Fresh from the desk: Playing with hemp

Concert week always wipes me out.  Period.  It might be easier if I didn't have to drive an hour to get to rehearsals and such, but I wouldn't want to stop playing and I'm used to it, but I need to forgive myself for getting nothing else done those weeks.

So, with that said, welcome back!  Yesterday I got started on rebuilding my inventory after the last sale and at the suggestion of a friend I decided to try some hemp with simple macrame knots.  I may try more complicated macrame at some point, but not today.  I wasn't sure what to do with the large green aventurine donut pendant, but a fiber necklace seemed to be just the right approach.  It's a large statement stone, but "felt" more like an informal one.  After reading a bit about the stone and its traditional ties to creativity, stress relief, luck, and healing, my intuition there was confirmed.  It's perfectly at home on a string of hemp between wooden and carved soapstone beads and looks great with a t-shirt.  I attached the donut with a lark's head knot in the center of the two strands and tied an overhand knot between each bead to keep it all secure.  I did the same (minus the lark's head knot) with the little turtle that I found at our Earth Goods store in town.  We've been going to that store more and more lately and I enjoy supporting local businesses the only way I can.  On each side of the turtle is a bone disc bead, silver spacers, and round pink and black leopard jasper beads.  Because of the size of the holes, one hemp strand has to go around each of the jasper and bone beads, but I like the effect.  Both necklaces are about 24" long and can be tied to any length the wearer desires.  Fiber is a great way to expand my metal-free capabilities so I should experiment with it more.  I bet my cousin would like the little turtle...hehe!

I also made an anklet for myself just for fun.  I haven't had an anklet in a while so since I needed to use up a shorter length of hemp I figured I may as well do it for myself.  I normally don't make jewelry for myself; I tend to keep the "duds" and try to sell the good designs so I have very little of my own to wear.  Maybe I should get over that, I might be my own best billboard so maybe I should try.  This isn't a great picture, it's too dark and not staged at all and you can see the beads better in the other picture, but I like it. :)  I used 4 wood beads and 3 soapstone beads, the center one being a dark-ish pink and the sides being a pale green.  They came in the same package so they're carved the same but there's a good amount of color variation between beads so it keeps things interesting. 

I might be able to get one more necklace out of that package of hemp, but I'm not sure what else to do with it.  Most of my other beads that would work on it are too small to fit on it, even if I improvise like I did with the jasper.  I do have another wooden donut I could use.  Maybe I should work on something else for a bit, or maybe take it easy for the rest of the evening.  I'm getting a little sleepy.

According to Niche magazine online, the 2011 color of the year is honeysuckle.  It's not a color I would wear, ever, because it would simply look horrid on me in all kinds of ways, but if I were to try to use it what should I do with it?  What kind of beads should I look for?

*Edit 5/11/11* The aventurine hemp necklace is now available on Etsy for $15!

Fresh from the desk: Wooden flower necklace

This design is a bit of an experiment. But, really, aren't they all? I came across the large wooden flower in a clearance bin and just had to have it. It came with two matching leaves, which I'll probably make into a pair of matching earrings.

The main issue I had with this was the fact that the flower has no drilled hole like most pendants do, and I wasn't about to try and drill one myself. It's light and fairly thin and I probably could have, but I wanted the challenge of trying to make it work without drilling. I started with a daisy-chain stitch with very pale pink bugle beads with a lovely pearly finish. They're so pale I've had trouble using them before without them ending up looking white. I framed them with opaque bone-white seed beads which helps differentiate the colors a little bit, but subtly. The flower is enough of a statement that it didn't need wilder colors than that. I had some wooden beads on hand I used for the metal-free loop-ball clasp and above the flower on each side. The tassels have copper-colored Swarovski crystal pearls to add one more texture while staying within the color scheme. Noticing a trend with my texture obsession? lol.

The first idea I had for this wasn't quite like it ended up. The package had 2 flowers in it so I may try that later with blues instead and see how it turns out. The flower ended up being more of a stabilizing structural element than it looked at first glance in the package, but really, I'm okay with that. It gave me a chance to work with a different approach to a Y-shape necklace and to make another subtle statement piece. Is that a contradiction in terms? A subtle statement? Maybe not. I see a lot of people wearing large brightly-colored necklace and wonder what they're thinking...some of those things are sooooo ugly. There's nothing wrong with making a statement with some class, right? Right.