Wherein plans are fruitful and mistakes are rectified.

It's strange. I started last year with the simple plan of making a few Christmas and birthday presents for friends and family as a way to do something more creative than a gift card. I bought only a few bits and bobs. Somehow, it has turned into quite the pile of beads, findings, and finished pieces.

Here are the latest of those finished pieces:

"Gold" has a disconcerting abundance of variations in beads and findings. Here are two projects I made primarily to use up stuff that didn't match the other "gold" finishes in my assortment of findings. The spikes on the left were too pale to match anything else I had, and the beads and toggle clasp on the right were too dark. I used beading wire and some off-white glass pearl beads along with some spacers to make these necklaces and turn those mistake purchases into something interesting.

The chain on the left is the pale gold tone that seems predominant at one of my local craft stores, but the key suspended from it is an oddball. I decided to see what I thought of hanging it there, but I may switch to a silvery stainless steel and just accept the contrast by embracing it. The center piece is a simple chain with assorted gears as a pendant. On the right, i am again experimenting with a chunky toggle clasp that has a floral motif as a way to turn the clasp into a focal point instead of something to hide, so I added a wing with an inexplicable rose pattern incorporated into it and some beads stacked on a head pin as additional pendants.

Here I am again experimenting with ribbon instead of chain or leather. The pendant is a pseudo-Victorian cameo with a skull. Just in time for Halloween, right? Get your Gothic chic choker here! It uses a magnet clasp, and seems secure due to the light weight of the cameo and ribbon.

I don't know how well they show in the photo, but the two pairs of earrings on the top left and top center have owls in front of the gears to hint at the combination of mystical and mechanical influences in much of Steampunk. On the top right is an assemblage of gears to create a clock boy lapel pin. The gear with the two eccentric holes reminds me of cartoony surprised eyes, so the rest almost built itself as I looked through the gears I had in my inventory. On the bottom left is a gold and bronze gear earring pair. Bottom center is blue glass pearl beads stacked on black findings. On the bottom right is a new experiment: clip-on earrings using gear pendants to suspend more gears.

Whaddayathink? Comment below, please! And as always, if you want to buy any of these with STEEM, contact me on steem.chat under @jacobtothe.