Tag Archive | aesthetics

DIY Seashore Themed Tutorial #1 ~ Crystal “Starfish” for Summer Weddings and Other Celebrations

May21
This easy-to-build beaded starfish design is the perfect DIY decoration, gift, party favor, or memento for seashore-themed special occasions and celebrations.
Materials: (1) Wildfire beading string (about 8″), (2) 4 mm bicone Swarovski crystal beads in different colors (as pictured, 5 pacific opal, 5 aquamarine satin, and 10 light azore) x 20 total beads, (3) seed beads (Pictured here, Delica brand aquamarine glass seed beads).
Start stringing the inner circle of the starfish, alternating one seed bead and one crystal bicone bead.
To create the 5-point star design in this tutorial, stop after you have added 5 total bicones, alternated with 5 total seed beads. To make a six-pointed star, add pone more of each type of bead to your inner circle. This section should be completed in one color, to achieve the desired effect.
Pass the end of the string a second time through all of the beads to form a loop that you will tighten into a circle.
Pull gently on both ends of the string to close the circle, and pull the design into a continuous ring. This beaded ring becomes the base you will use to build the “arms” of your starfish.
Starting with one of the loose ends, add on three more crystals, alternating colors to give the “arms” of the starfish contrast.
Loop the end of the string back into the seed bead below, creating an outer extension of your design, as pictured.
Pull the loop on either side to tighten. This is the first “arm” or “point” of the star design.
Continue the design, by repeating the previous step a second time to create another “arm”.
After you finish the design, it should look like this! Use ribbon, string, or fishing line to create beautiful ornaments for centerpieces and wedding decor. Also ideal for jewelry!

Chain Reactions Interchangeable Jewelry Concept: Video Tutorial

Feb13

Featured Design: JULIE is a Star!

Oct20
This design was created for Julie, the 100th person to like Lace Exoskeleton on Facebook! As someone who has inspired me throughout my artistic career, Julie has given me far more than I can express in words…
This set includes custom charms. The first charm – not in this image is a hand-embrodered crystal star. The second is our signature skeleton key to symbolize opening doors, expanding horizons. The third is a silver heart with crystal droplet in lagoon blue to symbolize the connections of love and friendship.
This exclusive, one-of-a-kind insert is designed as an “illusion” style invisible strand. It includes teal blue fishing line and crystals. We may produce this strand in the furture, although it has an unfortunate tendency to kink permanently when worn often. Our other designs do not have this issue.
This set included three clasps – a crystal beaded hook-up clasp in lagoon, and two heart tab hook-up clasps. This variety of clasps ensures the length of each strand is adjustable.
The center piece of this set – available upon request for custom orders – is a hand-embroidered star pendant.
Julie selected the lagoon color palette to compliment her fair skin tone. This is one of the best colors for people whop like green, but find that it brings out too much red in their skin tone. Shown here against a pale blue background, it shimmers with subtle green accents (Swarovski crystal luminous green).
Against a white background, the darker blue tones in the lagoon theme stand out. Each color palette in the Chain Reactions collection will assume a unique appearence depending upon your personal skin tone and coloration.
This necklace includes a custom insert strand. Longer and shorter strands are available for all of our designs upon request to ensure that your piece fits as both a necklace and a bracelet.
With love and best wishes, we at Lace Exoskeleton proudly proclaim that JULIE IS A STAR!

Exponential Fashion Potential

Oct15
This image illustrates some of the main differences between bold and delicate strands.
The foundation of each base set is a 10″ chain base strand like this one. The base strand is used to build necklaces and display pendant or charms. It also doubles as an anklet.
Each base set creates at least 3 different jewelry combinations. Our deluxe set – with two insert strand – creates all of these combinations. The number of combinations grows exponentially as more strands are added.

“Sexy Sweetheart” Necklace & Bracelet Design – Using COLOR to Convey Themes & Tell A Story

