Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Calavera skull fun - Rings & Things blogger challenge

I have been knocking around an idea for a couple of days and finally sat down this morning to make it.

I wanted something fun and flirty to make with the dancing senor and senorita charms. Girly but with an edge. I used three sections of gold tone chain and made a length of wrapped beads with gold tone wire. Added the Calavera skulls as charms and there she is. Quick.

Now that I have it made, I am going to change out the toggle for a lobster clasp. The toggle is a bit difficult to work with.

44-940-56-AG Viva Mexicana charm, dancing senor (antiqued-gold plate)*
44-940-57-AG Viva Mexicana charm, dancing senorita (antiqued-gold plate)*
28-335-18 Lampwork 'calavera' flower skull bead (black,white)*
28-335-15 Lampwork 'calavera' skull bead (black, white)*
Random black beads





The bobby pin has been worrying me. I have no 'glue' skills. I don't think it is in my genes. I try and fail repeatedly to get something to stick to a glueable blank. I have tried many types of glue but still no luck. I wanted to do something funny and cute and creepy all at the same time. That is when I thought about adding the skull to the flower bead.

So funny.

I used floral wire and ran it thru the bead. Then added seed beads to the wire. Ran the ends of the wire back thru the bead to make the 'frame' around the bead. Then I bent the wire to the back of the bead and twisted it twice to keep it tight. Then I brought the ends of the wire together and strung the vintage lucite flower bead onto the wire. I folded the wires apart at the base of the flower bead and I put a dot of glue on the bottom of the flower bead and on the glueable platform of the bobby pin. It set up but not well. I enforced the glue by wrapping the tail of the wire around the top of the bobby pin.

floral wire
seed beads
30-822-1 Bobby pin (white metal)*
LUC3900RD German Lucite Matte Deep Red 3-Petal Flowers 39mm*
28-335-15 Lampwork 'calavera' skull bead (black, white)*





I need to re do it, make it more stable, appealing and functionable -but for now, it makes me smile :)

*FTC compliance disclosure: the '*' items mentioned in this post credited to Rings & Things were provided as a promotional gift as part of the Blog Partner Program. These items are for review or design purposes. Find out more about the Rings & Things Blog Partner Program


*FTC compliance disclosure: the '*' items mentioned in this post credited to Beadin Path were provided as a promotional gift as part of the Beadin Path Design Partners. These items are for review or design purposes.

2 comments:

  1. There's something very happy about these skulls, I smiled too when I checked out your bobby pin design, Tish!

    --Dave
    at Rings & Things

    ReplyDelete
  2. Fun design there for the bobby pin! I can always count on you to show me a different perspective :-)

    I really need to get to work with my batch, soon!

    ReplyDelete