March 1: Creative Clasps

1 March 2018

Let me count the things I love when creating necklaces: creative clasps, asymmetry, chunky beads, bold statements, anything that puts a smile on one’s face.

I have a saying in my studio: “Life is too short to make boring necklaces”. I’d rather have fun mixing up colors, styles, throwing in some whimsy, and presenting the resulting creation to the public.

I’ll admit I was pleased with this necklace. The beads are rock crystal and faceted (more unusual than smooth); the necklace is asymmetrical, and possesses a creative clasp I bought last year and have been eager to use! It hit a lot of the things I love!

Rock crystal is also called natural crystal. Natural crystal is a quartz without other minerals present. It was formed when molten rock magma cooled beneath the Earth’s surface and crystals formed. Over time, other minerals infiltrate the natural crystal, add color and the results include well-known semi-precious stones like: amethyst; citrine; rose quartz; smoky topaz, to name a few.

Crystals are favored by healers. Rock crystal is associated with balance, clarity and energy.

Information for this necklace follows:
Title: “Music of the Spheres”
Length: 21”
Featured beads: Faceted rock crystals with brushed sterling silver circles. Sterling silver hook clasp by
Priscilla. Matching earrings included.
Price: $119.

Drawer 52: Recycled Found Metal

27 December 2017

8 Comments

“Urban Jabber”

My Chinese Apothecary Chest: in 1994, it arrived via container to California from Hong Kong, where I discovered beading during my husband’s ex-pat assignment. Serves as the repository for my beads. Handcrafted. It has 52 Drawers, mostly sorted by color.

2017 Challenge: Create a Necklace a Week, using only the Beads from one Drawer at a time. Voila! 52 Necklaces!

‘Week 52/Drawer 52: December 28, 2017: “Urban Jabber”

We have arrived at the last Wednesday of 2017 and at the bottom right last drawer. Drawer 52 actually contains faux amber, but the necklace would look a lot like Drawer 34 (August 23), so I have chosen to conclude my year’s work with panache. I will tie together an amazing centerpiece with a quote from the artist which will, in turn, tie together my thoughts on rejuvenating my work in my 75^th year.

Rochelle Ford, Palo Alto, CA, is the artisan who made the centerpiece. At age 58, she taught herself to weld, got a permit to salvage metal at the town dump, and turned her home into a gallery of her work. I took some classes from her in the late 90’s to learn how to solder (I flunked, just like those drawing classes I took. So if you can’t do it, buy it from one who can!)

I commissioned some recycled metal centerpieces from Rochelle and this is the last one in my inventory.

Life marched on. I’m in Boston; Rochelle has turned 81 and is still welding. Imagine my surprise three years ago when some ageing quotes popped up in my email, just like the cute dog and cat emails, and my friend Rochelle had a fabulous quote! I copied it and put it on my studio bulletin board. Here it is:

“ Every morning when I wake up, I say, ‘I’ll never be as young as I am today. Today is the youngest day of the rest of my life. Get up and do something fun!’”

Her piece is 5.75” by 4.75”. There are many crazy bits of metal welded together and painted. Like all my centerpieces, they dictate the colors of the beads: here olive and copper were the obvious choices. They had to be chunky, so there is lampwork glass, Indian glass, filigreed copper, a strand of small round flat vintage Czech glass, and it really demanded some hefty copper chain. It weighs just 10 oz, not a heavy necklace.

The beaded section is 9.5” long on each side and features a large copper clasp. Matching olive earrings don’t match with each other: one is round and the other an organic pear shape. As Rochelle recommends, have fun! $139.

Rochelle’s story is too good not to tell, so I will do a week 53 wrap-up to tie together my thoughts on rejuvenating my work and what I learned over the past 52 weeks. We’ll pretend there are 53 weeks in 2017.

You will love her website www.metalsculptor.com, or google her name Rochelle Ford.

Drawer 44: Turquoise

1 November 2017

5 Comments

Week 44/Drawer 44: November 1, 2017: “109^th Mala”

I remember buying this large Tibetan piece in the early 2000’s in New York City in a shop well-known for ethnic beads and objets. The price tag still stuck on the bottom said $150, but my note on the plastic bag said I paid $140…not my best negotiation! It was sold as an ear ornament from Gujarat. I accepted it as an ear ornament but when I looked up Gujarat, and learned it is in India, I doubted that was the true provenance.

