Bringing back the bling...

"Art Deco Hummingbird"

(Necklace)   Price: $60.00  SOLD 

I hit a milestone birthday a couple of years ago and my one request was to hold a 'maker day' at our friend, Sal's house with my friends. This is the second necklace I made that day. Using a bunch of jewelry findings, settings, focals and beads that I've been hoarding for years (hey, I like a good clearance sale at the craft store. LOL. Sue me.) I created a steampunk necklace that had been on my mind for a number of years for my friend, Sarah who costumes. After lunch, I moved onto another personal project, this. I LOVE art deco and art nouveau designs from last century, and I had these strung bead chains I'd purchased YEARS ago and some other bits I could make work. Funny, how watching movies, perusing old catalogs, costume books, old jewelry design books, et al. can inspire directions for creativity. I find the pushing around of bits, trying combinations of metal, glass, and stones to be immensely soothing. Like the problem solving of a vague idea and its engineering is like a mental jigsaw puzzle that results in something pretty and practical and a great deal of satisfaction. Not all ideas work out, either in 'making' or painting, or even sewing. As it is, the hummingbird necklace contains now vintage settings/strung metal designs that are no longer available and are extremely hard to find on the secondary market or online. Going forward, you'll find that my creations use vintage as well as contemporary bits that I find at junk sales, estate sales from friend's parents houses, broken bits that have been discarded that I find that tweak a creative blip enough to keep them around. Each piece is unique. Sometimes a 'statement' piece or just a simple elegant design for everyday wear, whether it be a necklace or earrings. I haven't ventured into bracelets at this stage, but it's not totally off the table. Depends where my ideas take me. I can thank a dear friend, Lisa, for kicking off this next stage of bling creativity last year. Her mum, who was a jewelry teacher for over 50 years passed away and left a virtual treasure trove of beads, stones, findings, metals, tools, etc hoarded loosely in a very big house. The initial push to clear out the largess ended up with Lisa and her family bringing caseloads of everything to sell at a local SF convention vending room. I took home four bags of 'stuff' that took my fancy, including tools and things I thought my movie night crew of fellow creatives might like to play with. That was the start of the current run of bling making and it's been so much fun. So, come back and visit to see what's up next. I have a lot of catch up posts to make. Some have sold and there are things still available. If you're interested in any, please don't hesitate to email me or catch me on Facebook messenger. 

Thanks for stopping by,

Cheers, Marianne