Hallowe'en Bead Charms

As promised in my previous post, here are the photos of the individual bead charms. (This is photo intensive.)

The wire I used for all the bead charms is annealed steel, which is dull dark grey in color, from the hardware store. (I don't remember what gauge I used, and I no longer have the package it came in.) It's pretty easy to work with, has a wonderful dark/gothic/vintage look to it, and was perfect for my Hallowe'en charms.

Many of the lampwork charms were bought at the 2008 Bead and Button show in Milwaukee, more than 10 years ago. Whatever business cards I may have collected, I have lost, unfortunately, and the beads don't exactly have signatures on them. I'll indicate where the beads came from if I recall, and who made them if I know.

There are 31 charms because there are 31 days in October, naturally.

Starting from the back and working around the silk braid.
1)

Purchased lampwork pumpkin bead (from the '08 Bead and Button show), a metal charm from a disassembled cheap bracelet, and cotton tassel that I made.
 

2)

 Needle-felted ghost (mine) and purchased lampwork bead (from the '08 B&B show).

3)

Ceramic heart with crackle glaze ('08 B&B), the orange cylindrical beads are ceramic from Greece (ebay), and the other beads are glass from my stash.

4)

Needle-felted bat (mine) and purchased lampwork bead (from the '08 B&B show).

5)

Lampwork pumpkin bead (from the '08 B&B show), wire "vine" tendril and beaded dangle (miscellaneous glass beads from my stash).

6)

Hand-carved ceramic ghost by Melinda Willis, glass lampwork bead (from the '08 B&B show).

7)

Lampwork bead (ebay), frame charm with miniaturized clipart from old Hallowe'en postcards and added text reading "flighty" sealed in with Diamond Glaze. Misc. black glass beads from my stash.

8)

Rolled paper bead (with Sharpie-accented edges) sealed with Hallowe'en glitter nail polish, misc. frosted glass beads from my stash, and a mokume gane polymer clay bead that I made.

9)

Needle-felted Frankenstein's monster* (mine) and purchased lampwork bead (from the '08 B&B show).

10)

Purchased Blue Moon Beads 2-piece cage, held together with an eye-pin, filled with orange organza ribbon, capped with acrylic "catseye" beads (all bought at Joann's or Michael's
ages ago).

11)

Two lampwork beads (from the '08 B&B show) connected with some scrolling wirework and size 6 seed beads.

12)

Needle-felted jack o'lantern (mine) and purchased lampwork bead (from the '08 B&B show).

13)

Découpaged wooden bead with text from the dictionary ("witch"), black Greek ceramic spacers (ebay), misc. orange beads from my stash, and a witch hat charm (from the '08 B&B show).

14)

The orange half-moon and the seed beads I had already, but the three lampwork beads are from the B&B show. I tried to get a decent photo of the black cylinder; it's got orange/copper sparkles in the glass, just gorgeous.

15)

Inspired by Macbeth (Act 4, scene 1), a tiny glass vial containing actual puppy teeth from my dog (snoring behind me). The label reads "tooth of wolf." Orange-red glass bead from my stash. Puppies usually swallow their baby teeth, and they're never found; these fell out on a tile floor and I heard them hit the floor and saved them.

16)

Polymer clay cauldron (mine) with some wirework intended to mimic a tendril of steam rising, and a charm with miniaturized vintage postcard art and added text "the witching hour" sealed with Diamond Glaze.

17)

A lampwork bead (B&B show) and a mini lotus book (from Making Mixed-Media Art Charms & Jewelry). It was fiddly, and being paper/cardboard, more fragile than some of the other charms. There's only one of these.

18)

Needle-felted vampire (mine) and purchased lampwork bead (from the '08 B&B show).

Middle tier:
19)

Découpaged wooden bead with text from the dictionary ("Halloween"), wirework and #6 seed beads from my stash.

20)

Needle-felted witch (mine) and purchased lampwork bead (from the '08 B&B show).

21)

Miniaturized postcard art with added text "heady autumn" sealed with Diamond Glaze in a frame charm, and a glass crackle bead in orange and green (from Joann or Michael's, from my stash).

22)

Another Macbeth charm, this one is "wool of bat." (It's just a bit of black wool roving, no bats were harmed in the making of this charm.) Glass beads from my stash.

23)

Three découpaged beads. The top is wooden, covered with bat-printed tissue paper, and text reading "bats in the belfry;" the middle is also wooden, covered with black and orange mulberry paper, and dictionary text for "bat;" the bottom is plastic and has a line drawing of a bat (trimmed to fit). Seed beads from my stash, black disk spacers are Greek ceramic (ebay).

24)

Spiral of wire and seed beads (from my stash) and a lampwork bead (from the B&B show).

25)

A frosted lampwork ghost (Melinda Willis) on a ring of #6 seed beads (from my stash) and a thin copper wire pentagram.

26)

Felt bead, covered with lace hem facing and beaded (#6 seed beads from my stash). The bead was one of the ones that was... imperfect... so I covered it with lace hem facing, which disguised the flaws in the bead but still showed the colors through the lace, and stitched beads to the top and bottom as I went. It's the same kind of bead as in the center of the top tier of the necklace.

27)

Découpaged wooden bead with text from the dictionary ("ghost"), wirework and #6 seed beads from my stash.

Top tier:
28)

The last of the Macbeth beads: this vial contains small iridescent seed beads (size 10 or 11) from my stash, labeled "eye of newt." Misc. orange and black beads from my stash.

