Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Beaded Collars...or rather Bibs.

Earlier this year I created several beaded collars...projects that I had been thinking about for quite some time.I had great fun working up the color scheme in  these collars.  The larger collar is a magnificent piece to wear and has the impression of Egyptian fashion.  I imagine how grand Cleopatra must have felt wearing those wonderful beaded collars, sipping fine wine!  I started out with a beautiful but bright Purple Sea Sediment Jasper.  I decided I did not want to play up the bright Purple and focus on all the complimentary tones found in the stone.  I added some vintage glass cabochons and pearl to give a sheen to the collar at various places.

The two smaller collars were a bit more difficult primarily due to the small space.  At their widest point, the collar is not quite 2 inches.  I did not want to have the space on each side of the center cabochons to be boring and so after pondering various ideas I cam up with the final designs.  The lighter collar has a small, teardrop cabochon of Ocean Jasper.  I love Ocean Jasper and all it's variations.  It will often have circulars shapes indicating something bubbled up from the deep ocean floor and solidified! I had to work at keeping the Ocean Jasper collar light and white.  I rarely use white in my beaded pieces so this was a challenge.  The animal print type beading just happened, I did not start out with a plan on how to fill space.  I love the way the collar turned out!  The other small collar has a aquamarine blue Swarovski cabochon.  The frosted glass leaves to the side are also vintage, very unique.

I had great fun creating these collars. They are currently on view at Artist Collaborative Gallery in Sacramento.




The bottom necklace is Ocean Jasper surrounded by champagne button pearls.  Poor photo!