Julia's Grand Opera Necklace

Julia's Grand Opera Necklace
Originally uploaded by satyridae

Deep Valley, Minnesota was never Julia Ray's native heath. She couldn't wait to graduate and go out into the Great World. She wanted more than anything to sing Grand Opera. This is the necklace I can see around her delicate, sylph-like neck the day she made her debut.

Made almost entirely of vintage components, this necklace features clear glass cabochons and sparkling crystals. The new crystals I added are Swarovski, the older ones probably Czechoslovakian. The clasp is a vintage sterling filigree clasp. The chain is sterling, also vintage. Modern head and eyepins are all sterling.

WIP Bead Embroidery

WIP Bead Embroidery
Originally uploaded by satyridae

Where I'm heading with the crazy lace agate cabs I lucked into the other day. This is going to be a necklace, I'm mostly sure. I spent a large portion of the weekend working on it, and it was one of those times where I 'd look up to find that 7 hours had passed in what felt like 15 minutes.

New Beads

New Beads
Originally uploaded by satyridae

I had so much fun yesterday, playing with some reactive glass. Here are the results, which I'm really happy with. Okay, so they aren't all aesthetically pleasing, but I learned something with each one! I love the small barrel-shaped one in the center, it's a deeply mottled, almost tie-dyed blue with metallic dots. I also like the long barrel beads. Oh, and the opal white base with the multicolored dots. And.... Yeah, this is fun!

New Biggs Junction Jasper Necklace

Jasper Necklace
Originally uploaded by satyridae

I couldn't wait to work up the jasper cab I got the day before yesterday- and here it is! It's already posted in my etsy shop. Isn't that a lovely stone? It looks like mountains beyond mountains, I think, and the colors are so rich and velvety that you could fall right in. The bezel is open on both sides- even though the back is not as polished or as landscape-y looking, it's still far too beautiful to hide.

I'm really thrilled with how this one turned out.

Murmuring Lake Choker

Murmuring Lake Choker
Originally uploaded by satyridae

Here's the necklace that was giving me fits last night, finally finished. I was having a bit of trouble getting all the strands pulled together in a cohesive way, but ended up doing large peyote endcaps, and that worked out fine.

Another Betsy-Tacy themed piece, this one is really intricate and ornate. It's listed in my etsy shop, and there are larger photos on flickr as well.

Giannini Mia (Betsy's Venetian Necklace)

Giannini Mia (Betsy's Venetian Necklace)
Originally uploaded by satyridae

Here's another in my Maud Hart Lovelace series, now for sale in my etsy shop. I love the way this one looks, with the crystals and the embedded bits of sparkly in the focal beads. It's the one you want to hang up in your window when you're not wearing it.

I'm just about finished with the next piece in the series, based on Murmuring Lake- but I'm wrestling with the dragonfly bead. And I have to come up with some end caps.

I can't adequately express how much fun I'm having with this particular project.

Betsy's Herbarium Necklace

Betsy's Herbarium Necklace
Originally uploaded by satyridae

Now available in my etsy shop!

When Betsy, Tacy and Tib were juniors at Deep Valley High School, the evil Botany teacher Mr. Gaston assigned herbariums early in the year. They were to collect plant samples throughout the school year, dry and label them, and turn in the completed herbariums at the end of the school year. As you may have guessed, our heroines were too busy having fun to bother with any old herbariums. Until the night before they were due. Although they did collect some interesting samples, they did not have any fall plants in their herbariums!

This necklace was inspired by the early green shoots which comprised the vast majority of Betsy's herbarium.

Created with crystals, seed beads and pony beads, it sparkles with many shades of green and is every bit as unusual as Betsy's Herbarium.