Mini Collar a Week: Blues and Greens

Last week’s mini collar was a complete success, and a very welcome one as well. A spot of illness totally ruined my timetable, so it was fortunate that this collar turned out just right, and I was already finished stitching it before things got derailed. With a new week beginning, I can use the start of a new collar to help me get back on track.

The design process for this collar was a lot more difficult than it would seem from the simplicity of the piece. I wanted to use an as-yet uncut strand of glass drops, but I also didn’t want to use all of them up in a single necklace. At the same time, I wanted to make sure that their presence in the piece would be worthwhile, so it was important to use them well. It was also important not to repeat the focal design that I’d used for the previous two collars, so it took some time to decide exactly how to balance out the drops. Although there isn’t a lot of complicated pattern work in this collar, it showcases the drops very well, and has just enough color to be interesting. I’m really pleased with how it turned out.

I haven’t begun to work on the new collar design just yet. I did want to work on something without drops for a change of pace, so I’ll have to spend some time with my beads and see what happens. Cleaning up my workspace, which has been accumulating bead packets for a while now should prove inspiring!

Mortira

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Mini Collar a Week: Black Lotus

This week’s mini collar was a bit of a whim. When I opened my tray of daggers and drop beads to plan the next design in the challenge, I was once again a bit overwhelmed by how many choices I have. Although I have months to work through and try them all, deciding each week where to go next isn’t always that easy. Eventually my gaze fell on the last 5 jet black daggers from a strand that I picked up ages ago, and I thought it would be nice to finally finish them off and remove one entire option from the list.

Choosing colors to go with the daggers wasn’t easy either. Whenever possible I want to stick to Egyptian palettes, while also trying out new patterns in the chevron chain. Although I wasn’t sure how well the finishes would mix at first, I finally settled on opaque slate blue and dark cream Ceylon to get a faience and alabaster look. For pattern I went with some simple blocks of color to get a horizontal stripe effect.

For next week’s collar I’m going to try out a recent bead color trio, and then perhaps it’s time to go for some smaller accents like my teal magatamas.

Mortira

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A Collar a Week: Berry Salad

For this week’s mini collar, I couldn’t resist using one of the palette ideas to go with a quartet of pretty glass petal drops in marbled blue that we explored last week. The combination of transparent ruby and gel sol pink just needed a little bit of Montana blue sapphire for backup, and I had everything I needed for a cute collar.

For this piece, I worked out a new palette with angled rows of pink set into the chevron chain. At the center of the piece, between pairs of the petal drops, I reversed the angle of the pink rows to get a symmetrical look. The results look pretty good, and I think that the pattern is worth trying again in a future project. I’d like to see how it would look with more than two colors, though I like the lattice effect that it has here.

I haven’t yet chosen my accents and colors, but I am hoping to get a little more daytime beading in next week so that I can have the next collar completed just as quickly.

Mortira

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Collar a Week: Petal Pink

The latest collar in my weekly challenge is technically last week’s, but since it’s only Sunday I’m going to say that it’s still pretty much on time. Although I haven’t yet added the button, the collar is otherwise complete and turned out fairly well. It took a little longer than I would have liked, and that’s entirely my fault. I decided to use some old black and white seed beads, rather than cutting into fresh hanks, so I spent just as much time culling as I did on the actual beadwork.

I’m not completely thrilled with how the pink looks in the design. As with many lined finishes, the magatamas look a lot darker lumped together in the package than they do spaced out in a design. I intentionally used all-black for the outer edge of the chevron chain in anticipation of this, but I was still hoping for a bit more color. Still, there’s something about the very pale pink set into the totally neutral beading that works. I think it will look even better when worn than it does in photos.

The previous week’s collar with a trio of daggers at the center also turned out really well. I’m definitely going to keep the design in mind for future projects where I want to incorporate larger accent beads. The long magatamas are not my favorite accent for the collar edge, though. I do still have quite a few that I could use, but I think they’ll be passed over for a while until I’ve explored other possibilities.

Mortira

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Collar a Week: Golden Soup

I’m two projects in to the new Collar a Week challenge and I’ve already encountered my first snag. I was able to finish and photograph this week’s necklace in plenty of time, but now here we are on the last day of the week, and I’m much too tired to edit photos and put the piece up in my shop. I’ll have to save all of the technical work for a less full day, but I can share the design with you!

I had a lot of extra things added to my plate this week, so when it came to choosing colors and patterns for this collar I had to go with something quick and carefree. I snagged the custom gold and brown seed bead mix that I made for the bead soup demo a while back and added some black and white Rizos for the trim. The soup allowed me to have a little variety without actually having to plan or choose a pattern, and the Rizos helped to add a little more of an Egyptian flair, which is always welcome.

Collar number three won’t begin for another day or two, but I definitely want to play with patterns a bit next week. I was pondering adding in some peanut seed beads somehow, but I’ll save those until I’ve made some more progress with drops.

Mortira

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Mini Collar a Week Challenge

For many months now I’ve been saying that I have to use up some of my accent beads. Over the last couple of years I have amassed a pretty great collection of beads that I love and love to use, but I recently reached a point where I just didn’t know where to begin. I’ve long since passed the hoarding stage and am ready to see what my beads can do. I just never have an idea that I think is good enough. I’ve been taking beads out, trying them on different palettes, imagining what they can do, but never really getting down to making something with them. I’ve also been busy with tutorial projects and other pursuits, so I haven’t been concentrating on just making jewelry for fun. I decided it was time to do something about it.

I was looking through old photos for something or other when I started reminiscing about some of my favorite creative challenges. Although the Egyptian Gods challenge was by far the most rewarding for me, the early marathons like A Ring a Day and A Bracelet a Week were the ones that taught me the most overall. Like the Destash Challenge, they also helped me to stretch out my limits and use up things in my bead stash. I did try out a new challenge at the start of this year, but it fizzled out. I thought that I would end up going without for the rest of 2016, but a marvelous idea finally emerged.

For the remainder of 2016, or until I’ve used all of my small accent beads at least once, I’m going to make a mini collar every week. I chose mini collars because they stitch up quickly, and I’d really love to have a few more of them for my shop, which I’ve been neglecting lately. Although the chevron chain design that I use for them is pretty simple, there are lots of different ways to add patterns and highlight exciting beads. I can’t wait to start experimenting!

To kick off the challenge I used a couple of old favorites – lime green and cobalt blue Indonesian glass spacers. In order to include these large-hole beads in the design, I ended up increasing the stitches quite a bit to make room for 8/o bumpers. The netting is roomier and the collar is much bigger overall than my usual designs. I’m really happy with results, because it means that I can take more chances with other accents as well. Plus I love the palette with rainbow patriot blue for the netting.

Next I’m going to try out some drops or magatamas, and perhaps a new pattern. Wish me luck!

Mortira

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