Beauty of the Sea

I just finished one of my favorite bracelets to date.  I started this one probably about a year ago and ran out of the silver pearls when I was almost finished.  I only needed about three to five pearls to finish :-(  And so I put it aside and forgot about it.  But I finally got around to ordering new pearls and finishing it up.  And boy am I happy I did.

I'm in love with this bracelet.  It has a base of silver lined red seed beads and then is just covered with silver and white freshwater pearls.  And it's finished with a fun little button clasp.  It's fantastic.  So decedent and regal.  I love it, have I said that before, oh well.

The pearls give it a wonderful weight, but it's not too heavy to cause problems when wearing it. It's perfect, but I may be a little bias. 
 

I really should make some more of these since a year ago I went on a pearl kick and bought hundreds of pearls.  I'm serious, I bought hundreds of them in every color you could imagine.  I like pearls, I just don't normally use them in my work.  Now I have no excuses to not use them. 

So be on the lookout for more like this one. 

The Phantom

Here is my third "jumble" necklace so far.  I love making these fun sophisticated necklaces.

This beauty is based on the Phantom of the Opera.  I'm not that into Phantom, but the graduate student in the lab is.  She loves it, so she helped me out with a few different ideas.  She told me about the pipe organ, and the rose, and red dress, etc etc.  And this is what my little mind came up with.

I used a wonderful silver lined gold for the herringbone rope.  This represents the pipes of the organ.  And then the "jumble" part consists of silver lined red triangle beads, silver lined seed beads, silver lined square beads, and lovely garnet chips.  The red "jumble" represents the rose and the dress and the passion.


And I wasn't finished with just the necklace. I had enough left over beads to make a matching bracelet.

Again I used the silver lined gold beads as a base, then I just covered the whole bracelet with the collection of the red beads.

I am so happy with how both of these turned out.  They both are quite substantial and a little on the heave side due to the large quantity of garnet chips that were used, but they both very comfortable to wear.

What do you think?

Summer Time!!!

Center Focal Bead

Summer is finally here (well at least it is here in WI).  I have been waiting for summer all winter long.  Waiting for the sunny days and warm weather.  Waiting for the summer outings at the park and the beach.  Oh, summer, I'm so glad you're finally here.

And what's better, I finally finished my ArtBeads project; and it's summer themed.  This month we were supposed to celebrate summer using a wide selection of charms, pendents, and glass beads.  What fun.

Summer Time Beach Cuff

So what is one of my favorite things about the summer, well it's the water.  When I lived in Chicago we use to go sailing all the time.  I loved to just be out on the open water.  It was so much fun.  But sailing isn't the only thing I love.  I love to swim and I love the beach.  Next to biking, swimming is my favorite activity.  And once summer rolls around, I don't have to swim inside anymore.  I can go and enjoy the warm sun as I relax in the water or on the sand.  So I wanted to celebrate my love of the water by making a beaded cuff. 

I have been hooked on bead embroidery as of late.  I'm just having so much fun with it, I can't help myself.  I choose from a wide selection of Toho seed bead mixes to create the sand, ocean, and sky.  The mixes really give the bead embroidery a wonderful feel.  They just add a little bit extra.  I added little beaded clouds using a wonderful AB matte white size 15 seed bead.  Little, light, fluffy clouds in the sky.

Little Sterling Silver Crab

I chose a wonderful glass bead as the focal.  I used a wonderful Venetian Glass La Crima Ca'd' Oro Coin bead.  I started out thinking about playing with a big beach ball on the sand, but then realized that the large red coin also looked like the bright, hot, summer sun.

And to add a little bit of fun to the cuff, I used a couple sterling silver charms.  A small silver sand dollar waits on the sand.  It reminds me of our trip to San Diego.  While on the beach, we saw a whole collection of sand dollars.  And then swimming out in the sea is a little silver crab.  I choose a crab because J really likes them.  He use to have a small little red one he named Pinchy (I promised him when we moved, he could get another one).

