CHAINON Addiction and some added bling!

Hi, my name is Janet and I'm an Eileen Barker "Chainon" pattern addict! HA HA! True story!  It's an awfully fun stitch!  Here's another of my latest versions and really, my camera just doesn't seem to be picking up the beautiful beads to show how awesome the shades are together, but I guess this will have to do.  I added 8.0 sb in between the super duos for a slight alteration of the pattern, and added a 6mm bead inside the center bump to provide a little more stability for long-term wear.  The earrings were kind of an afterthought, but aren't they pretty with the bracelet?

"RIGHT IN LINE" PUBLISHED BRACELET DESIGN!

A beautiful new bracelet design (Right in Line) by my mentor, bead store owner, incredible designer, and MOST IMPORTANTLY good friend, Eileen Barker -- just published in the Bead & Button, February 2016 issue.  An ELEGANT design, and one that will take your breath away, both while you are making it, and once completed.  It's a substantial, weighty, gorgeous piece.  

We convened for a group beading day, and tried to follow the condensed instructions in the magazine.  It doesn't get any better than having the designer at the beading table with you!  I like to have a longer thread, which for this piece, I now know I need to reconsider.  My length of fireline kept catching on all the other beads, the further into the piece I got.  Yes, Eileen, I'm listening... I need shorter thread.  Thank you for this incredible design.  LOVE IT!

And, as you'll see below, I altered the design ever so slightly and added in two 4mm fire polish on my first row, when it was supposed to be one, so I went with that and alternated every fourth row with the two, plus used a different color.  

A COMPILATION POST!

A few new items I've recently completed that I'll combine into this one post - bits and pieces of fun!  A darling necklace using peanut beads, which I think is so wonderfully colorful, coupled with two beautiful artisan beads from Humblebeads - Heather's birds are legendary, and this detailed bon bon flower bead so unusual and beautifully detailed.  

 Second, is a slightly altered version of Eileen Barker's French garden cuff design, from my October 20, 2015 post "Spooky Halloween".  In this bracelet I tried a mixture of small and large drops in differing colors, which gave the top flowers a different look.  The crystal montees are also alternated for a slightly different sheen.  This color combo is really warm and rich!

And last, but never least, some beaded bead earrings I made in a class taught by Sandy Taylor, using a pattern designed by Vezsuzsi.

SPOOKY HALLOWEEN!

I'm having a lot of fun using my home-grown pumpkins as my jewelry props!  The colors coordinate so well with the jewelry I'm creating right now, and of course I LOVE this time of year - fall - Halloween - the leaves starting to turn and fall - glorious lush oranges, reds, greens and yellows and ... So, below are my latest JDreams creations for this sp00ky time of year.  The pendant is so dang fun !!!! from a favorite artisan of mine Nancy Schindler of Round Rabbit designs, she really does beautiful work, and in this case perfect for the Season!  I also did a bit of patina wire work to attach the pendant.  I was so proud of myself with how that turned out and I thank a wonderful wire teacher -- Beth Routhier!  And last, but never least, my newest  stitched bracelet, designed by Eileen Barker of Bead Street.

The beautiful bracelet below is the design and creation of Eileen Barker @ Bead Street, called French Garden Cuff taught in a class by Sandy Taylor.  I've inserted the link above to Eileen's patterns.  This pattern uses 3mm cubes for the base, and I love this matte green for fall, especially when mixed with the orange and green montees! 

FALL COLORS AND FUN!

So many wondrous things happening during this awesome time of year -- my favorite fall season!  Woo Hoo!  It's also a time of year when I'm preparing for birthdays and other celebrations, so I cannot post all my in-process little pretties, but soon, very soon!  Here are a few of late, that I can post.  The first is this adorable bracelet made in perfectly Halloweenie colors, of course!!! A pattern design by Eileen Barker at Bead Street (you can also follow her on Pinterest or view some patterns on Starman) using quadratiles, tiles, drops, 11.0 and 15.0 seed beads, and 6mm rounds, but of course I used 4mm pumpkin rounds (melons) with 11.0 seed beads on either side to fill in that gap.  I love this bracelet.  It flows with your wrist, and it lends itself to lots of color - the drops I used are so awesome.  Green/orange/clear.  One way they look green, another way they look orange.  A fun twist.

 

 Next, some witcheeee earrings.  So fun to wear.  They get noticed, I'll say that, even in all my hair!  I found a pattern on the Fusion Bead website (they do a great job in their Inspiration section!), and did my own thing from there.  I used some of what I had in my stash (another unbelievable thing... I know!) black onyx and lucite, including the darlin' melons for "her" head - they are fun to use on lots of different pieces.

 Another lovely fall colored bracelet below, that is wonderfully lacy on the wrist.  Sometimes it takes me a few minutes to warm to a new pattern, and this one was just that.  However, it didn't take long, and as I started assembling each of the parts, it began to talk to me!  A pattern by Lisa Jordan, a Starman TrendSetter, in a class taught by Sandy Taylor at Bead Street. We used super duos, mini duos, 4mm fp, 11.0 and 15.0 seed beads.

 These earrings are my design (JDreams) - I love leaves in all colors, but mostly in fall colors, surprise!  So I just started stitching and this is what I ended up with. Czech glass leaves, a 4mm bicone for added sparkle, a little bit of leaf chain, and a stitched flower of leaves with a 6mm fp in the middle, using copper 11.0's for the center.  I could have gone on and on stitching with these, but I just had to stop right where they are because they are lovely enough! 

The earrings above and the bracelet below are more of my JDreams designs - love these white bone melons, coupled with the green Czech glass spacers and the effervescent orange rounds.  Below a peyote stitched bracelet using a Bo Hulley ceramic heart button.  The button just finished off the wrap bracelet, don't you think?

I N C R E D I B L E PORTALEGRE' DESIGN!

The beautiful PORTALEGRE' design by Eileen Barker.  Need I say more?  I've made two colorways (and changed the second version to include 4-hole lentils instead of the 4-hole quadratiles) of her design and am absolutely in love with the size and stature of this bracelet.  It is a mathematical, architectural force in and of itself -- absolutely beautiful, Eileen.  I am blessed to learn from the Master herself!  Thank you for letting me share this design on my blog.

O BEAD DELIGHT!

Ahhh - so comforting and just plain wonderful time spent at Bead Street with all my beading sistahs -  Eileen, Sandy, Judy, Sharon, Sue and Virginia, and our newest classmate, Gail.  And I don't want to forget those sistahs in the metal class across the hall with Beth.  Wish I could be two places at once!  It was just a wonderful Saturday!  Felt so great to be back doing what we love to do together!  This pattern was a challenge to start, as the quadratiles want to kind of hang loose as you construct the base, and so they rotate if you aren't careful... which didn't click in until I had to remove my stitches a few too many times...  Ha.  My natural tendency is to bead tight, so it took me half way down the bracelet to get the hang of it.  But, I'm liking working with quadratiles and the Czech glass O beads are always fun to work with.  Love the color options, which are endless.  Class at Bead Street taught by Sandy Taylor, design by Adele Kimpell called "QT Bracelet". 

TRANSITIONAL PATTERN USING SUPERDUOS!

I love patterns that are flexible in their design so you can transition the pattern from a bracelet to a necklace or even earrings.  This pattern is just that - "Chainon" designed by Eileen Barker at Bead Street.  Here's my transition from the bracelet pattern to a necklace.  Love these fun colors OF COURSE!  Notice I interspersed some BRIGHTER peachy 11/0.  Some of my pics show that better than others.  This pattern uses superduos, lentils, and 11.0 sb.