Swirls of Color!

This necklace is my newest listing on Zibbet:

Swirls of Color - a handmade beaded necklace

Bold, colorful lampwork pendant

Colorful handmade lampwork discs and faceted Picasso Czech glass rounds finish the design

Swirling colors - in the handmade lampwork pendant and in the faceted Picasso Czech glass rounds. I added some Swarovski crystals, pewter-colored seed beads, and colorful handmade lampwork discs. The sterling silver S-hook and chain closure allows for an adjustable length.

Worth every minute!

Sunday was Metal Studio Day again, something a small group of us try to do once a month. Often we go in 12 different directions, and just do our own thing, but this time we decided to tackle one project together.

The project on the cover of the Oct-Nov 2011 issue of Step by Step Wire Jewelry had been calling out to us ever since we received the issue in the shop last month. The colors are "my colors" - seems like I am always returning to blue and green when I make jewelry, and green and blue look so fabulous with copper!

This necklace was a mix of cold connections and wire work, and we knew it would take a large chunk of time to create, so we gathered at 9:30 Sunday morning, and started to create.

I have to say that this project was unusually poorly written for a Step by Step Wire project; I can't recall ever seeing such vague instructions in a Step-by-Step project. To begin with, rather than telling you how much wire to use for the base piece, the instructions call for working directly off the wire spool, and coiling until "you have the right size". Yet the "right size" is never specified, and when a group of people are trying to create a project where they are sharing one spool of wire, they can't all "work off the spool" - an approximate length, and a template, would have been very helpful. So we spent quite some time on this step, futzing around, and wasting a lot of wire.

The size of this coiled wire base - its width, the height of its coils, and the number of coils - is critical to all the rest of the steps in the project, and determines the number and size of the beads and domed copper cups that will fill in the design. Without any clear measurements provided by the project, we sort of worked in the dark, cutting and doming our copper cups ("Make as many as you like.") while the base coil tumbled, not knowing really how many or what sizes we needed. But we made several different sized domed cups, and then had fun rummaging through the shop looking for green, blue, and brown beads to add to our project.

I decided to patina some of my copper cups using a method described in my brand new copy of Jewelry Lab.

This is an exciting book for metal workers - loaded with tips, tricks, and project ideas. I am particularly excited about the patina section right now, and after my success with the colored pencil & gesso technique, I can't wait to try more ideas from this book.

These are my colored-pencil patinated discs - I really like how they turned out, and it was so easy!

Assembling the necklace was tricky, as we discovered that getting the beads and copper cups to wrap tightly was not going to work as described in Step 6. We each attached 4 or 5 units according to these instructions, and they slid and wobbled on the base, so we figured out how to use some 24g wire to stabilize their attachments, and then we modified the attachment instructions for the rest of the units, to get a nice tight wrap onto the coil.


We finished the project, attaching the copper chain and S-hook as the last step, at 7:30 PM. So from start to finish, 10 hours. And worth every minute. Though some measurements and a template for the base coil would have saved us over an hour - but, to use my very least favorite colloquialism, it is what it is.

I am absolutely thrilled with my finished necklace, and now that I have completed the project and worked out the kinks, I am ready to make another one!


Edited 10/24/11 to add: In respect to the Step-by-Step Wire project instructions: A customer came into my bead shop on 10/22/11 and perused this particular article after noticing the project picture on the front of the issue. After about 4 minutes, she commented on how badly written the instructions were, and asked how she was supposed to know how much wire to purchase in order to make the project? Good point - I had only looked at it from the aspect of making it as a group; as a bead shop owner, I had not even considered the difficulty a customer would encounter if trying to purchase supplies for this project.

BSBP Revisited

I wanted to visit the Bead Soup Blog Party (BSBP) one more time, this time giving you a look at my favorites, in no particular order. I hope you'll take some time to visit their blogs and read how these creations came to life! (Note: these photos and all rights to them belong to these talented designers!)

I love this multistrand necklace created by Tiffany Long of Glory Hound Designs:

These colors are so delicious, and I love how she put the softness of the flowers with the hardness of the chain, and then added the colorful, whimsical silk ribbon at the back. And of course, all the embellishments! This reminds me of the multistrand dragonfly necklace I designed a few months ago; all the beads and chain and embellishing - I love making complex pieces like this, and I appreciate the time and effort Tiffany put into her gorgeous design, and I could definitely see myself wearing it!

