SHADES OF TEAL AND TURQUOISE and some other stuff...

As I took the pictures for this post, it's uncanny how I seem to be in a mindset of turqoise and teals with everything!  I know I am drawn to different colors throughout the year, but right now, you'll see what I'm talking about in the posts below.  

I started this necklace with this adorable ceramic house, made by Bo Hulley Ceramics.  I have kept many of her ceramic creations in my stash as she only makes a few at a time, and there's lots of time inbetween the firings of her kiln.  My first thought for an add-on was the czech glass heart.  How perfect is that?  And, yes, my heart is totally in my home.  From there, I wanted some depth so I painted a brass flower to add underneath (Vintaj paints) and then kept on adding, wire wrapping some farfalle beads with daisy spacers, and this gorgeous glass hanging flower bead from Stars Beads.  I cannot remember the artist, but this is a hefty piece of beautiful glass.  I wanted to draw the eye to that glass, so added a Vintaj bead cap and some lentils around the edge for some sparkle. The necklace is check glass, some funky stacking bones and brass chain.  A very whimsical piece of creation!  

Since it proved challenging to take a picture of the beautiful glass flower, I did some unique arranging!! 

Earrings to match

My next creation began with a beautiful Gaea heart, one of her many incredible resin art pendants, encased in copper.  I wire wrapped the southwestern style copper button to the top of her heart and then used czech glass flowers in a beautiful opalesque color with fire polish/chain to finish the necklace.  So pretty and easy to wear.

Next some colorful earrings!!  I wanted to use the 2-hole chevron duo beads, so I experimented using 24 gauge wire adding different types of beads and different colors with the purple pip beads at the bottom.  These came out better than I could have imagined.  They are very light, a great source of color for sure - they go with anything in my closet. 

Next, another incredible heart by Gaea!  This time ceramic with a beautiful dragonfly hovering over the top.  I cannot go wrong when I begin my own creations with one of Gaea's art pieces.  I also used one of her ceramic round beads in a salmony pink color as a connector, with a funky bead cap sitting on top.  The bead cap took me longer than the entire piece to complete!  The beads were small and the pattern involved (designed by Amy Johnson [amyjohnsondesigns.com], but well worth it as it absolutely fits this piece.  I did some wire wrapping, used some large farfalle peanut beads and then czech glass bead caps to get up to the necklace, which is also czech glass - some puff squares, daisies and translucent square towards the back.   

AHHHH... SPRING COLORS!

I think the saying goes "March comes in like a lion"... well, it's going out that way as well.  We had unbelievably fierce winds of up to 70 miles an hour on Sunday night with the temp dropping from a high of 75 to a high of 45 on Monday.  Fierce for sure!  But... besides that... I am so happy to see the beauty of the colors "springing up" around us.  Makes me feel more inspired than I have in awhile.  A good feeling!  Here we go with some beautiful, yummy shades...

I'm starting with Gaea inspired beauties.  This necklace has three Gaea pieces -- the heart eye, the half moon and the lil' pale pink hearts.  The earrings weren't quite done when I took this pic (update coming) but for now, you get a good idea.  6mm fire polish in a yummy deep pink/peach color around the back with two different copper wire choices.  I wired some frosted 8mm glass rounds across the top of the heart eye, with some wired drops inbetween.  The earrings include Czech glass flowers with those adorbs lil hearts!.

Butterflies - I always say "yes please".  I recently learned to make paper beads through a Stars Beads tutorial, and I have fallen in love with that new process.  It is so relaxing and just plain fun.  There are so many papers to behold, from magazines to music sheets to everything inbetween.  I finally have another use for all my scrapbooking papers!  The metal charms are from Gaea, and they go so perfectly with my rolled paper beads (or is it the other way around?)  I made some really bright and colorful bead caps for the necklace and then added some 8mm glass rounds, that look like bird eggs, on the end.  Some blue and yellow peanut beads finished the look.

One last pair of earrings highlighting my new love of paper beads.  Some beautiful paper, czech glass beads, jasper gemstone rondelles, 3 mm czech sparkle in blue, and hematite wire and findings.

CATCH UP PART 2!

Continuing on with my catch-up theme.  This may take me a few posts...  Feels like cleaning out a closet or something... feels good to be cleaning out a space for new designs.

This adorable necklace was made especially for my "one and only" niece!  I know how much she loves her kittens, so when I saw this fantastic pewter cat pendant by Inviciti, I was smitten and knew exactly what I was going to create and who it was for.  I used a 6mm beautiful multi blue/purple/green glass czech glass pearl with 2mm pearls as spacers for the necklace.  Staying with the theme of the pewter, I used hematite for the wire and findings.  For a dangle, I added both copper and tiny bronze hearts to pop a little.  So cute.

 

The back of the pendant has it's own finished design, which I love.

Some fun earring designs... love the white flower glass with the beautiful large seafoam/opalesque teardrops.  In the light, the color is so awesome.  I needed ti make a pair with an earring post versus a wire, so I took apart a pair of Brighton earrings I no longer wear and the silver bead post was perfect!!  Recycling does work!!

I started stitching the rounds and here's where I ended up.  I love these multi-colored 2 hole superduo beads.  I added fire polish, 11.0 and 8.0 seed beads, along with some bead caps and pellet beads.  I love mixing and matching different sizes and shapes for a subtle look of interest.

And last for this post, but certainly not least, a fun owl necklace with a Heather (Humblebeads) pendant, coupled with one of her famous rondelle beads and a wood distressed dangle.  These wood pieces truly are so fun... any color, any markations work to make it a nice addition.  Thanks, Heather! I also used Lashell's (Design Talented One) sari silk for the necklace.  Her silk is so wonderful and I use it in a lot of my projects.