Wire Jewelry & Polymer Clay Beads

It's been a while since my last post, I've had a cold plus we took advantage of the warm Indian summer weather and cleaned out the garage.  It was crammed full of stuff and the squirrels had a field day with the stuffing in the old couch and the boxes of magazines and books.  For little critters  they sure can do a  lot of damage. The garage is looking pretty good. There are still several pieces of furniture that will go to auction.  Once it's done Roger will have a place to store his vintage Mustang and his motor cycle. 

I've been mostly working with wire. I made lots of doodads and some necklaces. Here are three necklaces that I finished.

Click on the photos for a closer look.

The first one is made with blue and gun metal grey wire and blue square beads. It's quite large but I like it. 

The second is my favorite. I use 18 gauge amber wire to create the design and then wove in amber,  brown and bronze 26 gauge wire. The center is a metal button set with pearly gold stones. I made a coiled wire bail and strung the pendant of jasper beads and used brown glass seed beads for spacers. 

The third is gold and sea green wire set with a vintage celluloid button that I've had lying around for a very long time.  The button is missing a couple rhinestones but  it still looks pretty good and the "well loved" look is in right now. There is a little dragonfly bead on the wire.  The chain is made from matching wire.

I used one of the pretty coasters I got in the coaster swap as a background for this large wire bow doodad.   I like the way it looks on the coaster so I am going make a large tile to mount it on and make it into a large medallion style pendant.  According to the experts large is in.  I am going to do the same with more of my wire pieces.

This pendant has a wire frame with a polymer clay center.  Heather thinks granddaughter Amanda might like this one.

Plaid polymer clay framed with amber and sea green wire. 

The last couple months I have been using only Pardo Art Clay but since it doesn't come in metallics I got out my Kato clay to make these textured beads.  The difference in conditioning is quite striking, I had to get out my hammer and pound the clay before I used the pasta machine.  I still like Kato, it doesn't change color while curing, but oh the smell!  The Art Clay doesn't smell at all but Kato sure does.  I've always been a little allergic to it and it did make my eyes itch and my nose run.  

I mixed silver and blue to get the color for these beads. The design is the same on both sides. 

I added a little red to gold Kato for these beads. The design is on both sides.

I made more wire things but I want to mount them on polymer clay before I take photos. I'm working on an owl necklace that I really like.  I hope to get it done today so I can show it to you.

Thanks for stopping by.