New look and new earrings!

I've been wanting to improve the look of my blog for a long while and I decide this rainy Sunday  was the time to do it.   I have to tell you that I'm not very good at technology of any kind.  I know the very basics and that's about it and so I've been putting off doing anything to this blog.  But, I was dissatisfied with it and decided to take the plunge.  Well, it wasn't too bad, but it seems I've ended up with  a quick slideshow of headers fonts that I auditioned and I can't seem to get rid of it no matter what I do.  I'm hoping it'll sort itself out, or I'll stumble upon a way to clean it up, which is usually how I accomplish things on a computer!  Any suggestions for fixing it are greatly appreciated! 

But, moving on to something more fun.  I follow Kristi Bowman's blog.  Kristi makes wonderful copper clay jewelry componentswhich she sells on Etsy. Well, she was previewing some components she was getting ready to post in her store one day recently. I loved one set of earrings she had made.  So, I ordered them from her.  I already knew what I wanted to do with them.  I finally had the time to turn them into earrings this week.  Here's what they look like.

Isn't that copper fabulous?  I think it is.  And, I love combining crystals with the rustic copper.  I used some 3mm and 4mm crystals and wrapped them around the bottoms of the components.  I should mention that Kristi had already put five holes in the bottom of each component.  So, wrapping was easy.  You can see see the holes and how I finished the wire in the back in this picture.

I'm really happy with the way they turned out.  They are very comfortable to wear and the copper is so well done and light weight.  They're a fun addition to my ever-growing collection of earrings.  But, hey, a girl can never have too many earrings, right?!!! 

I hope you have a good day.  If you're in the East it's a very rainy day.  But, we really need the rain so we can't complain.  Take the indoor time to work on something fun!  Thanks for stopping by.





Another seasonal wardrobe adjustment



This post is sort of a follow-up to the last.  In that post, prompted by Michelle Ward's crusade on seasonal color changes in our art, I mentioned that turquoise/aqua are often my palette of choice.  I use different values and hues depending on the season, but they are colors that often show up.  I usually use lime green, lavendar, or black, sometimes bright blue, as "go with" colors.  But, this season I find myself using a lot of beachy colors with the turquoise. 

It started at our monthly Friday beading session at Bead Soup.  Every month some of us get together and pick a project from a bead magazine that we all want to try, and we work on it, helping each other decide on colors and, when someone gets stuck, on the directions.  It's really fun and it's a great way to try some of the magazine patterns.  In May we decided to work on the components of the "Starlight" bracelet in the June 2010 issue of Bead and Button magazine.  When I chose my colors for crystals and seed beads I ended up with turquoise and aqua crystals with sandy colored seeds.  As I worked, I, along with those sitting next to me noticed, how "beachy" it looked.  I really liked the change.  Looking at the little star component when I got home I decided to dig out all differnt beachy colors of crystals and seeds and use all of them in the bracelet, a different combination for each "star".  This is the result.

I used water colors, sand colors, shell colors, and I love them all!  I even used a pure blue, which doesn't appear much in my palette.  It was such a fun bracelet to make and it's fun to wear.  I have another design that is still in progress that uses these same beachy colors, and once again I chose them instinctively.  So, I guess this is the summer of beach colors for me.  I'm having a great time with it! 

The Ice Queen Challenge

The Bead Mavens are having a challenge this month.  The inspiration for the designs was the Ice Queen.  I love the Ice Queen.  As  you probably have gathered by now, color is my thing!  I love color, but there is something about the icy, frosty appearance of the Ice Queen, and her many incarnations, that is so appealing to me.  The sparkle of all that white dusted with frost is so beautiful.  So, I decided to enter a necklace into the challenge.  The picture above is what I came up with.

I thought a wire knitted piece would be fun because I could make a bead soup of crystal, clear and white beads to knit.  The cascade in the middle is a variation on my wire knitted necklaces.  I've been looking for a way of changing them up a bit and a cascade of snowflakes and beads seemed perfect for the Ice Queen.



I was excited to have a reason to use Swavorski's snowflake and column beads.  I love the column beads and I thought they would work as  icicles in the cascade.  I also used some 8mm round crystals in clear and AB to fill in.  I knitted the necklace in two pieces and joined them together in the middle with the wire ends.  I then used jump rings to attach the snowflakes, columns and rounds to fine silver chain.  The chain was attached with jump rings to the necklace.  I was pleased with the overall effect, and the cascade worked just the way I wanted it to.  Today is the final day for entries, so I was happy to have finished it a few days ago.  I didn't know if it would be completed in time because of the holiday rush.  But, I made it! 

Visit the Bead Mavens site and check out the entries.  There are beautiful pieces of jewelry to be seen! 

I hope you've all  had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  Ours was wonderful, spent with good friends and family.  Now on to Christmas and all the preparation for that joyous time!  Thanks for taking time to visit with me.  Enjoy your day!

Halloween Treats



I  love giving my family and friends fun little treats for Halloween.  This year I found this great earring design at Fusionbeads.com.  They always have seasonal designs that I love to make for my daughter, myself and two of my closest friends.  As you can see, this year it's these adorable witches' hats.

They are made with Swarovski componets, Jet and Sun margarites, 1 Jet cosmic ring, and 1 Jet artemis beads.  I love the artemis bead.  It's a described as a spacer bead but I think this is a great application for it.

Since I love to make the presentation part of the gift, I decided to make  tags to hang them on.  I've had fun making Halloween tags this year, and after completing a Halloween tag garland, which I'll post later in the week, I still had some ideas left!  

Making the earrings and the tags was lots of fun, now I can't wait to deliver the treats.  I'll see one friend tomorrow for breakfast, so I'll take hers along with me.  My other friend will have to wait until next week.  But, they'll have them for Halloween, and it will be cool thinking of them wearing them at the Witching Hour!!

One last photo, my daughter's tag, purple and black, embossed with a stamp she loves because she's a Baltimore Ravens fan!



Thanks for stopping by.  Have a creative day.



More Freeform Beadwork

This bracelet isn't new, but I'm making a necklace to go with it and I decided to take some pictures of the bracelet the other day.  I worked the freeform peyote a little differently for this piece.  Instead of stringing beads of different sizes and shapes and working off of that, I strung some 11's and then a 10mm crystal, and then some more 11's.  On the return row I worked freeform peyote for the 11's and skipped the crystals.  From there I began doing freeform along the row, creating bridges and using a variety of beads and crystals.  I love the crystal bicones I used for the bracelet.  They are some of the specially coated Swarovski that I found at my friend Kathy's store, Bead Soup.  They are called Rosaline.  That name is so pretty that I'm calling the bracelet the same!  The button is another dichroic from my friend Terrie.

Here are some other views of the bracelet.  Enjoy!  I'll post pictures of the necklace when it's finished.