I thought I would try something a bit different with the beads today. I popped them at the bottom of the necklace, and added some lovely green recycled glass beads around them. I love how the purple beads sit at the bottom of a necklace, just makes it a little bit more interesting. I would probably add more beads to this necklace at some stage. I think it needs a bit more purple mixed in and around the green beads.
Today I had some green wine bottle beads in my collection, so I thought I would see how the purple wine bottle beads looked with them in between….I quite liked how this turned out!
I loved working on this customer request for a special necklace featuring beads made from a beer bottle, with gold leaf! We talked through a few variations for making this necklace, and ended up settling on this very elegant style.
It’s funny how one idea can spark more ideas. I started the heart challenge thinking I would just try making a heart bead like this one.
But as soon as I made that bead, I thought, well, what if I ran the holes vertically, rather than horizontally? That sparked this bead.
Then I thought, maybe I could add some colour by melting some frit into the bead. That idea made this bead.
It took a little while, but I did get back on the torch to make this bead, featuring frit, and a horizontal hole, it looks so sweet!
Today I thought I would see what the heart-shaped pendants look like with a touch of frit to add some colour to the bead. I quite like how this turned out. The silver wire gives it a little bit of extra sparkle.
I did some calculations the other day and it turns out that Day 243 of a 365 day project is about two-thirds of the way through the project (or 66.65% if you prefer decimals). That means today I am over 2/3 of the way through this project!
I spent some time the other day writing about my journey with this project, so I won’t go over it all again today. But today I wanted to mention what I like about an idea.
Everything starts with an idea.
It might be a question that needs to be answered, like “what if I add frit to that bottle, what will happen then?” or “what if I tried x.”
It might be a shape. Like today I have made another heart-shaped bead, but I made the hole run vertically today, instead of horizontally, like yesterday, and I have made an entirely new piece.
It might start with a colour. That colour might be the glass. I might wonder what beads will look beautiful with a particular colour of glass.
Everything starts with an idea. Sometimes, it is hard to find the time to come up with an idea, so I might take an old idea and tweak it a little bit. Sometimes, one idea can spark many new pieces.
What I think is helpful…is taking the time every day to be creative. To always have that on my list of things to do each day is a really lovely push to try something new every day. To see where my ideas take me, and to see what happens when I feel really low on ideas!
Today’s piece is a heart-shaped bead, inspired by my conversations on Saturday about heart-shaped beads!
I was thinking that this style of pendant would make a lovely gift for someone, if it was made from a sentimental piece of glass. There was a lot of discussions on Saturday about broken glass objects that had too much sentimental value to throw away. Why not get some beads like these little heart shaped beads made with the object, that way you’ll be able to wear them forever!
(Just an idea)!
I have been making all sorts of jewellery with these flower beads lately. Some necklaces with five beads on them, some earrings. Today I thought I would see how a little pendant necklace would look. Pretty sweet! I am thinking about making a bunch of these in different colours, I think they’ll make lovely little gifts.
Today I had a bit of extra time to sit with my beads and try to work on something “new”. I wasn’t sure what it was going to be. A new pair of earrings? A new bracelet? Maybe a new necklace?
I had some brown and some blue beads already sitting on my desk, so I started putting them together. Then I found some more blue beads, and added some more brown beads, and what started out as a couple of beads sitting next to each other that I kind of liked the look of, soon turned into a really pretty necklace.
I really like how beautifully all of these different colours and shapes work together.
There are beads from all sorts of recycled glass objects here: Banrock Station Wine bottle, Hendricks Gin bottle, Bombay Sapphire Gin bottle, Skyy Vodka bottle, Coopers Ale bottle!
I’m not entirely sure where today’s necklace is going, it was just an idea that popped in to my head and I thought I would give it a go! Some days it is so tempting to not make something, to put this daily making project on hold and work on other things on my to do list. But it’s days like today, when my to-do list is getting longer by the minute, and I don’t really know where I am going to find the time to get everything done as it is, they are the days when it makes the most sense to sit down and make something. I knew this daily challenge was going to be difficult at times, and I know I have missed the window for photographing objects at times (it has been dark when I finally got around to making something). But every day I spend making something, taking the time to sit with my beads and my thoughts and make something…I just never know what I am going to get, and I’m always glad I made the time!
I made this sweet pendant for a gin lover! She liked the Hendricks and Bombay Sapphire Gin bottle beads, so we used both of them in this pendant with a Fever-Tree tonic water bottle bead in between the two.
