Thursday, March 31, 2016

BALC 2016 Final Blog Hop

It's here...finally! Time for the big reveal

My theme for BALC is Birds and Nests

I designed the following pieces, in five different colors and metals:
Earrings, ring, bracelet, choker, and long (convertible) necklace

It all began with the earrings, using one of my favorite B'Sue Boutique's findings. I colored them with Lumiere paints, and distressed them. The birds are also from B'Sue. I hand made the nests, and filled them with Spectra bead "eggs" in corresponding colors, with matching bird nest rings.




The next step was the bracelets with another B'Sue finding. I colored them with alcohol ink pens. Each centerpiece has similarly colored flowers, leaves, and green rim. The birds are in corresponding colors to the earrings. B'Sue's Spectra beads are wire wrapped and bead-capped to make up one strand of the bracelet. The other strand is chain in various metals. They are each adorned with a dangling bird's nest



The chokers proved to be much more challenging. I took the B'Sue scalloped blanks, etched them and colored them each to match the metal of the corresponding B'Sue book chain.
I used micro screws to attach the B'Sue hummingbird centerpieces, after I painted and distressed them. I tried to use the same components in each bracelet, varying the colors and metals. 





The long necklaces are convertible, in that a portion can be removed that will shorten the necklace and serve as a bracelet. B'Sue Boutique's luggage tag, my ALL time favorite finding, is the centerpiece. Each is a different metal (I had to double up on silver), and adorned with a ceramic rose, leaf, and B'Sue pinwheel flower with inset faux pearls. 








Convertible Necklaces


Finished Series

Here is the finished series, in all five metals:

Silver and Pinks




Copper and Spring colors



Gold and Blues




Brass and Fall colors




Black and Purples