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Fulgorine

~ My adventures with polymer clay

Fulgorine

Tag Archives: bead salad

Bead Side Salad Reveal

03 Sat Mar 2012

Posted by fulgorine in My work

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

52 earrings, bead salad, beads, earring, lampwork beads, necklace, polymer clay, polymer clay beads, wire

I set myself a challenge to use beads my mom had given me and post my results on 3 March. I wanted to achieve two things: firstly to make something with a definite focal, and secondly to have an interesting clasp. This is what I started out with:

Mixed beads

I made a pair of simple earrings by way of a warm up and as part of my 52 earrings challenge.

Beaded Earrings

glass bead focal

Next I decided to focus on the focal. I stacked the two lampwork beads together, and gave them a belt of silver glass beads around the middle. I had a vague idea of making it into a sort of tassel pendant, but it lacked punch. So I framed this with the two large oval beads with the idea of making it into a bracelet. I used wire to make a rigid curved oval and had a chain running from each corner. Now while I loved the focal this proved hopeless as a bracelet – the weight of the glass beads meant it instantly slipped to the underside of the wrist when worn.

Beaded bracelet focal

So off with the chain, and because I am moving house* I discovered an old (broken) hair clip while unpacking. The broken hair clip was a kind of filigree nest to go over a bun with a stick to hold it in place. Some of the filigree had broken off from the nest but the stick was still fine and matched beautifully – magically my failed bracelet focal was the perfect hair clip.

Beaded hairclip

After this success I knew I wanted to make a pair of matching earrings. While making the hair clip I hadn’t had a clear picture of what I wanted to do and it had almost seemed to make itself, the opposite was true for the earrings. I knew exactly what I wanted (i.e. Art Deco Chinoiserie Lace) and it took many iterations of making, undoing and remaking to get something like what I had in mind. (There were many variations that looked like dreadlocks or spider’s legs!) I ended up making polymer clay beads to match the black oval ones in the hair clip and actually only ended up using the red beads from the original bead salad.

Black and silver beaded earrings

My next challenge was to make a pretty clasp. It would have been easier to make a toggle using polymer clay, but I was determined to use some of the salad beads. Again I struggled with this for a while until the coloured wire I had ordered arrived. Suddenly by using pink wire the green bead and wire toggle was pretty, the lampwork beads with pink flowers suddenly matched and their black cores made a link to the lava beads.

Necklace with lava beads and pink wire

And my baby daughter thinks the toggle is delicious!

Pink wire and bead toggle


*Moving house is also why these pictures are poor – I haven’t got my usual photography setup available (it’s 300 miles away).

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I’m not dead

23 Thu Feb 2012

Posted by fulgorine in My work

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

bead, bead salad, moving house, pendant

So, I’m not dead – just moving house so there is no Internet. This is VIRTUALLY the same thing, only not as permanent. Coming soon (3 March) – the bead salad pendant that became a bracelet that became something else.

Bead Side Salad

27 Fri Jan 2012

Posted by fulgorine in Inspiration, My work

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

bead, bead salad, bead side salad, bead soup, Bead Soup Blog Party

After not being lucky enough to be chosen to participate in the bead soup blog party, I decided I would do my own “bead side salad”. I already had some ideas about what I would be sending out and I had intended to use these myself to be completed by the bead soup date. Amazingly when I visited my mom she gave me a bumper lot of mixed beads and broken necklaces. Voilà! Instant Bead Salad!

Mixed beads

So far my challenge is the opposite of the Bead Soup – there’s no obvious focal (the cabs are currently brooches) and no interesting clasp – but the whole point is that it’s a CHALLENGE. Come back on 3 March to see how I get on…

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Fulgor, n.
Dazzling brightness; splendor.
Fulgorine, n.
One who creates that which dazzles.

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