Found Treasure makes Wonderful Jewelry

Last week I made one of my infrequent trips into the local Goodwill store, just for a little look-see. Look and see what I found!!! Four of these wonderful porcelain divided plates!! They were $1 each and absolute perfection for bead sorting and creating!!!
After finishing Judy's collage necklace gift, I still had quite a pile of goodies already picked out and lined up on my table. I went with the flow and kept right on creating!! I came up with two more necklaces taht will serve for now, as samples for my upcoming Collage Jewelry Classes that will be offered at Artistic Artifacts this fall.

This Cooper and Turquoise piece is made using only vintage chain bits. The inspiration came from some Tyvek beads taht I created quite awhile ago and had forgotten about. Rumaging thru one's stash always uncovers buried treasure!!!!

The chain on the right in the picture below is a wonderful piece from a deco bracelet. I just love the unusual shape of the links. Hanging from the triangle links is a leaf carved from green turquoise. Just below the leaf you can see the inspiration bead made from tyvek painted with metallic paints before melting and shaping. These tyvek beads are amazingly sturdy and lightweight, and wonderfully quick to make. Bekow the bead hangs a chunk of turquoise and an Indian coin from the 1940's.
I also used small tumbled amythest beads and a wonderful old terra cotta bird bead from a broken indian necklace that I found out in Colorado. Perhaps the most unusual bit on this necklace is the bit of broken copper car key that hangs form the bird. I found this key on a ring at an antique mall in Fredericksburg. The other keys with it showed an amazing amount of smooth rub wear and this broken key has been rubbed so smooth that there are no sharp edges. The carrier must have had his hand in his pocket constantly handling his keys. If the keys could talk , I bet that there would be quite a story to hear!!!

Hanging at the very bottom, below the square turquoise chunk, is awonderful Raku bead with the neverending swirl symbol on it. I adore this bead and wish that I had bought many more of them when I had the chance!!! I came across them at at Art and Soul vendor night in Hampton VA, 4 years ago. They were sold by a local bead vendor who I believe has since gone out of business. If any of my wonderful readers knows of a source for Unusual Raku beads, please, please drop me a line!!!


Then I created this Ocean Wave Collage piece using treasures gathered during my trips to the ocean.

The blue heart bead and the other small donut beads are all recycled glass
made by polio victims at a wonderful art center in Tanzania. My wonderful brother stops by the Art Center every year to gather more of these wonderful beads for me!!! Lucky ME!!!

The heart is suspended by a length of vintage sterling silver ball Rosary Beads that I discovered in a bag of costume jewelry. They were very black and sorry looking, but absolutely amazing when washed with a bit of silver polish!!!
Then on the right is a wire wraped piece of old lavendar sea glass fromt he waves on Cape Cod and on the right is a piece of Quahog shell that sea worms very nicely left with wonderful holes, just for me. When I was much younger , the holey pieces were always discarded as they were not perfect! Now these a re the ones that I treasure!! This shell is incredibly dense and difficult to drill, so when I find them with holes, all ready to become beads I am thrilled!! In this particular bit of shell I wired in two white fresh water pearls and then dangled a lavendar pearl form the bottom edge. I love the way that the worm trails and holes add so much glorious texture to the shell bits!

In this shot you see more of the wonderufl donut beads from Africa and my signature underwear bead with more pearls. Then I took a small lucky stone- the black stone with the continuous white quartz ring, and wire wrapped it in silver wire.

I so enjoy all aspects of this process, from the hunt, to the gathering, to the contemplating and designing. Then when each piece comes together into a wonderful whole, I know that I am doing what I should be doing, at that very moment...