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Friday, May 26, 2017

Building.....achieving

My latest order from Helen Chalmers included quite a few sets of these absolutely wonderful butterfly beads.  Today's post was going to have a series of earrings featuring these beads.  That was the plan and here's what actually happened.


(photo by Helen Chalmers)

Step 1: I wrapped brass squares with seeds and added 4 strands of cup chain on each square.  Let me tell you, attaching those cup chain strands was the most time consuming process ever, I almost gave up numerous times.  I finished them but you won't see me wire wrapping cup chain strands like this again for a while.  I need to get over how many hours I spent on just that one thing.



Step 2: is where I add the butterfly beads to the wrapped squares, and I did....but they just wouldn't work.  They didn't look right with the squares - I forgot to take a photo (oopsi) but they didn't look great.  It was probably the shapes - squares and lentils....
I found these beautiful lampwork caps by Beth Mellor and they were perfect.  This was the second most time consuming task in this project.  You know how you have your mind set on particular beads (butterfly pairs from the first photo in this case) and then how it becomes absolutely impossible to look beyond those beads when they don't work out! Argh, it took me forever to find something that looked just right on top of the squares


Step 3: I still wanted to add more on top of the caps.  I played around with plain brass connectors for a while and finally settled on this.



Step 5: I tested these out (ear wires changed) to make sure they feel and look ok and they did.  they are now listed in my shop <3

Those butterfly beads, well I'll figure something else out for them....maybe for a future post :)

See you again soon <3

Suhana xxx

My Etsy shop: Buttoned Up Beads



16 comments:

  1. And they have turned lovely... I love all the shapes together..fun and funky.

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  2. Sounds like a bit of a frustrating process, but they came our beautifully!

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  3. Everything falls in place in this geometric combo, just like any other detail! The wire wrapping of the rhinestone cup chain - ingenious!

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  4. Oh my, you are the wire-wrap queen Suhana. And your use of cup chain is always inspiring. These turned out wonderfully. You can tell a whole lotta love has been going into these.

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  5. I know the feeling. These earrings turned out wonderful. Whimsical yet super classy and unique. LOVE! Well done! Glad you didn't give up on the design xoxo

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    1. Thank you! Me too, I do have lots of half done earrings where I did give up 😅

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  6. You are an earring architect my friend. Serious building going on with these beautiful earrings!

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    1. Haha thank you!!! It felt like I was building something 😂

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  7. Your earrings are delightful. I can't even begin to tell you how often I have fussed over a design that just won't come together the way I have envisioned it. Argh! Your earrings were definitely worth the effort, though

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    1. Thank you!!! I know the feeling. I have tonnes of unfinished earring projects because I couldn't get them to look like the way they did in my head :)

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  8. Suhana, I adore these! The geometric shapes are such a perfect contrast to the sparkly chain and the flower beads (Beth's beads are always to die for), and you found the perfect construction.

    I know exactly how you must have felt when you were working for hours trying to achieve a vision that just wasn't going to work. I have done that so very many times...only to find something else that takes my vision a few degrees off my original path and works perfectly. Sigh...the process, ain't it crazy?

    I love your process and your work. Brava! xoxo

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  9. It's so nice to know that others go through those struggles too! So many talented artisans, like you, make it appear "so easy," when viewing your finished product. And sometimes I think that I'm the only person who goes through those struggles. I really thank you for sharing this story. The earrings are amazing! As your work always is. I must say that I have never heard the term "cup chain," and I wonder what was it that made it so difficult. Shape, size, both, something else? Regardless, they're beautiful.

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