COLORFUL DAY OF THE DEAD!

My blog postings seem to continue on a sporadic schedule.  I just haven't felt like there's been enough time for beading, let alone posting... I'll just have to keep plugging along and do the best I can to keep sane!!  :)  A few projects of late, reflecting the yummy colors of this season.

This fantastic Day of the Dead (and so much more) pendant from Gaea is so wonderful.  Hard not to make this an eye catcher statement piece.  It can absolutely stand alone, with some added chain, but I decided to string some agate rounds in varying degrees of color with a czech glass flower on one side.  Simple, yet colorful.  I also added some little howlite skull charms below the Gaea off-white large ceramic bead and capped that bead w/copper caps... can't have enough skulls at this time of year, right?  And, these fibers just add so much to help pop and soften.  Thank you Lashell!

The skeleton charms on the earrings below are also Gaea.  Aren't her designs just so fantastic and whimsical?  I wire wrapped around some copper chain pieces and included 8.0 seed beads, czech glass flowers, flower caps and o rings. And, some fibers.  Adorbs!

Some more darlin fall wire wrapped skeletons.  Gaea charms and my wire wrapping of czech leaves, 11.0 seed beads, some turquoise and a crystal rondelle in the center bottom.

And a couple of macrame bracelets.  These are so fun to make, to personalize, and I can add any kind of middle charm or connector to a multitude of macrame color combos.

A PENDANT WITH OPTIONS: TWO DIFFERENT LOOKS!

My May 18 post, which highlighted the beautiful angular design of Robijo Burzynski, needed a lovely necklace to hang from, but I'd been too busy (what's up with that anyway?) to figure out what beads would make the piece sing.  So, in the meantime, I put it on some chain, which worked fine and was a quick fix, and off I went.  But, I finally took the time to go through my "stash" and come up with a more complete look, using a darlin' Humblebeads bird.   From wearable, but not quite where I wanted it to be, to adorbs!  See what you think!

First shot is of the pendant on the chain version... keep scrolling ...

 

 And, last, but not least, some darling earrings made for a birthday gift...love the color combo!

CORAL IN SPRING!

The color coral is G L O R I O U S!  And this shade is truly amazing in person -- at least in this red head's opinion!  Another of my square stitch bracelets learned from my beading sistah Judy, this time using non-precious coral gemstone chips for the top layer, plus 11.0 in bright copper.   Necklace and earrings to make a set below.

The long coral pendant piece I've had for many years, but never had just the right piece to incorporate it, but this double necklace was calling for something, and this pendant worked!  Just needed a little copper wire wrapping to include a heart and a little messy wrapping (the messy part I really have to work at because it doesn't come naturally to me).   :)

And some adorable JDreams earrings, with coral heart charms in silver as the dangle.  Another of my beading sistahs, Sharon (thank you!), gifted me this wonderful heart set and I knew exactly what I wanted to do with them.  The round beads are a paper mache and ever so light, so they work well with the heavier silver weight -- less drag on the earlobes!  And I mixed copper wire with the silver for contrast, of course!

TURNING TO FALL WITH METALLIC FLAIR!

This set almost didn't make it to it's intended!  Ha.  It's a piece made for a dear girl - that girl who was so instrumental in helping me get started on this incredible beading journey.  Happy birthday Aimee!  This project all started with the earrings, and I chose the colors specifically for Aimee - the combo and sheen go with just about anything black/brown (or any combination thereof) and Aimee does love those colors.  And, then the pendant, well, that incredible sun/moon pendant, from none other than Tracee Dock of The Classic Bead was just too perfect!  

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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.

Additional Spring Color projects . . .

A couple additional projects . . . Colors are not as true in these photos as I would have liked, but you'll get the idea.  I tried the dark silver, almost black, chain link with the pink leather and LOVE IT, for both the necklace and the wrap bracelet.  It shows the deep contrast of the two -- really shows off both the leather and the chain links, I think.  I've also shown the earrings again from my last post to show how cute the group is together.  The darlin bee pendant (It's really a clasp, but I used it as a pendant!) is a Gaea original; the pewter heart button is green girl studios. 



A turquoise necklace with an adorable owl. I found "him" in Helena, MT. It's not ceramic, but more of a pliable clay-like material. This piece just came together - I had the right beads in my head and in view - and it all worked well, from strining the first bead... Can't remember where I got the ceramic flower beads, but the roughened Czech glass turqoise beads came from Bead Street and I tossed in copper for the spacers and closure.

Showcasing an Agate

A lovely piece made with lots of birthday love for my work-sistah and dear friend Kriss - who I have mentioned in the past as one of my most avid supporters.  She both purchases my pieces and then markets them, simply by putting them on.  Thanks, Kriss.  Here's the first of her birthday gift set.  She actually purchased some beads on a trip to Seattle, and because I asked her to go into a shop (yes, a bead shop!) for me in Bothell, she came home with some loverlies in a sack and said something like, "when you get time . . .  no pressure, but maybe at some point. . . " I've been looking at this pendant and her little sack for several months now and then I decided for her birthday, I just needed to get 'er done!!!  She bought the piece of Agate, and it was already a good sized piece - so, I made it larger(!) by embellishing it with transparent purple and turquoise peanuts (Kriss's sack), 11.0 seed beads and added swarovski crystals,  also in a combination of purple and turquoise.  I used 2-hole czech tiles (Kriss's sack), interspersed with 11.0 seed beads, for the necklace.



A view of the three pieces - the earrings are so cute - a peanut beaded bead, using transparent peanuts (Kriss's sack!) and my stash of drops in two sizes with swarovski crystals for added pop.

 

Christmas Project Review...

Ahhh, the Christmas rush is over.  That's a good feeling... oh, wait... until I realize I have about 10 birthdays coming up in the next couple of months... and then I start dreaming about all those projects I have yet to start.  It's a good dream though... so I keep telling myself, no worries.  Okay, I digress... for right now, these projects are COMPLETE and gifted to my darlin daughters-in-law, so I need to enjoy the moment.  These leather wrap bracelets are so popular, and pretty comfortable to wear, and the options are truly endless.  Here are two versions in differing color combos.  That's where I started with both sets - bracelets first, then earrings, then necklaces. 

 

This sun pendant has a clay-like under color with turquoise and other multi colors over the top from Fusion Beads.  I love the hearts all the way around the sun, which I didn't even notice when I saw it on-line.  I love hearts, so that was an unknown bonus!

This pendant is from The Classic Bead.  Tracee Dock does wonderful work and I've purchased many of her ceramic pendants over the last few years.  I'm never disappointed with what I see on-line and what I receive in the mail.