Saturday, October 18, 2014

Upcycling :: Fall Inpsired

A few months back, Hope Smitherman who works with ZnetShows ask a few of us if we'd be interested in doing some Fall designs for the new Fall issue of Creative Spark. The themes were 'inspired by Fall' or using 'upcycled materials' in our pieces.

Well, I knew immediately that the upcycled one was for me. I had in mind that I was going to use an old key that I found up in our camp in the Adirondacks. I was thinking about leather and grey pearls for a dress-up Boho look. 

Now I know a few of you (Christine in particular) who are going to laugh at this next bit of information. I saw the grey pearls and thought perfect! .... um yeah, and when they arrived they were not just large, they were huge. Well at least based on what was in my mind. Yep, didn't pay any attention to the diameter size ... because that is what I do. 

So plan B was in order. I did actually like these grey pearls, but they needed a more substantial idea that made them the star. But now I needed something else upcycled for my theme. I remembered that I had some old basting tape I scavenged from one of the drawers in my mom's desk sewing machine. I liked this option as it was more rustic looking than pulling out the expected silk ribbon. I created a chain between the pearls and hammered out a piece of silver for the focal. I was finally happy with this one.

On to the next. One of the items I got from Znet Shows was some leaf chain. I really love this stuff. It is fun, a bit whimsical and very Fall. Nice combo in my opinion. I had been holding on to some acorns for about a year. The Bead Girl (aka Anne, my apprentice) started collecting these last Fall. Every few days she'd come home and pull out a few from her pocket. We stuffed them in can as she collected them, and forgot about them. I pulled them out last August to find a fine film of mildew on them .... oh gees, these are real and I should have dried them. Note to self. So we buffed off the mold and laid them out for about 2 weeks. Worked perfectly. I made a little copper loop and a coil bead cap. Then glued it right on top of the acorn. And now I had acorn beads! My kids tease me all the time saying that I think everything is a bead. Well maybe not eeeeverything, but lots of things.

This post is feeling like a list of true confessions today. So one of the other things I ordered from Znet Shows was some jasper polished stones. And guess what happened? Yep the opposite of the pearls. When they arrived they were much smaller than I thought and I could not get my cording through them. Seriously, I need to pay attention to the bead sizes. I had in mind that I was going to use them with these pretty copper filigree charms. I decided to just make some simple earrings using a pretty champaign quartz briolettes. So I have some jasper stones I need to get to work on and think of a more delicate design with my stones. I am hopeless when it comes to bead sizes.

17 comments:

  1. I LOVE ALL THESE!!! Wow! You brought your A (corn) game today, but then you always do. The acorn story and earrings are awesome! Anne must be thrilled with them too :-) And the other earrings ~ so warm and beautiful. The flow of the pearl necklace is so feminine and lovely. And I laughed so hard at the pearl and jasper miscalculation!!! I rarely go beyond 6-8mm in my stash because that is as high a size as my brain will allow me to visualize! LMAO. You always rally and recreate and knock our socks off :-D

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  2. All are wonderful pieces. I love the use of the acorn for the earrings and that leaf chain is awesome - so perfect for fall. The filigree earrings are very classy looking and I love the combo. The pearls made a very elegant necklace. As for bead sizes, I don't think I will ever get it right - most times I order beads thinking they will be substantial and when I get them they are about the size of seed beads lol. It over my head!

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  3. All are wonderful pieces. I love the use of the acorn for the earrings and that leaf chain is awesome - so perfect for fall. The filigree earrings are very classy looking and I love the combo. The pearls made a very elegant necklace. As for bead sizes, I don't think I will ever get it right - most times I order beads thinking they will be substantial and when I get them they are about the size of seed beads lol. It over my head!

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  4. Beautiful pieces! I do love those pearls.

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  5. Beautiful pieces! I do love those pearls.

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  6. I don't know where to start? I love these all! Wow! The pearls turned out so beautiful! And, I love the earrings! Very pretty!! A+++

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  7. I am so glad that I am not the ONLY person who does not pay attention to bead sizes when purchasing! You, however, pulled it off! I love that pearl necklace - so sophisticated - and the ribbon addition is perfection! You look at everything as if it were a bead, because it CAN be! You need a bracelet to match! LOL!

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  8. Despite the hiccups in your original ideas, I think all of your pieces turned out so wonderfully! Your upcycled designs were really out of the box and perfect, and the filigree earrings are simply lovely.

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  9. I LOVE all of these!! That leaf chain is just the coolest fall thing ever and I love what you did with it and the acorns! Every piece is just fantastic. Oh, and the not checking bead sizes, you're not alone. That's all I'll say about that!

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  10. The grey pearls are gorgeous. I like my pearls big! The necklace is beautiful. Sometimes mistakes turn out great! How fun that you were able to use natural acorns as a bead. I love the look and oh that leave chain. So cool. Good learning experience. We have tons of acorns at the beginning of the driveway. They actually fall on the car as I'm turning in. Little buggers!

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  11. I love those big fat grey pearls! They look luscious :) And the earrings are beautiful, especially the one with the copper filigree!

    p.s. I often order wrong size beads...

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  12. Those gray pearls are beautiful! But my favorites are the acorns :) I love the leaf chain and the real acorns are the icing on the cake for these...how fun!

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  13. What great designs! I especially like the pearls because they are such the opposite of what one expects an upcycled design to look like.

    And I am glad that I am not the only one that ends up with beads that aren't the size I imagined. I do that all the time with beads in my stash. I will design out a piece in my mind to find out that the beads I remembered were a different size.

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  14. Why of course everything is a bead! Smiled all the way through your post.

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  15. You are certainly adaptable. :) But I think jewelry designers/makers have to be. So often things just don't look or work out the way we had envisioned and, like you, we come up with a plan B. In this case all of your plan B's are perfectly gorgeous.

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  16. Love your creations!!! Those acorns are super cute!... sorry for the delayed comment...trying to catch up on things..LOL Gobble Gobble

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  17. Just landed here after looking at your large pearl blog hop page! Great story, and I love ALL the jewelry you created! --Sharyl

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