nightfox

This is part of a set of jewelry I am making from a portrait of Elizabeth I of England when she was still Princess Elizabeth. According to historians she was approximately 13 years old when this painting was done. I had finished the brooch as well but it seems to have gone missing. I've torn my home apart looking for it with no success so I'm going to have to do it all over again! *head desk* When it's done I'll post it for you! (Which may be a while, it's a tad labor intensive.)

After that I'll make the longer, plain pearl necklace that you see in the portrait as well. One of these days, it is my dream to have this gown reproduced, either by doing it myself (when I develop the necessary skills, I already have the pattern!) or by buying a reproduction (I found a seamstress who makes a pretty good reproduction of this gown but it's not perfect and it's also about $500. So I'll most likely wait until my own skills are up to the job!)

So, here it is, The Princess Elizabeth Necklace. My only concern is that I used pearls all the way around so I may also wind up redoing the necklace with the gold beads instead of the smaller pearls but I'm very happy with how the pendant came out. It was even more labor intensive than the brooch due to having to join several disparate brass pieces into one to get the right shape. Then those pearl drops at the bottom were a bit of a b*tch!

Hope you like it!

You know when you sign in to your home page here on LJ it says, "Welcome back..." Today, I really felt like it should have been me saying that to LJ instead. Argg!!

Alright, #4 on my 100 Things list is an example of my love of bright, sunny colours! The beads are all Swarovski crystal (except the shiny brass ones of course) and while I can't quite remember the name they gave this colour, it falls somewhere on the spectrum between amber and orange and very much reminds me of real padparadscha sapphires. The funny thing is that Swarovski makes a "padparadscha" colour that is far too pink to be a good match for the genuine stone. Odd, no?

Anyway, I don't have any more of the original components to show you with this one so I'll just say that the main "gem" stone is Bohemian-Czech glass. If you know your glass work then you know some of the worlds finest glass & crystal comes from the Bohemian region of the Czech Republic where they have been making this exquisite glass since the 13th century. These artists know what they are doing!

All the metal is brass. The amazing thing to me is how closely the glass gem matches the crystals. Most of my Czech glass is vintage while almost all my crystals (including these) are brand new. The colour match on these stones is even closer in person than it appears in the pics! It's rather uncanny but a lucky sort of weird for my sake! Weird luck does seem to be the only kind I have so I'll take it!

Again, I did my best to sharpen up the image so you can see the details but I really do need a better camera to go with my flatbed scanner!

Current Mood: cold
Current Location: Near Philly
Current Music: Weezer, "Buddy Holly"

So this first pic is one I snapped really quickly as I ran out the door on my way to give my #3 entry to a friend as a thank you gift for helping me alter a Renaissance bodice to fit me properly. My sewing skills are still very rudimentary and she's a professional seamstress who won't take a dime from me in payment. So, this is how I thanked her for her help:

Now these were made specifically for her with her favorite colors & style in mind but I thought they came out rather nice. All the "silver" components are silver plated brass except for the spacers (honestly I don't know what metal they are made from, bead suppliers are often vague.) The "amethysts" are Swarovski crystal. And she loved them! Can't tell you how happy that made me because she offered her services (free of charge!) to someone she's only met a few times. I think she loves her craft as much as I love mine ;-)

When I can, I'll always try to tell you what materials I've used in a piece and show you the components if I have any left. I have a few hard and fast rules to my "kreations" (My ebay shop used to be called Kats Eye Kreations) #1 I never make the same piece twice. I may make the same style in a different color or the same colour in a similar but different style but I absolutely refuse to do 2 of the same thing...ever. #2 I don't use "cheap" materials. All crystals are Swarovski, and other glass beads or gems are of the highest quality Bohemian (Czech) glass with few exceptions (and only when they are exceptional exceptions ;-)

This one is not a particularly new piece, it's just a personal favorite. Some of my work is very heavy and elaborate and some of it is more on the delicate side. Since yesterday's neckpiece was one of the elaborate works in-the-making, I thought something simpler would be nice for today.

I love this necklace because it's got a nice Victorian sensibility to it and though it's hard to tell from a flat picure, this one looks really lovely worn nestled around the base of the throat. The stones are natural gems called Iolite and again, it's hard to tell from the photo but they are a deep violet blue in color. Iolites can range from a pale bluish gray (like the beads on this necklace) through to an indigo so dark they appear almost black. The chain and findings on this are sterling.

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Music: Lily Allen-"Fuck You"

{Take the 100 Things challenge!}

So I have given in *shakes fist* Winterstorrm!! Anyway, my blog shall mostly be about my jewelry making, current projects and past as well as my Historical & Steampunk costume building hobby.

So I decided to start off with something I am currently working on. The first is a pic of the piece itself which will eventually become a necklace and the second pic is of each individual component before I put them together.

I think I am also going to enamel the leaves on the vine components (green of course). I shall either update you as I make progress or when the necklace is complete. It all depends on how motivated I am to photograph it!

Sorry that parts of the pics are fuzzy, these are directly scanned on a flatbed scanner.

If you want to see the actual details a little clearer, try using your zoom feature!

So this is my #1 out of the next 100!

Insomnia Can Be a Bitch and a Blessing

Entries tagged with 100 things

100 Things- #5 Princess Elizabeth

100 Things- #4 A quickie today because LJ was being such a little bitch!

100 Things- #3 Been and gone!

The first jump wasn't bad, let's go for another. 100 Things #2

I caved and jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge! 100 Things- #1

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