Cut, Color & Paste

This has been a very productive weekend on the Glenda project.  Lots of cutting, painting and gluing and I can finally see the light at the end of the rainbow.  I was hopping to get it all finished this weekend but it's kind of like a home improvement project that just keeps getting bigger and bigger.

There wasn't a whole lot of progress on Saturday but I did get glitter glue dots on the bodice. 

And the pattern laid out for the crown.

And the crown cut out. 

Then a regular Saturday of getting groceries and stuff intruded.

I have had most of Sunday to get more done.

I put balloons in the sleeve caps so I could get the glitter stars on without getting them on the rest of the dress.  This time I used Extreme Glitter Paint instead of glue.  Wish I had found out about that stuff before I started the dress.  It's a lot easier to use and dries a lot quicker than glitter glue.

 I used white paper covered floral wires in bundles of 5 to make supports for each point of the crown.  I spiraled the tops and bottoms of the wires and glued the full length of the bundle to the crown with supper tacky fabric glue.  The wires had to be weighted down to make sure they stuck and didn't curl away from the material.   The fabric glue dries very fast so I didn't have to wait too long to work on the decorations.  Again I used the glitter paint, instead of glue, and painted each bundle of wires and made small glitter dots on the body of the crown. 

When I had all but the seam finished and dried I overlapped and glued the seam and glued on the final bundle of spiraled wires.  They are now sitting under the weights and I will paint them next time I get to work in the basement.

The star for the top of the wand is made from polymer clay.  I sanded the star with wet sand paper and baked it again to make sure it was dry.  Then I painted the edges with the glitter paint and sealed the front with glossy polymer glaze.  Once that dried I used glitter glue to attach big, red, glass "jewels".  I'll do the same to the back of the star once this dries.

The handle of the wand is a dowel rod that I tried to cover with silver leaf but that didn't work.  I sanded all that off, used a rasp to shape the top of the dowel to fit into the star and painted the dowel with gray paint.  When the gray paint dried I painted it again with glitter paint.

Not much more to go now.  I can hardly wait to finish.

Progress for Glenda

For the last couple of nights there hasn't been any progress that is picture worthy.  I'm still adding glitter glue stars to the dress.  Those have to be done a few at a time and they take at least 24 hours to dry.  I've Mod-Podged a strip of the pink satin to make the crown, still waiting for measurements for that.  The Mod-Podge is also a somewhat slow process to get both sides done multiple times.  I have the dowel rod primed and ready to paint for the handle of the wand and the polymer clay star top shaped and baked.

It's Magic!

The Glenda dress is coming along.  I really enjoy making costumes but this material sucks.  It's very slippery and snags easily and unravels like crazy.  Good thing it's only a costume. 

I now have the sleeves and skirt attached to the bodice.  Extra tulle is added to the front of the bodice and the top of the sleeves. 

With all the tulle attached it is time to paint on the sparkle.  I'm using glitter glue and will have to do that in stages.  I've placed some paper under the first layer of tulle to protect the under layers.  That will dry over-night and I'll add more glitter over the next few days.

Sure hope the glue doesn't stick to the paper too hard to get the paper out.  Guess I'll find out in the morning.

Beginning the Glenda the Good Witch Costume

I've been sewing since I was a child.  When I grew up and had children of my own, I sewed a lot of their cloths.  My favorite thing to make was costumes.  We had costumes of a skunk, dragons, Indians, rabbits, dead guys, ninjas and a California raisin.  My children are grown and now have children of their own.  Once again I have more costumes to make.  This year's request, from my 6 year old granddaughter, was for Glenda the Good Witch.  If you don't know or remember what Glenda wore, Google her, it's a very impressive dress.  I won't go quite that elaborate but I don't think my granddaughter will be disappointed.

The first step of the process was to lay out a pattern.  The fun thing about costume sewing is making it up as you go.  The bodice of the dress will be fitted and have long sleeves.  It will close in the back with Velcro so she can handle it by herself.   The skirt will be extra full.  When the satin layer is finished a layer of decorated tulle will be added.  There is also the wand and crown to make.  This will be lots of fun.

This evening I got a good, but late, start.  First there was the pattern lay-out.

Next I spread out the pink "satin" material and got ready to cut.

The bodice is assembled and beaded lace is attached to the neckline.  The next step will be in-setting the sleaves.

I'm not showing the skirt because at this time it's just a straight piece of material.  A lot of material, that will be gathered into a very full skirt.  Gathering the skirt and attaching it to the bodice is for another day.

The Finished Product

This has been a very productive day.  I've finished a crocheted afghan for our DAR raffle, I've finished the necklace and got my laundry done.

The necklace received structural support with herringbone stitches between every loop.

                                          Remember the inspiration necklace?

My version is finally done.  No jewels here but plenty of bling.   Close up view of necklace front.

