Byzantine Bracelet with Fine Silver Horse Focal

The fine silver focal is a slightly domed art clay silver connector, featuring a hand-drawn horse.

On either side, I've woven a large, heavy-gauge Byzantine bracelet, with a toggle closure.

[Sorry - this bracelet has SOLD]

Copper and Sterling Silver Chainmaille Bracelet

I was dying to use these triangular copper and sterling silver beads - I loved mixing metals, and I love the shape and texture of these great beads!

I designed this Byzantine chainmaille bracelet with a mix of sterling and copper jumprings:

And look how the toggle matches!

It's available on Etsy!

Peridot Byzantine Earrings

I wove these chainmaille earrings using the Byzantine weave, with a mixture of sterling silver rings and rings I made from this gorgeous peridot artistic silver wire - I just love this color!

The Latest

Still staying really busy with the shop!

Yay!

We had a holiday party last week at the shop, and may I just say: Champagne punch. We had some kick-ass champagne punch. And a lot of fun! It was absolutely pouring rain, complete with thunder and lightning, but we had a great turnout, and a terrific time.

I have very little time to be creative, but I spent about an hour yesterday photographing the things I have made since I bought the shop - and over the next few days, I hope to have these listed either on Etsy or Artfire.

In the meantime, here's a preview:

I love this beaded byzantine bracelet! I used 16 gauge copper rings, and gorgeous cobalt blue lampwork beads.

I made this Sunday as a sample for the chainmaille class I'm scheduled to teach in January.

Love that chainmaille!

Classic black and white herringbone bracelet, made with white 4mm glass cubes, and black size 6 seed beads, and then embellished with black size 11s. Then I found this great vintage black and white button to use as a closure.

This is one of the more popular beadweaving classes I teach.

I came upon this gorgeous freeform carnelian cab which had been set in a sterling silver bezel.

I paired it with carnelian rounds, big chunks of citrine, and big silver Bali spacers.

These are the matching earrings.

I taught myself the Dutch spiral, and this is my first attempt - I used size 8 Delicas, in a rich mauve color, and dark pink galvanized elevens.

It started out to be a simple rope, but then I saw how well it went with this gorgeous painted jasper focal, and here's the result.

I stiched a large bail with the same beads as the rope, and added some embellishing fringe.

This is a fun bracelet - simple peyote stitch using 3 different sizes of seed beads, which gives a ruffle effect.

This bracelet is royal purple, but purple never photographs well for me - maybe I'll learn the secret one day.

This wire wrapped bracelet was a nightmare!

I love the colorful ruby in zoisite focal bead. I love the bracelet, and it fits like a dream, and is very comfortable.

But it is truly one-of-a-kind for me, because it was the hardest thing I have ever done, and I will never make another one!

These aren't the only things I have made over the last 5 months, because several things have actually already sold, but I still hate that my creative time is so reduced by the amount of time and energy it takes to run a small business!

So, Happy Holidays to everyone, in case I can't get back here anytime soon!

I Conquered the Byzantines!

I taught myself the Byzantine pattern this afternoon -

One of the beading magazines had instructions, so after lunch I grabbed my pliers and my jumprings, and settled down to learn something new.

After 45 minutes, I had this:

And 3 hours later, I ran out of jumprings, but my design was long enough to attach a toggle, so now I have a byzantine bracelet!

Opening and closing all those jumprings hurts my arthritic wrist, but I am just crazy about chainmaille!

As soon as I secure some more jumprings, I'll be making more of these - this pattern is gorgeous!

But for now, I've got some wire-wrapping to attend to....