SUMMER EARRINGS!

One really can never have too many earrings, right?  Here are a few of my latest creations!  

These darlins are earrings, made from the same pattern in my last post, which was a bracelet pattern taught by Sandy at Bead Street.  Isn't this great chain too?  These came together so nicely - the colors, the chain and the great twisted wire all  compliment.  

A great flower pattern from Fusion Beads using the new pellets, O rings and Super Duos.  I added some splash with color on the birds with some leaves over head.  These colors seem to be everywhere this year.

Another color variation of the pattern above.  These pellet glass beads are a fun new choice.

And, my newest triumph in wire wrapping!  Doing the free flowing thing... not always easy for me - I like my wraps close together and tight, but in this version I wrapped loose and free.  LOVE how these turned out, and the process took me out of my comfort zone.  They go with my pea pod metal smithing necklace from previous post.  The round deep purple beads are the druzy quartz.  They are incredible up close and personal!

SHADES OF BLUE!

Blue and turquoise - I seem to repeat this color combo, but love turquoise with anything, really.  It's a versatile color and so gorgeous with this bright blue.   A pattern by Deb Roberti, taught in a class by Sandy at Bead Street.  The flair around each segment of this bracelet is lovely, and truly, there are so many color combos, my head's all aflutter with what I can do next with this pattern!  I have trouble doing the same thing too many times, so I varied this slightly, to give it a different look, and used 3 different colors of seed beads, along with the two colors of pearls.  See my next post for earrings made from the same pattern.

AN EYE CATCHER OF REDS!

I do love a good RED, and for me that means more to the orange side of red.  And, this shade of red in a variety of differing beads comes together incredibly adding in some other bright colors - green and turquoise glass beads, with some translucent brass and antique brass metal thrown in for good measure.  I actually made the earrings more than a year ago--a beaded bead design by Eileen at Bead Street with Czech rounds with gold little birds added as dangles--and the necklace was made several months ago, which is tubular herringbone using 8.0 sb (a great project for long stretches of straight road in the car headed to and from MT to see our kids/grandkids/granddog!).  The pendant is the Wendy Speare design from my recent post, just with a totally different color combo, and the bracelet is newest -- another design by Ella Des taught in a class at Bead Street by Sandy. This combo certainly brightens up any outfit I might be wearing!  Ha. 

FIRST METAL SMITHING PROJECT!

What an exciting project - starting with a flat piece of copper metal, and, ending with a lovely pendant.  It's unlike anything I have done, so it was a learning experience for sure.  Taught by Beth at Bead Street aptly called "Pod Pendant".  It took me some time to get past my initial mind block.  Beth asked us all to draw an oblong form on the metal and then start cutting it out with metal shears -- say what?  Free-form a design? On metal?  Again... what?  ha ha. The best part of this creation is that everyone in the class had a beautiful pendant at the end of the day, and we all had our own method of inspiration and metal working.  As we found out, the copper metal is very forgiving and this project very "organic".  Even if you have no clue, the key is to just keep working on it, and eventually it will turn into something incredible.   Soooo, here it is - my first attempt at working with metal, and I must say, I am proud of myself and ready for the next project.  Thanks, Beth!  It was a great afternoon. P.S.  The incredible purple beads are druzy quartz beads from Bead Street.  They are such an "eye catcher" in the right light.