Let's Kick Some Brass!
Posted by Elizabeth Hamilton on Feb 11th 2013
I’ve never really gotten into the whole New Year’s Resolutions thing. I suspect my early resolution failures as a kid helped me abandon the whole shebang. But January’s Treasure Box has provided inspiration that’s easy to keep…so this year, let’s kick some brass!
Yeah, I know, you’ve heard it all before: “I love stampings!” and “I love filigree”. But I really do. I consider myself a beadweaver and embroiderer, so what I like to refer to as my “hard-core” projects may take me hours upon hours to complete. At 240 hours, my purse has certainly been the longest, but metal gives me the chance to get a project done in an evening.
I was smitten with the flower bead caps, and wanted to pair them with something bright and fun. I keep a box in my cabinet labeled “Big Vintage beads” so that seemed like the best logical to start. I had some bright melon paintedwood beads that fit perfectly. I added some matching chain from my stockpile…and voila!
My goodie bag also contained some shell stampings that had appeared in a previous box. That meant that I had enough for an entire necklace! I punched holes and paired them with a pile of 4mm Czech firepolish beads. I sometimes have trouble with “random” selection…and these links certainly can’t be considered random- I’m weird about two of the same beads touching when I’m going for a mix.
My BHCC box included brass tassels. I already has some on-hand in silver (item 19456) so they were a match made in Hoard. To make the two toned feature chain to support the chain tassels I harvested the long links from some of my vintage chain (item 20687) and doubled them up between large steel jumprings. Sometimes “frankenchain” is really what you need!
This month is was the teardrop filigrees from the bag that really got my mind racing. At first I pondered netting the edges with seed beads and linking them to make a bracelet. But something made me shelve the idea and I put them aside. Then, driving home, inspiration hit…I really love these teardrops, so I was going to do them justice! Out came the crystals. The close-up is from a different angle, so you can get a better look at how it went together. Those spacers are delicas. I warn you now, if I see these filigree come up in New Finds…there will be none for anyone else…even if I have to fight you for it!