I found a new shop. . . . and No Bones About It, it is filling THE missing link in my stash. Bone beads. Many, many bone beads. All hand dyed!! Rustic but not too rustic. Many different colors in a variety of sizes. The shop is new; just opened a couple of months ago, and already her sales are taking off. I'll give you just a bit more in a minute. No, the shop name is not No Bones About It, although that would've been a good one. I just like the phrase, and it is apropos. :)
My earrings today are my own rustic copper pieces. They started off as a square piece of 24-gauge copper sheet metal. After cutting it in half and giving it a very basic, rough shape, the rest of the work was done with a dremel, until the shape was what I wanted and all the edges were smooth. They actually had a different incarnation before I settled on this one. Originally they were meant to be vertical; it just wasn't working. So then when I turned it horizontally, the holes I had made for the first idea were not in very good places for the new look. But I worked that out by adding more and creating a design that would look great even if the holes were a little wonky. Five strands of 4mm and 10mm hand-dyed bone beads were strung on waxed Irish linen. The "handles" were a bit of a challenge, and I wasted a bit of leather, but in the end I was happy with it. It is 1.5mm natural-dye grey leather.
The texturing was done with a simple texture hammer. The one used has two different designs, lines at an angle, and the other side is circles. Liver of sulfur was the oxidizing agent, and they are sealed with matte finish Clear Guard.
I could have selected any number of color combinations. I considered turquoise, red and sort of a lavender/grey, but I use that palette a lot, the turquoise and red. It works great with copper. But I wanted something different, different for me. And I often use "bright" in general with copper for the contrast. So I went in a different direction this time. I decided on the peachy/lavender beads, lemon/lime, and aqua/green/turquoise :) , and the pale green 10mm beads.
One of the awesome things about these beads is many of them have a variety in the package, or the strand. For example, the larger green beads, which have great speckles and stripes in most of this rustic strand, run all the way from this lighter green to a deep olive.
When I find something this good, of course there is that initial thought. . . . I'm not telling anyone about this. lol That lasts about five seconds. I can't do that, for a couple of reasons. First of all, I want her shop to be successful. I think there will be many who will love her beads, and they'd eventually find it anyway; I just want to give it a jump-start. And I can "see" the wonderful work so many people will be doing with them. I meant it when I said these have filled a hole in my stash.
Here is the basic information for the shop I've referred to. The name is "DyedBoneBead". The young woman who is the owner and the bead maker is a college student in Nashville, TN; her name is Ashley Krause. I know many of you will love it. The red type above is a link to her shop.
Thank you so much for taking the time to stop by today.
I am really enjoying being a part of this great group of designers and creators. We hope that all of YOU also enjoy what we're doing here at EE. We are always happy to receive your comments, and happy to answer questions.
Thank you! And Happy Tuesday.
Norbel - She Flies Again
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