This was clearly Tibetan. I’ve been there twice and have made necklaces with many pieces of their inlaid silver or brass with turquoise or coral: I know their style. So, I conducted a lengthy internet search and, after scrolling many pages on www.indianamulets.com.au, I found it! It was the only such piece out of a couple hundred images! To improve my negotiating image with my dear readers, allow me to inform you it was priced at $375, hanging on a silver chain.

On the keft, I present you the 109^th mala (prayer bead).

Buddhists and Hindus pray with 108 beads knotted and strung. One prays by meditating, touching a bead and saying this mantra,

“All is well.

Everything is perfect.

Wisdom and compassion uphold every atom!”

then on to the next bead, until one reaches the 109^th bead; called a stupa bead. A stupa is a Buddhist prayer hall and its steeple is in the exact shape of the centerpiece of this necklace. The 109^th serves a very special purpose: a pause. The pause offers silence, a moment to offer gratitude, and a practical way to keep count of their mantras and chants. Faithful Buddhists don’t just go around the mala once; they can meditate for hours.

I was interested to learn the significance of 108 beads: it is a mathematical (12 Zodiac houses x 9 planets) metaphor for the omnipresent universe which is also our most innate self. I would need to meditate for a long time to understand that metaphor!

The necklace features turquoise cylinders from Drawer 44 separated by sterling silver beads with a silver clasp. I made a nautilus-style sterling silver loop to attach the mala to the necklace.

The centerpiece Tibetan stupa bead is mixed metals—silver and brass—rising in a pattern to the pinnacle which is modeled after a Lotus flower with six petals inset with turquoise and coral cabochons. This 109^th mala was owned by someone who had the means to commission some very nice design and workmanship. It is strong, sturdy and magnificent! It is not heavy since it is hollow.

The necklace measures 25” and the mala is 5” long. Wear your silver earrings with it. $199.

Trunk Show

5 December 2013

2 Comments

Hail West Coasters!

Hope to see you for my THIRD ANNUAL TRUNK SHOW…

Oh, Oh, OK!

7 August 2013

2 Comments

The necklace is named “DIALOGUE” and is 21.5” long. The widest bead is 1.25” and the toggle is 2.75” long. I recommend chunky silver earrings with this necklace. It is very chunky, but not very heavy due to the lightness of wood beads. It is $139 which includes shipping and insurance.

For years, I have been designing a style of necklace I call “One of a Kind” or, in my shorthand, OOK. They originated from chunky orphan beads, leftover onesie or twosie charmers, tossed into a box. One day a necklace designed itself in that box and my first OOK emerged. They feature as many different beads as possible: it’s a fun challenge not to repeat beads, even though I do allow myself to for superior design.

I’ve probably made 30 of them since I declared myself a bead jewelry artist in 1995. But it took gallerist, Gail Sewell reminding me how much she likes them, to get me habitually thinking about OOKs. Now she gets first dibs for her Chambers Gallery in Cambria, CA!

This necklace’s genesis was five large wood beads (from the top: an ebony and resin assemblage; a bird’s eye in soft wood; coco as in coconut; a finely carved snake which in Chinese mythology signifies cleverness; then another coco). A notable bead is the obelisk-shaped carved soapstone with images of a stylized fish. Balancing the wood are some opaque rock crystal beads with subtle brown markings.

This OOK demanded a striking clasp with a solid silver ethnic circle. The wood toggle, formerly known as a button, I found with my knitter friends, Tess and Dottie, on a fun driving trip to Webs, the biggest yarn shop ever.

REGARDING MY MURANO BEADS, stay tuned. I’ve designed only one necklace, a fairly “safe” medallion, pictured below, because the big unique beauties I selected in Italy are currently intimidating me. They have to be fabulous, and they will be, but they need to take their time.

Murano millefiori disc bezeled in sterling silver, with Baltic amber chips and sterling silver clasp; 18.5” to 19” adjustable length. Priced at $99 including shipping and insurance.

How Do I Love Copper?

29 May 2013

Priscilla Beadle

chunky bead jewelery

Category Archives: metal