Feast your eyes on this beautiful design, by Manuela Wutschke:

I love how Manuela started with the beautiful silver flower and accompanying silver bud, and turned them into a flowing, organic necklace that really looks like she plucked it from a garden! Beautiful blues and greens, and then a little unexpected touch of yellow; and the textures she has used are wonderful - so varied, just like in the garden. And I just have to add how much I enjoyed reading Manuela's design process in her post - she showed her sketches (whereas I did not show mine), and I was struck by how we both seemed to approach our designs in similar ways. I just love reading the gory details that go into jewelry designs!


This beadwoven necklace by Karin Slaton of Backstory Beads couldn't help but make my list!

Her brass flower focal (which looks like a silk flower to me!) is incredible, and she has hand woven these beautiful matching peyote beads and tubes to create a gorgeous necklace. I love her earthy color palette, and I love peyote - there is just so much you can do with this versatile stitch!

And take a look at this beautiful choker, created by Suzann Wilson, of Beadphoria:

Where do I begin? I love working with (and wearing) black, red, and white, and I love pearls - the bigger, the better! And this beautiful clasp - what a find! It makes a beautiful focal! Adding the sparkling crystals gives this a wonderful vintage feel, and it reminds me of the jewelry my grandmother used to let me play dress-up with. And I appreciate the work that goes into getting the strands of a multistrand piece to all be the correct length!

So that is my last look at BSBP - I saw so much beautiful jewelry, and I appreciate all the folks that took the time and effort to read and comment about my creations, and to visit all the other participants!

Sterling + Resin = Stunning Necklace!

Here is the second design I created last week:

The pendant has its origin in my foray into turning scrapbooking components into jewelry.

My friend Sonya had been watching videos and reading articles & books about Ice Resin, and wanted to try it. So we scheduled a day to meet and just play with bezels, found objects, glitter (!), scrapbooking stuff, and Ice Resin.

And before our play date arrived, I wanted to experiment with making a bezel, so I cut two 12-inch pieces of 14g sterling silver wire and hammered (and hammered and hammered) each piece until they were about 8mm wide. I wanted them to look hammered, so I made sure I only hammered the pieces on one side, and the result was 2 curved, unbelievably hard pieces of sterling. There was going to be NO opportunity to bend these pieces at all unless I annealed them, and I didn't want to deal with firescale, pickling, etc. I wanted to get my bezel done.

Fortunately, the 2 pieces of sterling wire were curved almost identically at their ends, yet curved in opposite directions in the middles. I decided to use this to my advantage, and I wire-wrapped both ends, which was a bit of a struggle, but I finally got them secured. The hardest part was muscling one of the wires into a big loop for the bail, and getting it to stay with the other wires while I did the top wrap. The bail wasn't turned the way I wanted it to be, but I knew that could be overcome somehow when it came time to design the necklace.  Then all that was left to do was turn the wire ends a little to complement the middles - I used my round nose pliers, and every bit of upper body strength I could muster. The wire was really work-hardened! But I had a nice, oval bezel to play with.

Play date! Sonya and I spent a lot of time just perusing all the different things we had to work with, and deciding what bezels were going to receive what goodies - this was fun!

Sonya had brought in a beautiful selection of scrapbooking papers, and I chose a piece with teal and pink garden scenes to create the backing for my bezel. I cut it to fit, and glued it around the edges to the back of my bezel. My bezel was not exactly flat - another fault of the work hardened wire, but the Ice Resin is self-leveling, so I knew if I could get the bezel to lie flat when we did the resin pour, then the resin would level out and everything would be perfect.

I poured a little bit of resin into the bezel, and then placed a bouquet of white paper flowers on top of this resin, and then "filled" the bezel with resin. I levelled the bezel (I thought) with a scaffolding of paper shims, cardboard shims, and toothpicks. Looked level to me. Ha!

This was our first time working with resin, and we had overpoured. Big time. Then I discovered that my bezel wasn't really level, despite my levelling efforts, so it was full at the top, bottom, and on one side, but had a huge, scooped-out looking defect on the other side. This is no big deal - I just had to re-level the bezel, and repour some resin. And I overpoured again, but once it cured and I did the clean up, the bezel was full, so I was happy. I polished the bezel with my Dremel, and set it aside to think about how to design around it.

