Friday, February 19, 2010

Coins Around the World

I've always thought it's cool when artists do a series all based around one theme. Since I've begun bead weaving I've done one complete series (my Elements Necklaces), I've done a few pieces that I classify as Geekery, and now I'm starting on a new and exciting series! It's called "Coins Around the World."

My fascination with coins started when I was young. Dad taught me to look for wheat head pennies and buffalo nickels. Other than those two specific examples I never really got into the whole "collecting for value" thing with coins, but I have always kept a container with any "odd" coins I've found. Some of those came from random coins that turned up in tills while I worked retail, others were collected as members of my family (or friends) traveled the world.

When my brother came home from Nepal recently I decided it would be fun to use some of the coins he had left over for jewelry...and then it hit me. "I have this collection of coins from around the world, I can do a whole series out of this!" So I went pawing through boxes to find where my collection had gotten stashed in all my moves these last few years and was amazed at how many I found!

I eventually sorted them all out into different bags by country, and it's quite the list!



I have:
Australia
Bahamas
Botswana
Canada
England
Euro
France
Fiji
Hong Kong
India
Liban
Mexico
Nepal
Netherlands
Russia
Singapore
Sri Lanka
USA
And a small bag of one's I haven't identified yet!

Some of the bags only have one coin in them (like Botswana) and some of them have a whole bunch! I have ideas for necklaces, bracelets, pendants, and earrings! There will definitely be some out of this collection I make for myself. In fact, I think the next one I make will be for me :)

I chose to have my first piece in the collection to a Mexican Peso. I was originally planning on doing a necklace with one of the Nepali coins, but I think I'm going to have to buy some beads to do what I want to with that one, and I knew exactly what I wanted to do with this Peso!


I used the colors of the Mexican flag (plus black) for this necklace. It's completely reversible, and the pendant comes off! It's in my Artfire shop if your interested :)

I look forward to sharing more of these with you over the next year! I have lots of other projects I want to do as well so I'll probably work one of these in ever couple of projects or so :)

9 comments:

Later Than We Think said...

Ruthie, you and I are on the same wave length as I had decided to do a series around the poker chips I collected from various casinos. Hum great minds think alike.

Patricia C Vener said...

What a creative idea! and the finished piece is perfect. :)

Patricia
http://vener-art.com/beadblog

Enchanted Beads said...

I like the idea! Good for you! I could send you some Romanian coins, just contact me to give me your address!

ileana

BeadedTail said...

You are just so creative! This is a wonderful way to display those coins in a unique, beautiful way. Great conversation piece too!

Anonymous said...

I made several things with coins last year - pendants and earrings. By the way, I have a lot of out-of-circulation Israeli coins. Can send you some if you wish - contact me at irkazel@yahoo.co.uk

Rachele said...

What a wonderfully creative idea. Have fun! I can't wait to see all of them as they are finished!!

Glenda of Dax Designs said...

Hi Ruthie - I have bags of coins from around the world and keep thinking that they would be great for jewelry but have never done anything to make that a reality - great to see you doing it. Good luck with it.

storybeader said...

great idea! And pretty jewelry! Sure to be a hit! I like series too!

Mary T Designs said...

I love your first neckalce in the series! What a clever idea. You go girl!!