Showing posts with label Trinkets. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Trinkets. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Kalmbach Bead Soup Party

The wonderful folks at Kalmbach are having a Bead Soup Party to promote Lori Anderson's book,  Bead Soup.  I was shocked and excited when I received this package in the mail. The soup is from Safire Rose Beads and Things located in Madison, OH, about 3 hours north of me.

                             
                                    When I opened the envelope, I had so many colorful ingredients to work with!!


So many colors, and the bird pendant ....... think, think, think ............ I let it stew and simmer for awhile and kept coming back to the same idea.

I kept imagining a lush, double-strand necklace - two love birds soaring above the clouds and flying through a rainbow. I used the beads and brass toggle from my soup and added sari silk to the back, so you can see all the colors when you're wearing it.


This necklace was very long and heavy, so I took a picture and immediately took my wire cutters to one end so I could start over before I could change my mind!

Next, I picked out the chunkier bits, stirred the soup and strung that. I didn't like how that looked, so back to the bowl they went (no picture of that one).

I decided that I liked the idea of the birds flying and coming across a beautiful rainbow. I used brown silk bead cord and pearl knotted the beads, adding the golden clasp at the end of the rainbow. Then, I used brass chain and wove green sari silk through some of the links.


                                                            This necklace is much more wearable and fun!

When I was carrying the necklace, it slipped out of my hand - I didn't see the little chip in the pendant until I was posting the pictures :(   I suppose it adds to the charm - nothing, not even two love birds, are perfect!

I want to thank Kalmbach and Safire Rose Beads and Things for letting me join the party - I had tons of fun!

Saturday, October 13, 2012

My Bead Table Blog Hop

The lovely, Lisa Lodge, of A Grateful Artist, (Pine Ridge Treasures) decided to have a Bead Table Blog Hop back in July which sounded like fun, so I decided to join in! Here's a picture of the amazing stash of beads Lisa sent me.



I must admit, that, although I love Christmas - and I do mean LOVE - the Christmas colors scared me a wee bit. But that's what this blog hop is supposed to be - challenging!! Each participant received a stash of miscellaneous beads from Lisa's work table and we are to add our own beads from our work table. Sounds easy enough! So I let my beads sit on my table and breathe for awhile.

I've always wanted to work with the coral bits before and now was my chance! I remembered I had a turquoise star, so I just started beads adding around it. I used coral ovals, a freshwater pearl, silver cornerless cubes, Swarovski bicones and 2 baby vintage pearls and, of course, it has to have a lobster claw!


For my next bracelet, I had to use the pretty orange flowers - I wanted them to stand out, so I only added a piece of lime green silk cord.


I love the orange flower and had some green bead leftovers the Bead Soup Blog Party and thought they would went together perfectly! I used some brown seed beads that I always have on my table and a piece of brown ribbon.


I wanted to use the pretty flower beads, so I make a simple pair of earrings with some more of my lime green silk.



I made a pair of Christmas earrings with a dark green bead, those cool shattered-looking red glass beads, and bubbly white beads.


I want to thank Lisa for hosting this blog hop, I really enjoyed working on these pieces!!

Now  grab a cup of coffee/tea and enjoy rest of the participants in My Bead Table Blog Hop

Your Host: Lisa Lodge
 

Molly Alexander, Beautifully Broken Me
Audrey Belanger, Dreams of an Absolution
Ginger Bishop, lilmummy likes...
Tanya Boden, Fusion Muse
Michelle Buettner, Mishel Designs
Eleanor Burian-Mohr, The Charmed Life
Mikala Coates, Maybe Just Perhaps
Marlene Cupo, Amazing Designs
Kathleen Douglas, Washoe Kat's
Mary Anne Klinglesmith Flesch, Hand Crafted Serenity
Therese Frank, Therese's Treasures
Mary Govaars, MLH Jewelry Designs
Tanya Goodwin, A Work in Progress
Tina Holden, Polymer Clay Bytes!
Shelly Joyce, Au jour le jour
Carolyn Lawson, Carolyn's Creations
Kathy Lindemer, Bay Moon Design
Susan Lloyd, Designs by Susan
Cynthia Machata, Antiquity Travelers
Inge von Roos, Inge's Blog
Kristen Stevens, My Bead Journey
Sonya Stille, Dreamin' of Beads
Christine Stonefield, Sweet Girl Design ..... you are here .....
Toltec Jewels, Jewel School Friends
Norma Turvey, Moonlit Fantaseas
Sandra Wollberg, City of Brass Stories


