Bead Soup Blog Party - Bead Hoarder's Edition

First, Thank you Lori Anderson for hosting another Bead Soup Blog Party.  This is my third and I've enjoyed meeting other Beaders across the US through this platform. 

Second, Thank you Annita Wilson, my BSBP partner.  She sent me some awesome beads.  And it was fun working with them.  So, here were the beads that were sent to me....

 I started making jewelry with many of the components but only happily finished a few ....

The beautiful yellow green and black cut stone was made into a tassel pendant for this long necklace.  The chain is made up of white shell beads and gold Czech glass beads.  A fun, long bohemian necklace. 

Next, I split up the pair of purple, magenta and turquoise blue puffy rectangles and made a bracelet with many handmade components.  The faceted beads are polymer clay.  Check out how they are made here:  http://cabewoman.blogspot.com/2017/02/handmade-polymer-clay-beads.html. 

 

I love how this bracelet turned out.  The colors go together so well!

Lastly, these beaded bead earrings were made with the strand of AB purplish beads. 

Thank you again to Annita.  I loved working with the beads. 
Here's the beads I sent her:  

Check out her blog to see what she did with them:  http://awjewelryandbeadwork.blogspot.com/

And make sure to check out all the Bead Soup Blog Hop participants by checking them out here:  http://www.prettythingsblog.com/2017/03/welcome-to-bead-soup-blog-party-bead.html

Stay tuned.  I have a leather bracelet that was started with the green shell beads that will soon be finished! 

Happy St. Patrick's Day

A green bracelet - perfect for St. Patrick's Day.  

This one is also from Kassie Shaw's Beadweaving Beyond the Basics.  I love this FRAW.  The base of the bracelet sewed up very quickly.  And this would look so much more dramatic in black Czech glass and a navy blue iris seed bead underneath with silver accents.
But there are only so many hours in a day.  
So this one is inspired by Spring, which really needs to come back to the Midwest....

Yo-Yo Reversible Pendant

Here's another beaded item from the Beadweaving Beyond the Basics book by Kassie Shaw.  I love the bright colors and the fact that it is reversible.  Everything is so bright and cheery in this book - I really could stitch up the whole book.  This one just needs a neckchain and its all good to go. 

This is the first time I've worked with a lunasoft cabochon.  The colors are so vivid.  But I do have a question - because they have a soft top to them - do they get scratched and do they pick up dirt easily?  I had this lying on the table and when I picked it up, noticed that a few crumbs were 'stuck' to it.  They easily brushed off, I just wonder if hair 'sticks' to it.

Wheelies

These beaded beads are called Wheelies and are from the book Beadweaving Beyond the Basics by Kassie Shaw.  Kassie introduces the concept of FRAW (faux right angle weave), which really makes right angle weave go so much faster.  I love the idea and have now done a few projects from the book. 

The book shows these little cuties as earrings, which are very darling.  The only con I have with these earrings is that I can really see the thread that I am not crazy about.  I don't know if my size 8's were too small to fill in the spaces.  It's definitely not a tension thing - I couldn't pull it any tighter.   Nevertheless, they are still very cute!

  Side View

 Front side and back side.  The center bead pops up in the front. 

Beaded Beads

I've been on a kick lately, trying out different beaded beads. 

These are from the book The Art of Beaded Beads by Jean Campbell.

I think they were called pumpkin beads - which is definitely what they look like.  I like the pink one better - the contrast on the top and bottom definitely makes the bead look more dynamic, although I don't know how important it would be in the long run.  I imagine that these beads would look great as a focal on a necklace or bracelet (they are kind of big - about 3/4 inch tall and 1 inch wide) and they will probably have some other larger beads squished on either side of them so the contrast edging would not be as noticeable. 

jewelry Stringing, Winter 2017 edition

Sadly, this is the last Stringing magazine. 
Happily, I was published in it again.  Two bracelets:

The first was actually a  birthday gift for a friend that she was nice enough to give back temporarily so it could be shipped off to the magazine for photos, but has now since been returned.  If you can't tell my friend has a thing for bees.  The centerpiece is an Italian bee coin that I buffed and waxed and added the chain and embellishments.  Even the clasp has a bee on it!  The clasp is from Green Girl Studios.   The bee charms are Tierracast. 

The second was inspired from the gold rush segment in the magazine and the handmade focal bead (from TreeWingStudio).   Everything just fits so perfectly together in this bracelet.  One of my favorites. 
All the handmade beads:  purple lampwork flower: Thornburg Bead Studio, green/brown ceramic bead:  gaea,  Blue/white ceramic bead:  blueberri beads.  The rest of the beads are pyrite and gold-plated spacers.     This one is now listed on etsy!