Beading Babes Reveal #4

Today we get to reveal our Beading Babes projects.  This time around Karyn chose the projects and there were three of them.  Something for everyone really!  There was a pair of earrings, a bracelet and
Nancy Dale's  beautiful Trellis Rope Necklace.  I loved all of them.  I finished the earrings and bracelet, and almost finished the necklace.  Pretty good for me who always has a million things to distract me and keep me from beading!

So here goes.  The earrings...

I had been wanting to make a pair of turquoise and black earrings since I wear that color combination a lot.  So, here was the perfect opportunity.  I love these earrings because the shape is so graceful.  I used a briolette that I had in my stash for the drop and I like it a lot. 

Next up, the bracelet...

I have to say I didn't think I was going to like this bracelet.  It didn't appeal to me in the magazine.  But, once I chose my beads and started working on it I loved it.  The pearls are actually a pale lime green that I had in the stash.  I paired them with golden bronze and aqua and I'm so happy with the combination.  The button I used for the clasp is one of the handmade dichroic glass buttons my friend Terrie makes.  It looked so good with the bead colors that I had to use it.  Here's a close up of it.

The small piece of glass in the center of the bronze square has the lime green and aqua of the other beads, so it was a perfect finish.

Now the necklace...I love this necklace.  I ran into a few problems, one of which was that I wasn't going to have enough 15's to finish all the netting.  That was easy to fix.  I took out two of the sections and made a shorter necklace.  I have to say that, being short, I prefer a shorter necklace.  So, that was easy to take care of.  I just had to think about a clasp.  The second problem I had was with the embellishment around the crystals.  I didn't like the way it was looking.  I had too much thread showing.  So, I made adjustments to how I did the beads that sit under the crystal and then continued on with Nancy's directions.  Of course, the problems slowed me down because I had to take out the extra sections and I had to take out some of the embellishments.  Also, the netting actually takes longer to stitch than I thought it would.  So, the necklace is almost finished.  I got to the point where I needed a clasp and I can't decide what I want do to.  I don't know if I want a purchased clasp or whether I want to make one from the beads.  I thought I would just show you what it looks like to this point and then take my time deciding.  So, here's the necklace...



I really love this necklace!  Have I said this before?!  I can't wait to finish it so I can wear it.  But, since I ran out of time and I didn't want to rush my decision about the clasp I thought I would just wait and show you what it looks like today. 

This set of projects was great and it reenforced the reason I love the Beading Babes.  It gave me a reason to work on two projects I wanted to work on but that kept getting shifted to the bottom of my pile of "projects I want to work on" and it allowed me to work on a project I probably would not have done but now I love! 
Thanks again to Karyn for organizing this group.  It's really great fun to see how different people approach the same designs.  Be sure to check out all the Babes projects when Karyn posts them on her blog.

Thanks for stopping by today.  I hope you have a wonderful day! 



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.





The Spring Fling Blog Hop is here!

Amy, over at Amybeads, decided to sponsor a blog hop for spring.  She offered kits in two different colors, blues and oranges, to anyone who wanted to participate.  Well, I love the kits and since I had just done the Colors of Spring blog hop, using orange, I decided to go for the blue kit.  Of course, I didn't think to take a picture of the kit when it arrived, or even when I started working on it!  If you go over to Amy's blog you'll see what the kits contained.  I loved the selection of beads.  Everything from the cutest focal bead with an adorable bird on it, to pearls, to firepolished, to Delicas, and the loveliest peanut beads ever. I'm not a fan of the peanut beads, but these are gorgeous!  It was great!  And, since I've been in a wireworking mode, I decided I would do a wirework necklace.  Here is what I came up with.

I knew from the beginning I wanted to make a pendant with the round bird bead with fringe.  I made sure I used some of all the beads that were in the kit, except for the Delicas. I wanted to use some of them in the chain but it didn't end up that way.  As I worked on the pendant I decided to make a wire bail for it.  I've just gotten a great new wireworking book by Janice Berkebile and Tracy Stanley and  I had seen a similar bail in the book.  I had a hard time deciding what to do for a necklace.  I thought of doing Viking knit, but that didn't seem right. I was thinking of using the remaining beads from the kit to string a necklace, but the ideas for stringing weren't coming.  I thought of using a leather cord, but I really didn't want to do that because I wanted to make something.  So, after letting the pendant sit on my bead table  for a few days I decided to make wire wrapped links using all three colors of wire I had used in the pendant.  I have one fringe with lime green wire and one with royal blue.  I decided to use the silver wire for one of the link colors also.  I really like the way the links turned out. 

And, here's a close up of the fringe.



I got to try caging beads with wire as you can see in the center fringe.  I'm learning more all the time and my wireworking skills are improving!  Not so many tool marks anymore!!!  I'm really pleased with this necklace.  I've worn it and gotten several compliments on it already.  It's a fun necklace to wear and it was really fun to work on. 

I want to thank Amy for putting this together!  It was a great idea!  Be sure to check out the other bloggers who participated in the Hop.

Kristin, of My Bead Journey

Maryanne, of Zingala's Workshop (you're here!)

Karyn, of Releases by Rufydoof

Therese, of Therese's Treasures

Vimala, of The Bead Diaries

Thanks for stopping by to see my entry.  I hope you have a wonderful day and I hope you get to do something fun today.  It's Friday and the weekend is here!







Spring, in beads and the garden

These are some of the pansies in pots around my garden.   I plant pansies in pots in the fall and they usually winter over pretty well.  This year, because our winter was so mild, they have done really well.  So well in fact that some of them are pot bound now!  But, they look so pretty, and add so much color to the awakening garden!   I love pansies and they are available in wonderful colors and combinations of colors.

