Pink and Amethyst Clay ~ Terracotta Necklace Set

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As I mentioned in my last post, I have been working a lot with polymer clay ~ terracotta these past few weeks. I am totally hooked on to it, every minute I get,  I am either working on it or thinking up ideas for this type of jewelry. So far I am totally enjoying the process and have begun to get more comfortable with this style of jewelry making :)



This pink and amethyst set is one of the first ones that I have tried using silk thread for the necklace.  The thread makes the necklace very light and simple, making it perfect to dress up any simple top/ casual wear or Indian dresses like salwar kameez. 

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Green and Rust Clay ~ Terracotta Necklace Set

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These past few weeks I have been working a lot with clay and I have to admit I find it fascinating. To be able to create beads and pendants of the design and color of your choice is very exciting. But initially the thought of making an entire necklace from clay was very intimidating. Even though I was a little daunted by the thought I took it on because I wanted to try at least one.

 

One of the first pieces I made was in a neutral metallic gold and brick red color that I really loved. I haven't taken a picture of that piece yet, when I do will post in this space. Once that turned out well, I began getting more  enthusiastic to try more of this kind of jewelry.  This is the second necklace I made with clay, I went with a classic green and rust combination for this one. Let me know what you think of this. In the meanwhile I am off to work on some more pieces :)

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Clay Earrings ~ Amethyst colored Jhumkas

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Clay jewelry has always been something I admired and it has been on my list of things to try for a while now. Finally in the last few weeks I got around to trying out some basic beads and shapes with clay and have enjoyed the process so far. This jhumkas (bell shaped Indian earrings) are one of the first projects I completed with clay. 



I kept the design pretty basic this time since I was just starting out with this kind of jewelry. Painted the clay a nice metallic rhinestone color and used some rhinestone to add some contrast and border. I also added a small tear drop bead to hang from the center to give it that authentic jhumka feel :)

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DIY Tray with paint chips ~ With Stepwise tutorial.

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Its been a while since I tackled any home decor project. But recently I did a few that were very satisfying. Every time we decide to paint a room in our home, I end up with a lot of paint chips of the colors that we consider for the room. After selecting the paint I had been holding on to the other chips with the hope of using it in something. I have seen a lot of people make wall art with it and I always thought that might be something I would make with those chips. But I never got around to making wall art with it. The other day I picked up a few unfinished trays, hoping to paint them and use them around the house and as a prop for my other blog. Being a food blogger means I am constantly thinking about props for my pictures :)



Anyway when I was thinking of what color to paint the tray, it suddenly struck me that maybe those paint chips I had saved since last year could probably be used as a design for the tray.  So I got out my trusty paper punches, cut the paint chips into floral shapes, painted the tray and stuck the paper "flowers" on the tray and applied mod podge and voila..... a couple of trays :) These trays hardly took much time to put together too and I already got to use this tray as a prop for one of my pictures recently. Although I lot of it didn't show up in the pic, I was happy with the color of the tray, it really when with the other shades in the pic.



Items you will need
Unfinished wooden tray
Unused paint chips Or any colored card stock paper
Paper punches in desired shapes
I used one 1 and 1/2 inch floral and another 1 inch floral pattern.

acrylic colors in two complementary or contrasting shades (or just one color for the entire tray)
Mod podge
All purpose glue

Method
Punch the paint chips in desired shapes, or if you do not have paper punch it can be cut into different shapes too. Stick the smaller shaped paint chip on the bigger shaped one. I used contrasting colors and random combinations. Allow to dry.

Paint the unfinished tray in color or colors of choice. For one tray I painted it in a combination of gray and metallic silver. The other I used black on the inside and burnt sienna color on the outside. Allow the paint to dry thoroughly.

Apply a little mod podge on the back of the larger flower, keep aside for a few seconds and stick to the inside of the tray. Continue on till the design is complete. Allow to dry.

Apply a layer of mod podge on top of the paint chips covering the entire surface of the inner tray. Allow  to dry. Apply one more layer of mod podge. Allow to dry. Enjoy the tray :)

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Pale Blue Agate Beads Necklace Set

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 These past few weeks I have made quite a few new sets, but when it comes to taking pictures of them, somehow I never seem to find the time to do that. Finally this week I started to take some pictures of some of the sets and I hope to have them all in this space fairly soon. I also have some rather big changes and announcements with regard to this space that I will be making soon. I am in the process of putting things in place and when everything is kind of set up, will let you all know about it.



