Pretty Jewelry

A couple days ago, I shared the World's Ugliest Necklace.  Here's a necklace and earring set I'm proud to admit I made:

They were inspired by the pleating on this dress and shoes:

I bought them at Your Best Friend's Closet.  The dress was brand new and still had the $330.00 price tag on it.  I got it for $70.40 and the shoes for $8.30.  AND I had a full punch card, so I got $10 off.  Woo-hoo!

Would I lie?

I wore them to the Schlachtfest at the Donauschwaben with Walt's parents, Anna and Nick.  They have been members since shortly after immigrating to the U.S. in 1952.  Schlachtfest is a fall harvest festival and the food centers around pork, which is traditionally slaughtered and preserved in the fall.  We had a nice time talking with their longtime friends.

Anna, Walt and Nick



Anna, Nick, Ellie and Ingrid



There was plenty of German food. Appetizers were rye bread, liver sausage, head cheese, cracklings and dill pickles. Dinner was cabbage rolls, sweet sour cole slaw, boiled potatoes, Hungarian wurst and pork roast with gravy.
 After dinner came the coffee and cookie parade!  The jugend (youth group) carried platters piled high with homemade cookies and pastries, circling around the room to music before delivering to each table.  They also were our waitresses, dressed sweetly in traditional attire. 

The Cookie Parade

 They also performed several dances, songs and poem recitations in their ancestrial dialect.  I wasn't surprised to learn that they had earned the Silver Award (2nd place) in the championships.

Me and Walt.  I'm wearing the jewelry I made.  My hair is NOT red.  I don't know why it looks like that.

World's Ugliest Necklace

I recently made the world's ugliest necklace and I did it on purpose.  It's all because of this little guy:

Asa is my grandson and he was making my daughter's life a bit uncomfortable.  He'd be nursing away and get distracted by something across the room.  Which can be painful as he turned his head to look.  At my daughter's request, I made a necklace for her to wear while nursing. 

I made it extra long without a clasp so she can toss over her head with one hand, while holding a screaming baby in the other arm.  It's designed to facinate a nursing baby so he doesn't turn away from mommy's chest.

I used as many different colors, shapes and textures as I could from my bead stash.  Which is considerable.  My husband once asked if I was trying to get on Hoarders.  Once.  He got The Look.  But I digress.

I strung the necklace, knotted it well and then strung a second strand through and knotted it well.  I was worried that Asa would somehow break a single strand and choke on a bead.  Which presented another worry - that thread is very durable and a baby is not going to break it.  So, it can't be left within reach of a baby or his toddler big sister (who thinks it is the prettiest necklace she has ever seen), due to the danger of strangulation.  So mom keeps it well out of reach.  She's a great mom. I'm very proud of her.

Now I'm thinking of another version.  Perhaps a bracelet-like beaded focal strung onto ribbon which can be untied to wash the ribbon or change out the focal.

Bracelets

I made some bracelets for door prizes for our Women's Ministry Retreat last Saturday.  Memory wire, glass beads, acrylic beads, crystals and gemstone chips made some very pretty gifts:

Handmade copper wire components added texture. I love the colors of these glass pearls together.

Looks very sophisticated on.  Hard to it give away...

This is my favorite.  Denim lapis chips, lapis oval gemstones, crystals.

Pretty in Pink

Jewelry Making

I LOVE JEWELRY. I love making jewelry, reading about making jewelry, watching videos about making jewelry and teaching jewelry making. However, I'm picky about my jewelry creations.  If they're not quite right, I take them apart and reuse the beads.  I have a basket in my work space that is full of bracelets, necklaces and earrings that, for one reason or another, are waiting to be recycled into something more pleasing.

I am recently enamored with wire and wire wrapping.  I like the way you can hammer, twist and otherwise manipulate wire to create interesting shapes. I've been working with copper wire, mainly because precious metals are too, well, precious.  I simply can't afford to work with silver and gold wire while I learn how to get the wire to do what I want it to do.  Copper wire is cheap.  I buy it at the hardware store.  If the piece doesn't work out, I toss it with no regrets and start again.  For every piece I think is pretty good, there's a couple feet of mangled copper wire in the trash can.

So is it worth the time, frustration and wasted wire?  When I finally get something I like - oh, yes!