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.

BRACELETS ANYONE?

NEW BRACELETS - The first two shown below are the same pattern using the new double hole bricks, but wow, what a difference in appearance just by substituting ...

Here's the first one I made - a totally new design by Eileen Barker at Bead Street using two hole bricks, just in.  (Thanks, Eileen!) BEAD STREET.  These beads certainly open up a whole new dimension of possibilities.  My bracelet looks like cotton candy to me... it's totally Spring.

 

I used a Czech glass button, which reflects all the colors of the beads.

 

 Here's the fun part - SAME pattern, but using daisy two hole Czech glass beads instead of the bricks.   Don't you love how a pattern can look totally different just by a substitution?  And, to make the daisy bracelet a little wider with a bit of a flair, I added an extra row through the picots using square 4mm and 11sb.

 

 A freeform wire flower bracelet using 26 gauge wire to wrap the beads and leaves - added to chainmaille - using two colors of jump rings.  The wire wrapping was a challenge, but the wire gave me a little more flexibility in readjusting locale of each bead/leaf.

 

ODE TO SPRING COLORS!

I just finished this beauty.  Love love love it!

 

This is such a wonderful SPRING dedication piece!  Several layers of fun stitching.  8's, 11's, 15's with milky opal czech petals, green drops, with orange transparent czech leaves underneath, all encircling that gorgeous swarovski crystal rivoli.  This is a fun picture too -- see the umbrella reflection in the glass?  It just makes me happy!