I chose a lovely sterling silver chain with large, open links that have been hammered and textured. Since my bail was turned 90 degrees in the wrong direction, I couldn't just run the chain through the bail, and had to figure out how to attach the chain to the pendant. Once I figured this out, I wanted to add some embellishment to fill the space between the chain and the pendant, I had some tourmaline nuggets that matched the teal in the pendant perfectly, and dangled these on sterling chain in a cluster around the bail.

The larger links on the chain were the perfect size for a toggle bar, so I decided to do something I have never done before: A front closure. I have done plenty of side closures, but never a front closure. I selected a long, textured toggle bar and attached it to one end of the chain, and looped it through the large link on the other end of the chain. Closure!

I loved the way the tourmaline dangles pulled the teal out of the pendant, so I decided to add a few to the links in the chain. Voila!

And it's available in my Etsy Shop!

Sonya and I learned a lot about Ice Resin - it is fun, it is very forgiving, it is messy, it is self-leveling, and you can turn just about anything into a nice piece of jewelry with it. If you'd like to learn how to use Ice Resin, Sonya is going to be teaching an Ice Resin class at Yaya Beads later this month - give it a try!

Have a great day!

Waiting with Bated Breath

Anxiously awaiting the arrival of my bead soup party beads from my partner, Tammy Jones, of Interweave's Jewelry Making Daily. Can't wait to get started creating!

I check the mail box several times a day!!

Alcohol Inks, Embossing Powders? Scrapbooking? Nooooo....

Seems like I spend more and more time in the scrapbooking aisles at JoAnns, Hobby Lobby, and Michael's. Each of these stores carry different, intriguing items that I'm incorporating into my jewelry!

These are Vintaj Natural Brass components, that I have colored with a combination of alcohol inks and Perfect Pearls paint, and then the dragonflies were embossed with glittery embossing powder and a heat gun. These items are for my current project - kind of a "kitchen sink" necklace, as I am tossing in a little bit of everything I have media-wise, and having a blast! Will post the entire necklace once it is done! Alcohol inks and embossing powders courtesy of the scrapbooking aisles.

This is a strip of copper that was textured, and then colored with alcohol inks, and will soon be riveted or grommeted to a larger strip of copper to create a copper cuff. Alcohol inks, rivets, grommets? All from the scrapbooking aisles!

Another piece I colored with alcohol inks, and then embossed with a different technique, causing all the alcohol inks to run. I call this one "Spinach Omelet." Do you see it?

Then I bought a Big Shot. And lots of embossing folders - thank you, JoAnn's Online, and your 40% off coupon!! Had NO idea what to do with the Big Shot, but it was on sale!!

Then a friend show me how to texture the metal with the folders and the big shot, and another world opened up! This piece was run through the Big Shot, and colored with alcohol inks. And I riveted on a few gears I had cut out of the brass.



This rose was created by deeply etched with acid, painted with alcohol inks, and then embossed with clear powder and the heat gun

These earrings and the pair below were creating with dimensional stickers (from the scrapbooking aisle, of course) and embossing powders. Clear powder for the bees, and matte powder for the starfish. Not sure which I like better!

Showing off this pendant just to demonstrate the use of a grommet (again, from the scrapbooking aisle) as a connector for the bail.

So, you might want to check out the scrapbooking section (if you haven't already) to get some ideas!
And if you know of some scrapbooking ideas I am missing, please share! I'm hooked!

Just for me!

Last week I bought a ($5.00!!) green and blue T-shirt at WalMart; green and blue are my favorite colors, and this is just the cutest shirt. So cute, in fact, that my friend Sonya, who also works with me, bought the same one (separately, and she also bought the same gorgeous grey and purple one I bought! Great minds think alike!) so now we have to call each other the nights before we work together to make sure we won't be twinsies!

So naturally, I needed some bling to wear with my new shirt, so I made this necklace, bracelet, and earring set to go with my new shirt:

Russian spiral necklace, with green 11s and blue 8s.



Rear closure, which IMO must be as pretty as the rest of the necklace!



 Matching green and blue fringe bracelet; nice and full., I used 6s, 8s, 11s, 4mm cubes, 4mm Swarovski bicones (in peridot AB), and 4mm Czech firepolish rounds. I have taught this fringe bracelet a couple of times, but have never actually made one myself, so this is my very first fringe bracelet, and I love it. Must make more!

