Show Us Your Pearls In Action!!!

[jeg]

Battah, I absolutely love your flower creations!!! So pretty...

BWeaves, what an unusual fringe, made of beetle wings, and I’m glad you are enjoying your Vivid Linen!

86C, the colors of your T’s look fabulous, and of course, the Fiji’s.

cmd2014, it’s understandable since we rarely see the pearls from Fiji. They are much like Tahitians in the range of shapes and sizes, but the colors are so different. I have seen some really spectacular colors of bright blues and almost a lime green in rounds. They were saved for special pieces like pendants or earrings.

 

[Bcm21mk]

86C - your pearls are simply magnificent. I especially love your multicolor Tahitians. You have quite a beautiful collection of all different pearls.

 

[86Corvettegirl]

Thank you so much for the kind words, jeg & Bcm21mk! I have always loved & felt a real connection to pearls, but there has always been a special place in my heart for Tahitians. I love the variety of them, especially the colors. Weird as it sounds, I feel complete when I wear pearls.

 

[Charlotta]

I made a tassel, I have been wanting to do one for ages, but didn't have the findings for one... Mostly because I didn't know the proper name for it. Then I found this cute bird and cage on etsy, its plated but seems well made. I have ordered some in silver as well, not as pretty, if this looses its color. I first tried to make it with tiny freshwater pearls I bought from Pearllunar, that didn't work because of the drillholes. To small even for Softflex in very fine, at least twice. So I sacrificed a vintage akoya strand that I rescued cheaply from an antique store broken, the pearls are great though.




They are perfectly round, the akoyas that is, sometimes the camera distortes them. The freshwater strand is not round....but the luster is incredible. This is the strand I tried to use first, so had to restring it with softflex.

 

[JerseyPearl]

I posted my thoughts on the tassel challenge thread...but I have to comment here as well...this is FABULOUS! And a great repurposing of an old strand. The bird cage is adorable, whimsical, and perfect!

 

[Charlotta]

Thank you JerseyPearl. I don't think that I ever used that strand. it was pretty, but usually I were my double or triple akoyas or my 8mm akoya strand, when I want to were akoyas. These smallish graduated strands has sadly been neglected. I made my mother a tincup, bracelet and earrings with another one.

 

[2thdktr]

Charlotta, what a beautiful tassel you have made! The akoyas are beautiful and the birdcage makes it unique! Very creative and beautiful.

 

[Charlotta]

Thank you 2thdktr.

 

[Pearl Dreams]

That is just adorable!
I've never made a tassel but now am thinking about it.

 

[86Corvettegirl]

I made a tassel, I have been wanting to do one for ages, but didn't have the findings for one... Mostly because I didn't know the proper name for it. Then I found this cute bird and cage on etsy, its plated but seems well made. I have ordered some in silver as well, not as pretty, if this looses its color. I first tried to make it with tiny freshwater pearls I bought from Pearllunar, that didn't work because of the drillholes. To small even for Softflex in very fine, at least twice. So I sacrificed a vintage akoya strand that I rescued cheaply from an antique store broken, the pearls are great though.

They are perfectly round, the akoyas that is, sometimes the camera distortes them. The freshwater strand is not round....but the luster is incredible. This is the strand I tried to use first, so had to restring it with softflex.

This is beautiful, Charlotta! I just love the birdcage. The Akoya & FW go so well together.

 

[Parrot Lady]

Charlotta, I love your tassel! The bird and cage motif is right up my alley -- even my personal stationery has an engraved bird and cage on it. May I ask where you got the findings?

 

[Charlotta]

Parrot Lady, I bought it by Beadsfeeder on etsy. They had birdcages without birds as well.
Thank you Pearldreams and 86Corvettegirl, you are right. Akoyas goes well with freshwaters, and most other pearls. Didn't match any of my other akoya earrings though, so I used some tahitian studs instead.

 

[BWeaves]

That tassel is adorable. The whole necklace is great. Love the bird on top, too.

 

[Katbran]

That is an adorable birdcage and what a fabulous job you did on that tassel !!! Well done !!

 

[GemGeek]

The tassel is perfect, but the bird and cage take it to the top! Gorgeous whimsy.

 

[la_corsetiere]

Beetle wings...I've never heard of such but they sound really cool. I would love to see more pics of items using beetle wings.

Not pearl related, but since Battah mentioned it, here is my dress... a replica I made based on a theatrical costume worn by Ellen Terry as Lady MacBeth, immortalized by John Singer Sargent (painting and original gown shown in lower photo).

And Battah, those wings are pretty brittle. If you are thinking of bezel-setting one, I recommend you use resin or a sculpting medium underneath the concave wing to support it and protect from breakage. You can coat the wing on top with resin or laquer to further strengthen it, but do tests first to make sure it doesn't diminish the iridescence.

 

[la_corsetiere]

And Charlotta, I love your tassel! I've been meaning to put together some pearl tassels for a while; thanks for the new inspiration!!!

 

[la_corsetiere]

And since we are talking beetle wings, here's a photo of a necklace I made many years ago with a bezel-set whole beetle!

 

[BWeaves]

Whoa!!! la_corsetiere That dress! That necklace!!! Wowza! I love it all. Your dress is spectacular, and then you tie it in to a pearl necklace!!!

I've seen that painting of Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth before, but I had NO idea it was like this. Wow!

From Wiki:

Ellen Terry's spectacular gown was designed by Alice Comyns Carr (1850–1927) and made in crochet by Ada Nettleship, using a soft green wool and blue tinsel yarn from Bohemia to create an effect similar to chain mail. It was embroidered with gold and decorated with 1,000 iridescent wings from the green jewel beetle, Sternocera aequisignata. The dress has a narrow border of Celtic designs worked out in red and white stones, is hemmed on all the edges, and girt with a gold belt. The design was inspired by a dress worn by Lady Randolph Churchill that was also trimmed with green beetle wings. (I've seen black and white photos of Lady Churchill's dress, which of course fall flat in black and white.) It (Terry's dress) was designed to "look as much like soft chain armour... and yet have something that would give the appearance of the scales of a serpent".

Terry wrote to her daughter Edith Craig, "I wish you could see my dresses. They are superb, especially the first one: green beetles on it, and such a cloak! The photographs give no idea of it at all, for it is in colour that it is so splendid. The dark red hair is fine. The whole thing is Rossetti—rich stained-glass effects." Oscar Wilde quipped that "Lady Macbeth seems to be an economical housekeeper and evidently patronises local industries for her husband's clothes and servant's liveries, but she takes care to do all her own shopping in Byzantium." (Oh, Oscar, you wit, you.)

The play was very successful, running for more than six months to packed houses. The costume was reused on many later tours, crossing the Atlantic to visit North America at least twice.

The dress was restored in a two-year project that began in 2009 when £50,000 had been raised to pay for the work. In 2011, after 1,300 hours of conservation work and a cost of £110,000, it was placed on display in Ellen Terry's home, Smallhythe Place, near Tenterden in Kent. It has been described by the National Trust as "one of the most iconic and celebrated theatre costumes of the time".

 

[Charlotta]

Thank you Gemgeek, Katbran, Bweaves and la_corsetiere. Also that beetle dress is beautiful.