Painted Wood Necklaces

After making my own polymer clay beads into necklaces I decided I wanted to make take a stab at making just wood bead necklaces as well!  I got a few different shaped wooden beads from my stash (I will have to show you my epically organized and enormous amount of craft supplies sometime), sand them up, and then paint them with my custom mixed paint colours.  I ended up making three different wood necklaces and this one from the tiny square beads is totally my favourite:

I really like the asymmetry and colour blocking I went with and even though sanding and painting all those tiny beads was super time consuming, it was lots of fun to make!

I then decided to try larger squareish wooden beads in a random colour selection. Check it out:

My pal Jim said this necklace reminded him of his mom...which I'm not entirely sure was a compliment or not - but I'm happy with how it turned out. I love the coral colour next to the neutrals and gold and think this piece could really add to all sorts of different outfits. It also contrasts amazingly well with teals and turquoise (which makes up 50% of my wardrobe) so that may explain my paint colour selection. 

The final all wood necklace I made is quite similar to the polymer clay and wood ones I showed you yesterday, it just took like 1/4 of the time to make.  I think it's pretty cute (and like the lighter cord colour with the wood) but miss the handmade texture and imperfect-ness of my sculpey beads. Here you can look and decide for yourself:

After making these three wood necklace projects I yet again appreciated how awesome it is to have my premixed custom colours in little pots (I don't seem to shut up about that do I?) and love trying out new ideas! I feel like the spring brings out all my creative juices.  Maybe that extra vitamin D fires up my brain cells - or maybe I've just been on medical leave from work for so long that I'm going stir crazy. Let's say its the vitamin D...