A Beader Special

[Sueki]

Love the last necklace, Boo.
So, so pretty.

 

[waimeamomi]

Did you use small beads next to the pearl, or??

Are they crimp covers? That's what I use to cover part of the wire-wrapping and give it a more finished look. These are gorgeous, Boo. I love the ipu model!

 

[boo]

Nope, just 2mm s/s beads, but I do like the idea of using crimp covers. The ipu was my sad little attempt to take a better picture. I used the ipu as a stationary model and I used a tripod, and it still doesn't look half as nice as the others photos posted here The ipu does make an ideal display, though - such a pretty curve at the neck! (An ipu is a bottle gourd, in this case used as a percussive hula implement . The one I used in the picture was a made by a dear friend of mine and has a place of honor in my study, so it just sort of jumped out at me as I was scouting around for something to use to display the pearls)

 

[dkan 168]

Did you use small beads next to the pearl, or??

I am interested to know if you use small beads or something else like crimp covers as mentioned by waimeamomi.

Either way, it will mean more 14K WG findings for me, and a pair of crimping pliers for the latter

Beading is definitely an expensive hobby!!!

DK

 

[pattye]

Was wondering who had the swan like neck and great suntan!

 

[boo]

Pattye, you are too funny!

DK, I would love to use 14k WG, but my beading really does seem to be limited to sterling at the moment. I can barely stay on top of the findings as it is! I pretty much wiped out my stock with the items I gave away for Christmas. I did just recently pick up some fabric pouches lined with antitarnish fabric on Etsy - I am hoping they will help keep the necklaces shiny. It has a nice soft finish, so I don't think it would damage the pearls (at least I am praying it doesn't!)

 

[dkan 168]

boo,

I gave all my SS and GF findings to my mum who lives in Vancouver when I stopped beading a while back, and it will be too much hassle to ask her to send them back to me.

Since I am only making things for myself at the mo, I decided to plunge for WG findings to avoid silver going black as seen in my older pieces.

I have since discovered some WG findings are not Rhodium plated and not as bright as those that are

It will cost me an arm and a leg to get small star dust beads and plain round beads in WG for the beading projects waiting in the wings. They will be my birthday present to myself in Feb 09

DK

 

[dkan 168]

My bag of rounds has arrived, woo hoo! And they are lovely!

And I discovered lavender pearls suit me

Picked up a biggish white and a lavender to go with a black spare Tahitian pearl I have to make a 3-pearl pendant, once I have purchased some small WG star dust beads. I may try it with some SS star dust beads I have at present to see how it looks

Don't quite know what to do with the peachy coloured pearls yet, probably end up as pressies for my girlfriends!

Thanks Jeremy, they are great!

DK

 

[waimeamomi]

DK, Have you tried the Argentium silver? - made of a different alloy so as not to tarnish. I find the white gold that I got to be not as bright as well. Have fun with those poils - think of Mary Poppins.

 

[waimeamomi]

Here is my second creation (after the earrings). This is the small pearls with a mix of different gemstones from my work station. Sort of left-overs, or as we would say here, a poi necklace. This was almost totally random, in that I did not count or create a pattern (so hard for this obsessive girl), but did look at the over all color mix. I'm having trouble focusing the camera and the weather is really grey here, so not brilliant pics.

Stones- tourmaline, apatite, peridot, moonstone, citrine, sapphire (blue and yellow), iolite, tanzanite, garnet, aquamarine, and there might be a ruby in there.

 

[Heidi]

Sheryl - Your deliberately random colors are really beautiful in this necklace. I think they showcase the pearls really nicely.

 

[boo]

That necklace looks so bright and spring-y to me. Like daffodils and crocuses and blue skies and new green leaves...

 

[dkan 168]

DK, Have you tried the Argentium silver? - made of a different alloy so as not to tarnish. I find the white gold that I got to be not as bright as well. Have fun with those poils - think of Mary Poppins.

I have heard about this alloy, and am tempted after trying to loop a few multi-coloured pearls with SS star dust beads in between - I forgot gold is a lot harder than silver, and my poor fingers hurt

At least one necklace is more or less done, just need to add the chain and clasp.

Also made a 3-colour pearl pendant, not happy with it, as it looks wrong without a bail

BTW, I take my hat off to anyone who sort and colour match pearls - it is frigging difficult!

DK

P.S. Photos to follow later

 

[pearlescence]

By contrast I love sorting pearls..I might not want to do it all day and every day, but I enjoyed immensely sorting out the natural colour pearls from their temp strands into necklaces, bracelets and earrings. I'm getting loads more in, so more playing!
I found it vital to do the arranging in early afternoon in natural light only - that was when the pearl colours were most true.

 

[waimeamomi]

Yes, I sit where there is sun light from a window (if it would stop raining here), otherwise I have to re-sort when I do get them in the light.

 

[pearlescence]

I find that just a bit overcast is best - the light is fairly bright but diffused and not glaring

 

[imanit]

Yesterday I finally got my bag of rounds.
At the first glance, I was not too thrilled by what I saw, but many times I had this reaction when I got pearls that I waited for anxiously and always, some time later the beauty of new arrivals came through....
My bag of Jeremy's "leftovers" showed it's secrets in the evening, when I started sorting them. Even with artificial light, they revealed some amazing beauties there. There is this one (only one), about 9.5mm pearl that is the palest luminous yellow - it's not "cream-white", it's more yellowish... I imagined whole strand of those...mmmmmm.....
Every aspiring "pearl connoisseur" should get a bag of pearls like this to see and admire how many different colors, shades, overtones there is in freshwater pearls. When you buy hanks of more-or-less matched pearls you don't really see the variety. In a "potpourri" like this bag, you can appreciate those wonders of nature..
I don't know yet what I will do with those pearls. For some time I'll keep playing with them and maybe idea will pop-up...

 

[Nerida]

I thought I might add a photo of some bowls of rounds that I played with in Zhuji in September.




No, noone wins the pearls if they guess how many are in the basket..

 

[Hanaleimom]

Oh, Nerida, lucky you. I would love to dig my hands into those bowls.

 

[Nerida]

And Wendy, if you like matching pearls, maybe you could get a job here with these women..



so much for a nice natural light, hey?

These women were working with baskets of pearls like the ones in the photo in the previous post and sorting into strands.