Nine Dragons Collar

Legends insist that the Five Great Desert Temples are guarded by nine dragon siblings; two to each directional temple, the eldest one in the center.  They are fair dragons, now, and certainly would not do harm to anyone who approached without mallice in their heart; but they will defend their land and each other from fools.  The treasure, you see, is what changes with every telling.  Is it gold?  Jewels?  Knowledge?  Power beyond human comprehension?  No one has ever managed to return to tell.

Last time I was in Georgia, I went dragon hunting.  Which is to say that my (very patient, supportive) partner in crime and I spent 15 minutes combing through a huge bin of cloisonne beads just to find these tiny articulated dragons that I had never seen anywhere before.  I had to have them!  They were all just a touch beat up, and I kept one that had been broken (he's fixed now, though).  The ones used in the necklace were cleaned up a little and reinforced, but all of the little nicks and bends were kept.  They've got more personality that way.

I don't really want to talk about how much time it took, because I just plain did not start counting and I refuse to look back and see how many days I was working on it.  The upper part was a very "I wonder what would happen if..." thing that took way longer than I expected due to reinforcing absolutely everything for stability, and then the netting that lead down to the dragons... just kind of happened.  And of course I wanted to practice more with beading around cabochons, so.  Yes.  Um, I don't know what happened, but at least it's shiny?

Normally when I do this kind of netting, I go over every diamond meticulously to get them all to be that perfect diamond shape... but this time, I left a few "loose".  It's a stylistic choice; the dragons themselves look like ancient treasures, so I wanted the rest of the necklace to reflect that.  It's not any less strong or solidly built, it just looks "a little old".  The same "stylistic choice" exists with the ever so slight angling of the fiber optic stone so that it catches the light more easily.  It's supposed to be magic, after all.

The one problem with having a scrawnier neck than anyone you know is trying to model a collar that's technically just a little too big for you even on the tightest setting.  Ah well, I tried.

(For Sale)

Journey Cuff

Glowing symbols, songs, grand visions and movement.  This is not a journey soon forgotten, the echoes of it still drifting across the dunes.

There are very few video games that have actually taken my breath away.  Journey managed it multiple times.  The specific beads used were inspired by a certain scene where there is just such glorious light suddenly, such intense beauty that's almost hard to look at... I couldn't resist trying to reflect that.  It's so difficult trying to photograph the full color and sparkle of these beads, not to mention how the white ones really do seem to glow at the right angles.

2,741 beads comprise this bracelet, each individually woven together by hand, from 4-8 threads going through every, single, bead.  The clasp itself is a gold-plated copper smooth-working slide or tube clasp.  (It's actually a lot easier to work with one hand than it looks.)  The bracelet itself would fit a wrist up to 7.5 inches in circumference, but I can be commissioned for custom sizes.

(For Sale)

Journey Cuff

Glowing symbols, songs, grand visions and movement.  This is not a journey soon forgotten, the echoes of it still drifting across the dunes.

There are very few video games that have actually taken my breath away.  Journey managed it multiple times.  The specific beads used were inspired by a certain scene where there is just such glorious light suddenly, such intense beauty that's almost hard to look at... I couldn't resist trying to reflect that.  It's so difficult trying to photograph the full color and sparkle of these beads, not to mention how the white ones really do seem to glow at the right angles.

2,741 beads comprise this bracelet, each individually woven together by hand, from 4-8 threads going through every, single, bead.  The clasp itself is a gold-plated copper smooth-working slide or tube clasp.  (It's actually a lot easier to work with one hand than it looks.)  The bracelet itself would fit a wrist up to 7.5 inches in circumference, but I can be commissioned for custom sizes.

(For Sale)

Schala Pixel Pendant

So there’s another little exchange going on between the fabulous Schala-Kitty and myself.  Since I already made her a kitty... shouldn’t I make her a Schala?  Well, made sense to me.

Another interesting beaded pendant test.  Yay learning techniques!  That I have to teach myself.  That I have to learn I actually need in the first place.  Mother of invention or something.  Point being, SUCCESS and LEARNING!

(I am willing to take commissions for pixel pendants, by the way.  You know, just so everyone’s aware.)