Matching Earrings

Some lovely blue and green lampwork beads had gone unsold in the shop for quite a long time, and they matched the necklace and bracelet perfectly, so I paired them with some Bermuda blue Swarovski Cosmic rings to make these dangle earrings.

And besides the fact that I have this great set of matching jewels to go with my new shirt, I got an idea for a totally new design, that I hope to work on next weekend.

I'd show you a picture of the shirt, but it is wadded up in the hamper, plus the camera is over at the shop in Augusta. I'll try to remember to get a pic of the whole ensemble together.

'Til next time. TTFN!

Me and my iPad, round 3 (oh, and I've made some jewelry, too)

Well, the iPad and I have reached a detente.

Here are the things I like about it:

• its portability
• the web browser (and everything else, duh) boots immediately, unlike my laptop
• SplashID: a terrific app for securely storing passwords and other sensitive info. You can toggle between the browser and splashID whenever you need to look up or create a new password.
• Netflix: the iPad is perfect for streaming video content
• the games: great animation, resolution, graphics. But my left hand and wrist get sore from holding the iPad, because while it is light (though my case adds some weight and dimension to it) it isn't weightless. And I only have one hand free for game play. My case has a built-in stand, but it isn't the right angle, or I don't have the right height stand to set the whole unit on, in order to have it be at an accessible distance both for my eyes and my hands, so there you have it.
• my calendar app: very handy (and portable) - and also serves as a To-do list. But this app has drawbacks - it takes far longer to make an entry of any sort than it does to jot in down in a day-planner.
• readers: they are all terrific (Kindle, Nook, iBooks, etc) - well organized, back lit; just a pleasure for reading (but far heavier than a Kindle, and easy to inadvertently turn pages by touching the screen)
• the native Notes app: great for quickly jotting down grocery items, reminders, etc
• the photo album: I have finally loaded my entire jewelry portfolio onto the iPad. But this has drawbacks, too - you have to load all photos through iTunes on your laptop/PC, and it must do a full sync every time you want to add even one photo, and with 1850 photos and counting in the album, this takes a considerable amount of time (a full 30 minutes on my laptop to sync the photos).

In all honesty, most of my time on the iPad is spent playing games.

These are the features I find mediocre, and certainly NOT as functional as my laptop:

• document handling: I looked at at a number of apps, and finally chose the pricey DocsToGo, because it supports .doc, .ppt, .xls, and .pdf (possibly more, but these are the big 4 for me). It also must be synced though iTunes IF you want your documents to be hard-stored on your iPad. If you are OK with them being out in the cloud, and therefore only accessible if you have WiFi access, then that is another way to go. But I needed the ability to read and modify certain docs at any time, so iTunes it is. At least with the document file transfer mode in iTunes, you can quickly just add docs one or 2 at a time, without having to do a full document sync each time. 

My biggest issue with documents on the iPad is the #&$^% iPad keyboard. As I said above, I really need to hold the iPad to keep it steady AND at the correct focal length for my vision, and at the right angle. The built-in stand in my iPad case is great for reading, but not for using the keyboard or the touchscreen - the pressure of my fingers knocks it right over. So when reduced to one hand to type with, on that crazy iPad touch-screen keypad, I am basically typing with one finger (can't retrain my right hand to do the whole Qwerty keyboard by itself), so it takes forever to do data entry anyway, and add to this the fact that my fingers (which are truly average size) hit the wrong keys fully half the time, so I have to type very very slowly, and make a lot of corrections. So I try to do all document writing/editing on my laptop, and save the iPad document app for reading only. Not as efficient, but that's my solution.

• Zite: I am crazy about the idea of this customizable, intuitive news app. But I have to rate it as mediocre, because of the scrolling issues mentioned above - every touch of the finger opens something I didn't want to open. And even more annoying, the articles are often abridged articles from the web, and usually contain hyperlinks, and in order to access the links or the additional content, after clicking on the link, you get a pop-up asking if you want to open the content in Safari. This really seems like an annoying, duh feature to me - admittedly, Safari is the only browser I have on my iPad (does Zite know this?) - so of course, I want to open the link in Safari. Why do I have to click yes every damn time? Just open the link, please.  And since Zite seems to be a mini-search engine of sorts, much of the content in the individual sections is repetitive (for instance, Star Trek is a module I have added to my Zite, and while it has great content, this week it has had article after article from various sources wishing Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner a happy (80th!) birthday. So, happy, happy birthday Kirk and Spock.

