One of a Kind Jewelry for One of a Kind You: day of the dead

Showing posts with label day of the dead. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 25, 2016

Day of the Dead Blog Hop

Love my Art Jewelry is having a Dia de los Muertos blog hop! Sugar Skulls everywhere!!!!!

Now, if you follow me at all, you know I love the beauty of a sugar skull.

Recently I have been doing some lino-cut prints, and even had to do a sugar skull for that!

Anyhow, I had also made sugar skull beads in polymer and in bronze clay. So I wasn't sure which I wanted to do for this blog hop. I had originally thought about taking my bronze one and setting it into silver with silver work, maybe even some gemstones bezeled around it.....................but it had a mind of it's own, and I have really been into wire chokers with charms lately, so that is what was born.

Once I decided to use one of my bronze sugar skulls, and do a charm style necklace I got to work

I created the base for the necklace first.

Then I started to pick out my beads

Ginger of the Blue Bottle Tree had sent me some of her beads to design with awhile back. She used her Rustic Beads Tutorial to create these flowery fun beads. They turned out to be the perfect accent for this piece! After all, a sugar skull needs some flowers near it or on it! I LOVE the old paint look, and they are so well made (of course!). The only problem was that I could not fit as many as I wanted to use in my piece. So I think I will have to visit them again soon.

Anyhow, just as things always go, I had to change out some of my original components due to how the piece lays while worn, and for compositional issues.

I am very happy with how it turned out.

I even made matching earrings!!!!

If you want to see what everyone else made, hop over to Love my Art Jewelry and check out the links posted. I am sure there will be lots of great creative eye candy and inspiration this morning!

http://lovemyartjewelry.blogspot.com/2016/10/dia-de-los-muertos-reveal-by-karen.html

Thursday, September 24, 2015

Sugar Skull Charm Necklace

I have been wanting to do some posts like this for awhile, but like always, busy busy busy!

I have a bunch of Sugar Skull focals in the shop, as well as some other focals similar to the sugar skulls, and I wanted to give you guys some idea of what you can do with them.

http://www.stacilouiseoriginals.com/store

I had a few laid out on my desk, as I am prepping for a show this weekend, not sure what to do with them.

At first I wanted to just add chain and a dangle and keep them super simple. But it was too simple.............so I planned to add charms to the chain. I wasn't sure how much to do charm wise, and was sort of thinking they needed chunky charms.

I hadn't finished figuring out that part, when Linda Landig posted a necklace she had made with one of my old bronze skulls,

(you can purchase Linda's necklace here

http://lindalandig.indiemade.com/product/sugar-skull-necklace-brass-day-dead-pendant-orange-black-purple-sari-silk-0 )

and seeing her little dangles sealed the deal for me. That is what my plain old necklace needed. Just some simple dangles. It really captures the Dia de los Muertos feel I think.

So I added my double dangly charms (flower beads by Lisa Peters Art- they were the perfect match!!!)

And I added my chain, and picked out charms to accent the colors in my skull, and voila! I love the results!

(ceramic stars by Starry Road Studio)

So here are my tips when doing a charm style necklace- not quite a tutorial, but this should help if you tend to struggle with them.

1. pick out way more stones and beads in a variety of sizes then you will use

2. lay them out, spacing out larger beads, and filling in the spaces between them with smaller beads

3. when you use a cable chain, like this one, only hang charms on EVERY OTHER LINK so they lay properly. the links alternate directions and your charms won't hang right otherwise. Also, be sure to keep the chain from turning. I pick it up and make sure the chain is laying correctly so the charms are always added to the bottom of the link

4. skip a few "hangable" links for each big piece. I like to hold the piece up to my neck and look at it each time I add a bead to make sure they hang right

5. Fill the links you skipped with tiny beads to create movement and fill the space without them bumping into the other beads causing them to lay inccorectly.

6. Try to use beads of a consistent thickness. if you use beads that are tooooo round they will stick out when you wear it and roll around.

And there you have it. A simple necklace that is not too plain, not too much! I haven't taken this one off yet and I cannot wait to design the others on my table.

Remember, you too can make some "charming" necklaces using the components in my shop. Lots of sugar skulls left. I love taking the form of a skull and making it pretty. So fun!

http://www.stacilouiseoriginals.com/store

Monday, October 28, 2013

Halloween / Day of the Dead Blog Hop

If you follow me, you may know that I do not do holiday or seasonal jewelry, at least not on purpose. I do however, love sugar skulls. I have been making them as components for some time now.

So I couldn't wait to participate in Diana's blog hop.

First I made this necklace using one of my current style sugar skulls in bronze.

It features beads from Lisa Peters Art, Starry Road Studio and bronze links from me with gemstones. I thought Lisa's rose heart was perfect with the skull and added in some yellows to give it life and color.

However, I didn't want to use one of my regular old sugar skulls for the hop. I wanted to make something REALLY cool. I had been wanting to try to make a 3-d one in bronze for some time now. This was the perfect opportunity to try it out.

Well, it was pretty successful. After the first turned out ok, I right away made another.........

This is the more detailed and much larger second one all cleaned up from the kiln

Then came the fun part- making them into jewelry. I had to fill them with something and give them some sort of eyes. I used polymer and gemstones and baked them. Then I attached them to a copper back with rivets.

Finally, I got to make them into finished pieces of jewelry. They are big, chunky and weird, and I adore how they turned out.

This is the finished piece I made with the sugar skull above.

It has lava stone behind its eyes, a couple of large criffle beads from Numinosity, a rustic donut from Marsha Neal Studio, some pearls, some gemstones, and lots of little bronze pieces of my own.

This one, is all mine.

I also made this one below. It creeps me out a little more then I thought it would...but I love the colors. Not so sure of the zombie like eyeball, kinda kills the beauty of the sugar skull, but I am happy with the piece none the less.

This one also has a Marsha Neal Studio donut, some Starry Road Studio beads, and some of my bronze, along with gemstones and pearls.

I was really happy to try out this 3-d bronze a little further (I had done it before in hearts). I think I want to add more pretty detail, and perhaps even give the skulls some color in the future. I am definitely going to take it further.

Thanks for the challenge Diana! I love to find reasons to try new things.

To see what everyone else made, hop over to Diana's blog for the link list.

Diana Ptaszynski http://www.suburbangirlstudio.com

Staci Smith http://www.stacilouiseoriginals.com/ - You are here

Kathleen Breeding http://99bobotw.blogspot.com

Sue Kennedy http://www.suebeads.blogspot.com

Dianne Miller http://www.artbydianne.blogspot.com

Lisa Liddy http://www.lisaliddy.wordpress.com

Toltec Jewels http://www.JewelSchoolFriends.com

Linda Landig http://www.LindasBeadBlog.com

Laura Medeiros http://Www.zoeowyn.blogspot.com

Veralynne Malone http://www.veradesigns.blogspot.com