STENCILING ON METAL WITH PAINT!

A couple more metal projects using stencils and paint -- so much fun!  Thanks to Heather at Humblebeads for inspiring me to try this technique - she does incredible, fun projects and takes us along to explore new art dimensions.  It just takes a steady hand (hard as you get older!!), a piece of metal, some Vintaj paints, and a stencil.  So many options to explore with stencils... I love these sets.  I added some chain and some danglies for the necklaces and assembled some darlin' earrings to go with.  Dress em up or down.  My daughters-in-law look great in these darlin' sets!  Just like new fall clothes, you gotta have a new fall set for your ears and neck too!  :) 

Spriral Herringbone in all Fall's Colors!

I think this Fall mix of rustic 8sb is so yummy and versatile.  This tube has been sitting in my stash of 8s and I've used a little of it here and there, but never all in one piece.  I think it's a statement in itself.  As I near the end of this type of project, I ponder how best to finish it so it looks professional.  This necklace gave me some pause, and some more pause, and then some more.  I wanted the end to look as pretty as the beginning and the middle.  So, it sat on my beading table for many many days... sometimes it's a little intimidating, so I move on to something else and let it sit.  But, once it came to me, it became fun. I stitched three loops of about 24 11s, then added a couple jump rings to those loops.  Then I started embellishing from the end of the Herringbone over those beaded loops (circular peyote stitch) and the jump rings to the start of the chain.  I used 8s, 11s and Miyuki drops and then a few 15s interspersed to include a little red in what became a beaded bead and voila... all of the worker beads were hidden!  I am happy with the result, especially since I had no idea how it would turn out :) 

 

I added one of my crystal heart pendants via large jump rings to the necklace so I can take it on and off easily.  Ooh la la.  It's nice. 

 And, here are the earrings from my last post, that make this a nice set!  The bronze metal is a nice warm meshing with the Fall colors of the beads.

PRECIOUS METALS

A new special order project just completed for a special customer! Thanks, Bri! She requested mixed metals as a gift for her mom's birthday, and in the beginning I was a little stumped, but am so happy with the way these pieces turned out. I just kept redoing what I didn't like, and it all came together in the end. And my best critic, my hubby, gave this set a glowing thumbs up.

Necklace bracelet and earrings all together.  Lots of different metal pieces combined for a rich look. The necklace was seed beads and fire polish, with bronze chain intertwined throughout.

I started with the earrings because I found this wonderful design by Liz Stahl Ijust had to try.  These are a nice size and drape.  And, YES, I personally test all my creations by hanging them on moi first!  They looked loverly on...

 

I wire wrapped the center gold round to a larger vintaj hammered copper round and then surrounded with a bronze vintaj round, adding some dangles of fire polish and a bright copper key. 

A better view of the bracelet, which started with the large copper center piece and grew out from there.

 

A bracelet of lace.  Beautiful pattern learned at BeadStreet.  Thanks, Eileen.  Love this pattern, which was originally designed by Eva Marie Keizer, and then the pattern was altered slightly by Eileen to include only one row of the super duo pattern and an outer edge of scallop embellishment.  I bead rather tightly, so the scallop really meanders.  Fun!