darkpoetdesigns - Tumblr blog

[darkpoetdesigns]

Love these slightly graduated “collar strands” of stones. This one is red jasper with ting turquoise rounds and copper bicones as spacers. That’s a Mary Harding ceramic toggle clasp in just the right palette.

https://goimagine.com/necklace-set-sw-style-red-jasper-collar-turquoise-copper-artisan-ceramic-toggle-clasp/

[darkpoetdesigns]

Sets for goimagine’s “Let’s Refresh!” Maker Challenge. The lotus pendant set was a finalist. https://goimagine.com/necklace-set-sterling-silver-fire-dancer-pendant-faceted-amethyst-with-inclusions-dark-amethyst-rounds-sterling-butterfly-clasp/ https://goimagine.com/necklace-set-ceramic-artisan-lotus-pendant-kingman-turquoise-rondelles-serpentine-rounds/

[darkpoetdesigns]

When do you keep your own work? Do you create something just for yourself or realize it's "just for you" after it's completed? Please share your stories, Here's mine: My mother passed away two years ago. She collected African trade beads in the 1970s. She'd already gifted a lot of her beads to me and my sister, but we found more after her passing. In my creative flurry last month I came back to the bauxite stone beads I'd begun to design with last year. I combined them with Guatemalan jade and hematine, worked up a design, decided to change the length, added a fancy sterling and spiny oyster clasp... and realized it was just for me. Thanks, Mom!

[darkpoetdesigns]

Maker Quandary #2: Using other artisan’s work in my sets... when they are makers on the same marketplace? If they're selling components (the copper clasps in pics 2 & 3) I contact the maker to see if they'd like to be credited, then do so in my listing. The same with pendants (pics 1 & 2), especially if they’re sold with cords or chains. BTW I’m keeping pic 2 for myself. :) Copper clasps: https://goimagine.com/thecopperaddictsattic/ Pendant in pic 1: https://goimagine.com/thefloatinggardens/ Pendant in pic 2: https://goimagine.com/flairlyjeweled/

[darkpoetdesigns]

How fragile is too fragile? A beautiful ceramic pendant ... broken, glued, and saved as an ornament. A necklace redesigned with a blown glass focal bead resulting in a very different look.

[darkpoetdesigns]

Cranberry red vintage Japanese lampwork focal beads with faceted rainbow moonstone rondelles and bricolettes Designed for goimagine’s “Winter Wonderland” Maker Challenge https://goimagine.com/jewelry/necklaces/beaded/necklace-set-double-strand-snow-white-faceted-rainbow-moonstone-ruby-red-venetian-lampwork-bronze-artisan-clasp/

[darkpoetdesigns]

+ sparkle Cyber Monday Sale 20% off over 90 full-priced sets, bracelets and lanyards (+25% off 70+ other items).

[darkpoetdesigns]

+ vivid Small Business Saturday-Cyber Monday Sale 20% off over 90 full-priced sets, bracelets and lanyards (+25% off 70+ other items).

[darkpoetdesigns]

+ classic Early Black Friday-Cyber Monday Sale 20% off over 90 full-priced sets, bracelets and lanyards (+25% off 70+ other items).https://goimagine.com/.../necklace-set-sw-style-black.../

[darkpoetdesigns]

Shane, a goimagine friend/writer/artist/fellow jewelry maker, has her delightful earrings and necklaces on sale right now. Check them out!

[darkpoetdesigns]

+ elegance Early Black Friday-Cyber Monday Sale 20% off over 90 full-priced sets, bracelets and lanyards (+25% off 70+ other items).  https://goimagine.com/dark-poet-designs/

[darkpoetdesigns]

undefined

If only I could work this quickly... :)

DPD202215

[darkpoetdesigns]

DPD202218 Necklace set with vintage mid-century Japanese Cherry Brand tube beads, contemporary bronze artisan pendent and clasp, olive jade rondelles, faceted orange garnet spacers. Find it here on goimagine.

[darkpoetdesigns]

Links to a few bead and bead jewelry information sites...

There is something fascinating about beads, about imagining the stories they may tell. The oldest known bead dates from around 100,000 BCE. Beads are a part of our human cultural heritage — as adornment, social class indicators, a form of currancy, or an aid to meditation or prayer.

Among the beads I'm most drawn to are those that were made to be used in the mid-century costume jewelry industry. I'm not nostalgic for the late-1950s and early/mid-1960s, but they were the days of my childhood. Perhaps something of what implied glamour in the eyes of my mother and her contemporaries imprinted on me. Trying to find the history of mid-century glass beads is an ongoing project. Who were these craftsmen/women who created the charming, sometimes elegant, sometimes quirky beads in a post-war world? I've read that Cherry Brand beads were the piecework of individual Japanese rice farmers who created lampwork beads in the evenings when their field work was done...

Bead glossary | earthmothercrafts.com

Costume Jewelry | sammydvintage.com

Cherry Brand (vintage Japanese glass beads) | bumbershootdesigns.com island-cove.com

Crystals/Semi-precious gemstones | crystal & gemstone dictionary

Czech bead types | purebeads.com

Jewelry blog indexed by designer/wearer | nasvete.com

Lucite | collectorsweekly.com

Necklace lengths | jewelrywise.com

Niobium | jewelryshoppingguide.com

Pietersite | firemountaingems.com

Seed beads | letsbead.com

Semi-precious gemstone beads | letsbead.com

Trade beads | thesecondsister.com

Turquoise | durangosilver.com | southwestdiscovered.com

Turquoise cabochons with backing | durangosilver.com

"Turritella" agate | geology.com Venetian/Murana glass beads | venetianbeadshop.com

[darkpoetdesigns]

OOAK necklace set in gift-ready tin (DPD202239) available here: https://goimagine.com/jewelry/necklaces/beaded/necklace-set-double-strand-warm-rhodochrosite-teardrops-artisan-leaf-pendant-artisan-botanical-toggle-clasp/