HAPPY VALENTINES and OTHER JOYS!

Recent creations, just to mention a few, made right before and right after the lovely Day.  I hope your Valentine's included hearts of some kind!  I'll start with the adorbs heart set... wood burned tear drop with heart made by Ashley Bonney of Summer Wind Art.  The wood pendants are so light, there's lots of option to add on without too much weight. I decided to cut out some really fun red/black embossed leopard leather to give it some added size and interest.  I also added some dangles at the bottom for movement - a copper heart, and five red 1-hole lentils.  I free form wire wrapped the pendant to a necklace of glass and fire polish.  The earrings are also leather cut outs with copper hearts and copper filigree bead caps, 8mm glass rounds, 6mm and 3mm black fire polish.  So light and just plain fun.  My cutting is all hand done, so it's not perfectly straight, but that gives it a "real" feel of creation.

Now for a couple free-form wrapped heart earring sets.  The first pair I made the wire heart form in 18 gauge, and then used 24 gauge wire to wrap these beautiful pink shimmery 8 sb around the form.  I added a crystal pave round bead and shimmery pink glass round for the top. 

The next pair I strung the 8 sb right on the wire as I was forming the heart, still using these gorgeous pink beads.  On this pair I added a 4mm bicone on the top near the ear wire and a Czech glass bicone and Czech crystal heart for the dangle.  

Next, a couple of my latest macrame bracelets.  These are happy and colorful and the messages something we can all relate to and enjoy wearing.  I never tire of making these.

I added some Vintaj paint to the leather on the next one.  I love how it turned out.  Majestic mountains and all that!

And, below, some absolutely yummy earrings, gearing more towards spring colors... These are a recent Fusion Beads inspiration project, with a little JDreams added in.  The outer ring is the pattern, but it needed more so I added in the chain and the Czech glass / swarovski crystal dangles, along with the glass rounds and copper bead caps on top.  The colors truly are just so yummy, and the mix of the crystals with the pearls!  Ah... love these.

PLAYING CATCH-UP AND REFLECTING!

Ah, December... how did you arrive and depart so rapidly?  I'm still back in November, or maybe even October!  I was already playing catch up, and then some family health issues came to the fore, and that's all you need to know to understand that the extra consecutive hours I thought I would have to get last minute projects done, quickly vanished into thin air.  But, alas, let me highlight the projects I did complete before that occurred.

Projects from my fall collection -- first a necklace showcasing several different techniques learned from Heather Powers of Humblebeads in her generous "Bead Table Wednesday" videos.  The metal hammering, the painting of metal, the making of a bead using wire and sari silk (LaShell from her shop on Etsy) -- all so dang fun and different than my normal bead stitching.  The hammering is so awesome and very cathartic... the harder I hammer the better I feel.  Ha ha.  (the picture below shows the hammered wire before I added a bit of dimension.)

The beautiful sari ribbon bead I made.  Love the colors in this ribbon from  LaShell.  Her Etsy shop address is above.

In the pictures below I added some wire wrapping embellishment to the hammered connector.

And below some earrings of fun!  I only knew which beads I wanted to include and I started wrapping (with 20 gauge) on a frame of 16 gauge copper wire.  

Another fun pair with some sari silk below.  The colors of fall just speak to me so I wanted to include as many of those as possible.  :)

LARGER THAN LIFE AND ONE MORE BUDDERBYE SMILE!

I'm kind of hooked on this Tree of Life pattern... and since practice makes perfect on wire wrapping... I'm keeping this wrapping frenzy moving.  This version is slightly larger than my last post, and I used patinaed copper wire,which worked better than the artisan wire I had used last, for both strength and shape.  I also have trouble making the exact same pattern more than once, so I added a few leaves at the bottom.  FUN!  I have not yet come up with the necklace part, so it may end up on chain.  I don't want to distract too much from the beauty of the tree, so we shall see.

Also, in this post a color variation on the butterfly pattern.  Butterflies have such beautiful natural color combinations -- I figure I cannot go wrong with anything I might come up with.  And, ohhh, in person, love these sparklies!!  The center cabochon is such a wonderful match to this pattern - from ArtBeads , an 18x13 oval Paua if you are interested.  Lots of colors available, and they fit the butterfly pattern perfectly with the marbled shell look!!!

FALL LEAF REMAKE

I love it when a piece of mine speaks to you, enough so that you want one of your very own!  That's what happened with my Falling Leaves Ensemble posted on September 27.  Here's a slightly altered version of the necklace and earrings made by special request.  Just enough of a change - different pendant hanging from the newly beaded necklace, with some wire wrapping and Swarovski dangles, along with new shorter version of leaf matching earrings.

EARRINGS - FROM FORMAL TO FREE-FORM WIRE WRAP

I wanted to make a formal pair of "wedding" earrings for a friend, so found this pattern "Diamonds in the Rough" by artist Cassie Donien. They are so light and elegant in person - perfect for any wedding fare!  I had a tiny bit of difficulty photographing them in the best light -- I wanted the camera to highlight the AB superduos in the center, as they sparkle ever so beautifully when held up to natural light.  But, alas, that is sometimes the difficult part -- bringing artistry to the eyes of others through a photograph.  I love the overall photo with the tree greenery in the background though... ha ha! 

  

 

The earrings below are my free-forms - I sometimes get in specific moods... and right now, that includes some wire wrapping.  In the pair below, I truly did try to be free-forming, so the wire is not wrapped as exact and tight as I normally would.  The wire has a little air if you will. The green to blue shades of seed beads are lovely together, and I think the 8mm round Swarovski crystal at the bottom, along with the Czech glass milky opal flower cap, pull it all together.  The facets of the crystal are awesome in person. 

 

LOVE how this funky pair below turned out!  I started by making my own wire rounds, using 18 gauge patinaed copper, and then wrapped with 26 gauge.  Once I got started, the colors kept coming!  When I first finished, I felt they needed one more something, so I added the outside wire with add'l beads for some spunk!  Again, love the colors together -- these will be my prototype for future designs.