Wednesday, 9 January 2013

"PRETTY WOMAN"

Do you remember in the movie "PRETTY WOMAN"  when Richard Gere holds open the jewelry case for Julia Robert's  character to inspect the necklace within ? When she goes to touch it, Richard  SNAPS  closed the case almost on her fingers!!!  Julia's reaction was  unrehearsed as the director, Gary Marshal, had told Richard to do it without her knowledge, just to see how  Julia would respond.  That surprised texas laugh was GENUINE and so it was included in the final edit and wouldn't you know, THAT  is the scene that most of us think of when that movie is mentioned.  So it was, that not long ago, while cruising the sales at Michael's, I chanced upon a bag of necklace clasps that instantly reminded me of jewelry cases a la' Pretty Woman;  Here is what I did with them.....
This is a piece of scrap foam that used to house 2 lip  glosses.  I gave the  cosmetics to my daughter Sam,( she does make-up tutorials on YOU TUBE as 'Samantha Slinn').  I kept the packaging because it was a dense foam with a velvety layer on top that I decided to filet off into smaller sections.

Now I am imprinting the slice of foam by pressing it into the  clasp.

This is the outline of the clasp, I had tried cutting off the foam over-hang, but it was much  easier to cut it this way and then fine tune it later.



Okay, everybody knows by now that I use this glue, Quick Grip, a lot.  This glue is almost like a rubber cement.  It gets very stringy and sets up super fast which is a good thing mostly.  But here it was used to secure the foam into the metal case.  One thing I like about this product is that the glue can be picked off with a pair of tweezers if it 'over -shoots' the runway. 
Adding the glue

The fun begins!  These are nail embellishments that Janine (Minworks) gave me.  She  purchased them from the dollar store and there was a pack of 6 or 8, different appliques', all in little glass bottles!  The bottles are the perfect scale for canisters or mason jars.  I will save that project for another day, but for now the tiny florets are what I will use for the jewels of the necklace.

I tried gluing the pink flowers on with Quick Grip  with mixed results.  The glue was too stringy for what I needed to do and I had to pick it off over and over because I was not getting the accuracy that I needed.  I had to come up with a PLAN B....

These are some of the No Hole Beads that are in my collection.  Martha Stewart 's collection is great because the colors are pastel and look like candy.  The Reflections series is more metallic and for the necklace project I used the Reflections 


Here is the finished project.  I found that if I combined the nail art with the no hole beads I could get something that looked like a necklace.  To get the beads in the right place was my challenge.  PLAN B:  I decided to try Aleen's Tacky Glue, and used my fine ball stylus tool to draw the glue onto the velvet and then push the beads into the glue and into place.  This worked quite well. 

Here is the ball stylus and ALEENS  TACKY GLUE. 

This clasp still has the place for the necklace chain to be attached.  I don't need it so off it came.  Now you see it....


And now you don't!  I used my snipers to clip the metal off and then smoothed it  with a  metal file

Nail art of the Peel and Press on kind.  I layered  the same pattern over top of itself  until I got a combination that I liked.  With the bits of left overs I fashioned a pair of earrings.

This is a floral relief sheet of nail art and so is the following...

The small asterisks are used on the necklace below. 



This Art Nouveau piece has flowers taken from the 3rd photo above.  I glued the flowers down with the tacky glue and then drew on the bead ornamentation using the ball stylus and adding the Reflections copper no hole beads.  I think it turned out pretty good, wouldn't you say?  

And here is the collection of jewelry cases with necklaces to adorn the necks of some  mini Pretty Women
"

"Thy cheeks are comely with rows of jewels, thy neck with chains of gold"


elizabeth



12 comments:

  1. Dear Elizabeth, The jewel cases also remind me of the scene where Julia Robert's character sends the oyster shell flying "slippery little suckers" she says.

    Solomon had his way with words but I like this one as well.

    "Adornment, what a science! Beauty, what a weapon! Modesty, what elegance! Coco Chanel

    You know the Thrift stores will now have a run on belts! Once again thank you for showing us one of the many things we walk past.

    "I was seldom able to see an opportunity until it had ceased to be one!" Mark Twain

    Janine

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  2. Janine , Here's a quote from Woody Allen re. oysters: "I will not eat oysters, I want my food dead- not sick, not wounded-DEAD!

    About snails:" I don't like to eat snails. I prefer FAST FOOD"... Roger Von Ooch( 1996) and-

    "We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all we need to make us really happy is something to be enthusiastic about." Charles Kingsley (and that would be minis!)
    elizabeth

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  3. great idea =) they are very pretty =)

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  4. Hello Anna and WELCOME NEW FOLLOWER! Thank you for joining my site and I want to say that you and I are kind of starting out together. I am pleased to see New Followers for you, too! I look forward to a lot of sharing and good times ahead. Feel free to use whatever info for your collection and thanks for the compliment!

    elizabeth

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  5. Very pretty and inspiring...so my girlfriend tried to locate these at Michael's & HL and couldn't find them. Were they in with all the other jewelry findings or maybe they were someplace else? What exactly were they called on the packaging? Thanks much!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Pooka! These were found in the clearance bin at Michael's and they are necklace clasps/ connectors. They close down onto velvet ribbons on either end and then the eye of each of these clasps are to be joined to a chain with a lobster clasp to secure it around the neck. That is about as much as I can tell you. I don't know the manufacturer or the name they were sold under as that info I have long since thrown away. I suggest that you google a site that sells jewelry findings for velvet ribbon necklaces. Thanks for the inquiry and happy hunting!

      elizabeth

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  6. My name is M.Àngels known as Mafalda200 in the net. I am a quite recent miniaturist, quite bad to tell the truth, never mind, some time ago I started a blog http://mafalda200minis.blogspot.com.es/

    Well, the reason to contact you is because four months ago I started an amateur/free "magazine" on line. I smile when I say magazine because I had no idea how to do it. You can see the former numbers on the left hand of my blog. I take the opportunity to promote the blogs where I find the tutorials and I ALWAYS include the blog addresses.

    I have no profit of any kind with this "magazine", just the aim to share things I found on the net.

    In the next number I'd like to include your this tutorial if you do not have any inconvenience. That's the reason why I'm asking for your approval.

    Please let me know if you agree or you prefer to decline my proposal in order to make the arrangements.

    Thanks for sharing your knowledgment with all of us, and I remain for your news,

    Hugs
    Maria Àngels

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hello Maria! Thank you so much for contacting me and YES! You are more than welcome to this tutorial!
      I thank you for the courtesy of asking me, it is very much appreciated, Please feel free to take what you need. I have visited your site and it looks like a whole lot of fun, I only wish that I could find the google translator! I feel that I am missing out on the conversations that your group is enjoying!

      elizabeth

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    2. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, ^_^
      Hugs
      Maria Àngels

      Delete
  7. just saw this post in the nick of tome !!! Was about to trow my laptop at a wall. NO ONE wants to share what they know with the brand new know nothings ( me ),so thank god for you. This day really did need one good thing in it ! Elizabeth P.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hello Elizabeth! :D
    Welcome to the world of miniatures and I am so glad that you have found me!
    I know the feeling of frustration as I have been there too, but rest assured that most of the miniaturist in this world LOVE TO SHARE!
    Granted there are those who make a living with their skills who like to keep what they know to themselves which is entirely fair, but if you are looking for basic how -to's you have come to the right place. I have tutorials in nearly every post and if you don't see specifically what you are looking for, just leave me a message and I will get back to you.
    Once again - WELCOME! :D

    elizabeth

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  9. Wow preciosas cajas yo no condigo unas acá en México saludos

    ReplyDelete

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