PENDANT OF SOME MAGNITUDE !

A beautiful pattern and a gorgeous piece. It's even more gorgeous because of the extreme effort it took me.  I attempted it twice, with beads breaking and the bezzling not going too well each time - scratch those!  Dang, one more time I'm gonna get it this time...third time was the charm, but not without difficulty - a 3mm fire polish bead broke as I was close to done.  Ah me -- oh my!  I was about ready to throw something... but of course refrained.  I retraced and inserted another 3mm so I couldn't see it, and finished the project.  It's a design by Vezsuzsi that made it to the cover of Bead & Button, June 2016 issue.  It truly is magnificent, but may be a tad bit harder than the three bicone difficulty rating the magazine gave it.  At least it was a challenge for me.  I ended with wrapping an 18 gauge wire bail, so as not to overpower the piece and added beautiful czech glass melons and rondelles to finish up.  Quite an eye catcher...

LIGHT AS A FEATHER DANGLES

I'm striving to make lighter earrings, as my own earlobes need a rest once in awhile.  As my hair has gotten longer, my earring tastes seem to be moving towards longer... so the art of my creations can still be seen through the hair!  The trick is trying to perfect "light" and artistry at the same time.  I'm always on the look out.  Here are my latest "lights".  So adorbs... both of 'em for different reasons.  Beaded beads linked together from an Emi Yamada pattern - they hang so nicely and lightly flow with movement.  Or, butterflies in flight from Vezsuzsi .  I posted the bracelet of this same pattern on April 8.  Now, this makes a darling combo! 

TURQUOISE AND BUTTERFLIES

A darlin' BUTTERFLY bracelet pattern by Vezsuzsi.  I had to remake this twice as the first time it was way too tight and wouldn't bend to go around my wrist.  I wasn't the only one in my beading group... several of us had the same difficulty.  I must say though, that the original pattern is for a bangle, and we were making ours for a clasp, which does change the bend requirements.  So after slightly altering the pattern and adding an extra 15/0 or an extra 11/0 here and there, it softened up and had more flex to go around my wrist.  I love the colors I used... bright and cheery for sure!  It's dainty, so caution will need to be taken when worn.

 

And, next this wonderful turquoise wrist eye catcher.  My beading sistah Judy had made one and I LOVED it, so I asked if I could copy her idea using the turquoise and make my own version.  I used a base of ladder stitch with 4mm cubes.  You could use any kind of chips ... or truly... anything else.  You are limited only by your own imagination.  I'm going to give it another whirl with something less expensive than turquoise.  But, isn't this fun?  I love my owl button too.  Kind of finished it off for me.

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.

BEADED BEADS CREATE THE PIECE!

Sometimes, the moon aligns, the stars shine bright and my artistic abilities kind of go to a higher level (in my own world of colors and beads, that is).  This set is one of those.  I started with the beaded beads (designs from Vezsuzsi in classes taught by Sandy Taylor at Bead Street  using the new crescent 2-hole beads), and as I placed each one with other beautiful beads, and then added the incredible ceramic heart made by Bo Hulley, it just felt like it was melding beautifully.  The heart pendant is truly gorgeous in person, and who doesn't love hearts?  I sure do.  The pictures I took really do not even come close to showing how incredible the color mix is together, but alas, guess the stars weren't aligned for the photos!  Ha ha.

FIRE LINE CAN MAKE -- OR -- BREAK -- A PROJECT!

Oh, fireline... how I hate thee sometimes!  I made this beautiful new pendant,  designed by Vezsuzsi, and as I got ready to put on the last few 15/0 sb, I started to bend it oh so gradually, to look at those little 3 mm fp which kind of get hidden in the pattern, and it paid me back for that bend, by gradually disintegrating before my tearful eyes!  You can see at the top of this blue beauty that the layer is coming away from the center.  So, basically, fireline is perfect, until it's not.  I think those cute little fp I used may have been sharp at the drilled opening, but I can't be sure.  There are several other beads in this piece that could have assisted with the disintegration, but if fireline can catch a fish without breaking, why oh why can't it string a dang pendant?  It can, right? Catch a fish that is?  But, alas, since I will not allow myself to be discouraged for long, I started once again, using a different color palette, and I was cautious and conscientious about my tension on every round!  Tension, tension, tension, and sharp beads, make the diff I guess.  Thank you, Sandy, for letting me quietly sob.... kidding...  Thanks for a great class!  No matter what happens in my learning cycle, I always enjoy that creating time with my beading sistahs at Bead Street.

TWO SIDED BEADED BEAD STATEMENT PIECE!

I love the versatility of this double-sided beaded bead from my last post (Vezsuzsi).  In this project I made it bigger than the original pattern, using 11/0 and 8/0 sb, along with 6 mm fp, and made it my focal, along with this wonderful pendant, from one of my favorite clay artists, Tracee Dock @ The Classic Bead.  It is a wonderful spring/summer piece.  And, I made darlin' bird earrings to match using the smaller beaded version from the original post.  L O V E!  (THIS DARLIN SET HAS SOLD!)

 

TWO-SIDED BEADED BEADS!

A fun new pattern using beaded beads!  I made the bracelet pattern into a necklace, with a couple of slight alterations, and strung a lovely heart pendant by Humblebeads.  Plus, earrings of course!  The bead pattern is a Vezsuzsi bracelet pattern she calls "Edgar", taught by Sandy Taylor at Bead Street.  I chose to use peachy/pinks/maroon shades, with copper and silver interspersed using 11/0 and 15/0 seed beads.  I also used bronze wire to wrap the pendant, so it's a mixed bag of colors for sure.  Copper colored Czech O rings are inserted on either side of the 6mm pearls to enhance the color shade change to the 6mm fp.  I'm liking this combo very well!  

2-HOLE PYRAMIDS 'N' BRICKS

Been a couple of weeks, as I've been unable to get to my blog, and also I've been in Montana visiting our son and daughter-in-law.  We have a beautiful new granddaughter, so I was incredibly fortunate to spend some time with these great kids, my new girl, Lily, and her brother Noah, who is 3 this Sunday.  Oh, it's so glorious to be a grandparent, and now to have a girl, well... need I say more?  Two grandsons and a granddaughter, and life is good.  

Here's my newest bracelet, a design by Vezsuzsi named "Rasmus" and taught by Sandy at Bead Street.  I have truly been missing my beadin' friends, and excited to get back to it this weekend.  This pattern used several two-hole beads, but the pyramids are my favs at the moment!  I mixed up as many colors as I could think of on this one, and really love how it turned out.  Lots of spring colors... purples, turquoise, the bright green pyramids, light purple 2-hole tiles, and multi-green 2-hole bricks.  Orange 8/0 sbs, turquoise 11/0 sbs and purple 15/0 sbs complement the design.  I added a magnet closure and peyote stitched it, to give it the final finish.

And, here's just a little peek at my darlins in MT...