I have to make a confession. I have had a project to show you for a long while now and for a number of reasons have not posted it. The project is a bracelet that I have named: My Karoo Summer Cuff.
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| Karoo Summer Cuff |
The primary materials of this cuff; ostrich eggshell beads, brown picture-stone and pale green ultrasued, inspired the name. In the summer, after the rain the arid brown Karoo comes alive with sprinklings of green. I know you are supposed to be inspired by nature and then make something but that has never worked for me!
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| Choosing materials for a new project is always fun! I started out with the ostrich eggshell beads and the green ultrasuede and went from there |
Made with ostrich egg-shell beads, seed beads (mostly size 15), pictures stone chips, rounds and others all embroidered onto pale green Ultrasuede.
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| The final selection. Its about choosing complementary colours and textures. I got the patterned ultrasuede from Beads East. Ironically its finish is called ostrich skin! |
The actual inspiration behind this design? Ostrich eggshell beads.
I love ostrich egg-shell beads (OEB). They have the most beautiful, delicate texture on their surfaces and every bead is handmade and unique. And I thought to myself what a pity it was that those surfaces often got covered up in the way they were utilised. For more examples of OEB jewellery check out my Bushman Beading post.
I wanted to find a way to display the front of the beads where all the delicate detail could be seen.
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| A chain-mail network of size 15 beads holds the eggshell beads in place. |
The difficulty was finding an interesting way to attach the flat beads without obscuring the front too much. Then I had the idea of doing something like a chain-mail effect, using seed beads to "tie" the OEB into place. I think it actually worked quite nicely.
My pieces tend to grow quite organically. I will have a concept for a surface embellishment or focal section and will just create the remaining parts as I create the piece, they are never fully thought out first and never sketched.
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| Creating a quick markup of the design elements. This is the place to test colours and design. Its also a chance to play around with finishing ideas like fringing. And to see how focal beads will compare to the detailing. |
The result I think was quite effective. Sorry I dont have any pictures of the making process, I was having too much fun to stop and take pictures!
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| Closeup of the focal |
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| A few picturestone rounds break the monotomy |
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| Backview |
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| The final design |
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| "Thing" modelling the cuff |
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| Backview showing the closure. |
I sent in pics of the bracelet to Bead and button magazine, but they were unfortunately not interested in publishing it. I contemplated trying another magazine but just did not get around to doing so. One of the reasons I have only now posted this to the blog.
There are more exciting things coming up soon (I have been busy), so stay tuned...
Love Jet