Completed necklace.

Side view of  necklace.

Toggle closure.

Just because I mentioned completing an afghan, here's a couple shots from that.  It's lap/baby size and fully machine wash and dry-able.  We will be raffling it to raise funds for DAR.

The next project will be creating the "Good Witch Glenda" costume for my granddaughter.  I'll keep you posted on that too.

Adding Structure

I've finished adding the first layer of bottom fringe.

The next step was to add small sapphire blue rounds to the top between every picot.  After that was completed I began adding rows of herringbone stitched pieces between every loop from, the just added blue rounds to the fringe below.

This part will take a long time.  Adding the rows between the loops adds strength to the necklace.  The difficulty comes from trying to keep the line from tangling around all the other beads.  Once that has been completed for the full length of the necklace I will add a final layer of fringe to the bottom edge of the necklace.

Thursday's Installment

I didn't think I'd have time to work on the necklace tonight but I was able to get to my cave after all.  Tonight I managed to get a little more than half of the first layer of embellishment completed.

The original necklace is predominantly green but I chose to go with blue.  Once this layer is done I'll add another layer of the seed beads and a few more crystals on top.  Below are a couple more pictures of the progress from tonight.

As you can see this necklace will be fully loaded.  Looks like it will be a great necklace for holiday dressing.

The Next Step

Forty-five loops of 15 black diamond seed beads and 1- 5.5 mm sapphire color bi-cone crystal each and the base for the necklace is ready to hot-rod up.

 
Not a very pretty picture with my marked up bead mat in the back ground but these pictures are to show work in process and this is my work surface.  When it gets too dirty I throw it in the washer.  It's actually a car wash shammy so it stands up to a lot of abuse.

For the next step I added a picot of 3 beads to the top of each loop and a bridge of 2 beads between each loop.

Now for the fancy stuff.  Figuring out and making the center piece took a couple false starts but for now I'm happy with the results.  For this necklace I feel like I need to work from the center to the ends to keep it balanced.

The original inspiration necklace was made from sapphires, emeralds, rubies, diamonds and mounted in platinum.  I'm using those colors in my beads but they are glass or in some cases quartz. 

All together this took about 2 hours of work tonight.  I was hoping to get a little more done but I have a few other things to do before bed so it was time to quit for the night.

And It Begins

OK here we go.  My inspiration was from a picture in a beading magazine.  I can't afford the actual gems used in the original but I intend to make my own version. 

Here's the inspiration photo.  This is a necklace from early 1900's Cartier.

Fresh out of the box supplies.

Getting started with a daisy chain of seed beads and crystal bicones. 

Where It Starts

Also find me at www.llrodenjewelry.artfire.com

Welcome to my world.  I make jewelry to sell.  Other than my screened back porch or time with my grandchildren, my basement is my favorite place to be.  Since I work full time away from home my basement time is way too short for my taste.  Friends and family know that if I'm not at my day job I'll usually be in my basement working on another piece of jewelry.

Other than starting in my mind the actual hands on work starts in my basement, or as my friends and husband like to call it my CAVE.  In my cave I have my bead stash, stones that have been tumbled or are ready to cut, my torch for metal work, my other torch for flame working glass, sewing machines (as needed), reference books, and so much more.

I can easily lose myself and track of time.  There are so many jewelry ideas running around in my head I sometimes don't know where to start and will have several projects going at the same time.

In addition to the bead work I enjoy working with metal, glass, stones, clay and found objects.  What I do depends on my mood and that day's dexterity of my hands.

With this blog I hope to take you through my projects as I work on them.  Below I've added some pictures from  recent completed projects just to get your interest.  Soon you will be able to watch the progress of individual jewelry pieces, hopefully without showing the rest of the mess in my basement.  To see what I actually have for sale please click on the ArtFire link.

This is a bead embroidered bracelet with 3 polymer clay faces.  This bracelet was sold before I even managed to get it listed on my web site.

A lot of beads and a lot of time went into this necklace.  The side sections are black and pearl white seed beads stitched in a twisting rope and accented with various size and styles of larger black and white beads.

I have a thing for turquoise, coral and silver.  This necklace has all of that.

Ready for Halloween?  Carved bone skeletons are featured on this necklace but if you look close there are also small carved wood skulls.  That big rock hanging from the bottom is a polished chunk of Carnelian.

This pretty face is a porcelain sugar skull.  Only one face on this bracelet but it's a dandy.  The  rest of the bracelet is made up of seed beads stitched to a nylon web backing and closes with Velcro.

These happy hoops I've made in green, purple and clear crystal.  I don't often make multiples of my jewelry but I couldn't decide on which color to use so I made a pair in each color.

I hope this catches your interest because I have so much more.  I like a challenge when I'm making jewelry so keep watching for the next installment.

Linda