Simple Blue Heart Necklace

The Blue Heart Necklace is done.

Simple Blue Heart Necklace

I wear the cream colored version of this more than any other piece of jewelry I have made.   It is simple, light weight, is easy to wear, and goes with everything.

I did, however, make a few changes.  I added about 1 inch of chain between the focal and the beaded beads so the necklace would lay better.  The cream necklace lays nicely when worn, not so much when being photographed.  The redesign separates the focal and the puffy heart allowing the eye to appreciate both. 

Simple Heart Necklace

I did add the lopsided heart to the back.  It won't get much attention, but it will get love.

I also remade the focal heart to give the lobes more prominence. 

Two puffy hearts, I used the one on the left.

The focal is a lovely indigo disk with a floral motif that I picked up quite some time ago; yes that means more than two years ago.  I purchased an entire strand.  I have used this bead for a bracelet.  It has a nice iridescent shimmer to match the AB finish on the Delicas. 

Focal disk

Focal with blue puffy heart

Simple Blue Heart Necklace up close

 Finally, here is a picture of the original cream necklace and the blue version:

Cream and Blue Heart Necklaces

Hearts

I managed to get in some extra beading time this week but in that time I only made things that needed to be torn apart.

I did manage to finish the heart for my Blue Heart necklace.

Blue beaded puffy heart leaning against a shell

Here is another view with the beaded beads:

Puffy heart and beaded beads

 I am not sure if I am satisfied with the way the heart turned out.  The lobes are not pronounced enough.  I will look at it again after having been away for a day or two and perhaps it will be just right.

The heart is made in two pieces and zipped together.  I made the first half easy-peasy. Now that should have been a clue.  Then I proceeded to make 4 or 5 second halfs none of which quite matched. Now that was surely a second clue.  However, I liked the way the initial half looked.  I decided to zip the halves together only to find that the darn thing was lop-sided.  I think the initial half was bad and I kept trying to match a mistake. 

I moved on to a larger version, which only took one try per side.  As I said this might need to be redone.

I did save the out of kilter heart and will hang it from the clasp end.  Here is a picture of both hearts:

Out of kilter heart, large puffy heart and beaded beads

The Plan

Do you design jewelry and in the process redesign and redesign again?  I do.  Which is why I don’t quite have a bracelet to share with you today.

Several months ago I purchased a pattern for a peyote puffy heart from Kreativ Keller.  There is no English translation, but Google translate worked quite well and the diagrams were great.  The plan for this weekend was to finally get around to trying out the pattern.  Now, that plan worked just fine.

Puffy Heart, pattern by Kreativ Keller

 
Having successfully made the puffy heart, the plan was to make a bracelet using these silver plated tubes as a quick and simple finish:

Silver Plated Tubes for bracelets

The plan also included the use of this carved bone frog as the center of the bracelet:

Plans don’t always work. 

Upon reflection the carved bone frog did not fit with the delicacy of the seed bead elements.  I am disappointed.  I think I have had the bone frog for a few decades.  The color was a perfect compliment.  The size was just right.  However, it just wasn’t going to work and I would not have been satisfied with the finished piece. 

New plans were quickly hatched.  I rummaged through my box of white beads and found a mother of pearl disk.  It was the right size and color.  However, when I put it together it was to long for a bracelet.  Which means the silver tubes will also be put aside for another day. 

The bracelet will now become a necklace, once I make it to a shop and pick up some silver plated chain.  Here is the unfinished piece:

Not Your Mother's Pearls

I am really happy with the way this turned out.  I am also well pleased with the instructions from Kreative Keller, they were well done, easy to interpret and follow, and the design is quite clever.