Blue and Green Beaded Earrings

Just a little pair of earrings to go with Monday's bracelet:

I had 2 of those gorgeous blue and green lampwork glass bicones leftover after making the bracelet, so naturally I had to make some matching earrings!

I tried to get an extreme closeup to show the detail in the lampwork, and I think I got a little too close! It looks like there are 2 beadcaps under the lampwork bead on the left - but there aren't, it's just a photographic artifact. Photographing jewelry is hard!

I hope Santa was good to everyone!

Blue and Green Beaded Bracelet

These blue and green lampwork bicones really caught my eye - what a fantastic shape! I love blues and greens together, and these beads matched some azurite-malachite beads in my stash, so I added lots of sterling silver, a dangle (I love dangles!) - and some peridot AB Swarovski bicones, and this is the result. Love it!

Blue Diamond Chainmaille Earrings

These diamond-shaped chainmaille earrings were created with blue niobium jumprings. They are so slinky - they move like waves on the water. Love them!

And they're available on Etsy!

Indicolite Blue and Sterling Silver Bracelet

This visually stunning bracelet was created with big, luscious 8mm round Swarovski crystals in indicolite - a deep shade of blue which is possibly my favorite Swarovski color, ever. Although it's really hard to pick a favorite!

These deep blue crystals are so large, and so rich in color, that I wanted them to be the focus of the bracelet. I decided they should be paired with just sterling silver, small beads that didn't detract from the crystals' impact. Then, to increase the drama, I added a piece of "diamond cut" sterling chain; I'm not sure how this is really made, but whatever they did makes little shiny "facets" on the links of the chain, so it really catches the light. I added one more indicolite crystal as a dangle, and a gorgeous abstract heart toggle, for a little romance.

And it is available here, in my Etsy shop.

And because I am so crazy about indicolite, let's have a little gemology/minerology lesson this morning!

I love raw gemstones and minerals, and have a huge collection of my own, but no indicolite, unfortunately! Indicolite is also known as "blue tourmaline," but it is actually not tourmaline at all - differing from tourmaline in a number of ways, including its Mohs hardness rating (it is softer than tourmalines). Indicolite is actually a member of the Elbaite family.

Large reserves of Indicolite gemstone occur in Madagascar, North America, Brazil, Myanmar, Africa, Australia Sri Lanka and Siberia. Indicolite can also be found in dolomitic limestones.

This is a picture of a large specimen of raw indicolite - isn't it gorgeous?

Here are 2 smaller indicolite crystals, in a matrix of quartz and albite. This specimen is from Afghanistan:

And this is one of my favorite indicolite pics - a polished slab of indicolite from Brazil:

Indicolite is said to have the power to protect its wearer from all harmful effects. Indicolite is thought to help bring joy and happiness to the life of the wearer. Its amazing blue color has a calming effect which is believed to help relieve stress. Indicolite is credited with the unique capability of augmenting harmony, tolerance, kindness, and tranquility in humans.

Sounds like we'd all benefit from a little indicolite in our lives!

Mysterious color-changing beads

Yesterday, I told you about a new, square stitch pattern I had worked with. I actually made 2 bracelets with this pattern; one purple, and one olive green, but the big difference between the two was the size of the Delica I used to stitch the design.

But the wider bracelet, the one made from size 8 Delicas (DBLs) didn't start out to be green, at all.

These are the DBLs I chose for this particular bracelet:

There are actually 2 different colors mixed together here - the solid black arrows near the bottom of the picture are pointing to the DBLs that I call "raku". The vendor calls this color "matte metallic blue iris" - and that hits 3 of my personal seed bead buttons: I am a sucker for metallics, for mattes, and for ANY color with "iris" in its name! So I couldn't wait to work with these beads! Look at the pretty blues, mauves, roses, greens, and bronze in these beads! Delicious! And, some of my favorite colors to work with, of course... 
The open arrow in the pic above points to the second tube of beads I added to this mix - a matte blue DBL that matches the blue in the "raku" DBLs perfectly. Right?

Until I started stitching, that is:

I mixed the beads together in one big pile, and started pulling them randomly as I stitched. By about the 3rd row, I noticed that all the "raku" DBLS were turning green or brown, but I kept stitching, thinking that I just needed to work up more of them, and their gorgeous raku-ness would blossom. After I had about an inch stitched, I convinced myself that something was wrong with the beads, like maybe they were mislabeled - I don't know what I was thinking. But I ripped out my stitching, sorted the two colors (Fun!) and put the raku ones back in their tube, and grabbed another tube of the same color. And started again.

Same result.

This really had me stumped. You can see the solid blue matte DBLs easily - amid all those olive green and coppery brown beads! Where did all the blue and the burgundy go? What was I doing wrong?

So I took the bracelet apart again, sorted the beads, again, and started over - for the last time.

I finished the bracelet, and had to change the size 11 seed bead I had chosen for the picot (my original choice was a vivid metallic burgundy seed bead that really highlighted the burgundies and roses in the pile of raku seed beads), and I chose an olive green 11 for the edging.

And I probably should have pulled out all those matte blue DBLs, and just gone with the greeny coppery brown ones ("matte metallic BLUE iris", remember) - but I didn't. This color combo is fine, but I just think I would like all the brown-green beads by themselves, better. Maybe next time!

Sunday Afternoon Bracelet

I made this right angle weave bracelet Sunday afternoon:

It was created with gorgeous, shimmery AB2x Czech pressed glass squares and AB2x Miyuki seed beads. It closes with a purple square glass button I found on a dress in my closet; the button was such a perfect match for the colors and shapes in this bracelet that I impulsively snipped it off the dress and worked it into the design. It makes the purple in these glass beads pop!

Is anyone surprised that this bracelet is in my current color obsession? Loving these colors lately!!

I took photos when I got to the shop this morning, and this yummy bracelet is now in my Etsy shop.

Denim Blue Dangle Earrings

These dangly earrings were made with very small denim blue & cream Czech pressed glass rondelles,  cream-colored size 8 seed beads, and sterling silver headpins and chain. They have a lot of delicate swinging movement when I wear them.