Vintage Pearls and an Ocean Theme Set

My baby sister, Karla, recently asked me to create a piece of jewelry for, Barb, my sister's mother-in-law that would be made from a strand of pearls that had belonged to Barb's mother.  I had done the same thing for Barb a couple of years ago from a couple of other strands of beads that had belonged to her mother. 

Of course, I told her I would be pleased to.  When I got the strand, there were a lot of pearls there so I knew I could make more than one piece.

The harder part for me was that Karla also wanted me to keep a diary, if you will, of the creative process and how I came up with what I came up with.

Not being formally trained, or informally trained for that matter, in the creative arts, I really didn't know how to do that.  A law degree does not do a whole lot to prepare you for doing something like that.  But, I told her I would do my best.  I found it to be very enlightening and I realized that I really did go through somewhat of a "process" that I had been sort of unaware of before.

I have always that that I get my inspiration from the beads and components themselves.  Well, that is true.

First, I realized that I was coming up with a theme.  And, since these were pearls, even though they were Vintage glass pearls, I wanted to do something ocean related.

And, that led me to choosing blues and aquas.  It was also a good color choice as I had used red coral and turquoise and topaz yellows on the pieces I had done for her before.  So, it was a color she didn't have.

I did the looped design first, and I used a marvelous pendant that was made by Kristie-Lou of Sculpted Windows.  She made the turtle of polymer clay on paua shell.  They are amazing.

I also wanted to use Green Girls shibuchi shell clasp. It had to be special ordered and made by hand and the weather slowed down Greg's shipment of metal, but it was definitely worth the wait.

I used handmade blue lampwork with a sandy brown finish, a beautiful brown and blue marbled bi-cone lampwork bead by Linda Cogbill, chalcedony quartz,  African opal, pyrite, amazonite, Czech glass, Tierra Cast spacers, Trinity Brass shell ear wires, etc.

It is a beautiful set and Barb loved it.  Karla loved it.  I loved it.  And, I know Barb's mother would be so happy that these beads have had new life breathed into them.
















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