Sep10
Inspired by the most decadent, irresistible feminine archetypes – from femme fatale, to the vixen, vamp, temptress, and beyond – this black & red asymmetrical necklace design features a knockout combination of seductive themes and come-hither color combinations.
This “Sexy Sweetheart” design uses several different interwoven colors and themes, inspired by one of my favortie date night ensembles. No matter what color represents your inner goddess, you can “be your own fairy godmother” with Chain Reactions modular jewelry. With 28 colors to choose from (and combine!), you can easily create the perfect accessory to match almost any design inspiration. For this design, a cherry red pair of sexy (yet traditional/vintage) heels serves as our first source of inspiration.
A complex look can be built from a few simple pieces. Every layer – from your perfume, to your nail polish – exudes a story of its very own. “Collage” your fantasy onto your body by mixing and matching different design elements from different sources. Pictured is my favorite nailpolish color (selected to match the shoes).
We begin our necklace with a neutral base color – black – to match the dress fabric pictured in this image. A 10″ base strand in black is used as a connection point for a crystal key pendant in “silver night”.
Next, a red 10mm heart (“light siam AB”) drop is layered onto the 10″ chain base strand, via the same clasp used to secure the key. Experiment with different layers and color combinations to achieve different effects. Red and black are often associated with sexuality, passion, and “the darker side” of romance. You can use intuitive themes as inspiration when selecting a color combo – what do you want people to see, hear and know? Communication without words may seem difficult – but it is at heart, the only universal language we have!
After the charms have been layered, an 8″ crystal insert strand (pomegranate, bold style) is connected to the clasp.
The loose end of the chain base strand is attached to a heart tab hook up clasp.
The open back of this necklace allows you to put it on without disturbing the layered charms in front.
This step is normally completed around the neck. Attach remaining end of insert strand to the heart tab hook up clasp.
Voila! Sexy sweetheart, on demand!
Matches the nailpolish perfectly!
And also perfectly color-coordinated to match the shoes!
Dreaming of a matching bracelet? Your wish is my command! Attach a heart tab hook up clasp to the end of a 7″ delicate style crystal insert strand (pomegranate).
Attach another heart tab hook up clasp to the other end.
Connect a crystal beaded heart hook up clasp (pomegranate) to one heart at a time to complete your bracelet.
Here is how you get it on you wrist!
Sexier than any forbidden fruit!
This design is bold, yet still classic, feminine, yet a bit edgy. What does your inner temptress look like?

Full Spectrum Fashion: Chain Reactions Signature Color Palettes

Aug30
White Wedding
Cupcake
Glamour
Pomegranate
Poppy
Peachy Keen
Emberglow
Honeycomb
Evergreen
Mint
Emerald
Seafoam
Lagoon
Ripple
Cerulean
Nautical
Stardust
Nocturne
Iris
Lilac
Orchid
Nightshade
Midnight
Pearl

Introduction to Color Matching: How to Adapt Your Exoskeleton to Match ANY Outfit!

Aug29
Modular jewelry designs can be adapted to match any inspiration, context or color combination. The necklace featured in this post was inspired by the deep red of fresh summer cherries, and the dusty pink fabric of one of my favorite cotton dresses.
To find the perfect match, “collage” a few modular pieces together to see how they look.
To build a necklace, begin by attaching one charm to a base strand.
If a layered look is desired, stack other charms – in different materials, shapes, and sizes, on top of your base strand.
Cluster a few crystal drops on top for even more dimension.
After attaching your chams, connect your desired crystal insert strand to the same clasp you used to attach your charm layers.
finish your necklace by connecting the loose ends in back with a hook-up clasp or chain extender.
Mix and match your modullar pieces to match any outfit!

Intro to Modular Jewelry… and The Universe!

Aug18
Chain Reactions modular jewelry lets you create your own jewelry trends, styles and designs, while also offering an alternative to passive “consumption” of identity and self-expression.
Interchangeable pices can be layered to match any outfit, mood or holiday. This produces less waste than having discrete items for very limited uses.
The same necklace may be worn with any charm. The chain color, too, may be edited. Or, you can simply break this necklace down into a bracelet and an anklet.
A modular design allows you to begin with a few pieces, and build a collection slowly over time.
As you find new interests, and you style changes, the jewelry you wear can be altered to fit the evolution. Most importantly, obsolete concepts are edited out without loosing your entire investment in self-expression.
As your mind and body mature over time, your sense of creative empowerment and collaborative involvement will also blossom. When your choices as a consumer are more closely fitted to you, they are far more rewarding, and less likely to be discarded before their use value is depleted.
With modular designs, there are no limits to potential for growth. Individual pieces are not bound by a specific configuration, and move freely between designs. Charms for earrings double as charms for bracelets and necklaces.

Clarissa Cupcake Talk @ Teasecraft This Month!

Mar11

Sugar & Spice…Naughty & Nice:
Burlesque-Inspired D.I.Y with Clarissa Cupcake

WHEN: March 21st, 7:30-9:30pm.

WHERE: Artisans Asylum (map) Multipurpose room.  Suggested donation $3-5.

Description~
Although rarely considered valid forms of technology – women’s contributions to fashion, jewelry, cosmetics, textiles, and the decorative arts serve as remarkable instances of innovation, technical prowess and skill – revealing the forgotten power of all seemingly trivial “decorative” techniques and practices.