Dustel

His kind have often been referred to as "false fairy dragons" by classifying wizards with absolutely no sensitivity at all.  Not that Dustel will hold it against them.  He's easy-going and perfectly content to explore at his own pace, or just to lay back and relax while someone else takes him on an expedition.  He's an excellent conversationalist, by the way.  Dustel also has a thing for breakfast cereal.  But don't we all have a thing for breakfast cereal?

This little guy started out as something very different.  I was working on a commission for a snake bracelet, having just finished the head and... no, that wasn't a snake head at all.  It had ears, for one thing.  So I set it aside and started again.  Once the commission was done, I returned to this clearly-not-a-snake and figured that it was so eager to be unique that I should help it along.  The result is a strange evolution of bead sculpture and bracelet.

I was very conscious of not wanting anything to be "stiff".  What I mean is, I wanted every part to be flexible, moveable.  Take the legs, for instance; they are reinforced and held securely in place, but the fingers are still easily moveable, and the legs themselves aren't rock-solid but mobility and "squish" to them.  The same with his entire body.  So he's very wearable and poseable.

Let's talk about the wing and tail material, shall we?  No, I'm not going to reveal my "secrets"; I just want to say how thrilled I am that another ridiculously stupid idea worked well beyond my expectations.  They are far less delicate than they look, even.  Believe me, I know. *cough*

And of course those are two Swarovski crystals on the end of that chain.  I mean, come on.

(For Sale)

Dustel

His kind have often been referred to as "false fairy dragons" by classifying wizards with absolutely no sensitivity at all.  Not that Dustel will hold it against them.  He's easy-going and perfectly content to explore at his own pace, or just to lay back and relax while someone else takes him on an expedition.  He's an excellent conversationalist, by the way.  Dustel also has a thing for breakfast cereal.  But don't we all have a thing for breakfast cereal?

This little guy started out as something very different.  I was working on a commission for a snake bracelet, having just finished the head and... no, that wasn't a snake head at all.  It had ears, for one thing.  So I set it aside and started again.  Once the commission was done, I returned to this clearly-not-a-snake and figured that it was so eager to be unique that I should help it along.  The result is a strange evolution of bead sculpture and bracelet.

I was very conscious of not wanting anything to be "stiff".  What I mean is, I wanted every part to be flexible, moveable.  Take the legs, for instance; they are reinforced and held securely in place, but the fingers are still easily moveable, and the legs themselves aren't rock-solid but mobility and "squish" to them.  The same with his entire body.  So he's very wearable and poseable.

Let's talk about the wing and tail material, shall we?  No, I'm not going to reveal my "secrets"; I just want to say how thrilled I am that another ridiculously stupid idea worked well beyond my expectations.  They are far less delicate than they look, even.  Believe me, I know. *cough*

And of course those are two Swarovski crystals on the end of that chain.  I mean, come on.

(For Sale)

Past the Illusion

Sometimes there is something even more wonderful, even more radiant, even more unimaginably magnificent hiding just beneath the surface.  Go ahead and tease them.

It started with a button.  A beautiful, strange, utterly irresistible button.  I bought it the moment I saw it because I could not fathom walking away from that button.  And then those two cylindrical beads to either side, mirroring the button's peacock hues while throwing in a few tricks of their own.  The other beads just sort of... gravitated toward it.  I can't explain; I've had these elements for well over two years and it finally decided to come together now.  Who am I to question?

There is some serious freaking sparkle here.  There's just no way to get the full extent of how amazingly shiny this button-turned-necklace-centerpiece is or how everything else just seems to drape perfectly off of it.  It's over-the-top and elegant all at once.  Glamo(u)r-punk?  (Seeing as how I was on a steady musical diet of The Killers, The Psychedelic Furs and Planet Funk while I was making this...)  I'm just so happy it all came together.

I will be completely up-front, however.  At times, no matter how careful you are, how many precautions you take, a glass bead will still decide to shatter at the worst, possible, moment.  That happened here.  At the end.  After everything else was reinforced.  And so I sought a creative solution.  And since I'm willing to bet no one can see the mistake, and it in no way affects the stability of the piece itself, that's all I'm going to say.  Success.

(Sold)

Heartless Tag Pendant

I couldn't make a Nobody symbol without making a Heartless symbol.  That's just not done.

Made up of 213 glass beads individually woven together by hand, then backed in such a way as to make the panel itself sturdy but still flexible (so there are no hard edges).

(For Sale)