Vampires

I know it is the beginning of summer and no where near Halloween, but I have been working on some Vampire themed pieces. You can't argue with inspiration, and you sure can't ignore it! I tried telling myself that it was too early to be working on Vampire jewelry, but that is what kept coming to mind. It's hard to get new inspiration when your mind is full of Vampires! I gave in and decided I just needed to follow the inspiration through.

I had some really cute charms that I wanted to work with, little vampire teeth and some cute little bats. Of course I needed to use red and black as the theme colors. I started with a pair of earrings using the vampire teeth. I added red crystals hanging from the vampire teeth to represent a drop of blood. I thought these were really fun! I called them Vampire Blood earrings.

Next was a vampire necklace named Kiss of the Vampire necklace. I used black chain and added black oval beads and red crystals. The Tibetan silver vampire teeth with the blood drop is the focal component of the necklace.

My third piece is the Children of the Night bracelet. I made it into a charm bracelet using Tibetan silver bats and vampire teeth as the charms and red and black czech glass beads to give it some color. I am glad I did follow the inspiration through to the creation of these pieces. It was a lot of fun and I still plan to make some more vampire pieces as inspiration strikes.....

Cascading Styles

I have most of my beads in organizers cases by color, but sometimes I have items that will not fit into the cases like wire and other tools and items that I use. I keep them in a small cloth organizer box that you can find at most stores that sell things for your house. Mine started as a place to keep larger items, but as time has gone on other things have found their way into the box; jewelry that I started but for some reason did not work out, extra beads that I did not have room for in the organizer for that color bead and various odds and ends. The other day I decided to go through the box and try to find homes for some of the items, well I came across a pack of beads that really caught my eye. I don't remember where I got them, but when I looked at them a necklace just came together in my head.

I really love this necklace! I added it to my sea collection and named it the Sea Foam necklace because the colors remind me of the translucent colors of waves along the seashore. Every time I look at this necklace I love it more! Even the design inspired me to create a couple more pieces that are similar but not the same. I was looking through my bead boxes and came across some deeper blue beads and I realized that they matched the color of these beautiful glass heart beads that I had so I brought them out and they came together beautifully!

As you can see the design is similar but not quite the same. I added this into my sea collection too since the colors remind me of the deeper parts of the sea. I named it the Heart of the Sea necklace, the name really just popped into my head! I do love blue and have been trying to find a way to use that blue heart bead in a new and different way.
My third necklace is similar only in that it has multiple pieces that dangle down in a cascade. I have these really pretty iridescent green beads that I wanted to use for a necklace and since it is spring, what better time to use them. I used a lighter and darker green bead for contrast and an oblong marbled green bead as an interesting little pop.

This necklace needed to be in my spring collection and I named it Leaves in the Springtime. I almost named it after a weeping willow, but I did not want it to have sad connotations! Spring leaves are a sign of rebirth and new hope and I thought that was more appropriate.
Still on this cascading dangling necklace kick I decided to try and use some of my gemstones to do a more natural look. I decided to use some green turquoise coin shaped gemstones as the main focal point, but I wanted something with a little contrast to make it really stand out. I was looking at the turquoise and it has shades of blue and green and a brownish gold color, so I found some brownish gold lampworked glass beads that matched the color in the gemstones perfectly. I even made a pair of earrings to match, but did not add the brownish gold beads because it would have made them too heavy.

I am pretty happy with the jewelry I made this week. Now I need to find some inspiration for some new pieces! ☺