Layers…
I’ve layered a layered necklace! Main necklace contains an owl pendant by Jon Pitts, ceramic rounds by Elaine Ray and Japanese kimono cording. Extras for layering are African trade glass (orange) and Indian hand-looped beaded chains.
Sometimes you just have to mix it up.
Too simple-round wood beads with a pierced Elaine Ray ceramic bead and a fossilized ammonite pendant.
This necklace was one of the ones I made on my vacation. It’s made of knotted orange leather with wood and resin beads. The leather has a tricky slide clasp made of leather, too. I can wear the necklace at about 18″ or at 24″.
If I wasn’t trying to wear a different necklace every day for a year I’d want to wear this for days on end. It’s dramatic but unfussy.
Next year!
This necklace is made of wooden beads covered in colorful Decopatch paper and strung on silk duiponi.
Instructions were published in Handcrafted Jewelry in 2010.
Coral, wood, metal spacers.
There used to be a metal ribbon tassel hanging from the coral but it broke off.
I keep this because I like the color.
I think I need to rework it.
This necklace is made of paper beads rolled around a wooden skewer and sealed with Diamond Glaze. The paper is cut from maps my husband and I used on trips to the Pacific Northwest years ago. The large wooden bead has map pages lacquered to the outside as well. The beads are strung on red leather cording with a few very old Bali spacers I got from a bead trader in the early 1990’s. This necklace is one of my absolute favorites; it is meaningful to me and looks good with many things I wear.
I often wear this on trips or when I really want to take a trip but can’t.
Those maps…
Way back when my husband and I would travel very lightly and liked to do a lot of aimless walking/hiking on trips. We headed out to the Olympic Peninsula in a rented mini-van with a bag filled with fruit, dried salmon, wine, chocolate and good bread. We used to rent minivans because way back when you could pop the center bench seat out and flip it around. Fully recline all those seats and it is a twin bed. We drove the first day and filled our eyes with the fog, the trees, the beauty. We parked that evening all alone at a rocky beach and prepared to eat a fabulous dinner of fresh plums, smoked salmon, goat cheese, bread and a bottle of wine. Oops, no bottle opener!
The beach was still amazing.
This picture was taken by my friend Jeana who had to take about 40 pictures until I was happy. It was dusk and we were sitting on a deck with friends, laughing and joking…that evening was a bit like a mini-vacation so I am glad I had the necklace on. Jeana would NEVER take a camping trip without a bottle opener; she’s very prepared and thoughtful.
This tutorial shows you how to make similar beads to the large map-covered bead.
This necklace was made by Tracey Johnson of wooden and fiber beads strung on leather cording. The leather is knotted between the beads and then crimped around silver rings. The necklace is really bright and very happy. I think it is at least two years old and I wear it a lot in the summers. I have recently been looking at a lot of Jonathan Adler’s decorating work and this necklace, worn with a dress of fuschia Indian silk and a black-and-white snow leopard printed sweater is a bit Adler.
Or addled.
Seriously, if you like to mix prints and colors, as I do, you walk a thin line, daily, between Crazy and Total Freaking Genius.
To see more of Tracey’s work please visit her store here.
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