Moving on to this necklace, I had these really pale agate beads with me that I wanted to use in a necklace. I used them with contrasting navy teardrop czech beads and some silver toned spacers. This necklace is perfect for both casual and dressy tops or Indian dresses.

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Golden Square crystal and wood beads necklace set

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 I've had these wood beads sitting in my bead box for quite a while and though I have used them in earrings and love how light and elegant they look, have never used them in necklace before now. The other day when I was planning a necklace with some square golden beads, I realized that the wood beads would look good along with them. So I made this very light necklace set with this combination.



I have also added some tiny golden rondelle beads beside the square beads. The design is very simple and the necklace is very light and comfortable. It looks good with any kind of casual top or salwar kameez set.

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Multicolored crystal and carnelian beads necklace

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Quite a while ago, I made a multi colored two strand necklace that I somehow never got around to posting in this space. In that necklace I used a combination of cool blues, white, lavender and other shades in the blue family of colors for the necklace. Since then I haven't attempted any other multi colored necklaces. Finally last week I made this set with multicolored crystal beads. I used a combination of light lemon yellow crystal beads, golden brown beads, olive green beads and red crystal beads.  I also added some carnelian rice beads to the design. 



This is a very simple design, but it turned out well and looks very elegant.  The colors in this necklace reminded me of the hues of autumn :) This set is good to dress up anything from a casual or dressy top to a saree or any other Indian dress. Since it has a lot of colors it is easy to match this with so many dresses too.

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Multicolored Black Crystal Necklace Set

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As I mentioned in my last post, recently I got a chance to make quite a few pieces of jewelry. This is one of the necklaces I made. This one is made with a multi colored black crystal, in the sense the crystal is not just black, it has different hues of pink and brown and other colors in it.



I am not sure the pictures shows the color of the crystal precisely but I really like these beads a lot. They are so pretty and these are the kind of beads that work with any color combination, so they are very versatile as well. In this necklace I used silver spacers to contrast with the black, but kept the design simple because the beads are so pretty as is, they do not need too much spacers and stuff to enhance them. This necklace is a nice way to dress up any casual top, tunic, salwar or even a saree. :)

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Sandstone Necklace

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Finally after quite a break from beading, I got a chance to start and finish a few necklaces recently. I have had some sandstone beads sitting in my bead box for quite a while now and I decided to make something with them. This necklace with both small and large sandstone beads is the result......



There is something about the sandstone that I feel works very well with ethnic clothes. And in this necklace with the combination of sandstone and golden beads, it definitely works well for all kinds of Indian dresses/ sarees.

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Blue metallic and teardrop beads necklace set

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Sorry folks it's been a while since I posted anything in this space. It isn't that I am not making anything, it just happens that for my jewelry I am not good with taking pictures yet. Surprising isn't it? especially considering the fact that because of my other blog I almost always keep my camera handy.  Yet when it comes to taking pictures of my jewelry,  I somehow do not end up taking as many pictures as I should. Anyway I am working on taking much more pictures of my creations these days and hope to post here often. Here is a set I made recently....



I had some metallic blue beads that were sitting in my bead box for a while now and I wanted to use it in a necklace. Finally when I got some natural stone teardrop beads recently I thought of using both of these together in a necklace. I also added some red crystal beads for some contrast and used tiny gold beads and daisy spacers between each beads. Here is another picture of this necklace....

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Red Teardrop earrings

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It's been a long while since I have been active in this space. I know, I know, I have already mentioned this in the past. It's just that I haven't had a chance to take any pictures of any of my recent work and hence this lull in blogging :-(  



Anyway this week I wanted to work with these red teardrop beads to make earrings and did not want to use any of the usual spacers and other beads in combination with it. So I decided to try something different with wire, I just shaped the wire into a fancy "S" shape and used that in place of a spacer. I loved how it turned out and this has given me lots of new ideas for other kinds of earrings :)

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