Brass and Blue

I had some leftover lapis lazuli beads from the necklace I made.

I seem to always make necklaces and time seems short these days, so I made a bracelet.

Either I'm excited to have something new, or I am obsessed with these beads because I wear this bracelet all the time now.

Lazuli

One of my necklaces broke, so I decided to take the wooden beads and make something new. 

My aunt gave me some Lapis Lazuli beads that I basically adore.  I think it's one of my favorite stones.  

It turns out the original place what Lapis Lazuli was mined was a place called Lazhward, which is Persian.  Lapis is Latin for stone, and Lazhward underwent some linguistic changes to become Lazuli, so it means a stone from Lazhward.  What I thought was interesting is that the way of saying "blue" in many romance languages is derived from this name and the blue color of the stone.  Lazuli = Azul

The necklace is kind of heavy, but it's worth the extra poundage.  

Jewelry from Women of Kireka

I recently remembered that I took these photos in December.  This is jewelry that I helped design while working with Women of Kireka.  

As I mentioned in an old post, the paper beads you see here are all over Kampala.  But no one as far as I've seen has marketed jewelry that combines paper beads and metals.  

These pieces resulted from an effort to revamp paper bead jewelry.

These photos aren't exactly originals.  The colors were so vibrant that I played around with contrast and shading for a bit more of a dynamic effect.

I went a little overboard with this one, but I still really like the effect.

Taloso workshop

I recently was helping out some friends who run a jewelry store and workshop (called Taloso) by taking photos for their website.  I had a great time playing photographer and Taloso is one of my favorite places to hang out.  This is why: 

Beading Stacey is pleased.  

My friend Ann runs Taloso, and she is a gifted jewelry maker.  

I brought some shells back from Zanzibar.  My mother would be so proud.  A few of them make a cameo in this basket.  

It sparkles.  These beads aren't really my style, but I like how they capture the light.  

For part of the shoot they decided to match necklaces with bags.  What do you think?

Lavender bomb!

These are paper beads.  For those of you that don't know, this is the style of jewelry I worked with throughout the fall when I was working with the women's cooperative Women of Kireka.  Paper bead necklaces are all over Kampala.

The camera loves these colors.  Me too.

Something Simple

 After my beaded belt endeavor, I needed a little break.

So I made this necklace.  

It took me all of five minutes, but it was a great five minutes for my alter ego (Beading Stacey).

It is done!

I have been working on this beaded belt for a while now, but it is done!  

Yes, it was all made by me and no, I did not use a bead loom.  I did it all by hand and it was awesome.  

I can even use it as a necklace :)