LIGHT AS A FEATHER!

Nothing too original or incredibly mind blowing here, but I've joined the leather craze and been trying my own scissor hand at cutting tear drops, rounds and straight lines!  Not as easy as I remember it, especially now that we can all zoom way in on any picture... so don't look too close at my cut marks.  I've added my own flair... course... and am trying really hard to just keep them light and airy instead of adding too many dangles.  That's the hard part, because if I add too much, they are no longer light as a feather!  I'm in a summer mindset of creating light, fun accessories, saving the longer-term more intense creating for fall and winter.  These fit the bill perfectly...and these are my first attempts, so stay tuned.  I think there may become many variations of this fun style for JDreams. 

I am also just starting to order from a couple leather vendors, so if you have any suggestions on good people to order from, please let me know.  There are a lot of awesome options out there that I didn't know even existed.

The leather portion of these earrings -- the teardrop -- measures 2"

                              These are smaller -- about 1 1/4" length

SPRING MOTIVATION!

I finished my latest project -- the necklace to match the earrings at the end of my last blog entry.  It's my version of Maria Teresa Moran's pattern for a bracelet, which I modified to make into a necklace.  Turned out, well..., gorgeous!  It drapes nicely on the neck.  Many hours of bugling, so to speak, ha ha, but nice effect.  And, I don't usually like repetition, but this pattern was a lot of fun so it kept my interest.

A large crystal centerpiece, with twisted bugle beads around the focal, 6 mm bicone crystal and 8 sb and 15 sb inside the bugles.  Smaller triangles thereafter with two different bugle beads, matte and shiny, with 11 sb, 15 sb and 4mm bicones.

Necklace and earrings.  Nice combo.

 

This necklace was a fun change from the stitching and repetition of the last piece and the colors make me happy!  Fun tagua nut rounds and a new chain maille pattern - thanks, Sandy, at Bead Street!  It's a Byzantine pattern.  I hadn't done that before and of course the options are endless.  Everyone else made a bracelet with a bead wired in the center or a few interspersed inbetween the chain maille, but I did my own thing... imagine!  Next will be a bracelet... hmmmmm... not sure exactly what I'll do, but it'll include these colors OF COURSE!

WHIMSY GRABBED HOLD!

The weather here in Boise has been sooo awfully cold, and the air inversion is just plain depressing.  The grey cloud just won't blow out -- we need some weather for sure!  So, on my day off, and in celebration of the Presidential Inauguration and Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, I decided to do something fun and different to raise my spirits.  And, it worked!!!  I created some new little joyous people to dangle from your neck, or put on a pin, or whatever you choose.  These are a lot of fun and the options for creativity are just pretty dang endless.  I also added another fun project I completed for a friend.

Now, I ask you, is this whimsical, charming girl too darling or what?  Can you see the scarf? 

And these pewter shoes... I cannot remember where I picked these up, but I've been saving them for years!  LOVE THEM with this project.

My second girl... used turquoise stars for her shoes.  So dang fun!

Full view with earrings. 

A very fun necklace for a friend.