Always up for a challenge

By: Cindy Goldrick

I often take part in blog hops and other bead challenges. I do it for a variety of reasons: first, I'm always happy to draw attention to my work and my business, which is important for a teacher and designer; and second, I love nothing more than a challenge and a deadline to meet. I suppose a third reason is that I get a virtual introduction to the interesting work of other designers. 

So a few weeks ago I received a letter containing a pretty bezel from Carmi Cimicata, who manages social media for John Bead. Bezels went out to designers in Canada, the US and as far away as Hong Kong. 

Here's the bare bezel. 

It's a button with a shank. As usual, when I'm designing, I let the button sit on the table in front of me for a couple of days. I was designing and making a series of pendants for an upcoming show and I found a small cache of mismatched pearls. My brain started turning over and my a-ha moment happened. 

The word Tidepool slid through my mind and I realized the sides of the button reminded me of eddies in a tide pool. The pearls looked like the rocky, coral bottom of a pool of water left when the tide goes out. 

So I got out my bottle of Lisa Pavelka's Magic-Glos and squeezed some into the button bezel. Then I arranged the colourful pearls into the resin and popped it under the UV light to quick-cure. To solve the problem of the button's shank and balance the bezel while the resin cured, I gouged a hole in an eraser until it was big enough for the shank. Here's how that looked. 

As you can see, I placed a Swarovski star on top of my tide pool to suggest a starfish sweeping along the rocks. I glued it down with some E6000. 

So the button was completed but I needed to decide how to include it in a piece of jewellery. I've been making a lot of leather cuffs lately, so when my eyes fell on some crackly green metallic leather it suggested waves and the sea and a perfect contrast to my bezel. I cut out the cuff shape using my Jill MacKay die on my Big Kick, added snap closures and punched four holes in the cuff. Using 1.5mm leather cord, I tied a knot at one end, wove it through the holes to secure the button shank, and knotted and trimmed the other end. Voila, my Tidepool cuff. Here's a picture of the finished piece. 

To see all the beautiful pieces created by the designers, including Beadful Life blog contributor Anne-Marie Desaulniers, visit Carmi's blog at http://carmicimicata.blogspot.ca/2016/05/the-rhinestone-button-blank-challenge.html