Knotted Pearl Treasure Necklace

 

I thoroughly enjoyed making a knotted pearl treasure necklace. The inspiration was from one of The Beadshop's videos, and the first step was rooting through my jewelry box and bead supplies for the appropriate charms and pendants. It was hard to limit it to five! Deciding on the pearls was easier; I had a string of fresh water pearls with the slightest lavender cast waiting to be used for a special project. Once everything was decided, the necklace came together quickly.

Left to right: 

A broken earring, from the late-90s trend of colored crystals and sparkly everything.

A fancy button I found on the street when I lived in Boston, and probably the closest I will ever come to owning something from Ferragamo. I miss Boston.

The pendant my father gave me the night before my wedding. It came on a gold collar but neither simplicity nor grey and gold were my style, so it languished. A few years ago I repurposed the gold collar to hold a cameo pendant and Mother and Child medal that used to belong to my mom and a white "pearl" pendant that belonged to my grandmother, making the collar a family affair and much more likely to be worn. I'm glad I've now found a place for my father's pendant, too. (No elegant, minimalist jewelry for me!)

A vintage French (I think) miraculous medal. This came from a tin of vintage notions from French General; they now mostly sell textiles and notions for quilts and other sewing arts, and I miss the jewelry kits they used to put together.

A gemstone pendant left over from the first iteration of my tiny, occasional jewelry-making business. I've been half-heartedly selling jewelry for a long time! I just can't bring myself to do any marketing and research to make a real go of it (there's a reason I became a lawyer, and then a librarian; I'm allergic to "business").

Cross Stitch Diary Part 3

 I'm way behind in showing off my stitching. As always, thanks to The Daily Stitchuation for inspiration.

 A red heart for Valentine's Day.

A Star of David for the Bar and Bat Mitzvah we went to.

An ashen cross for Ash Wednesday.

A stack of books for my February reads. 

A tooth because there were lots of dental appointments earlier in the year. 

A pi pie for Pi Day.

a Clover leaf for St. Patrick's Day.

A cross for Good Friday.

A bunny for Easter. 

Corn because I read Men of Maize. 

A tomato pincushion because I've been doing a lot of mending. 

A tabby cat (standard issue) for Porcupine.

Daffodil and lilac blossom for Spring. 

A drop of blood because I gave blood.

Grogu because we saw The Mandalorian and Grogu.

Frida Kahlo's eyebrows and crown of flowers because I saw the Frida and Diego exhibition at the MoMA.

A priestly collar because my brother (a priest) came to visit. 

A soccer ball for the World Cup (yay Spain! Boo Argentinian poor sportsmanship!).

 

Phew! This project is now about a year old, but I plan on continuing it until I run out of fabric. 

Woven Fringe Earrings

 Joan Williams's project in the autumn 2023 issue of Belle Armoire Jewelry caught my eye immediately -- Czech glass on a miniature rug woven from cotton floss, inspired by the saddle blankets horses wear.

 

Lacking a mini loom, I made one from a large matchbox:

I enjoyed the weaving so much, however, that I'm seriously considering getting a proper loom of that size (the matchbox worked, but the warp threads had an annoying tendency to slip off at inconvenient moments).

Lacking glass beads in a suitable color, I instead created a little stack from brass discs, fordite beads, and size 8 seed beads to anchor them in place. Finishing was easier than I expected, too; a blunt needle made it easy to hide the thread ends under the wefts on the back.

These earrings were a lot of fun to make; I bet a bracelet would be, too!