Made it: The Bead Hoard Returns

I've provided documentation of my cross stitch and doodling craftiness here before (just search under the "made it" tag) and may have mentioned that I dabble in crochet (...right? Well anyway, I just did) but my OG craft that I've been doing the longest and most consistently is jewelry making. Sure it's taken a backseat to other ventures lately but a couple days ago I dragged out the Bead Hoard (pics below) and the first thing to come out of that is....

...This necklace!

I'm realizing now that since I avoided having my face in the picture, it looks like I have a never-ending neck. Just imagine I'm part giraffe if you'd like because I've lost too much of my good light to take another picture.

There's the close up, dramatically draped on my- matching- current read (finally/sadly on my last Lord of the Rings book!). I used brownish taupe/iridescent round top-drilled Czech glass beads accented by olive green Swarovski bicones (that's the bead shape, like 2 cones stuck together on the round end). I put 3 of the round beads per jump ring (an unsoldered circle of wire essentially), strung the bicones on some wire, and attached it all with even more jump rings, a shit-ton of jump rings. I then attached that to a bit of gunmetal grey leather cording, the clasp attaching at the junction between the 2 materials (you can see it on the left up there).

Got that? Good.

Aside from not having enough of those Czech glass beads to make it all the way around, I like to make sure my necklaces are comfortable to wear- having a bunch of those beads resting on your neck all day isn't the best, and replacing half of it with leather cord brings the weight down quite a bit. And plus, it's cost effective and I like the contrast. It's a win-win. I have a bit of a slouch (my spine is special) so necklaces tend to hang directly off my neck as opposed to resting on the base of my neck like most people so it's an important consideration for me.

It's been a while since I broke out the ol' pliers and it felt good. I must've let my subconscious* desire to leave the house for any other reason than the grocery store drive my creative juices because I definitely made something I won't be able to wear to work- what a mess that would get all tangled up in my work lanyard/what a disaster if it got yanked off (ahhh the joys of working in a psych hospital). Bracelets are much easier/acceptable/safer for me to wear so I hope to make some of those this weekend. They're more of a challenge since you don't have as much physical space to make something interesting so you've got to be more creative with shapes and colors and how you bring it all together... not a bad thing for sure, it's thinking about things like that that keep me coming back to jewelry making.

That and the fact that it's a craft that produces jewelry. That you can wear.

I recklessly stood on my wheely chair to take that picture so you're lucky I made it out alive to make this post.

The above picture is what I lovingly call my Bead Hoard. Jewelry making is not the cheapest hobby in the world by any means and it's all too easy to amass a whole bunch of stuff. That's about 94% of my stash- I've got more stuff I don't use much but can't bear to get rid of for whatever reason squirreled away on the shelves under the long part of my desk on the right. Below are a couple close ups- I didn't take any of the stuff on the right because that's pretty much just tiny bags of findings and tools. 

Most of my stash is natural stone beads because that's what I like to work with the best, but I don't limit myself, especially because I also love bright, fun colors that you don't always see naturally occurring. I love doing some slightly off-beat pearl necklaces too, ones strung traditional style on knotted silk cord but with the addition of some non-tradition beads/findings, so I have quite a bit of freshwater pearls. If you dig around enough though, you'll find wood, glass, bits of found objects, you name it. 

Aside from making necklaces I can't wear much, I've been working on clearing out my all-too-large collection of incomplete projects, broken items, or things I stashed away because I decided I didn't like them anymore, which is why you see piles of stuff hanging around on my bins in the picture above. It's a good lockdown project because I see this taking me AGES since I've also been meaning to clear out the jewelry I have in my jewelry boxes/hangers. I'll have to share a picture of that because I have a whole packed jewelry nook and it makes me happy.

I'm feeling pretty good about coming into this weekend- I have so many projects that I'm excited about getting into, a feeling I don't get as often as I'd like, definitely not as often as I used to.  That's ultimately the feeling I'm always chasing- not happiness as I wouldn't say I was sad really, even when I'm feeling my most listless, but that invigorating feeling of getting excited about getting stuck into something.

Have a great weekend!

*Just joking, it's most definitely not subconscious whatsoever.