Bead Table Wednesday, Issue #3: Vintage Possibilities

I'm getting ready for my next Artbeads.com Design Partner Portfolio project, which will require me to incorporate a vintage item into my jewelry design.  I went rooting through my stash and came up with a few things ... now I just can't make up my mind!

The vintage fabric is courtesy of a few dresses that were given to me by a family friend, handsewn in the 1960s with these incredibly psychedelic patterns.  I've already started using the fabrics in other projects, experimenting with sewing and shaping techniques.  The porcelain pendant, rose brooch and copper-tone brooch (that one's bottom left) were all picked up from a local thrift store.  The striped blue-and-white glass cabochon in oxidized copper setting were previously part of a bracelet; in fact, you've already seen its part of the bracelet's "repurposement" in the Winter Enchantment project!  I have a few more pieces left over that are in need of a home.  The antiqued silver owl pendant with lucite setting - owls are always on trend, it seems - are vintage from the '70s, if I remember my mother telling me correctly.  (The pendant belonged to my grandmother.)  The gold-plated Chanel charm - an authentic! - was part of an awesome find Nick happened upon at a garage sale; the thoughtful man he is, he bought them for me and surprised me with them.  I've this one left, and I'll need to make it special.  The gold-plated piece with filigree detail was part of a necklace I had picked up at an antiques store in Sherkston Shores whilst on vacation with Nick and his family.  The gold-plated rope chain originally held the asymmetrical heart-shaped pendant that found its setting in the Desert Heart necklace, part of the Bead Soup Collection.  Maybe it'll find it's way into something here?

I already have about three or four ideas cookin', but I gotta focus and pick one.  Which ones are your favourites?

Bead Table Wednesday, Issue #2: DBC Does 'Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood'

Y'all folks are so kind with the previous - and my first! - BTW post, thank you so much for your comments!  If you enjoy my posts, you ought to check out the Flickr page featuring beaders and jewelry makers from across the world, sharing what's on their bead table every week!

Last week, you loved the Rockslide necklace, which will be available for sale in my Etsy shop very soon with other new designs.  This week is a very unique design concept and thrifted repurposed piece I picked up during a shopping spree at Value Village.  (Oh my, I will have to brag about that stuff in a later post.  Incredible finds!)  Nick has been playing quite a bit of Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, an XBOX video game with its setting in 16th century Rome/'present day' 2012, with an epic yet complicated story about an ancient brotherhood called the Assassins and their lineage as they try to protect mankind from the Templars and protect an ancient 'biblical' artifact with the potential of great power to whoever possesses it.  It's a pretty damn cool game.  Eighty-five percent of the game's characters and events are historically accurate accounts of the House of  Borgia's power and influence through 15th and 16th centuries in Italy.  It's a pretty cool game, and he plays it a lot.  He's playing it right now.  (Not just as I type this, but probably as you're reading this a few days from now, too!)

You play as Ezio Auditore, a trained Assassino like his father, hailing proudly from city of Firenze, Italy.  The traditional Assassin costume is white and red, his traditional armour is patterned much like feathers of birds wings.  Nick had been bugging me for a while to make something inspired from the game, and I just happened across the coolest find at Value Village.  This'll be perfect for an Assassin's Creed-inspired piece.

Bead Table Wednesday, Issue #1

Welcome to what's-on-my-table-this-week!  I had discovered Bead Table Wednesday, or also affectionately known as 'BTW' (ha!), through Sue at Hello Gorgeous Design.  I found a nifty button on her blog that lead me to a Flickr group of international beaders sharing the mess on their own bead tables!

I'm a little too embarrassed to show you my actual workspace right now, I really let myself go.  I'm in the middle of a mass exodus of bead-sorting and material-purging, some may find itself for sale on my Etsy shop.  I'm also happy for the opportunity to review what I have in my own stash and focus on what materials I've been using the most lately.  You know what they say, "One man's trash is another man's treasure."  This stuff certainly isn't trash, it just got lost in the mix and, consequently, I lost interest.  There are a few that, with fresh eyes, I find new ideas and stash it away for later, like these ones here!