Rainbow Colored Rubber Tubing- Fun for Funky Jewelry

There is something about this combination of joyful colors in a necklace that just makes me want to smile. The designer, Yvonne Irwin says it reminds her of a carnival and I had a similar reaction of thinking that it looks like a visual party.

Yvonne is the shop owner of MyElements on Etsy who sells these rubber tubes, colorful O rings and quite a variety of other jewelry making pieces.  I found her through some of my friends and have to admit, am a bit addicted to the tubing.

You see, it works perfectly in some instances for a quick ending to a memory wire style necklace that uses my lampwork.  It keeps it lighter weight and for me, a quick string.  Here is an example of one that I just recently made.  (It is available if you message me, but not up on my StudioMarcy etsy site.

I love this light periwinkle blue color of the tubing.  It goes with a lot of my spring colors.  I have used plenty of other colors.

The O rings work well for accents between some large hole beads strung on the memory wire + tubing made up choker style too.  I'll show that necklace another day.

So pop by and visit Yvonne's shop.  One of the other options with this tubing is to feed wire through it and bend it around.  You can make corkscrews, loops or whatever you like.  Lots of fun and funky options.

If you've made something already with it, please post a link.  We'd all love to see it.

See you tomorrow!

Winter Garden Flower Jewelry

Pastel Flower Garden on Really Stiff Stems

So recently I've been on a funky flower and leaf kick. I've been choosing color palettes and then spending the day working on them with the long range goal of making some jewelry for myself and then selling the other components.  

This is an example of my very light pastel mix.  Atlanta had unseasonal snow and ice, and I think looking out my studio windows at all the white, gave me the inspiration.  We usually only get about 2" a year, and we got over 8" which quickly turned to layers of thick ice and shut down the city.  Kids were out of school for over a week.

But I digress.

My pastels in this palette were fun.  I don't usually work in this combination and was enjoying gray, white, pale pinks, soft blues, lavenders and a touch of CiM's Dirty Martini green, which I love.

So now here is my hard decision..what to design with these "parts"?  I've got such minimal experience in making jewelry.  Any ideas?  Tomorrow I'll show you what I was thinking, but meanwhile, please chime in all of you experts and give me some ideas please!