A feather, a flower, and a window

a feather: pattern source (in French)

feather with charms

flower blossom: link to original post

blossom lariat

Blogger has gone a bit crazy on me, but I'm trying to keep up my glacial posting schedule and crank out one post per week so I'm just going to write below the photos and not log off and plan to come back later. Later seems to have a way of eluding me.

This week I've got a feather pendant which I made from a French pattern from L'atelier de mimi.  Her blog is linked in the photo caption and has some beautiful examples of her plumes.  The little butterfly is a charm from Gardanne Beads and the quatrefoil bead is turquoise dyed magnesite.  The pattern uses 11/0's and 15/0's of the same color.  I pulled out some dark bronze Toho beads that had been rolling around in the bead cabinet for some time.  I got to whip up a fun piece and tackle my stash at the same time.

The final photos above are shots I took in the light box which my mom gave me a few years ago.  This is fitting because I made the Blossom lariat for her.  I wrote all about the piece in an earlier entry, but I will repeat that the blossoms are a pattern from Leslie Fraizer (Trumpet Flower Necklace, Beadwork Aug/Sept 2012).  These flowers have captivated me.  I just finished another lariat in a completely different (and very Pantone Spring 2013 colorway), but I still need to photograph it.

Finally, my husband has continued to build onto his mother's house in Mexico.  A few years ago he had a bedroom/bath room suite built, and now he has bumped out the living room.  He wants to make sure that his sisters' families will all have plenty of room to visit their mother during the year when he can not be with her.  Unfortunately, all this building has really taken a toll on her beautiful garden.  I have a feeling we will be working on that next.  Below is one of the new windows in the living room and some calla lillies growing next to nopal cactus.

nopal, callas, and roses

Be still my heart

When I saw this group of beads from Gaea I knew exactly what I wanted to make. I had been stalking Gaea's Facebook page for a few weeks trying to pounce on a winged heart and a good looking set of beads before someone reserved them.  Finally success!  You can also buy Gaea's beads at her website and at Lima Beads.

Even though I knew what I wanted to make, it took me awhile to get around to putting the piece together because they arrived just before the start of school and all the difficulties of the fall term.

The wirework is dark annealed steel which matched the loops on the pendant.  The spacer beads are copper, the enameled bird is from Gardanne Beads, the little etched copper charm I made myself, and the tuquoise seed beads are vintage from my stash.

The necklace it about 36" long and the seed bead length hangs around my neck and ends just above my collarbones.  The wirework has a nice drape because of the Goldilocks weight of Gaea's beads (not too heavy, not too light).  The smallest beads are about 6mm and the largest around 12mm.  I sand my steel wire, then rub it with steel wool before forming links. For this necklace, I lightly hammered each loop and jumpring.

This was my first attempt to etch copper.  I followed at tutorial similar to this one from Copperheart.  I bought my ferric chloride from the hardware store...it is used in pool cleaning.  For resist I used StazOn permanent ink and a stamp with tiny detail.  I have more to learn about etching, but I was happy just to get any result.  I need to practice a little more.

a little over exposed