Week 25: Bottle Week 2

As the year goes on I am becoming less and less successful in not repeating themes.  I've made my peace  with repeating themes, as long as I try to keep the actual projects fresh.  This is my second round of putting things in bottles, which it turns out I LOVE doing.  I would never have guessed that I'd be so in love with making these little bottle charms for necklaces and earrings.  I'm betting that this bug is not quite out of my system yet, so look for another bottle week coming up in the future.

Dried herb glass bottle necklace.  It was pretty fun trying to fit the bundle through the tiny neck of the bottle.  : )

Tiny, colorful beads in a glass bottle necklace.  I'm particularly fond of this one as it makes me think of both the 80s and  my grandma's button box.

Green and black tourmaline crystals in a glass bottle.  For some reason it makes me think of Kryptonite.  

Evil Eye glass bottle necklace.  What's better protection that one evil eye charm?  A bottle full of them!  : )

Full peacock feather in a glass bottle.  This glass bottle necklace is probably the most simple of the week, and it still took me forever to trim the feather so it would sit in the bottle "just so". 

Finally, the true "innovation" of this week, the lock and key glass bottle necklace.  While  putting the eye screw in the top of the cork, I realized that I could do the same to the bottom of the cork and hang something inside the bottle itself.  And goodness knows I love locks and keys.  : )

I don't know that this bottle bug is out of my system yet, so I'm sure there will be at least one more week of bottle necklaces before this year is over.  What's the fourth installment of a movie franchise? Space, right?  Bottle week in space!  Coming soon to a 52/7 blog near you.

Week 17: Feathered Friends

This week I decided to give in a fully play around with feathers as a jewelry making medium.  They seem to be pretty darn popular right now, and as much as I hate birds themselves I do enjoy the different kinds and colors of feathers that have been popping up in our local craft stores.  I've used feathers a bit before, but mostly peacock feathers.  So I grabbed some bags of feathers and some stems from the floral department, where there are also super cool feathers, and got to work.  This is what I came up with:

Nothing special here, just feathers and beads.

More feathers and beads, this time with bead caps!  Ooooh.

This is where I feel like I really started to hit my stride.  Multiple feathers, bead cones, and crystals.  Now we're talking!

Just feathers and bead cones for this one, but I went with a black and white theme that I thought was pretty fun.

Again, just feathers and cones but this time with some color.  I had a great time picking out most of the feathers on these earrings from a variety of $1 floral stems I got on clearance.  Yay cheap!

These are without a doubt my favorite of the bunch.  The chains and rhinestones really did me in.  I can already tell I'm going to make about a million pairs of these for myself in different colors.  These feathers were also from the cheap-o floral stems. So hurray again!

Peacock feathers with accent feathers, bead cones, and a single crystal.  These earrings are HUGE.    I like big earrings and they're big for me; they dip past my collar bone. 

That's all for this time, but expect to see some more feathers in the future.  I didn't set out intending for all the pieces to be earrings, but once I got started I just kept going down that path.  I had so much fun with this "new to me" medium that I may try feather hair accessories or necklaces some other week.  Thanks for looking!

Week 13: Birds of a Feather

This week is a celebration!  First, one of my Etsy shop's items trended hot on Wanelo for like a minute. I was very, very excited.  Then it sold!  This marks my very first Etsy sale.  Woohoo!  To celebrate, I decided to make the medium I used in the item my weekly theme.  And lucky for me, it was peacock feathers!  I'm super into peacock feather jewelry right now.  On to the show!

Peacock sword feathers under microscope slide glass, topped with a tattered silk bow.

Peacock eye feather in a glass locket.

Peacock eye feather and pheasant feather in bead cone on a long (29'') silver chain.

Fancy glass tube filled with peacock sword feathers, plus a rhinestone!  Am I in heaven or what?

Peacock sword feather pad (I think it was meant for a hair piece) with a button and a bail = a big funky necklace!

Peacock feathers in a bottle!  This time it actually turned out how it wanted it to; with all the feathers facing the same direction instead of getting all knotted up like in Bottle Week.  Success!

And peacock feathers in tiny little earring bottles!  Ok, I know the last two are really similar, and that's almost breaking a rule but I'm too excited right now to care!

Wanelo is pretty darn cool; it's like Pinterest but for shops and items for sale!  I imagine I'm going to use the hell out of it for christmas shopping this year.  Like Pinterest you can have groups, follow people, and gain a following yourself!  For anyone interested you can find me on Wanelo here, and Pinterest here.  That does it for this time, have a great week!