Colors of Fall

If you have been following my blog you know that a little over a year ago Artbeads.com chose me to be one of their Design Partners that review their products and make pieces using them.  If you have not had the chance you should check out their facebook page and their online galleries.  They have some very talented designers who cover a range of styles and techniques.
This calender year they have been going with a seasonal theme for each of the projects and this one is the fall theme.  I finished my piece a few weeks ago but hadn't gotten around to blogging about it.  I got a bit overwhelmed trying to get ready for Christmas since I had decided to spend from the 30th of November until the 21st of December at Iowa with my folks.  I will be home just over a week and then off to Wayne's folks for New Year's and his Dad's Birthday.  Trying to get handmade cards made and ready to go out, planting and Christmas shopping took up all of my available time and head space.

 So here it is a bit late but it is done and turned out very much like I planned.  The photo above is the beads I requested.  One of the challenges of doing this is trying to figure out what beads will work best for the project and how many you need, but WOW is it fun looking through their website and trying to figure it out.  I love being able to try new types and colors of glass beads and working with different pendants.  They have soooooo many beautiful products.   When they said that it was a fall theme I immediately remembered seeing their selection of copper leaf pendents.  I have really been enjoying working with copper lately and couldn't resist this beautiful leaf.

But how to showcase the pendant and really show the richness of the "Colors

of Fall"? Finally I decided on going with an embellished spiral rope. This gave me a lot of leeway on how to make the piece with all of the wonderful intensity of fall.

The first photo show the selection I chose although the copper wire is not in the photo.  The second photo shows the spiral rope.  The sides of the rope include the 4mm Jet Picasso Matte fire-polished beads as the accent bead.  I didn't include them in the center section because they would later be hidden.  I have really fallen in love with the different finishes on the Czech beads and must admit that Jet Picasso is a favorite (in different sizes and shapes it is always yummy).

Here you can see the spiral rope after it has been embellished.  I used Toho 8/0 Hybrid seed beads in Apollo to embellish along the sides.  They looked really neat on the website (kind of coppery) but in really life I love them even more.  They have a transparent glass with a metallic copper finish that from some angles almost make them look like copper beads but they are so much more exciting than that.  In the center section of the necklace I used various fringing techniques to embellish the spiral rope.

In this close up you can see some of the beads better.  With a mix of seed beads, the Red, Black, and White Porohyr, 3x2mm Orange mix Picasso Roundelles,  and 5x4mm Autumn Mix Roundelles.   I took the copper wire and spiraled that around the center section of the necklace blending the copper of the leaf into the copper of the wire and up toward the coppery Apollo beads. The copper pendant is hanging from the copper wire spiral and can be removed so that the necklace is more versatile. I also used the copper wire to make clasps for the necklace and one of the bracelets as well as for the main part of the earrings.

I used some of my left over beads with more supplements from my collection to make a pair of earrings as well as two bracelets that I could wear with the necklace.  Making my own ear wires was a first for me as was using wire to make toggle clasps and I love how they turned out.  None of them take much wire and are very cost effective and they can be customized to go with the jewelry.

In these last 2 closeups you can see the copper spiral better as well as the beads and the copper pendent.  The over all piece is a bit darker than I had originally planned up I love how it turned out and how rich it looks.

Disclosure...As a reviewer of products at Artbeads.com, I receive the Copper pendant and Glass Beads above free of charge. I have been asked to review these products and give my honest opinion of the products...positive or negative. I am not being compensated by Artbeads.com for my endorsement as it pertains to the products received and reviewed.