Oops, I Did It Again.

When I posted about my gorgeous seed bead ring that I made, I know I said: "Not sure I'll be doing seed bead jewelry too much." Then I said something about needing a lot of patience.... As it turns out, I was so wrong and I have a lot more patience than the large amount of patience I thought I had. 

You know that photo collage I've been working on?  You know that painted cabinet I was going to paint over in areas?  And all of the other projects you don't even know about yet, they have all taken a back seat to seed bead jewelry making.  Who would have ever believed it! 

With that, I am so excited about the rings (yes, plural) that I've been making.  I finished two of them and have six more in the various stages.  Oops!

I love, love, love labradorite!  I have posted about that before.  Labradorite is such a special stone, the flashes of glowing blues and greens and yellows too.  Recently, I was perusing the jewelry case at TJ Maxx and happened upon this ring on clearance.  A large faceted labradorite stone surrounded by metal.  I didn't love the light gold metal on the ring, but I really loved the stone.  I've been looking for a labradorite ring to call my own but hadn't found the right one.  As I was deciding if I should get the ring that was so cheap, I got The Idea! So here's kind of how it went - I bought it.  Took it home.  Took out my jewelry saw.  Sawed open the metal.  Got the stone out.  One little piece of the stone was cracked and I knew it was being held in place by the setting. Oh well.  I still love the stone.  Then I got to work on my second seed bead ring design.  Of course, when I was buying supplies at the bead store in Nanuet, NY called Beads Mosaic, I found a bunch of other things to make.  I'm talking about my third ring, fourth ring, fifth ring....More on that later.  Okay, we really need some pictures.

Labradorite Stone

 

The stone glued to the stabilizer which is glued to the metal adjustable ring. Read my post A Whole New World for more details on how to assemble.

 

 

The ring!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Look at that flash of color!  Art is messy and you can see a little preview of my other rings in the background.  I think I'll stop here and leave the third ring for my next post.

 

 

Thanks for stopping by and Stay tuned for more creativity!

My World Of Wearable Jewels

In my world of wearable jewels, there are so many beautiful gemstones in pretty much any color you could possibly imagine. Let me introduce you to "The Ilana" signature bracelet.  My signature bracelet is usually made with six strands of beads and a fairly large center clasp.  The three most important elements of making this bracelet work are: the center clasp, the mix of the bead shapes and the draping of the strands. I can't give away all my secrets but that sums up what makes this bracelet so beautiful, classic and my go to favorite.  I switch is up with different clasps but my all time favorite is the square longevity clasp.  If I had my druthers, I would design my own clasps because I can't seem to find many other ones that are as big and work as well.  Though I am always looking.  I found these really pretty art deco looking clasps (see below) and they are all sparkly. I also found a pretty marcasite clasp that looks great with the clear quartz beads.

In case you are wondering what gemstones you are looking at, from left to right:  On the bracelet bar - green aventurine, garnet, smoky quartz, labradorite, iolite, carnelian/orange jade.  Pooled underneath the bracelet bar - tanzanite colored crystal, amethyst, white quartz, coral, tanzanite, teal seed beads, peacock colored mixed beads, blue labradorite.

Here is a closer look of the aventurine and garnet.

 The art deco sparkly clasp - isn't it pretty?

Here is the amethyst 4 strand with a different clasp and different design.  

While I love my signature bracelet, I also make other designs.  I use toggle clasps, bar clasps and other kinds too.  Just think of all the possibilities with all of the gemstones out there and all the colors of the rainbow. 

 
Believe it or not, even with all of those, there are still some that I want to make.  For instance, I have a smoky quartz bracelet with lighter stones, but I really want to make one out of darker beads.  I made one of those darker ones for a customer and almost couldn't part with it.  That was back in the day when I sold beaded jewelry.  I also really want to make one out of peridot.  The most recent one I made is the orange one in the first picture, made of carnelian and orange jade.  I usually don't mix the stones, but these just worked so well together.  So that's all for now on the jewelry front. I will have to showcase some of my necklaces soon.

One more thing, I absolutely love labradorite.  Labradorite is a grey stone that has flashes of blue and green and even some yellow, depending on the stone.  It is known as labradorescence and gemstone varieties of labradorite exhibiting a high degree of labradorescence are called spectrolite.  It's really hard to see in photos but here is my signature labradorite bracelet.  Really, the picture does it no justice. 

Thanks for stopping by and Stay tuned for more creativity!