Friday, October 16, 2009

The Wagashi necklace...

This week, I re-started making the jewellery, and it was about time! This first necklace, which I called Wagashi, was pretty much inspired by my friend Sapphire pictures and posts on her fantastic blog, for both Wagashi and mochi . And also, because I love eating them myself!

(Sapphire, I hope you will enjoy this one! The flavours available here today are: plum, green tea and Sakura!)

The main beads are brand new Antica Murrina ones. I bought two bracelets from them some months ago (including the "Sweet" one from the link), and I recycled them to make some necklaces, one of them being Wagashi. You might ask why did I bother buying them in the first place, just to end up by recycling everything? Well, they were elasticated bracelets. The problem with this kind of bracelet is that the beads get to close to my skin, and I dislike that (makes me itchy). I much prefer normal, non-elasticated bracelets where you can adjust the length with extra links, for example. Also, mind you, the beads were too big and I have the clumsy habit of bumping my hands (and myself) into everything, not to mention getting stuck on door knobs, for example. So, even if I decided to use them, it would sooner or later end up in disaster. Really.

The problem is that I fell in love with the beads, so... Murrina says these beads, that have a "crispy" appearance, are like "sugar-coated", and it's true. They look edible. I think I already bought it with Wagashi in mind, adding to the fact that they called it "Sweet", so, just could not avoid it. Sweet, yes, but with a Japanese twist (in my mind at least!). As I said before, the colours are very appropriate: pale pink for Sakura, acid green for matcha (green tea), and purple for plum, all on a delectable yokan base!

Here is Wagashi:


For this piece, I used:

- Nine Antica Murina sugar-coated beads in shades of plum, pale pink and acid green;
- Two rose quartz pebble beads;
- Two Murano-style stripy beads, one cylindrical and one squared;
- Two Czech glass flat swirly flat beads that look like mini-lollipops;
- Small Chinese glass pearls in green;
- Several Swarovski bicones in different sizes and colours;
- Several stardust silver-plated small, round beads;
- Four ornate Tibetan Silver large spacers;
- Tibetan silver S-hook clasp.

Note this is my first asymmetrical necklace. I used different shades, sizes and shapes, and tried to spread them over in a quirky pattern. Well, almost! There is a bit of symmetry there, now that I look at it closely, but not as severe as in my previous pieces. It is also longer and bulkier, pretty much on the current trend of chunky, statement necklaces - although not as much maybe. I've been seeing much bigger pieces around lately.

Some details follow... Please click on the thumbnails for magnified views.

The 1st picture shows some of the Murrina beads in detail, along with Swarovski bicones and Tibetan silver spacers. The 2nd one on the right displays one of the rose quartz pebbles, one Czech glass lentil bead, a small Chinese glass pearl and more of the bicones and stardust round beads.


Here we can see the Murano-style stripy beads, with a lovely layer of silver foil, as well as some Sakura-coloured Murrina and Chinese green glass pearls. A Tibetan silver spacer can also be seen, as well as the stardust beads.

And, finally, some extra pictures showing different views. Enjoy!

2 comments:

  1. Dear Andrea:

    What a lovely neclace! Looks so yyyyyyummmmmmmy!
    To my surprise, I know two types of wagashi just like your green round beads. One of them is made by Minamoto no kichoan. You can see the sweet here: http://e-suwako.seesaa.net/article/123899812.html

    The above is a blog site because Minamoto~ makes this sweet only in early summer. This is a muscat type. Very yummy! The other is made by Tsuruya Yoshinobu and is a green tea type.

    I'm very impressed with several kinds of Sakura-coloured beads. So delicate and pretty. Wine colored ones remind me of azuki flavored wagashi.

    This wagashi neclace may be called "Hanachiru-sato"; a chapter and also one of the main characters in the Tale of Genji because it looks very romantic as if it has a story!

    And thanks for your link. I've left my comment in my site too. Hugs!! I enjoyed this post very much!

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  2. Dear Sapphire!

    Thank you so much for the lovely comment! I am glad you liked it!

    Now that you mention Hanachiru-sato, I think i't a coincidence because 2 weeks ago I ordered a perfume from Kyoto,Kousaido (they make incense). Their scents are all based in the Genji Monogatari and mine is called Hikaru Genji. They also have a scent in the collection called Hanachiru-sato! I thought it was the one I ordered but now I checked I got the Hikaru one, but Hanchiru-sato is in my list! Their website is... http://www.kousaido.co.jp. It was abit of a coincidence that you mentioned it, no?

    I had a previous comment/reply for you, but I think it was deleted, sometimes I get a bit lost with this Blogger.

    I love Minamoto no Kichoan! Unfortunately the closer shop for me is in London! And thank you so much for the link!

    Again, I lived hearing from you! Have the most perfect Sunday and talk to you later!

    Matane,

    a.

    ReplyDelete