Clarissa Cupcake will demonstrate the erotic potential of several surprising, unexpected genres – including scrapbooking, embroidery, beading and collage – and discuss the value of using feminine kitsche as a tool for psychological domination, power play, and humiliation. Fashion, jewelry, and cosmetics are explored as nuanced elements of erotic encounters, while themes of display, beauty and objectification are addressed. Emphasizing the role of gender as a powerful mental construct in erotic play, Clarissa will discuss how juxtaposing materials considered too cute, innocent and feminine for sex toys (e.g., lace, crystal, embroidery, ribbon, etc.) with more edgy, intimidating materials associated with masculine gender stereotypes (leather, metal, chain, etc.) can be used to elevate the experience of both dominance and submission. This effect is pronounced especially when stereotyped expectations do not match how an object or material is used – that is, when innocent materials inflict pain, and intimidating materials produce pleasure.

Examples from her burlesque costumes and props are used to visualize this tension between seemingly contradictory materials. She will show examples of her work as a visual artist and designer – along with her favorite tools and materials – finishing her talk with a short description of how color, texture and form can influence the power dynamic of any social interaction, concluding that erotic practices can enhance interactions in everyday social encounters, playing a key role in mental health and personal well being.

About~
Clarissa Cupcake is a cultural psychoanalyst, fashion/jewelry designer, inventor, and burlesque performance artist. She is the owner and founder of Lace Exoskeleton (lace-exoskeleton.com), and was recently awarded a provisional patent for her “Chain Reactions” modular jewelry and fashion design concept.

Lace Exoskeleton represents an artistic collective with the shared vision of empowering individuals to construct, enhance and assume artistic authorship over their identity and aesthetic persona. Specifically, Lace Exoskeleton encourages consumers to utilize sustainable, eco-friendly, and modular concepts to create their very own, personalized “exoskeleton” of collaged, appropriated, and collaborative fashion pieces that form a continuous artistic gesture we refer to as “identity”. By encouraging customers to think about body decoration as an art form, Clarissa hopes to empower people to see fashion as a deeply personal, meaningful collection of symbols, colors, textures and design details that capture the essence of deeply personal content – from actual memories and recollections to inner visions, fantasies, desires, and unrealized dreams. Through transforming everyday consumer choices into spiritually meaningful, artistic, and emotionally engaging collective experiences, she hopes to refocus consumer desire to favor sustainable, ethical, and artisan-made products and services. You can visit Clarissa Cupcake and her partner in crime, Pinkbeetle, in the following places:

Lace Exoskeleton Studios: The Artisans Asylum, Somerville, MA – Studio #69 (no need for a
pneumonic device to remember this address!)

Website: Blog, D.I.Y. resource, upcoming events resource, & collective art
project: lace-exoskeleton.com

Facebook: Lace Exoskeleton, Clarissa Cupcake

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Psychology of Color

Dec6

Psychology of Color

Color embodies one of the most powerful tools for self-expression and visual communication – transcending the barriers of verbal language, culture, education, and socio-economic status – a universal language which all humans equally share and understand. This occurs simply because the emotional information encoded within colors remains far too abstract, intangible, and universal for any one person to control, monopolize or restrict access to its meaning; however, this does not mean that people cannot be deceived into believing that they lack the authority, education, or status to use, wear and express themselves via color, as if color itself can be owned exclusively like any other possession. Just as kings and queens of the past claimed an exclusive right to don robes dyed with the rare Tyrian purple dye – derived from the immune secretions of various sea snails (commonly mistaken as coming from their shells, rather than their bodies) – contemporary culture remains saturated with “exclusively owned” colors, belonging to specific brands, products, and individuals who purchase the right to restrict their use. In this context, color itself becomes a status symbol – such as the “Tiffany blue” box used by Tiffany’s to encase its designer jewelry, or the sterile, streamlined white of so many Apple products. Even worse, people feel that they lack the education to interpret color – and all artistic, creative, and universal gestures that normally transcend arbitrary barriers – robbing us of our shared language, and isolating us from one another indefinitely. If we can remember our universal connections to one another, then we are one step closer to erasing hate, prejudice, injustice, terrorism, and violence. Color is one of the easiest formats for exploring our shared roots, for we all share:

Red: the flicker of fire in darkness, passion, sparks, and fruit ripening seductively on a tree branch.

Orange: candlelight, more fire, citrus, warmth, honey, sunlight.

Yellow: sunshine, our first reference point in the sky – our sun- and our shared benefactor who gives us life, energy, warmth and light.

Green: lush, growing things; plant life, leaves, and moss.

Blue: water, the sky, the moon which guides us even in darkness.

Purple: the fringes of time – twilight’s glowing sky, autumn leaves, shadows, caves and the depths of the ocean.

Here we see in this spectrum our own shared spectrum, and realize how light and darkness merge, intertwine and depend upon one another for sustenance as well as continued existence. In perpetual harmony, balance and peace, they cancel one another out, and in their multiplicity, diversity and difference, they converge at a common origin.