Free Halloween Craft Project Idea Goulie Girl Necklace

I've been waiting for some phone calls this morning and I remembered these great ceramic skulls I got from Jennifer Heynan of Jangles. (It looks like she's out of skulls, but if you scroll down she's got pumpkins, ghosts and cats that'd be great substitutions.) I've been meaning to make something with these skull beads for quite some time and with a few spare moments here, I whipped up this jaunty little Goulie Girl necklace. I used carnelian beads, three strands of fancy gun metal chain I bought from Rings and Things and some dark annealed iron wire I bought from Metalliferous. The wire is cut into short segments and used to create a rosary style chain to connect the beads. Basically I just added a loop on each side and connected them. You could also opt to add jump rings in between. If you use iron wire, cut it with Memory Wire shears and not regular cutters, it'll chew up a regular cutter blade in a flash. I have been mad for bows this season, so I couldn't resist adding one on here.

I love how this is part whimsy, part fashionista...for your inner Goulie Girl.

Until next time....craft on with your bad selves!

xoxo
Madge

For the edification of the FTC, the gun metal chain and skull beads were given to me for use in my design work and I purchased the rest of the materials in the above project.

Good Day, Sunshine

Copyright 2008 Margot Potter

I made this necklace last spring and posted the pic on my Impatient Blogger blog. It's been so dismal around here this week, I decided to reshoot it and post it again. The lovely ceramic flower, ice cream cone clasp and striped square beads were my focal points. Jennifer Heynan of Jangles does whimsical better than anyone I know. The colors in the ceramic beads worked perfectly with the saturated pastels of these vintage Lucite moonglow effect beads(you can find similar beads at The Beadin' Path.) I added a smattering of Hill Tribe Thai silver pendants that looked like rays of sunshine to continue the sunny vibe. I played around with a few other Thai silver accents, moving things around the bead board until I was satisified and ended up with this delightfully asymmetrical design.

For me, each design is a journey. I’m trying to make the beads sing. I want every element to make sense and propel the story of the design. When I use art beads, I am particularly mindful of creating a design that celebrates them and doesn’t compete with them for attention. Every element has to support the focal pieces. Though this is a simple, strung design, it was a creative journey.

Every design is a journey. A designer isn’t just a person who slaps paint on a canvas or plops beads on a string. A designer is someone who thinks deeply about every element of the design and takes the time to really see it and to translate what they see into something that makes sense and is wearable. Everything should work with perfect synchronicity, even if it’s a dissonant concept it still needs to be controlled chaos. I try to picture the person who would wear every design I create. This one is for a gal who loves Lilly Pulitzer dresses, straw hats and bare feet. She’s got immense amounts of joie de vivre, an infectious laugh and a sunny but not cloying outlook on life.

I’d quite like to meet her, wouldn’t you?

I called this Good Day, Sunshine. Insert Beatles’ song here. I’ve not been able to find this necklace a home in a publication, which surprises me because I think it’s a very well executed idea and the colors are so unique and different from the dark, drab, rusty, serious stuff that seems to be taking over as of late. We can’t always be gothically delicious, even if it is wicked good fun. I rather like feeling like a cartoon character some days.

I’m officially retiring this to my personal collection. I have to get another ceramic circle so I can remake the earrings, one of them got broken (you can see them below.) So this design is apparently not everyone’s cup of tea! So it’s not Earl Grey...a little Red Zinger with a slice of lemon is a nice change of pace now and again.

Until next time...craft on with your bad selves.

xoxo
Madge