Serenissima necklace

Yesterday, I have finished my blue necklace. I decided to call it Serenissima, as a little tribute to Venice - where Murano is, and all those beautiful glasses come from.

"Serenissima" means "the most serene" and refers to the title given to the republic of Venice - La Serenissima - which lasted over a thousand years (until the end of the XVIIIth century, precisely).

I used blue beads, trying to imagine Venice on a crisp sunny day, surrounded by the waters and the sun light reflecting on its surface and on the glass.

I have used 3 blue wedding cake beads (Murano obviously), Czech crystals, tiny faux pearls and gold-plated beads/spacers and clasp, as well as some tiny opalite beads (the blue ones at the end, a real pain to thread due to their almost invisible holes):

This necklace is shorter than the previous ones, thus, I made a little extension chain with some links I have here and one knot cover. I will have to replace it for the links are a bit big, and I also want to add a tiny bead to it. I only had links on that size, and also did not have any golden pins to make the bead, but I am going to buy some on Saturday, hopefully!

Some close-ups below. First, the focal bead, in aqua blue and similar to the black one in the Amarena necklace...

And, finally, the two little tubular beads, that are very pretty and delicate...

And, finally, another view here - I love "rolling" the necklaces when taking pics!

The Amarena necklace

I have decided to name my necklaces. This morning, I have finished my Amarena, or "cherry" in Italian. Why an Italian name? Because of all the Murano beads, of course, and because I love that country. Why "cherry"? Because of the two big pink beads surrounding the focal bead:


It was very hard to make it. Mostly because I firtsly threaded it with a silk cord. It turns out that I had to redo everything because I missed one or two black beads and then the cord ended up too short, and so on. Also, it is hard to thread with silk since it is too soft and you need to use a needle. But that's not quite the problem: due to the friction of the beads, the cord may end up frailed, and the fibers start to unravel. A pain. That's why I decided to do it again with a nylon wire - as it's usually done, it seems!

Some details:


The above is the focal bead, a wedding cake Murano in black, really big and pretty. The ones beside it are the cherries!

I also used...

This is a Japanese Tensha bead, which is made of acrylic and has a lovely shiny design with a floral motif. They surround the medium Murano beads and the cherries.

And this is the clasp:

The clasp is a small toggle one, gold-plated.

I basically used here:

- Murano beads - all black ones, cherries and focal;
- White-foiled beads (probably Chinese);
- Czech Ghost white beads;
- Tensha beads;
- Gold-plated toggle, spacers and discs.

A red necklace - the Fragola

(PS... I am reposting this entry as to include the necklace name... Andrea, 26th Nov'08)

Another update on my necklace adventures! Here is the last one, that I made on Sunday night... Decide to name it Fragola, which means "Strawberry" in Italian...


Again, I mostly used Murano beads (as least the 3 big ones), gold-plated and bronze little balls, and Czech crystals. Well, 2 Swarovski bicones as well - but they are tiny.

The picture had to be taken with flash, since it was way too dark here last morning - even with all windows open. Gray, rainy Irish weather!

Here is some more views, just in case...


And a little close-up (this time, no flash, but still visible)...

New necklaces!

(PS... I am reposting this entry as to include the necklace names... Andrea, 26th Nov'08)

Here are two necklaces that I made yesterday:

Portofino

This one was made using 4 aqua Murano beads, silver-plated spacers and focal bead from Bali, cotton thread in the same shade and knots to hold the pieces in place.

In detail...



The knots cane be seen (barely) under the spacer beads.

And the second one:

Violeta

This one I made using 3 lovely vintage Wedding Cake beads from Murano, gold-plated and bronze-coloured little balls, polished Czech beads as spacers, and other Czech iridescent crystal beads all over - including the tubular ones and the faceted gold ones. All vintage. The Czech beads I have recycled from two necklaces I had bought 25 years ago. They were intact, as new, really. The new necklace is all in shades of dark blue and amethyst/dark purple.

Some details as follows...



The above are the Wedding Cake beads. They are much prettier in real life, under sunlight, when you can actually see the true colour and the light refracting though it.

The iridescent Czech beads in a close-up...

And, finally, the clasp...

It's a dog!

Yes, it is REALLY a dog. Not a piggy, not a "mini-cow", but an English bulldog called Rhimma. She belongs to my friend Marcia and loves going to my house in Rio - she even knows the way. She's really sweet...


(The title of this blog was suggested by David, her proud papa...)

Latest necklace pics - The Amalfi

(PS... I am reposting this entry as to include the necklace name... Andrea, 26th Nov'08)

Well, I could not wait to post the pics of my latest necklace (called Amalfi, teal green seas, to remember our trip to that town some years ago). I made it on Sunday, and people are liking it, which makes me very happy indeed...



I used here:

- 3 big Murano beads;
- 2 silver Czech Fire crystals;
- 10 round Amazonite beads;
- 8 oval Czech crystal beads;
- Silver plated Bali beads as spacers;
- Small irregular silver Czech beads instead of metal beads;
- Tiny silver balls and small crystal beads near the clasp;
- 1 silver S clasp.

In detail:



You can see the little seed beads and the two silver Czech Fire crystals. The seed beads are very irregular, but I like their asymmetry somehow.

I am right now in a "green" phase, since my colour tastes are always changing. Every time, every season, I may have a different favourite new colour. And the "queen" right now wears green.

The Amazonite beads have a gorgeous teal shade and a pretty, pigmented texture. These and the Muranos I bought in a lovely jewellery shop in Rio.

Necklaces

OK! Time to show a bit of what I've been doing lately! The necklaces, as mentioned on my previous post.

