of the fussy cluster dangles of Swarovski crystals on the left bead strand, and swapped out the ornate coffee bean and paddle heart headpins for the chain dangles to droplets. I wanted to leave that same pretty dangle droplet design on the right side, but not have to worry about the pretty details of the fancy headpins flipping to the back side. The new design lays beautifully and you can see all of the amazing details of the focal beads including the super cute and sweet coffee bean dots! HOORAY!
Mom's new necklace design inspired me to fix the "Coffee Lover's Cup" design I had listed in my shop. It's amazing all of the things you learn over time and how you can go back and give things a quick fix.
On the left you will see the older "Coffee Lover's Cup" design. On the right you can see the new and improved design. Wow what a difference! The new design and photos really are somethin' else! This ties in with a nice blog post Lorelei shared on facebook about photo taking. You can also check out the new boot camp by Love My Art Jewelry about Physical Balance and Asymmetry.
Here is a nice full shot of the new design.
Here is how it looks worn. I love the focal piece. I took my design a step further than mom's by adding a dangle hanging in the negative space of the hoop and just using a tiny bit of Wooly Wire™ at the top of the hoop instead of covering the whole piece.
While we are showing off some of the fun I had at mom's last week while I was working at the studio I found a few more photos to share :)
I had to create another run of "Bright Earth" Wing Dings for the feature in Jewelry Stringing Magazine Spring 2014 and I was working up that good mojo to get everything going. Mom pulled out her bead boxes of all of my flop beads. WOW! Can you believe ALL of those beads?!
Holy crap! Now before you freak this is a collection of flops from MANY years of lampworking. This just didn't happen over night. So you can see how picky I am about only having my very best work out there ;)
I also came across some old polymer clay I had made. Here is an unfired polymer clay santa face I made for my mom. I made him when I was about 16 ;)
Here is a gorgeous pendant mom made with one of my broken beads set in silver. Amazing huh? You never know what you will find when you are looking for supplies to fix a necklace ;)
Here is a nice snowy shot of the view from my studio window. I know all of you are tired of SNOWMAGEDDON, but here in Missouri and Kansas we didn't get very much. Luckily it has been cold enough to leave the snow on the ground and feel a little bit like winter. The last few days everything has been melting :(
Well that is it for today!
I am off to the studio again tonight to make some more beadies for my tutorials that will be out next month!
See you soon!
xo Genea