Like these beauties.

They look luminous, don't they?  And, you won't be surprised to know that I always buy orange pansies in the fall.  I love them and pair them with purple, yellow, deep blue or the black ones that are available before Halloween.  I love the way they look in the spring, as a harbinger of the brightness to come in summer.  Here are some of the orange ones that I have in a pot out my kitchen window.

I just love them!

But, all this spring beauty  in the garden has inspired my beading too.  I made this bracelet based on a design I had seen in one of the beading magazines several years ago.  I don't remember which magazine it was, and I adapted the design to fit my taste, but I really love it.

As I recall, the original had rectangular pieces which then had beads strung inside.  I found these oval mother of pearl components at Michael's last year and decided I could use them in this kind of a design.  They look dark in this picture but they are actually a soft turquoise.  I gathered up odds and ends of flower beads, leaf beads, crystals and seed beads and went to work creating a garden in each oval. I strung the ovals and then worked back using fringe stitch in each oval.  I had so much fun creating this bracelet.  It was fun to make and it's fun to wear.  I feel I  have my garden on my wrist when I wear it! Here's a close up of one of the ovals.

This was a fun bracelet to make.  I had come in from working in the garden and I really wanted to continue the gardening with my beads. 

I'm off to work on the last of my Beading Babes projects and finish up my project for Amy's blog hop next week!

I hope you have a wonderful day.  Thanks for stopping by. 



Beading Babes Update

Once I finished my Colors of Spring project I started work on Beading Babes 4. This time we're making a bracelet, a necklace and a pair of earrings.  I love all the choices this time and I'm waiting on some of the beads I ordered for Nancy Dale's beautiful necklace.  I'm really looking forward to working on that because I had gotten the pattern from Nancy a while ago and it went into my "do to" pile.  Yes, unfortunately, it's a pile!  So, while I'm waiting for the beads I need I started work on the earrings.  And, this is what my beading board looked like when I finished the first one.

There's a peek at the earring in the back of the picture.  Both are finished now and I'm going to start the bracelet while I'm waiting.  Loved making the earrings, by the way!

Well, I'm off to make a grocery list for Easter preparations.  Tomorrow we'll start making some of the Italian specialties for the holiday.

Have a wonderful day.  I hope you have as lovely a spring day as we're supposed to have.  



The Colors of Spring

Today is the reveal for the blog hop, The Colors of Spring, hosted by Sally Russick.  Sally makes wonderful beads and she decided that it would be fun to make some up using the 2012 Pantone colors. Since I'm delighted that the Pantone color of the year is Tropical Tangerine, I knew I wanted to participate.  I've loved the color orange for a long time and it makes me so happy to see it as color of the year!  Also, I really love Sally's beads, so it was a win-win for me! 

The set of beads consisted of a lentil, which we were requested to use in our design, and two round beads and two long beads.  I decided I would make a wire necklace so that I could use some of my recently learned wireworking skills. 

Here is what I came up with.

I used two copper beads and two fire polished beads along with all but one of the long beads from the set.  I also used fine gauge orange wire to make two wire wrapped beads.  Out of all of that I made a central component on 18 gauge wire. 

As you can see I put a wire wrapped swirl over the lentil bead.  I was going to use a chain for the necklace but decided to use loosely wrapped 18 gauge wire links to make the necklace.  I thought it looked better with the clasp.

I had decided to use one of the long beads as part of the clasp and I'm pleased with the way it turned out.  Once again I used a simple swirl of wire to keep the bead in place and add some more interest to the clasp.

I'm really pleased with the way this necklace turned out.  Sally's beads are great and I want to thank her for coming up with the idea for the blog hop and hosting it.  Be sure to visit all the other participants to see what they did with their Pantone inspired beads. 

List of paticipants:

Host: Sally Russick
Margarita
Theresa Frank
Kim Bender
Cabaret
JLynn Jewels
Christine Altmiller
Sweet Lilac
Cherrie Fick
Jenny Vidberg
Driftwood
Sabine Dittrich
Hope Smitherman
Solar Power
Nicole Rennell
Erin Fickert-Rowland
Bell Flower
Patti Vanderbloemen
Kristi Bowman
Starfish
Shannon Chomanczuk
Elisabeth Auld
Cockatoo
Alice Peterson
Donna Bradley
Sodalite Blue
Kristi Harrison
Cilla Watkins
Tangerine Tango
Lesley Watt
Maryanne Gross
Susan Kennedy
Courtney White Breul

Where have I been?

Well, I've been right here working on this

I can't tell you much about it right now.  Only that it's bead embroidery and I have a deadline!  Two deadlines, actually.  I have the real, drop dead deadline and then the deadline I set for myself.  Its the one I set for myself that I want to keep.  Since that date is coming up quickly I've been working almost exclusively on this project.  I'm having a great time designing it.  I only have the roughest plan when I start a  bead embroidered project, so it's going where it wants to go.  I'm becoming more dimensional with my embroidery and I like that.  I'm making this for a friend to use and I'm so honored that she asked me to do this.  But, that's about all I can tell you right now.  When I can fill you in I certainly will! 

I've been sneaking some time in the garden since we are in full blown spring here now.  And, I've managed to take a couple of wire classes and start a new shawl with some fabulous yarn my beautiful daughter bought me last year.  And, she and I took a great paper arts class at The Queen's Ink in Savage Mill.  None of those projects are finished, but they're waiting for me when I'm finished with this special piece.

That's about it for me.  I hope you all are finding time to be creative and enjoying the wonderful weather if you're on the East Coast.  Thanks for stopping by.  I really do appreciate you doing that!