Here are the features I try to avoid at all costs, and reserve for when I can be on the laptop

• web browsing: This is simply a comedy of errors on the iPad. I use the native Safari browser, but doubt any other browser would be different. And the same issues exist with many specialty web apps: The webpages are too small to be seen on the iPad, so you have to pinch to enlarge, and then scroll around endlessly, as each finger swipe sends you farther than you wanted to go. And in so many apps and webpages, so much of the content is clickable that if you touch the screen at all to try to slow down the scrolling or just to scroll a bit further, you are likely to accidentally click a hyperlink, and off you go...  And oddly enough, one of the worst apps for this accidental hyperlinking is AppAdvice, the iPad app guru - I can't scroll anywhere in that app without clicking into an article I didn't want to open. And if you touch anywhere near the bottom of the screen, you will likely be taken (inadvertently) to another section of the app
• e-mail: takes forever to read in the iPad - for the same reasons as the web-browsing. And to try to reply to e-mails from the iPad? Same issues with the keypad. Not a time-saver at all
• anything involving more than a few taps of the keyboard.

And here are features I personally find no use for, at least not yet:

• iPod: Yes, I've loaded my tunes onto the iPad. But there are far better options for listening to music in the situations I find myself wanting to listen to music. Would have to have headphones for listening to iPad tunes at a doctor's office, or on a plane; and I have a stereo iPod doc at home and at work, which provide better sound quality.
• GPS: I have one in my car, and really don't see how the apps that offer GPS/traffic info on the iPad would work without active WiFi access. Which one doesn't usually have while driving.

I've probably left some stuff out, but that is certainly most of it. So while I like my iPad, I can't say I love it, and I'd be fine without it. But we are peacefully coexisting.

Here are a couple of things I made this week: I beaded around a gorgeous raku cabochon, and forged and enameled a copper palmetto tree pendant (a custom order). I am still working on some ideas of how to creatively design a necklace to support the beaded pendant.

Cold Connections Studio Day

We took the summer off as far as our monthly cold connections studio days, and today was our first day back in about 6 months. We have a terrific, cozy, compatible group who try to get together monthly, and make fabulous cold connections creations, and we all help each other out, and share ideas and tips. It's a lot of fun, and I have really missed it.

Today was a terrifically productive day for me - the ideas were flowing, and I completed 5 projects, and didn't leave anything halfway done, waiting for next time.

I started the morning by tackling the project I dreaded the most: I needed 2 more of these intricate copper flowers that I have used before in necklaces; this time, I wanted them to go on either side of an elaborate, colorful Dutch spiral woven necklace that I finished stitching over 2 years ago, and have just been waiting for the perfect way to finish. (And Yes, I am counting these 2 copper flowers as 2 cold connections projects, because they are a giant pain to make!) This particular Dutch spiral is very fat, and I didn't have enough of the pearls to make a full-length necklace, so my plan is to use the copper flowers to accent each end of the spiral, and then hook into the back of them with chain to finish the necklace.

The liver of sulfur patina turned the flowers almost the same color bronze as the seed beads in the spiral, and I chose 8mm round Sapphire Satin Swarovski crystals as the center of each flower, to bring out the blue in the spiral. It feels great to be clearing out the backlog of partially finished projects I have stored up! 1 down, 725 to go!!


Next, I created this copper pendant, which is acid-etched for texture, fold-formed for more texture, then cut in a crescent shape, with the top portion given a rich blue patina, and then reattached to the copper section with twisted sterling silver jumprings. A hammered sterling silver bail was then wired to the pendant, and all that awaits is the attachment of 2 sterling jumprings to the ends of the bail, and the addition of chain. I have some blue-patinaed copper chain which I plan to mix with some sterling chain to finish this necklace.

Then I moved on to this beaded, fold-formed copper pendant:

This was a lot of fun, probably because I love designing free-form jewelry. I used a couple of different shapes of blue Picasso Czech glass in this piece, and hung it from copper chain, and hope to get it up on Etsy in a couple of days.

