Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

... or tigers and giraffes and zebras and cheetahs, oh my! I have wanted to create a necklace like this for a long time, something that incorporated my favorite animal prints with polymer clay; something big, bold and a little over-the-top. I had my idea on paper but have been so busy with custom orders the past few weeks, I wasn't able to try and execute it until last night.


As old Mick would say, "just around midnight"... when every sane person who works a full-time job the next day should have been headed for their pillow, I decided to sit down and experiment with the barrel beads. I had already made the pendant, one of several image transfer animal prints I made a couple of weeks ago to show to a customer.

These are prototype barrel beads, but I learned from them what to do and not to do next time. These are covered magnesite gemstone barrel cut beads. I bought a bunch of them in the ugliest seafoam green color and haven't been able to think of anything to do with them until recently. I made two zebra print beads with them recently, and the other animal prints last night. I really, really like the combination of the different prints with the red/orange sponge coral and the copper end caps. This is the last of my 25mm copper end caps, and I must remember where I purchased them so I can re-order. They are so versatile. In this design, they look primitive, tribal almost. I used them with my French balloon beads, too, and they also fit very well with the 19th century advertising art graphics in those.