fanciful devices

I was threatening to do a religious penance necklace and here it is:

 And here it is at a jaunty angle:

I got these huge rhinestone balls special just to balance out the massive amount of tribal going on. It's... well, it's something all right. Also quite heavy. That's a brooch from patroness that I mounted on a teardrop-shaped... tart tin? that sparrow sent ages ago and i sorta flattened. Then put a very ancient thimble with a pre-columbian bead... and left all wonky b.c i was tired by then and decided it was great that way.
Also, this was so heavy I used my these:
 with the ends clipped off, which you can get for almost nothing on etsy, because I needed super strong stringing material and that stuff could hold up a bridge.

 Here's a more... civilized piece, based around a bracelet cuff by Nicky Butler. I took advantage of a missing stone to hang a focal. I also snipped off the links between the violet marquis stones along one side so that the piece could curve like a necklace, then I used all those empty hoops to dangle bronze skull beads. Notice I didn't hang one bead per hole, but rather added wire loops for an interesting, less-crowded and easier construction. I mention this to say, I used eyepins for those wire connections, making my job way, way easier. Here is an in-depth look at how I did it:

1. That's an eyepin. 

2. Make a loop going the same way as the eye. 

3. Hold it in the middle with your round pliers and bend both ends down with your toes. I guess your hands are  busy picking your nose...

I think one of the reasons I seem to be so much faster than others is that I think of shortcuts like using eyepins in this instance. I also keep an assortment of eyepin sizes so I don't have to be snipping off long ends. All these little details help save time and effort. In other words, I'm a cheater cheater consumer of pumpkins.

 Here's a graduated one with lots of goodies ...

Including lots of greybirdstudio beads which I fell in love with b/c of the way they cradle the more spherical beads I put next to them. I had to stop myself from using all of them at once.
Speaking of the great and powerful bird of grey, guess what the fuck I got in the mail just today just now?

 OHMAYGAAAA- what is this?!?! What's that peeking out of the mass of fiber fluff?

 OHMAYGHAAAA Look what it is!!!!

And wassat?

 OHMAYGHAAAA--- she told me she was sending some stuff, which already had me spazing out, but I certainly did NOT expect this quantity.

And look, in the fibrous stuff, there's like a curl of white... hair? If you can even see. What is that?

I felt like this fluff was too cool to waste so 1st I tried tearing it up like I could get it all to go the same way like they do with those combs they use to... comb it? They look like dog brushes. That accomplished nothing so I tried rolling it into little turds. Now it looks like something your stuffed animal might poop. Thought I'd share this very important aspect of the giftee experience.

But just.... really.

And here's a blurry image of the concave thing I meant about how they cradle the round beads. And now I'm gonna not use these for a while since I know if I do they'll have come and gone without ever feeling truly mine. So, I finally have that hoarding feeling everyone else talks about!