My 2 first necklaces were made of plastic beads, during my course. I learnt how to bead with nylon, and how to make pins and assemble a necklace only using metal chains. I also learnt a basic knot using a cotton thread for a more casual look.

Here they are:

Used nylon on this one...


On this one, I put beads together with eye pins and links, no thread.

So, these were my first ones! They look very unprofessional though, due to the quality of the beads (plastic, training purposes!), the fact that they were my first ones, and also the extremely poor quality of the pics themselves. If I don't have my tripod with me, I am at a loss, I must say. Also, having Mark to help me is essential, no?

To another one now... This one was remade from an existing necklace: not using all the beads, not following its original design (and bad finishing, by the way!), and adding completely new beads. That means I recycled a necklace that my Mother had and never used it. There are some nice Murano beads on that one, as well as wood, metal and crystals. No plastic! I liked the results and so did Mom...

Redesigned and recycled.

On my friend Marcia.

Unfortunately, this time I had to use the mobile camera, which is a very low res. This is because I had some problems trying to open the battery compartment on my camera and ended up by locking it up, d'oh... But it gives an idea.

Another one is an Antica Murrina pendant, also belonging to my Mom. The only thing I did here was to add some metal and black Murano beads and a gold-plated S-clasp. I reused the ribbon that came with it and shortened it a bit. My Mother has threaded the beads for me, so, I just redesigned it, no hands-on:


You can see the beads (Murano and gold-plated tubes) and new clasp.

I have also remounted a big Tibetan necklace for my Mom, that was completely broken. That took quite a long while, I must say, mostly because of the tiny chips of turquoise and jade. Could not get any decent pictures though, they were all completely out of focus. Again, the lack of a tripod (and probably old age too) is to blame. Hhhhmmmm...

Anyway, this was a long, long post.

(Tomorrow, I will publish the pictures of my newest necklace, that I made last Sunday.)

Back from Rio!

I am finally back from Rio, where I stayed 2 months, ie, since Aug'29th. I arrived last Wednesday and, since then, I am feeling a bit down - but it's always like this when I come back from my home town. I miss it lots!

By the way, Rio is still pretty and the weather was quite gorgeous - the way I love: not too cold, not too hot, just mild, breezy and perfect.

News in brief:

- Diet - I am on a diet since, dunno, July maybe? And all is working and going well. My Dietician is great, dr. Mary, here in Blackrock Clinic, I love her.

- Gym - along with the diet, I am going to the gym, here in Dublin and also while I was in Rio. That helped me loads too. I mean, helps me (present tense). However, since I came back, I did not go yet. Ha ha...

- Weird stuff (aka, "shit happens") - the day after I came back, I went to my local Post Office and when I left, I fell on the floor, face down. Yeah, I kissed the ground. Literally. The only thing I saw was people coming to help. Two lovely ladies brought me to their shop, where they helped me cleaning my face (blood everywhere) and gave me sweets. It seems I fainted, and it happened again inside the shop. Well, I cannot remember much, but it's true that I was a bit dizzy (as quite usually nowadays) and did not have breakfast, so... I am lucky that I did not break any teeth or nose though. Well, I am bruised - but even that is starting to clear up now.

- Jewellery - yes! That is great! I made a very basic jewellery course while in Rio, in a shop where I used to buy my own necklaces and stuff before! It was very good, and I was loving it. Well, I still am loving it because I've been making some nice necklaces and buying some beads and findings out of eBay lately. Next step will be a more detailed, advanced course if I can or perhaps a good book. I am super-interested in the materials that can be used and mixed: gemstones, glass, crystal, wood, porcelain and so on. No plastic though. I love the weight of real stones and glass instead. Wires and threads are also interesting me deeply right now! Anyway, will post some pictures of what I've done later tonight - or more certainly, tomorrow.

More new stuff...

When Mark came back from Toronto this week he brought me a lovely Murano necklace, from the Antica Murrina. It was even on my Wish List, although he did not know about it:

One of the things I love about it is the clasp, in the shape of the "ferro", or the bow iron of the gondola, an incontestable symbol of Venice. You can see it in the picture above, at the left-hand side, easily recognisable.

The necklace itself is made of multicoloured silk threads. I just love it. Anything Murano. Really.

And, finally, I have some pictures of my Dior Kitties that I have mentioned some weeks ago. They are really big and super-cute, measuring 1.5 inches - quite big for a mascot. They wear some of Galliano creations for Dior (Spring/Summer 08, I believe, the latest for sure).

The makeup is also amazing: you can see the new eye liner tendency, very marked and in bold colours, à la Amy Winehouse. The one that looks blue in the picture is actually purple. That outfit is really purple, not blue and I don't know why it insisted in turning out cobalt blue in the pics... Ah well... Another thing is the details in strass on both pairs of shoes and the orange dress. Gorgeous indeed. I am going to use it with my new mobile, of course!

My New Phone

On a whim, I have decided to get an upgrade for my phone. I was tired of my old Samsung, with a very crummy user interface and awful ringtones - and limited capabilities.

Went back to Sony-Ericsson and managed to get a W580i in Pink!

And it's a walkman too, which is more than welcome for me. I use it a lot in the gym, since I hate the songs they play there anyway. Mark even got a 8GB memory stick in Oslo for me, which makes it even better.

What I love about it is how easy it is to send and receive emails. The sound is also very, very good. I even downloaded the "One Missed Call" ringtone (Japanese version of course), and have Ai Enma (Jigoku Shoujo) waking me up every morning!

It's got some cool light effects too, as you can see on the pictures below. If the screensaver is purple, so will be the lights on the side and so on... VERY pretty!

And my current strap/netsuke is that super-kawaii Robot Kitty. Mark thinks it's a bit creepy though...