Collaborations with MaryLou Holvenstot

Here are the last two collaborations with jewelry designer MaryLou Holvenstot. www.time2cre8.etsy.com

I received them in the mail yesterday and believe me you have to see them in person too!
MaryLou has such a wonderful way of describing her work and the process-- Here is how she described her Terra necklace-
"The last collaborative piece I was able to finish using some of Kristie Roeder's (aka artisanclay.etsy.com) incredible smoke-fired clay beads. The texture and tone of these beads are amazing, and I wanted to create a piece using three different sizes and shapes - one large focal (about 2" long), a smaller tube-shaped bead, and another smaller flattened oval.

The idea I first had was to just use Kristie's beads, but as I was looking through my bead stash I came across some beads in a variety of materials that all blended so well with the smoke-fired clay that I decided to assemble a variety of shapes and textures.

The beads included in here are root beer colored glass beads in all different shapes: square, cone, round, and lentil; and there are also wooden beads in several shapes and sizes and bone beads. The two open rings are both made of bone. They're all connected with bits of beadweaving - some peyote stitch and a tiny bit of ndebele rope.

There's also one longer section of ndebele rope, created with Japanese delica beads in matte pale gold and matte metallic dark gold. The rope ends in a loop, so the larger beads fit through easily. This allows the piece to be worn in several different ways - as a more "traditional" style with the focal hanging almost like a pendant, or with the ndebele rope at the back of the neck so the focal bead hangs to the side.

The name I chose for this, Terra, means "earth." So many of the components come from the earth, and the brown and beige tones of this look like earth and sand.
This piece is on its way to Kristie, so she can display it at the Philly Bead Fest next week!"

And here is how MaryLou described her Lilivati necklace-
"I was so excited to be able to use one of her clay and glass cabochons, and this lime green one has been calling out to me for a couple of weeks now. It told me it wanted to be paired with purple, and these shiny silver-lined red violet delicas were just the thing. The other beads I used are transparent pale lime green.

Another thing that excited me when I started making the bezel for this piece is that it worked to a perfectly symmetrical treatment! That let me play with the design on the front a bit, adding a single purple bead every so often so they're evenly spaced around the face of the bezel.

The back of the bezel was left open because I really liked the smooth texture and the concentric circles in the clay.The necklace portion is an ndebele rope (aka tubular herringbone) made from the same beads used in the bezel. It's mostly the violet beads, but I created a spiral the entire length of the rope using the pale lime green beads.

Now if I could only get my camera to cooperate... these pictures are a bit on the dark side, so I may take more later.

Almost forgot! The name I chose, Lilivati, means "playful, amusing, charming" in Sanskrit.:-) "


Check out MaryLou's shop! www.time2cre8.etsy.com She is wonderful to work with, and I'm sure you can work together to create that perfect something for your next event! (I know I have another wedding coming up)