I still had an hour to go, so I moved on to a project that the other girls had worked on earlier this morning - these great wine-cork pendants, which could also work as key chains. There are so many different ways to embellish these corks; everyone's looked completely different today.

I used a mixture of copper and stainless steel washers which I texturized with a hammer, a big sponge coral rondelle, a copper bead cap, and wrapped it all together with 16g sterling silver wire. It would definitely be sturdy enough to function as a key ring, but I plan to hang this one from a chain.  

Fun day! I feel so productive!

New Endeavor

I'm learning bead embroidery; I had my first class just a couple of days before my surgery, and only remembered enough details after the surgery to get the bezels beaded onto the focal beads.

As with ALL my projects, I never start small.

This will be a wide cuff bracelet, and this gorgeous focal bead from Etsy's Aneurythm will be the centerpiece.

I don't honestly know how she let this bead go - it is stunning - I can't believe all the colors in it, and I have a huge choice of colors to work with in the cuff, thanks to her!

These are the 2 smaller focals which will sit on either side of the large one - I have also beaded their bezels (but forgot to take a pic) - I used delicas in a deep brick red for these 2.

And now I am in a holding pattern, waiting for the teacher to come remind me what comes next. All I know is that I get to combine a huge variety of seed bead colors and sizes, and shapes for that matter, as I am going to use some bugle beads and some triangle beads, in a crazy glitzy freeform pattern, which is just my favorite way to bead.

Yay freeform! Yay asymmetry! Yay chaos!

Boo logic, rules, and order!

Flying Fairy Dust!!

I just sold 2 of my Etsy shop items from my B&M bead shop:

AND

Is anyone else this way - it feels so strange when your "babies" sell - especially that purple crazy lace agate pendant. I was so attached to it!

Both of these were Cold Connections pieces - and such a joy to create.

Bye, babies!

Kumihimo

Kumihimo is my latest venture. I took a class 2 weeks ago, and instead of choosing to do the 18-inch necklace that the other students chose to do, I had my mind set on a lariat. A 60-inch lariat, to be exact. Naturally.

If I had fully understood the implications of this, I might not have been such a rebel.

Kumihimo is a lot of fun, and though it was a little difficult to get the hang of at first, once I figured it out, it turned out to be relatively easy. And it is completely portable once it is set up on the disc.

This is the kumihimo disc - it is made of foam, and is maybe 8 inches in diameter.

The most tedious part of Kumihimo is the set up. At least 8 different strands of seed beads have to be pre-strung and then wound onto something that will hold them - plastic bobbins work well. The number of beads needed on each strand to complete a necklace varies with the length of necklace desired and with the size of the seed bead, and when using size 8 seed beads, it takes about 10 beads per inch.


So for an 18-inch necklace, I would have needed to string about 180 - 200 seed beads on each of the 8 braiding cords. But for my 60 inch lariat? Yeah - I could not even start learning the technique until I had strung almost 600 seed beads on 8 different cords. That's a lot of seed beads!

The other students finished stringing their cords, and there I sat, still trying to fit the tiny beads on the thick braiding cord. Ultimately, the other students pitched in and helped me get set up, and we all started braiding.

And here is my finished lariat, with the fringe I added at the ends.

And back to my point about portability: once all your beads are loaded on the bobbins, the whole shebang fits in a Ziploc bag, disc and all. And the notches on the disc keep your strands in place, no matter what. Trust me - they do not come out of the notches, even when thrown in a tote bag with a bunch of books, or tossed around in a car, etc. And once you are all set up, there are no needles, no tools - so this is an ideal project for air travel, or car travel: you hold it in one hand, move the strands with the other; it is lightweight - I love it. It doesn't hurt my hands at all!

Of course, you can also do Kumihimo without beads, or with a combination of fibers and beads - so I love its versatility.

I've purchased some pretty textured fibers to try, and I am anxiously waiting for my square Kumihimo disc to arrive. The square disc supposedly makes a flat braid, and I already have my colors picked out for my first project on the square disc. A 60-inch beaded lariat, of course. Because apparently, I never learn.

Custom Design

A good friend dropped by the shop about 3 weeks ago, carrying a garment bag.

Inside, she had a gorgeous, peacock-blue satin evening gown. Just below the plunging neckline was a diamond-shaped beaded design, about 3 inches square; the design had a hematite-colored background, bordered with peacock-blue bugle beads, with a beaded flower in the center.

