Sparkling Crystal Leaves Necklace for Create Your Style with SWAROVSKI ELEMENTS

If you're missing the fall foliage, this DIY Sparkling Crystal Leaves Necklace is a glamorous replacement!  A while back, I was asked by the Create Your Style with SWAROVSKI ELEMENTS team in Austria to design some jewelry based on the theme of handicrafts.  They've shared the design on their website this month, hooray!  I wanted this to have a Folk Art Chic appeal, elements of handcrafted paper married with the unmistakeable sparkle of crystal.  It's intentionally imperfect and handmade.  I started with paper snowflakes cut from very old book pages (I sell these on my website ThriftScore)-you can get instructions for making paper snowflakes here.  I turned the arms of the snowflakes into the templates for the pendants tracing them out on gold cardboard with a slight edge for a stacked effect.  An array of hand glued SWAROVSKI ELEMENTS flat backs elevated the design from handicraft to high fashion.  Crystal bronze shade rounds in varied sizes and aged brass chain pulled the design together, giving it a vintage vibe with a modern appeal.

Visit the Create Your Style site to download the PDF instructions for this Sparkling Crystal Leaves Necklace and while you're there, check out the amazing array of DIY inspiration from designers across the globe.

Life is short, be sparkly!

Cheers,

Madge

Pop Rocks for ImpressArt AND Kalmbach Blog Hop Contest

Grab a cup of coffee.

No, make that a pot of coffee.

This is epic, Babycakes!

Just Add Crystal...

Glue crystals to numbers, add jump rings, attach findings and chain.  Shazam!

I've been working with the Create Your Style with SWAROVSKI ELEMENTS brand since my first book...way, way, way back when!  In fact, I was the first American DIY industry designer to knock on their door back in 2004 to request samples for a book.  That was one of the bold emails I sent out in my year of reinvention, and when someone responded I almost fell off of my swivel chair!

Squee!

Don't ever be afraid to ask.  The worst thing that can happen is that they might say no.  On the other hand...they just might say YES!

Runway Design Reveal

Twisted Crystal Jewelry Set for Beadalon Copyright 2011 Margot and Andrew Potter

A while back I shared a sneak peek of a runway project for a manufacturer and today I'm revealing the whole shebang! This is not for the shy or retiring.  It features huge freeform tendrils organically wrapped with large vintage faux pearls and SWAROVSKI ELEMENTS. I made the necklace and earrings and Drew made the coordinating bracelet.  It was a wonderful, intuitive process. I really didn't want to go into it with relentlessly specific plans, I just started playing with the wire and eventually got to this.  What's great about this thick gauge of wire is that it's much more forgiving and looks fabulous hammered.  I can't wait to see pictures of these on a model!

To make something similar, you need 10 gauge tinned copper Artistic Wire, 22 gauge silver plated German style wire and an array of large and small faux pearls and crystals. Then bend, hammer and wrap to your heart's content! The core of the necklace is Remembrance memory wire, which is perfect for heavier necklaces because it's tempered steel.

xoxo
Madge

Create Your Style with SWAROVSKI ELEMENTS Tucson Show 2012

Hey Howdy Hey, Sparklenistas!

Super excited to share the news that I'll be teaching two classes and hosting an all day design event for the fab folks from Create Your Style with SWAROVSKI ELEMENTS at their Tucson Show! If you're going to Tucson, check out the awesome array of classes they are offering. I'll be teaching two classes: How To Write and Publish a Craft Book and Getting Published (this is focused on magazine work.)

 How to Write and Publish a Jewelry Making Book with Margot Potter

 How to Get Published (in Magazines) with Margot Potter

Creativity and Design Challenge All Day Design Event with Margot Potter

But if you want a real challenge, join me for the all day design challenge event! We will provide you with materials and images for you to design an 'inspiration board', from there you'll create a concept and a finished design. There will be challenges, there will be sparkle, there will be tears, there will be drama and three talented designers will emerge winners! Come and play with us!

Here's a link to the 411 on the show.  

In other news, I'm back on the Beadalon Design Team!  SO EXCITED, I just can't hide it!  My little engine is building up steam...huzzah!

Sparklingly yours,
Madge

Day Eight of Halloween FaBOOlosity: Baba Yaga Necklace

Copyright 2006 Margot Potter for Create Your Style with SWAROVSKI ELEMENTS

Sketch for Baba Yaga Copyright 2006 Margot Potter for Create Your Style with SWAROVSKI ELEMENTS

I can't believe it! Halloween is here! Huzzah! Hooray! My favorite holiday!

For my final piece, I am sharing one I have shared several times before. Why? Because of all of the many, many projects I have made over the years, this is by far and above my favorite.  I put more of my heart and soul into this piece than any other.  It is an exploration of the archetypal crone witch figure, the wise woman who can be terrifying or comforting as she chooses.  The Baba Yaga is a figure from Slavic Folklore.  She lives in the woods in a house that stands on chicken legs.  She flies in the air on a giant pestle and kidnaps and consumes small children.  In that function, she is a very scary figure indeed.  Yet she is also a source of wisdom for those who seek her.  That dual nature makes her a most complicated and fascinating creature.

When the Create Your Style with SWAROVSKI ELEMENTS team invited me to design pieces for their Brazil Russia book, I knew immediately that I wanted to create designs inspired by Slavic fairy tales.  Mythology fascinates me and that Joseph Campbell/Jungian inspired archetypal lens is very resonant for me. 

When I made this piece, it was a moving meditation.  Each of the 75 handcrafted polymer clay chicken bones, every knot, every crystal moon and star, every bone skull I added reminded me that the crone comes for all of us.  That we will, if we are lucky enough, one day become the crone.  That was a powerful meditation indeed.  It isn't easy to embrace the crone, she is quite frightening, but in allowing her in, allowing for the duality of joy and sorrow, of loss and triumph, of bitter and sweet, we can become whole.  When you embrace her fully, you will be overwhelmed by her beauty.

Follow this link for the 411 on how to make your own Baba Yaga Necklace.

Happy Hallowe'en.

Goulishly yours,
Madge