ZnetShows Diamond in the Rough Challenge

Bill Zhang of ZnetShows - wholesale beads - offered  a new challenge to those of us who created designs with their beautiful sea glass. The challenge was to design jewelry using beads that are a little less flashy and often overlooked. I was up for the challenge since I haven't seen a bead at ZnetShows that I don't want to work with!!

The Znet Team will choose 20 designs and have a Facebook voting contest. The winners will receive gift certificates from ZnetShows to shop to their hearts' content! WooHoo - 3 of my pieces were chosen for the Facebook contest!! My colorful butterfly bracelet, my chains and shell flower necklace, and my blue Murano-style necklace! Thank you to Bill and his team!!

We were told to choose beads that we could easily work with to beads that would be challenging to work with, so I picked quite a mix of colors and styles! Click on the pictures below for a better view of the beads.

I started with the beautiful yellow and green Fire Agates (yellow-BDS1593-12 and green-BDS1591-06) and added pink Druzy beads to make fun, colorful earrings.

I love these colors together, so fun and happy, so I continued with them. I pulled a fuschia Turquoise butterfly out of my stash and made a bracelet around it. I started by adding different bead caps to the pink Druzy and yellow Fire Agate beads (BDS1593-12). Then, I used the smaller green Fire Agates (BDS1591-06) to make flowers by adding a bead caps and purple Swarovski crystals. I bought yellow bell flowers at Gahanna Bead Studio and added a purple Swarovski crystals to those, too. A silver flower toggle finishes the bracelet.

I made a chain necklace with black, gunmetal and copper chains, and attached the lovely shell flower pendants (PDG288-03) to the ends. I added a silver wavy disc and Swarovski crystal to each flower and wrapped them to the chain. Next, I strung white freshwater pearls to each side of the chain.                                                            
                                                               The necklace can be worn symmetrically

                                                       or asymmetrically, to see more of the freshwater pearls.

I wasn't sure what to do with the pretty Prehnite nuggets (BDS1565-18) until I found some light green crystals that I had received from another challenge - I knew they would work perfectly! I made a simple necklace with a tassel of crystals - this is a fun, swingy necklace that I wear often.

 

Next up, the sweet olive Jade donut pendant (BDG118-17D). I made a bail for the donut using 3mm gold crystals - I also made two additional circles. I strung green and pink freshwater pearls, the African silver leaf rondelles (BDS1517-17) and gold crystals, attached that to the crystal circles and used beige recycled sari silk to finish it. One of the crystal circles is used as part of the toggle.

For the next two necklaces, I used the lovely Murano style glass pendants. The blue pendant (PT467-02)has gold, red, blue and turquoise in it, so I wire wrapped goldstone rondelle beads (BDS367-08), faceted red glass beads, and Lapis and Amazonite round beads. I connected them together with square wire jump rings (my new favorite jump rings!), attached the pendant to one of my handmade bails and .....Voila! I love how this turned out!

The pretty yellow Murano style glass pendant (PT472-04) has gold, a red heart and lime green. I attached the pendant to a silver hammered circle and added colorful, tiny gears near the top of it. I wrapped faceted goldstone rondelle beads (BDS367-08) to the chain, added another circle to one side and a heart toggle to the other. I wove lime green silk cord through the gunmetal chain to finish the necklace.

I found two more silver hammered circles in my stash and wire wrapped white Howlite rondelle beads (BDS366-09), black crystals and silver wavy discs to them.

                              I attached the shell rectangular prism beads (BDS416-09) to gold chain to make fun, swingy earrings.

I was stuck on what to do with the, extra large bamboo coral tube beads (CB25-25) until two days ago. I added coral colored seed beads to jump rings, then attached several together to make a short chain. I connected it all together with two different types of silver chain and a circle toggle.

 
                                                                             I love the bamboo coral!!

The cool irregular shell pendant (PDG283-13)was one of the first items I picked from the list Bill sent - I thought it would be easy to work with, but it tilts to one side and ended up being quite a challenge! I, finally, attached it to black chain, for contrast, and wire wrapped some vintage glass pearls to the chain. It's a short necklace, seventeen inches, and I love how it looks on!!

For my final necklace, I strung bamboo coral twig beads (CB13-09), coral crystals and light blue sea glass beads - I added a turquoise bay fancy shard sea glass pendant (P18-B28) to the center. Then, I wove light blue cotton cord through silver chain and attached that, with a toggle, to the ends.

Thank you for taking the time to look at my jewelry designs!! I really enjoyed this challenge and want to Thank Bill Zhang and the Znet Team for this amazing opportunity!! Stop by ZnetShows to check out all of their fabulous beads!

Time to start voting!! Go to this Facebook page to see the 20 beautiful designs that were chosen!! Voting will continue through May 23 - Good Luck to everyone!!

                          Please visit the ZnetShows blog and check out all of the designers and their fabulous designs!!   