29)

Patterned after vintage Beistle cardboard Hallowe'en cutouts, this is Shrinky Dink plastic, colored on the rough side with Sharpie Marker, découpaged with the dictionary page for "jack o'lantern" and sealed on the reverse with mulberry paper. Lampwork bead from the B&B show.

30)

Needle-felted cat (mine) and purchased lampwork bead (from the '08 B&B show).

31)

Lampwork ghost (Melinda Willis) on a trail of ectoplasm, purchased lampwork bead (from the B&B show).

If you like the way these charms look, I highly recommend that you seek out Peggy Krzyzewski and Christine Hansen's book, Making Mixed-Media Art Charms and Jewelry. I believe it's out of print, but finding a used copy or getting it through your library shouldn't be too hard. I love this book, I sincerely do. I wish I had more hours in the day, or another me, to make things that I get inspired by as I look through it.

 _________________________

*Y'all know that "Frankenstein" was the doctor who created the monster, right? Everyone calls the monster Frankenstein, but the poor big guy with the bolts in his neck (as we know him from the movie) calls himself "Adam" to Victor Frankenstein in the book, but "the creature" is how he is most often referred. Mary Shelley: the mother of modern science fiction. Praise her name.

A Necklace Ten Years in the Making

This is a project that was inspired by a mixed-media necklace Mom and I saw in Michaels (?) maybe 20 years ago (no really, it's been at least that long!), and started 10 years ago when I made the little needle felted monsters.

I finished the felted beads around the time I bought the book Making Mixed-Media Art Charms and Jewelry by Peggy Krzyzewski and Christine Hansen (©2010). I thought I'd done a blog post about those, and the other charms I made for this necklace... apparently I did not (oops). Anyway, I seriously love the book and highly recommend it if you like quirky little charm beads in a variety of media and levels of difficulty, with easy to follow photo instruction. (Looks like it's out of print, which means you'll have to find it used, or at your library.) The charms, all 31 of them (one for each day of October, naturally!), have been decorating this weird little wire tree and just sort of existing in limbo waiting for me to DO something with them. So today, that is my plan.

Getting started

Background inspiration while I work.

It's a cute little tree. I might have to make more charms when I'm done...

I have been amassing supplies for this project for awhile. This morning, when I went to the basement to gather everything together, I kept adding more to my pile. I may make my Fitbit steps today running up and down the stairs, because I forgot something else. [I did not.]

Sept. 14th

Since it was indecision that kept me from this project for so long, it's not a surprise that I didn't complete it in one go.

I got the foundation completed. It consists of a long braided main piece with recycled sari silk ribbon in deep orange and black, and orange ombré cotton floss, itself braided and worked with glass beads. I had a short piece of Hallowe'en lace that I stitched to the bottom of the sari braid. A thick, fuzzy I-cord of bright orange eyelash yarn and black ombré feather yarn join the sides as a central drape. Finally, a beaded upper drape consisting mainly of plastic beads (to keep the weight down) spelling out "JOYFUL SAMHAIN" on one side. The two drapes, plus the bottom arc of the necklace and sides, will give more anchoring points for the 31 charms without crowding them to the point they can't be seen individually. At least, that's the plan...

Before I had to stop work because mom and wife caught up with me, I had worked my way through five of the eight movies in the box set, and only attached six charms.

Just a few charms in place. Not much to show for hours of work.

Sept. 15th

Saturday mornings are when we have our comic discussion group. I got up early with the intention of getting a little done but got derailed with other things and lost most of the morning. ::shrug:: I'm not getting paid by the hour... or at all... on this personal project, so it's not like I can't take an easy morning.

This afternoon, I got them placed where I wanted them, after a great deal of fiddling. One of the bead-charms needed a little more work, so it has some fabric glue drying on it, anchoring the half-hitch knots of floss in place. As I to a photo of the placement/work-in-progress, it occurred to me that I should have a photo of each of the bead charms and how they were made (and from whom the beads were purchased, where applicable), but unfortunately some are already attached, and I don't want to mess up my placement. I'll finish the necklace, and then take photos of the charms in situ, as a separate post, an addendum, to this one.

Other than the ones I attached yesterday,
everything is just sitting on the table waiting to be attached.

I did spend a lot of time with the placement, because I wanted to consider the balance, color, physical and visual weight of the charms on the necklace. I didn't want two ghost charms right next to one another, or two orange ones. Freeform and random placement is something that I can admire when other artists do it, but it's something I can't quite make myself do.

After a little more rearranging, I started attaching the charms, and that went pretty quickly. Everything attached, it looks like this, laying flat on the table: 

And here's what it looks like worn:

Sept. 16th

After some consideration, I decided that the large metal cage ball and the chandelier drop charms need to switch places (see the finished photo above, the middle and bottom tiers, center charms). The metal ball is just too heavy for that I-cord and it sags too much. While that does make the chandelier charm hang down much lower than I would prefer, it is still an improvement, physical weight-wise.

Overall, I am satisfied with this. I accomplished what I intended to, but I'm not sure I fulfilled my vision, since my vision was never quite clear enough to begin with. I think I'd like to do another necklace like this (not Hallowe'en, necessarily) and give it another go.

It doesn't look anything like the thing I sketched so long ago, but designs evolve, just like people do. Frankly, I'm just happy that I was able to finish this thing that's been in my head for so very long!