My friend wanted a necklace and earrings to match the dress.

I took a photo of the beaded design, and gathered some beads together, and started stitching. I didn't have any peacock-blue bugle beads, but I had these size 8 delicas, which I figured would substitute nicely, once I got them lined up on the sides.

20 hours later, I had the beaded pendant stitched, and set out to design the necklace and earrings.

I chose 2 Swarovski square rings to bling it up, and hung them so that they mimicked the pendant.

My friend was really happy with the end result, so Yay!

Finally

I have been playing around with cold connections for about 7 months now - Cold Connections is the process of creating designs from various metal components without soldering. Heat is still involved, as the metal has to be annealed with the torch frequently because it hardens quickly as you work it.

I have so little time to work with my own designs anymore that I hardly ever finish a project. I have probably 200 or more "WIPs" - Works in Progress - where I have started something, but been interrupted, and never gotten back to finish it up. This can be really irritating!

So most of my cold connections ideas have not fully made it into finished pieces - I think I have one pair of earrings up in my Etsy shop, and one necklace available at my bead shop, but otherwise just a big pile of unfinished stuff.


I created this copper flower at the end of September, during a weekend Cold Connections workshop at my store. It took most of the first day to complete (including tumbling), and features a freshwater pearl at its center.

I had originally planned to simply hang it from a copper chain, but could never even find the time to do that - and the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to do something spectacular to show off my beautiful flower, so I spent most of 2 days this week designing this multistrand necklace, which features some more cold connection work (some textured copper links), and some wirework and just plain old beading.


I decided to go all-out asymmetrical with it, and I like the way it turned out. A lot.

I used leopardskin jasper, aqua terra jasper, muscovite, copper, and 3 different colors and shapes of freshwater pearl - and the pictures just don't do it justice. The colors are magnificent.

A Pause for Nostalgia

This necklace is the very first piece of jewelry I ever made, back in April or May of 2007:



It was the second item I added to my Etsy shop, way back in November, 2007.

A lovely customer just came into my bead shop, and fell in love with it, and bought it - and I'm delighted it has a good home after all this time, but a little sad, it a funny way - it was my first!

I forgot to title this post!

I know some of you actually come here to read about my jewelry adventures, and I humbly apologize to all of you.

Truth be told, I hardly ever get to make something purely for me, or for fun, anymore.

I became a bead shop owner almost exactly one year ago - my "anniversary" was 8/1 - and ever since buying the shop, my jewelry making days have all but disappeared.

It takes SO much effort and time to run the shop, especially since the shop is not sustainable enough for me to afford employees.

I spent countless hours ordering inventory, sorting inventory, doing repairs, cleaning (Yuck! - I barely do that at home!), and teaching classes, that very little time is left.


And of course, there has been the whole millipede situation at the house, which I have been dealing with for 2.5 months. Ugh.


My absolute favorite thing to do, whenever I DO have time, is chainmaille - it is basically my obsession. If only the rings would appear, fully formed and ready to use - 'cause I despise cutting jump rings.

This is my latest creation - I just love this weave, and I like it in these 2 pinks:







These 2 pictures show the bracelet from the front and the back - I am amazed by how different it looks on each side.

But it takes about a week to complete one of these bracelets - that's a week of steady chaining- not just grabbing a little free time here and there to work on it. It is really a tough weave!


I got a huge new selection of gemstones in the shop 2 weeks ago, and have just finally finished getting them sorted and priced and out on display. Somewhere in these gorgeous beads I found this beautiful nugget of fluorite, and snatched it up for myself -




I have an idea of what I want to do with it, and hope to start on it tomorrow, if nothing else gets in my way first.

Remember this? The stunning turquoise and pearl necklace was something I dreamed up as a custom design for a customer, and the pink and pearl dangle earrings were made for a good friend who is getting married in just a few weeks. The 2 designs really had nothing to do with each other, except I made them both the same week.

But now my friend, the bride-to-be, has decided she wants her wedding necklace to be made in the same way as that turquoise and pearl creation, except all in white pearls, and rose and crystal AB Swaroskis. So she has been in the shop this week, working on it, with a little help from me - She is about halfway done, and it looks great, and will be perfect with those earrings!
I'll try to get a picture of it when it is done, to show here.