Autumn is definitely my favourite season of the year (followed closely by spring, and summer). But I love the colours of autumn, and the clothes of autumn, and the layers of autumn. And I tried to combine all of those ideas into this pair of earrings!
Rich shades of purple and brown, sprinkled with some red. Layers of beads, with a couple of different shapes. Really kind of sums autumn up for me!
…but I’m glad I did!
I had in my mind a slightly more complicated pair of earrings, and when I started putting THEM together it was like “this is all wrong!” I have to keep in mind that I can be a fairly harsh critic of my work, but I still have to be pleased with what I make.
I also didn’t have a huge amount of time to spend on this project today. And when I’m worried about things like that it kind of helps me to push most of my thoughts out of my head, and just go with a certain type of flow.
This morning I simply said “what if” when I picked up these beads. I did try adding crystals and spacers in between, but decided that simple was best. The brown beads are from a Coopers Ale beer bottle (lightly etched) and the blue bead on top is from a Bombay Sapphire Gin bottle. The bead in between is from a wine bottle decorated with frit (smashed up glass).
And that is a rather long story of how I made a pair of earrings this morning!
I think I might have made this bracelet 5 different ways this afternoon! I had all sorts of beads out over my desk, and nothing was quite working for the longest time.
So I stopped for lunch, played with the kids (it’s a public holiday here), and then went back to it after a while. I wish I could say “and voila” but I did end up with this bracelet (and I think it’s rather pretty)!
Beads were made from various wine and gin bottles with assorted embellishments.
Quite a few years ago I had a special request from a customer to make some beads for her with “opaque white glass that was recycled”.
At the time I said to her that seemed like it could be a difficult thing for me to do, as I wasn’t sure where to even find this type of glass!
I ventured to the local secondhand market and found a lovely white cup which was slightly damaged. I asked the person selling it what it was made from and was told “Milk Glass”.
Well, I still don’t know a lot about milk glass, but I do know that when I melt it, it makes really pretty beads. They have a bit of a lustre to them that makes them look really lovely.
Milk glass is super hard to melt, probably taking the longest of all the glasses to melt with my torch, hence I only made 5 test beads for this necklace! I was really happy with how the colour turned out though….so there may be more to come at some stage!
Purple can be a tricky colour when it comes to glass objects. I have found a purple bowl in the past, but when I melted it, the colour burned out of it!
I was pleased to find this small purple plate recently. I wasn’t sure how it would hold up in the flame, so I was really pleased when it melted just fine. I tested the glass by making several beads, and happily made this little pendant.
Hmm, really loving all the Harlequin Glass colours that I have found. This necklace is a bit different for me, but I really like how the colours all mix and play together so nicely! I think I might have to venture out to an op-shop this afternoon to see what other colours I might find!
I made lots of beads from the 9 Harlequin Shot glasses, so today I made a pair of earrings! I love all of the different colours in these earrings.
Harlequin Glassware sets were really popular in the 1950’s and 1960’s. It’s easy to find incomplete sets and I have been collecting shot glasses whenever I see them. Yesterday I finally made some beads with the glasses, and today I made a bracelet. So many colours! So pretty.
Today it was time to play with some new enamel colours that I had ordered. I was keen to try the purple tones, as it’s kind of difficult to get recycled glass in purple. I thought it would make a nice contrast to almost any of the recycled glass beads that I have here at the moment.
In the end I went with Bombay Sapphire Gin beads. They really pop against the purple. And I love the shape of this bracelet, really interesting. I started off with just a single strand, but after I tried it on I just felt like it needed a bit more, so I added another strand to the bracelet, and I’m glad that I did!
This bracelet took me hours to make!
I started making it yesterday, but it wasn’t working out so well. I couldn’t get it right with the beads that I had made. It needed a good night’s sleep, and a rethink on how to use the beads, and this is what I finally made. I really like how the beads made from a Blue Depression glass plate (the ones that are etched), contrast so nicely with the sparkly beads made from vodka, gin and wine bottles. Really quite pretty, different, unusual, interesting, quirky! If you are curious about other Blue Depression glass jewellery that I have made, simply click on this link.
