About Me

Lindsay M Starr is a beadwork and mixed media artist currently based in Nashville, TN. She spent her early childhood in Alaska, and her school age and college years in Oregon. Lindsay has a great appreciation for history, science, and nature and is consistently inspired by insects, sea life, color, and the significance of beads and beadwork throughout human history. She spends her days beading, walking at the zoo, and practicing yoga. Lindsay loves to share her knowledge and passion for beads and beadwork to hobbyists of all skill levels.

Tuesday, October 31, 2017

Art Elements Component of the Month October 2017

I always feel like I start these posts with the same statement...How on earth is it October already?!  Wasn't it just February?  It's time again for the Art Elements component of the month reveal!

This time we got to play with one of Niky's hare coin clasps.  As always when I use delicate components, I know my struggle is going to be how to make the component really stand out!  Add in the fact that I don't typically work with much metal, and this month was a particular challenge for me.

Luckily, the deadline for this month managed to sync up with my trip to visit my PiB Kelly for a long weekend.  If you're not sure what I mean by PiB, check out my last two posts about Kelly (Here and Here) and our relationship with each other and beads.  Kelly became a first time home owner earlier this year, and I hadn't been up to see her new digs yet!  We spent the weekend cooking, brewing batch after batch of tea, binge watching shows and videos, and BEADING.  I had brought the majority of my art bead collection, since we intended to do an art bead trade, so when I started playing around quite a few art beads made it into the initial design.  Fortunately, this is as far as I got before I realized it was just TOO MUCH for the clasp.  I cut everything apart to scale back a ton, or I knew I wouldn't be happy with the finished piece.  *cringe* Yes, that is sterling wire....
Here is where I ended up!  This is my take on Aesop's The Tortoise and the Hare.  Much more delicate and in scale with the coin clasp.
I used the dangle on the bottom of the copper component to pull in bright shiny silver to complement the clasp.  Clustering above the sodalite drop are some special beads.  I made tiny dangles with star head pins, teeny labradorite and iolite rounds, and vintage Mercury glass beads.  There is a round one in the center, surrounded by textured flat teardrops.  I have never bought Mercury glass intentionally, but it keeps showing up in random lots of vintage jewelry and beads that I encounter.  It just seemed like the right thing to use to add some more shine.
Kelly works with metal, so she made me this awesome copper disk to use as a center piece.  We punched a big hole on one side to use as the ring side of the coin clasp.  It functions not only as half of the clasp, but the fact that it is large and flat means that the clasp does not have the option to flip or twist to the back of the necklace.  To attach the dangle, and half of the necklace strap, I made two links coming off of my carved sodalite tortoise and passed them through the other holes in the copper disk.  To make for a bit more security, I attached the other side of the necklace strap to another wire link with a flower bead - this meant I didn't need to worry about the beading cable potentially slipping through the link on the clasp.
To add in a third point of silver, on the other side of the strap I went a bit more subtle and used a few wire links with really light labradorite beads, and my favorite iolite beads.  I'm going to be so sad when I use up the last few beads from this strand!  Since the beads are not bright silver like the clasp and mercury glass, I used three in a row to add a bit more impact.  I like how this collection of 3 silver elements keeps your eye traveling from place to place when you're looking at the necklace as a whole.
The bulk of the necklace strap is tubular herringbone with matte metallic antique brass finished bugles and 11/0 semi-matte teal lined seed beads.  The teal seed beads perfectly match the fleeting flashes in the labradorite beads.  Because there are so many precious and sharp elements in this necklace, I decided to string the entire herringbone tube on beading cable for added durability.  This means the beadwork is not taking the brunt of the wear!
By the time I had a chance to photograph this piece I had lost most of the light for the day, but I did manage to snap this picture so you can see the detail in the coin and mercury glass at the same time.  There are so many disparate elements going on in this necklace, but I am really pleased with the results! 

Please do hop on over to everyone else's blog and see what they created with Niky's delightful hare clasps this month!  I'm off to do just that now!  Thanks for looking!

Guest Designers
Linda Landig
Kathy Lindemer
Divya N
Art Element Team
Claire Fabian
Jenny Davies-Reazor
Cathy Spivey Mendola
Susan Kennedy
Caroline Dewison
Lesley Watt
Diana Ptaszynski
Lindsay Starr
Laney Mead
Niky Sayers



11 comments:

  1. Very pretty necklace Lindsay - love the turtle.

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  2. Love the take on the hare and the tortoise :D

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  3. I love your The Tortoise and the Hare theme. Your copper, silver and blues work really well together. Beautiful necklace!

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  4. This is so different for you and yet is still very much you. I love it! And those tiny mercury glass pieces! Squee! ~Diana P.

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  5. I think this is a very clever storytelling design. It makes you think, smile, and wonder - why didn't I think of it? Everything from the hole on the copper disc to the wrapped tortoise to the antique brass finished bugles that kinda look like tortoise shell is perfect

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  6. Beautiful design Lindsay, I love the story!

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  7. Love your tortoise & hare necklace. Great idea for the Niky’s clasp to hook into the copper disc, to keep it stable. I really need you to teach me some beadweaving tricks.

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  8. I love that you tbought of the tortoise and the hare theme. This is such a pretty neccklace, with wonderful details to make it interesting all around.

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  9. I love how your designs always have so much thought put into each and every piece, using the metal disc as part of the clasp so it dose not twist - genius! Such a wonderfully unique design and a pleasure to read about your creative process, thank you so much for joining in!

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  10. Awesome I always love to see what you make! You never disappoint! Glad you had fun with Kelly!

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  11. Brilliant way to have the hare clasp be a focal AND not flip around. Love the theme. But tubular herringbone? Its like you are speaking a different language... Gorgeous piece!

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