Beading Back Before Time - Early Civilization

When in Rome.....

I have a beautiful strand of ancient Roman glass and a fun ceramic Roman

coin impression, so I started with those pieces as my inspiration for early

civilization.  I went onto Pinterest to research what authentic Roman jewelry

looked like.  I discovered lots of turquoise and blue tones as well as gold, never

silver.  I normally pair blue tones up with silver, so that became my first challenge.

Next choosing the glaze I wanted to use to capture the perfect blue tone would be

important.  I went with blue lagoon which has a green under tone.  It also looked

great with the Roman glass.  I also made some ceramic accent pieces in the same glaze.

I used butterscotch colored wax linen for my stringing material.  The gemstones

are Aventurine and I used some manufactured sea glass as well.  I really like

how the ceramic tubes give the necklace some width and the fun tassel accent 

under the Roman coin is playful.  I used gold tone spacer beads, waffle discs,

chain and a large lobster claw clasp.

Here is a close up of the ceramic Roman coin that I made and here are the

coordinating earrings.  I made leaf charms for the earrings because of the pattern

I discovered with the constant use of leaf designs by the Romans.

Thank you for following along with my Beading Back Before Time Blog

challenges.  If you'd like to learn more about me and my ceramic beads, please

visit https://www.potterybeads.com and be sure to hop around to all the 

other blogs to see what other great jewelry designs of early civilizations.

We're All Ears Challenge - African Quilt Art

This months challenge is based on Primitive African Art and

story telling.  Stories can be told in many ways, and these folk

art patch work quilts tell a wonderful story of color and patterns.

This is the quilt I really was drawn to.  I love bright colors and the block

pattern is random and fun.  Even though the earrings that I created don't match

this quilt, the beads I chose to design with all reminded me of it.

The millefori glass beads look like mini quilts to me.  I made two heavily textured

ceramic round beads to pull the green out of the glass.  I used 24g silver tone wire

to loosely wrap around the beads and hold them tight.

Don't these lamp work beads also look like little quilts?  The artist is unknown.....

I pulled the purple tone out of the glass and made two 10mm hand rolled spacer

beads, crystal and silver spacers.  20g wire is loosely wrapped around the top beads.

These hand made paper beads are very colorful, like the quilt.  I twirled the

bottoms of 20g wire to make a head pin and simply strung every thing together

for a fun and happy pair of earrings.

This challenge was a bit more of a challenge for me than the beachy vibe 

last month.  But that's why I enjoy participating...to get me out of my norm

and try new things.  If you'd like to see more of my ceramic beads, please

visit www.potterybeads.com  Thank you!

Art Bead Scene....Beneath the Sea Challenge

I am one of the new team members for Art Bead Scene....and I

couldn't be more honored or excited!  This months challenge revolves

around a painting that is over 350 years old and it is all about goodies from

Beneath the Sea.

I picked out the honey and brown tones and made a batch of sea shells out of

ceramic clay.  I made some connectors to keep the flow of the necklace moving.

I also used a few of my new crescent roll up beads, a 16g wire swirl accent seed beads,

 antique bronze chain, a fun fish lobster claw clasp and wax linen.  The earrings are wire

 wrapped with 24g antique bronze wire and seed bead accents.

Here is a close up picture of the earrings

I hope you like my design!  I plan on taking it to a gallery that is on

Captiva Island, near Fort Myers, Florida.  A lucky lady will scoop up

this treasure set from Beneath the Sea!

If you'd like to learn more about me and my ceramic beads, please visit

www.potterybeads.com