What’s Old is New Again!

No Bead Dreams for me this year. But I am in a good company of some really cool rejects. :)

Still busy. Make it too busy. But beading eventually.
This is one of my latest - a piece for the Artbeads Blogging: Eternity Spirals

The challenge this time was "What’s Old is New Again!". Here is a part of the information that the bloggers got: 'For this theme we would like you to seek inspiration from the past by incorporating old, vintage or antique items into your designs and combine them with modern elements such as Swarovski crystals, Glass, Resin, etc. The only requirement for your creations is for each piece to have at least one ‘old’ element. It can be a family heirloom, vintage cameo, an interesting bead, pendant or item you found in an antique shop, an old key, photo or any unique element of the past. You can even re-use an old jewelry piece and ‘borrow’ items from it if you like'.

I though of what people do usually use in such a context... Filigree, vintage stampings, steam-punk findings, pieces of old china, fossils... Just for the sake of originality, I picked an old celtic wooden ornament from this shop section. This pendant has started the theme of the Eternity Spirals that flows through the necklace.

Then, I picked my medium. I learned how to make macramé when I was five or six - my mother could not find a babysitter and I got to follow her on a course (Thanks mom!!!). Last year I made couple of bracelets, earrings and pendants using micromacramé with beads, but nothing fancy. All over the sudden, I just had to knot some thread! So, I went for the Super-lon cord, which can be found here. I really liked this big pack of well-picked colors!

Wood + green cord. What else? Swarovski! Here I picked my favorite Vitrail Mediums.

Those were the basics that I got from the Artbeads. However, something was missing. I badly wanted to get my hands on some raku ceramics. And I found a wonderful Etsy shop of Wondrous Strange Design that got EXACTLY what I needed!
IMHO, all that looks quite well together ;)


This celtic cross ROCKS!

So does the button that I used as a clasp.

This is one of the round raku beads:

And, last but not least, the focal raku pendant, Pale Moon Rising as artist has called it (do not forget that all pictures are clickable for enlargement).

But what about including something REALLY old? Here is one of the wooden beads, all coming from my old broken earrings made of cherry wood:



This is what is left from the project: two wooden connectors and a raku button. I will make another neck piece of those, but later.

Disclamer: Artbeads.com were kind enough to supply me with the Crystals, cord and the wooden components free of charge. However, they did not pay me to write this review. I do genuinely like their products and ENJOY working with that shop.
All other materials have been purchased by the author of the post.
If I see any of my pictures running around in the Would Wide Web without any permission, I will get upset. And you will get bad karma. Why don't you just ask? I do not bite!