                                                     

Bead Soup Blog Party 3rd Reveal

Soup's on for the third reveal of the Bead Soup Blog Party!! I want to start out by thanking our leader, Lori Anderson of Pretty Things, who came up the this amazing party - you can read more about it here. This year, there are 541 participants - 200 jewelry designers are in this reveal!!

My partner is the very talented, Christine Hansen of Intuitive Sparks. She sent me the most amazing soup with a gorgeous lampwork pendant and spacers that she made along with many beautiful beads to complement them. It was so fun playing with all of these ingredients - thanks, Chris!!

I love the vibrant blue of the lampwork focal and spacers, so I decided to make a necklace that really let them stand out and shine.

I made a bail so the focal could hang down a bit from the chain and put it on a headpin with silver wavy discs at each end. I used the very cool Tierra Cast toggle clasp in my soup and four of the lovely lampwork spacers.

I made earrings with the remaining two blue spacers. I wrapped the beads with bead caps and Swarovski bicones, then added a short chain and some of the detailed base metal spacers for a bit of movement.

I made these earrings with two of the purplish Chinese rondelles - when the light catches these beads, they are so beautiful! I made a bail with a small piece of wire, hammered the ends and hung them from ear wires with a flat coil that I'd just received from Auntie's Beads.

I made another pair of earrings using the Hematite rondelles. I cut different lengths of headpins and hung them from a silver circle in my stash.

The last pair of earrings I made are with two of the beautiful green lampwork glass beads. I added copper spacers, then I took Vintaj filigree diamonds, folded them in half and used my sons Dremel to make a small hole in the center of the filigree for the headpins.

Next up is the bracelet. I used a lampwork bead from Jane Perala Designs as the focal because it went so well with the beads in my soup. I wrapped the blue Czech bead with a pink Druzy and the purplish Chinese crystal with a fuschia bead with gold dots - it's from a strand that I had bought at Allegory Gallery last summer. I used some of the thrifted chain and pewter spacers and connected it together with square wire jump rings.

For the next necklace, I wrapped the deep plum Czech faceted beads with brass bead caps and connected them with twisted brass jump rings.

The focal has black faceted crystals in the center that just sparkle. I bought it at a small bead store in Dayton (for $1 !!) - I knew it would work perfectly with the plum and green!

I hung different lengths of chain from the brass flower and added flowers and leaves for movement. The purple flowers and leaves are from my first BSBP and I bought the pale turquoise flowers at my local bead store, Gahanna Bead Studio. I had the flower toggle in my stash and wove the deep green recycled sari silk through brass chain.

Lastly, I made this necklace with strawberry quartz, Hematite rondelles, base metal spacers and Swarovski bicones. I added them to black leather lace with a simple lobster claw toggle.

I had the best time creating with my soup and getting to know my partner! I hope you head over to Christine Hansen's blog to see what loveliness she created with her soup!

Thank you for stopping by!! I will definitely get to each blog on the list to drool over each design - life often gets in the way of beautiful jewelry!! Thanks for understanding!  :)

Take some time to check out all of the fabulous jewelry designers - here's the link to the list of all of the blog partier's of the 3rd Reveal!!

Fusion Bead 30 Day Challenge Wrap-Up

Last month was National Craft month and Fusion Beads hosted a 30 day challenge to "give your beading skills a workout by challenging yourself to as many of our daily beading activities as you can!"

I thoroughly enjoyed seeing all of the lovely pieces of jewelry posted daily on their Facebook page from so many incredible jewelry designers!!

I kept up, for the most part, (I left seed beading to the experts!) and made 21 pieces throughout the month. Here is a sample of what I made .....

Fusion Beads will continue its Weekly Bead Challenge - why don't you join in???  :)

ZnetShows Design Reveal

A small group of us were recently asked to design some jewelry for ZnetShows for the upcoming Tucson Gem & Jewelry Show. They sent out samples from their new seal glass line, plus crystal beads and metal components. Everyone's beautiful jewelry pieces are up on Znet's Facebook page and now we're waiting to see whose pieces will be chosen to go to the Big Show!

I want to say Thank You to Bill Zhang of Znet for giving me this opportunity!! I was having a hard time getting back to the bead table and this was the perfect incentive - I really enjoyed doing this!!

I received a variety of seafoam, peridot and turquoise sea glass beads - so many pretty colors to work with!! I went to work immediately, since we only had about a week to get our designs photographed and posted on our blogs.

Please take some time to visit all of the jewelry designers blogs and see what they made. The designs are all unique and absolutely beautiful!! This will be a tough decision for the Znet team!

                                                                 GOOD LUCK to everyone involved!!

                             the Earrings                

I made these 2 sets with a vintage chandelier crystal and my grandmothers pearls - these will be my interchangeable earrings!

                                       

                                                                                   
                            the Bracelet

Beach Diva

                                                                      
                                                                          the Necklaces

I wanted to start with a couple of ball chain necklaces - notice the "Z" charm?? - could be for Znet or Zhang (*wink wink*)

Primitive 

Found 

Sea Princess

Caribbean Dream

Stella