Spiral Rope with Turquoise Heart

I fell in love with this puffy turquoise heart, and fell back on my old standby, the spiral rope, for the necklace. I love weaving spirals with pinch beads - they lie so nicely, and come in such gorgeous colors!
I think this whole piece has a lovely Southwestern look.

And it's available in my Etsy Shop!

Woven Wire Bracelet

This is a bangle bracelet I wove with 2 colors of 18g artistic wire - this wire is dead soft, so it is very easy to weave with. And I love the brown and the blue together!

This is the hook and eye closure:

Fun bracelet! And it's available in my Etsy shop!

Turquoise and Leather

This fun necklace features 5 perfectly matched turquoise donuts, in a incredible robin's egg blue color. I have paired them with 8 large sterling silver "pinched" cubes, and put them all on Greek leather, knotted to hold them in place. The necklace closes with a sterling silver toggle.

This is a great casual necklace, but it can also be dressed up with a white button down shirt and heels - very versatile!

And it's available in my Etsy shop!

Big week for custom designs!

A good friend is getting married in September (in Jamaica, and I get to go!) - and this idea for earrings for her wedding popped into my head Monday night, so I got to the store Tuesday and just started making them - I lost count of the number of wrapped loops somewhere around 50......

And so she came into the shop on Wednesday, and I surprised her with them, and she likes them, so yay!

One of my regular customers came in with the sterling silver pendant you see on this necklace, and asked me to design a necklace, bracelet, and earrings to go with it, and I just sort of got carried away.

It took 3 days to complete this necklace, and it is such a departure from what I usually make for her, that I actually called her in to approve it before I completed it, and fortunately she loved it, so I kept on going, and going, and finally finished this gorgeous necklace.



I designed this multi-strand bracelet to go with it,






And had just enough beads left over to create these matching earrings.

She came in to pick up the set today, and was thrilled, so that was great!




My friend who is getting married in September saw the turquoise and pearl necklace while I was working on it, and decided she wants a similar design for her wedding necklace, so we are going to start putting that together, with several different sizes of pearls, and lots of 4, 6, and 8 mm Swarovski bicones in crystal AB and in rose.

And today is Bailey's birthday, so happy birthday, sweet pea!

I'm baaaaaack...!

My poor neglected blog! I can't believe how long it has been and how much has happened since I was here last!

The big big news: I am no longer a struggling, independent jewelry designer... now I am a struggling small business owner! I bought a bead shop on August 1, and it is really keeping me hopping! But talk about the fox guarding the henhouse!

This pic shows my gorgeous, spacious solid oak work table. This is where I am most of the time - doing repairs, creating, or teaching small beading and beadweaving classes.

In the far back you can make out the wall of Czech glass, and behind those curtains is my classroom area, for the larger structured classes like Art Clay Silver, Glass Fusing, Wire-Wrapping, Chainmaille, etc. I can only teach class on Sundays, since I am also my sole employee, and someone has to work the front, but I also have contracted a group of fabulous instructors who come in to teach. I love my teachers!

This shot is taken from the back, and shows how some of the finished pieces are displayed, as well as some gemstones for sale, and against the left wall, all the seed beads, which are arranged by size and color.

This pic is also from the back, and shows the gemstone display, the vintage jewelry (in the glass displays), my findings, and the register area.

I have a great buyer who stalks estate sales for me, and brings in fabulous vintage finds!

This is a slightly different view of the seed bead wall - So many beads, so little time!

I love my bright and cheery shop!

Sales in my Etsy shop have been a little slow, but I have sold SO many of my finished pieces in my bead shop - so if you had your eye on something in my Etsy shop, and it has disappeared, it probably sold from my actual shop!

The opportunity to purchase the shop happened rather suddenly, and I had to fly into high gear, getting business licenses, bank accounts, tax IDs and vendor accounts, and all that other business-related red tape, and I have just now been able to settle down a bit.

I was so busy the first 6 weeks that I didn't even get to THINK about doing anything creative. That really bothered me, because in my head, I saw myself being able to sit there all day long and just bead Bead BEAD, like a kid in a candy shop! Ha!

When one of my vendors brought in these great turquoise donuts, I squirreled them away for myself, and finally had a few spare hours to play with them, and I came up with this macrame design.

October was fast approaching, and I have always been heavily involved with breast cancer awareness, so I wanted to create something special. My goal was to have it finished by October 1, and I didn't even get to start it until October 8, but I am SO pleased with the finished bracelet!

I had a small setback last week - I had to have cervical disc surgery. I had fallen back in April and ruptured a disc in my neck, and tried all the usual non-surgical methods to relieve the pain, but I finally had to bite the bullet and have the surgery last Thursday. The doctor told me I would be out of work 4-6 weeks, but that would have crippled my new business, so I went back this morning. I'm really sore right now from holding my head up all day long, but it'll be OK. The huge bruised, swollen gash on my neck did frighten a few customers, though!

Happy October!

Turquoise Wire Wrapped Bracelet

So, this is a new wire-wrapping design for me.

I wanted to be able to incorporate my favorite beads in with the wire designs.


I decided to take some photos as I progressed, which actually turned out to be a great idea, because when I made the second one, I saw some opportunities for improvement.

After cutting and cleaning the wire, I strung the beads, and began to form the basic skeleton of the bracelet.

I knew this was harder than in should have been, and saw why when I went back to look at the photos - I should have made the outer frame bigger than the inner frame.

I struggled to make everything fit between the frames, and to line up, finally securing it all with tape.

I started at one end, and began to wrap the bundle, placing 3 beads in every bundle.

Then I got to the end of the bundle, and only had room for 2 more beads! So much for measure twice, cut once. Obviously, I was off on the measuring -

But, as you saw in the first photo, it still turned out pretty well, and now that I saw the error of my ways, I sat down and made on with copper beads.

I did a better job of measuring and placing the beads, too -

And I love the way it turned out. I love mixing different metals together!

I wonder what beads I should choose next time....?