pendant swap

Finally got my goodies off in the mail yesterday for the pendant swap Billie Sanchez of Flagstaff is running on About Jewelry Making. However, after I mailed them I chanced to reread the directions post, and she may not want all of them, 'cause I forgot she said "no seed beads." Also she didn't mention metal pendants, and I sent my minuet chain mandala.

Most participants are probably sending focal beads for MAKING pendants, but I don't really have many beads that sit there and say, "I'm a focal." So I mostly sent made pendants, along with co-ordinating beads to use with them in a necklace, and maybe matching earrings. I was collecting up my scattered stash and UnFinishedObjects at the same time, and finding various bits of treasures I never had made into finished items. So, without remembering Billie's original rules, I sent along a couple of partly done seed-bead focal components. I didn't just send bags of seed beads, but one packet is a net-stitched little star-form centered with an embedded 8mm cobalt bead, with GF corrugated saucers and beads accenting the rim,and another is three of my morning glories that were originally planned to go on the broad collar of netting that I never made. I thought they might make a great spring pendant confection done up with some green stem/leaf construction of some sort, and included two packets of green beads. So now I have to e-mail Billie and see if she wants to send them back to me. Oops.

Then I sent two pieces of stone focal and wirework.One is the aventurine nugget I wrapped with a free-form GF swirl with a basket-weave sort of a bail, that I did last year. I packaged up some assorted shapes of aventurine beads that might be used with it.Then there is the (really cool, if I do say so myself) big bead of Russian serpentine that I did for YOJ last month, with the curl of heavy copper surrounding it. Again, I sent along a few matching beads. These are the Russian serpentine beads I got as part of my haul from the Rings & Things Dallas show last March. Sadly, I missed the one last month.

I hope someone will be taken with my "fetish" construction with the brass buffalo, and feather, and turquoise Zuni-type bear. They're put together with a twist of copper and silver wire, with a silver-plate bead and a couple of gorgeous red platino seeds that a woman representing the Colombian Craft Connection sold me at Bead Renaissance at Grapevine. I need to pass along that babies shouldn't be allowed to play with that piece, because the platino seeds could be toxic if chewed on. Assuming they are harvested sustainably, they make a wonderful natural, renewable, non-dyed alternative to coral, very "green" in philosophy.

Another artifact of my initial forays into wire design is the pendant made of GF wire spirals and furnace-glass beads. I sent an additional pair of the smaller beads, plus some GF ones. I really love this kind of bead, and wish I could afford more of them. Unfortunately they must be fairly difficult to make. $15/ounce seems to be the going price, and if you like the big chunky ones, that's not very many beads!

My last packet is just components — rose quartz donuts and fiber optic beads in various sizes and shades of green, plus some rose quartz beads.

Now I have to just wait to see what the postman brings me in return! I will try to get organized to show it here, as well as what I make.