Painted glass gems and what to do with them

 

I have become obsessed recently with painting glass gems.
I posted about them back in March here: http://zoeowyn.blogspot.com/2013/03/glass-nail-polish-gems.html


Well what can you do with all of them?

All sorts of things

I have been playing with some wire wrapping. The first one I did is a classic swirling cab capture I learned from Dale "Cougar" Armstrong. I believe its in her book.

http://www.amazon.com/Wirework-Illustrated-Guide-Wire-Wrapping/dp/1596680881/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1375979158&sr=8-2&keywords=dale+armstrong%2C+wire+wrapping

And if its not, its still a fantabulous book

Then there is this tutorial making the rounds on Pintrest and facebook (from http://www.beaducation.com/spiro) Clearly these are a steam-punk wrap. I need to work out the bail, but this is an easy wrap, and it captures the cab nicely.

I plan on integrating them into my polymer clay work, but in the mean time I have been playing with settings.

Playing with one of the eyes I made

While playing with epoxy sculpting clay I set some onto some basic findings, rings and one of those pieces with blank spots for you to put in your own gems

 




At the art store I was looking at some settings. The ceramic one needs to have the background painted in, as its a bit too big and the white shows (but its cute), the colored plastic frames are a bit too small, and the metal finding is great.

This made me think of the frame molds I have, they aren't going to work



And just because these are so cool looking I will leave you with this picture again