Waxed Linen Blog Hop

Diana Ptaszynski owner of Suburban Girl Studio is hosting a waxed linen blog hop inspired by Erin Siegel who co-wrote the book Bohemian-Inspired Jewelry, with Lorelei Eurto. 

I love jewelry designed with waxed linen.  Since I had just bought some from Lorelei's Jewelry Accord shop I figured this hop was a great reason to show it off.

Waxed linen owl bracelet with art beads

The bracelet I made uses several Artisan Beads including a clay button I chose from a travelling bead box swap made by Lisa Peters (when I find out who made this I will update...if it's yours please tell me in the comments!!), my own TealwaterDesigns polymer clay owl and a gorgeous lampwork bead made by Erin Davenport, Fire Lily.  

TealwaterDesigns Owl Bracelet

I also used a blue czech flower (I am gaga over these), a chunky wooden bead I bought in a de-stash, Czech triangles and some metal leaves that I rubbed with bronze wax.

Polymer Clay Owl by TealwaterDesigns

I had fun making this bracelet.  I really love the clay button as a closure but it doesn't hang exactly as I would like so I might trade it out for something else.  

glass, czech beads, metal dangles

Thanks Diana for a fun hop!  Check out the others who participated by clicking Diana's name above.

Cory

BSBP 8 Reveal Day

It's Reveal Day!!!

This is my third year to participate in Lori Anderson's Bead Soup Blog Party.  Lori pairs 500 people up to swap some beads, a focal and a clasp are all that is actually required to send and to use but there's always more...were all bead lovers, you know!!

My partner this year is CJ Bauschka, read all about our swap.

CJ sent me a focal connector with loops for hanging.  I have been working with polymer clay a lot so I decided to make something special to go with the focal.  Some ideas were created and I tried different things out but eventually I decided to make some organic style "spikes".  I have made lots of custom colors with clay but this time I used the clay color right out of the package, it's called Peacock Pearl...I love it!  


I wanted the clay spikes to be textured so mixed up some molding clay and made a texture stamp from the focal.  Using the stamp I made, I pressed the clay drops and got a nice texture you can see here.

And here is the finished necklace.  

To fill in the loops on the focal I dangled the beautiful teal button pearls CJ sent on each side of the spikes.  These were wire wrapped with micro faceted Apetite gemstones I have been hording for several years. 

I draped green stick pearls separated by the bronze firepolished beads CJ sent to expand the design a bit.  On each end of the focal I wire wrapped a polymer clay connector matching the spikes in color and texture. 

I draped more of the teal pearl and apetite dangles between the focal and chain on each side.  The chain also included some Swarovski bicones CJ sent.

The clasp is pretty neat, you squeeze it to open, I finished it off with a few more dangles...I really love those pearls and gemmies!!

So...I had these two clay spikes left over and I really wanted to make some earrings with them.  The color went really nicely with some polymer clay textured squares made by Lennis Carrier of Windbent.  

I connected everything with some slate gray waxed linen by Jewelry Accord and used a few more of those little pearls!  

CJ also sent me a pretty stamped metal focal,

I haven't come up with a worthy design yet...but I will!  Visit me again to see what I come up with!

Now, let's go see what CJ made...

Cory