Tassel Making Mania!

I've been trying to divide my creating time between new projects (mostly for various monthly challenges) and taking care of half thought out older projects that have been sitting around.  I noticed a tassel theme running through a few of these and decided to run with it.  So, I'm sharing with you the fruits of my recent tassel making mania!

Tassels and fringe of all kinds have been popular in jewelry and other accessories... and the trend seems to be continuing for spring and summer 2017.  I'm not necessarily all about trying to keep up with the trendiest things, but tassels are super fun and fun to make!

The first type of tassel that I ever tried making was the chain tassel.  I made several simple statement necklaces with dyed agate slabs and chain tassels last fall and I've been meaning to make some more.  I've had a couple of stones set aside for just this for months... and now I've finally finished a few new ones as well as some with carnelian.  I like the look of the strands of fine chain tucked into a coordinating cone!

In addition to the agate and carnelian slabs, I also brought out some colorful almond shaped beads by Golem Design Studio.  These beads are so fun and vibrant that I wanted to add a little more excitement to the chain tassels... so I wire wrapped some tiny Czech glass and crystal beads for decoration!  What do you think of that idea?  It was more work, but I think it was worth it for these two.

Obviously, there are more materials that are perfect for tassels or fringe.  During our beading pajama party on the Bead Cruise last month, Heather Powers taught us how to make two different types of fun tassels.  Of course I wanted to make some new jewelry with my fun new tassel creations!

One of the tassels we made was a long dark purple sari silk ribbon number.  I really loved how rich this one feels!  When I got back from the cruise I found the perfect bead to add to the tassel... it's a large lampwork glass bead from Sue Beads with a wonderful combination of colors including dark purple.  Channeling my husband (who never wants a plain chain), I added some Czech glass links along the long length of brass chain.

My last design for you is more fringe than true tassel, but I thought I'd throw it in anyway.  This is the other project that Heather walked us through during the beading pj party.  We cut fringe into pieces of fun leather from PeggySueAlso and embellished a ribbon crimp end with wire and seed beads in coordinating colors.  This is a really fun idea for giving a plain ribbon end some extra pizzaz!  I kept the necklace with this focal pretty simple.  I just wire wrapped a ceramic flower shaped bead to add above the fringe and called it good on plain chain.

Thanks for stopping by to see what I've been up to!  Have a wonderful weekend!  I hope to have some of these at Unearthed Arts on Saturday.