I decided to use some super soft dark brown leather I had for the base of the cuff.  This stuff is like butter.  I also added two sets of snaps, so that it can be adjusted to different wrist sizes.  Then I finished off the cuff with some great silver lined red square beads.

Summer Time Beach Cuff

This is one large cuff, at about 2 1/2 inches wide, so it's not really for everyone, but is is a beauty.

Disclosure - I have received these products from ArtBeads free of charge to honestly review. I have not been paid for this post.

What's New?!?

So much chaos; a mess of a bead board.

So I've been busy, busy, busy.  I just seems like I can't wait for spring, but once it rolls around I'm on the go constantly.  But that's okay with me. :-)

I have said before that I'm finishing up getting ready for show season; I still have those pesky table cloths to make.  But I have been feeling extremely creative too, even if it feels like I don't have time to sit and think for long.  So I thought I'd share what's currently on my bead board with everyone.

And here it is.  I know it's a mess right now.  I have a bunch of projects that I'm working on all at once (and the one's you can see aren't even all of them). 

I'm making a few more triangle earrings for my "Go Team" line.  But I'm also make a few new triangles to go with the fantastic copper earwires I just got.  I just love making those little guys.

I'm also finishing up a small bracelet to match a wonderful "jumble" necklace I just finished; you can see both in this picture.  They're a wonderful combination of silver lined gold and red, so rich and luxurious.

I also finished up my summer project for ArtBeads, I just need to get pictures taken.  It's a fun bead embroidered cuff.  I'm also finishing up a smaller bead embroidered cuff that just needs to be stitched to the leather.     

Like I said, I've been busy.  I have less then a month to get ready for my first show, so I better get my butt in gear.  No more pretty beads for a while, and lots more sewing :( 

Playing Catch Up - Art Shows and Ska Music

4 Aspirin Morning performing in Juneau, WI

I have been so crazy busy as of late.  Last month was my birthday as well as our anniversary (6 years already).  And J's birthday is coming up pretty soon.  This year seems to be moving so fast.

J had a show last week in Whitewater.  It was pretty amazing.  The Band were great as well as the band that followed them.

They also have a show tomorrow night (Thursday).  It's there first Madison show.  Exciting.  They play at the Argus at 10:00.  So if any of you are in the Madison area, you should check them out.  There are $2 drink specials as well as fantastic food, and of course awesome ska music.  Check out their Facebook page for more info.Yes, that was some shameful promoting of J's band, but oh well, I'm proud of him.

Ok, that's enough about J, now it's time to talk about me. :-)

I've gotten three art show acceptances so far (I'm waiting to hear from two more), so I've been trying to get all my crap together.  I finished my new sign last night, it looks great, and a new earring display.  The only other major thing I have left, is the table cloths.  I've decided to make new table cloths this year.  You can find out about all the shows I'll be attending by clicking on the 2010 shows tab up at the top of my blog. 

I have been working on a bunch of new stuff.  Even though I've been so busy, I've been feeling so creative lately.  I'll try to get some pictures this weekend to share with everyone.  I'm really liking some of my new things.

My Favorite Color Combo!

This wonderful treasury, Grape and Olive, was created by JealousyDesigns.  It features my Funky Green and Purple Beaded Hoops.  Please check out this treasury and click on all the other fantastic green and purple items.   

Red Fire Necklace

Here is one of my newest necklaces.  It's based on an old necklace I made for myself years ago.  It's pretty much the same design (I changed a few things), but I used silver lined red for that fiery look and added sterling silver beads.   I'm loving this one.

The necklace is a small herringbone beaded rope with a collection of beaded fringe as the focal point.  Each small fringe has a tiny silver bead at the end, adding a wonderful sparkle.

I made two small silver lined beaded rings to pull the whole necklace together. 

I also used a really great sterling silver star clasp.  It adds a little bit of fun to the necklace.

The silver lined beads really add a nice sparkle and elegance to the necklace.

The original necklace I made was also in red, but I'm thinking this could look great in a variety of colors.  Oh, I bet it would look extremely elegant in black.  Now I'm off to think of new color combos to work with next time.