I'll be out most of the day, but will rush back as soon as I can to look at all of the lovely designs and meet many new designers  :)

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Earrings

                                         Some earrings I recently made to sell at Zodiac on Mill St. in Gahanna, OH

                                                                           
                                                             turquoise dyed howlite and red velvet rondelles

                                                
                                                        turquoise dyed howlite, freshwater pearls and Swarovski


                                                                   apple green magnesite and sodalite


                                                                             crazy lace agate


* I'm still hopping through the Bead Soup Blog Party (less than 40 to go!!) - head over here to check out all of the lovely designers and their fabulous designs!!

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

More Jewelry

I'm making a quick stop by my blog - between adventures with my boys, taking them to various classes and making jewelry for my sisters upcoming wedding (less than 2 week away!!) - to post some recent pieces I've made.



                                                        
                                                                                        Vintage



Saturday, June 23, 2012

Nest Pendants

                         With so many vintage beads in my stash, I made a few nest pendants with dark steel wire.

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Button Swap Blog Hop !!

I want to thank Cindy Wimmer of Sweet Bead Studio for putting together the Button Swap!! I have been wanting to use buttons in my designs for a long time and knew I would have to "stretch" to come up with a design or two for the swap. Plus, I get to meet many wonderful jewelry artists and see how they've incorporated buttons into their designs - definitely a win-win!! Thank you, Gracias, Mahalo, Merci!!

I received these buttons from Dana of Dana's Jewelry Design back in mid-April - she's an amazing artist and jewelry designer.



I must admit, after I took these pictures I didn't really think about the Button Swap. I've kept extremely busy (not hard to do with four boys!) to keep my mind off the fact that my biggest cheerleader, our family "rock", is no longer with us. I was even able to see my sisters TWICE since I received the buttons - my sisters live in New Hampshire and California and I'm in Ohio, but we made it happen!

Last weekend, we were in Alexandria, VA cleaning up my Mom's condo where I found a box of chandelier findings - I love that they're in a Godiva box, Mom sure loved her chocolate! I knew I had found the perfect piece to make a necklace with the mother of pearl button, but I still wasn't able to sit still long enough to start on my pieces until this past Thursday - nothing like a little pressure!!



I used the beautiful mother of pearl button (which has two different sides), a chandelier drop, 22g non-tarnish wire, Czech glass pearls, Swarovski silver shade cosmic rings and the last of my vintage chain. Here is the result - I really like how it looks with either the  side of the button showing!




Next, I wanted to make a necklace using the windmill button because I have a lovely friend from the Netherlands and wanted to make a necklace that reminded me of her. At first, I wanted to go with blue and white like the Delft pieces she's given me, but went in another direction - she can light up a room and rocks the color pink!!

I made a couple of "practice" necklaces and, in cutting the wire off the button, I accidentally cut of the little connector piece on the back - that was definitely an AAAHHHHHH moment! After my initial panic, I grabbed my sons Dremel and went back to work!!



I used the windmill button, a Chinese marquise pink drop, Swarovski bicones, copper ring and recycled sari silk yarn. This is a fun necklace to wear - I like the loose tendrils from the sari silk yarn!



Just for fun, I made magnets with some of my grandmothers buttons. I can remember my sisters and I playing with these buttons when we were kids. The brown button is covered in leather, the green button is from my grandmothers jacket and the lovely mother of pearl button looks faceted. I made a set for my sisters, too - they are sweet reminders of our past.



I'll be spending my day month hopping around the Button Swap - here's the list to enjoy all of the beautiful designs:


 Kim Roberts and Partner unable to participate at this time.
Pam Ferarri and Stefanie Teufel (will share their reveal on a later date)
Stefanie Teufel and Pam Ferarri (will share their reveal on a later date)