Echo of collaboration with Mona

This post will be about a necklace that I made for Mona Baroody, a glass artist from the U.S. who makes some really cool beads. To see some of her work, please visit her Etsy shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/monaraebeads. Do not forget to browse the "sold" section as well!
Anyhow, Mona and I have collaborated for the Fashion Colorworks contest this year. Neither of our two collaborative pieces came to finals, but nevertheless it was a great fun to work with her beads! We have decided to swap - I got some gorgeous lampwork beads, and promised to make a necklace to Mona in return.

While working on our project, Mona created a very unusual bead (by mistake, as she claims) :)


First, we planned to include it in the contest design, but then I realised that the aggressive mandatory colors of the contest would kill its beauty. And I made a separate piece, just around it.
Guess it's quite clear that it is one of my typical "ocean" pieces. :) All lampwork in this one are by Mona.

That jellyfish bead is awesome!


Just look at the color blend that Mona gave this focal!

Is it water or what? :)



It was fun and a great pleasure working with you, darling! Big Hug!

Visit Monas shop, buy her beads, you will not regret it.

Disclamer: I did not get any money/beads/commodities/royalty for writing this post. It is my own honest opinion.

The story of Black Magic

Here is a story of one of my favorite commissioned orders, the Black Magic necklace.
To cut a long story short, it was first supposed to be an alternative wedding necklace. But then it was decided that it would "just" be a necklace for a special occasion.

I was given a task to make something big and beautiful, burlesque, vampiric, with black focals and brass ornaments. No problem, I thought.

It took me a bit more than a week. I used onyx cabs, lots of Swarovski (pearls, rivolis, stones, crystals), lucite flowers, ornate brass stampings, lots of different kinds of seed beads and yards and yards of Fireline. The cabs are bezelled with right angle weave. Everything is put together with freeform peyote. This time it is 100% bead weaving, no embroidery at all.

I took this picture at 5 o'clock in the afternoon, the day before it was supposed to be posted. Then I played around with a clasp and earrings. When I was finished, the daylight was gone and I took all the pictures under a lamp. The result was sort of cool: the pictures got a vintage look. :) What the heck, I thought, and left them as they were.


Couple of close-ups:


The necklace can be worn as a choker, or as a colliér. I have added a small detail to regulate its length:

and this is just the clasp in the choker-version (sorry for the blurry picture):

Finally, earrings to match:

And the whole thing:


The client is satisfied. That is the main thing, to know that my necklace is going to be loved and taken care of.

Nice week to all of you!

Caught a new bug ;)

Hi guys!

All over the sudden I have decided to test a new medium, polymer clay. World-wide-web offers a wide selection of inspirational pictures and mastec classes on hw to condition clay, blend colors, etc. And I went wild with it.

These are beads that one could call "Children of Ctulhu" (Wikipedia).
That's how they looked like at 01:20 a.m., fresh from the oven:

And here they are under the daylight.

Presenting Shoggoth:

Orchidopus:

ImpUCelyn:


And here are some less scary things, just a necklace with no name so far:






Well, maybe I've enjoyed playing with the clay a bit too much ;) We'll see...

That's it for today, thanks for looking!
Have a nice day, everyone!