What’s Old is New Again!

Today, I get to present my newest creations for the Artbeads Beaders who Blog program!****

The theme was "What’s Old is New Again!" and the challenge was to incorporate vintage or antique components into our pieces. Hey, I can do that! ;)

This time around I decided to do something completely different, and ordered a selection of resin cameos. I also got a length of some antiqued brass chain, and a fun hook and eye clasp. As usual, the ordering process was smooth and I received my new shinies speedily. It took me a bit to figure out what to do with them, as I don't normally work with undrilled pieces, but after some finagling I figured things out, and I'm quite happy with the results.


One of the cameos in an antiqued brass frame, with a combination of new and old chain for stringing, a hook and eye clasp in the shape of a bumblebee, and the tassel made from more vintage chain and a bit from an old necklace:



Another cameo, with more new and vintage chain, accented by an antique glass pearl from another old necklace:



The third was strung with several different styles of vintage chain, draped and layered:





The fourth, another of the smaller flower cameos on vintage chain with vintage copper colored glass pearls and glass beads:



And the fifth I did as a choker with strung freshwater pearls, more vintage chain, and some antique crystal beads with the original black filigree bead caps.






****This post is a part of the ArtBeads Beaders who Blog program. They provide the beads to us free of charge, and we provide an honest review of their products. We are not paid to review or endorse them.

Winter Enchantment!

Time for another installment in the ArtBeads Beaders who Blog program! ****

This time, the theme was Winter Enchantment, and the challenge was to design something that represented what I find beautiful or inspirational about the winter season. Well, truth be told, I'm not really a winter person. Growing up in northern Illinois/southern Wisconsin, I had more than enough of snow and ice to last me a lifetime. But I do like the crystalline beauty of ice on tree branches, and the look of a newly-fallen snow, as long as I'm inside, looking at it out through a picture window, while bundled up in a warm fuzzy blanket and drinking a steaming mug of cocoa! So, truthfully, winter-inspired jewelry, that you don't have to freeze to enjoy? That's right up my alley!

This time around, I picked some bicone crystals and pearls from their vast selection of Swarovski beads, and three sterling silver charms, snowflake shaped. The end result was a five-strand bracelet:









These pictures don't capture the true sparkle of these crystal beads, but they are remarkable! They really do look like sun shining through ice-coated branches.

****This post is a part of the ArtBeads Beaders who Blog program. They provide the beads to us free of charge, and we provide an honest review of their products. We are not paid to review or endorse them.



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Colors of Fall

New season, new beading challenge from ArtBeads! ****

This time, we were told to make a piece in a color or colors from Pantone's Fall Fashion Color Report. I perused through their gemstones section, and picked out some rhodonite chips, pretty close to the "rose dust" color, and lepidolite cylinders, for "purple orchid." For finishing, I chose some copper bead caps and an antiqued copper filigree clasp from the findings page.

This turned into another strung piece, alternating the chips and the cylinders. I found the chips to be rather fragile, and I had a hard time getting them off the cord, losing a few in the process, but I got the hang of pretty quickly it and didn't break too many of them. The lepidolite cylinders were very uniform in color, and evenly drilled, very easy to work with! I have a stash of larger lepidolite beads, and used one of them as a pendant on the finished piece, a piece that had some hints of pink in it and added just the right touch.











****This post is a part of the ArtBeads Beaders who Blog program. They provide the beads to us free of charge, and we provide an honest review of their products. We are not paid to review or endorse them.

A year in the making, day 356

Monday, sleepy Monday. Too much fun this weekend! But I survived.

I'm taking my personal leave day Wednesday for my birthday. Of course, I'll probably be going to spend most of it doing those little bits of cleaning I was going to do every day so I didn't have to do it all at once. I have spent years developing my mad procrastination skills.

Instead of cleaning last night, I was making more jewelry, and finished the second of these just a little while ago. Not listed yet, as I missed the good light, although photoshop and a good camera make up for these kinds of problems.

I noted at my last event that I really didn't have enough Steampunk jewelry left in the stock to fill out a full-sized table display, so I'm going to have to start working on that. Steamcon II will be here before I know it!


Steampunk Pearls and Amethysts by *dbvictoria on deviantART

And another piece, hanging on to the last few weeks of summer, a sterling silver dragonfly with rose quartz and garnet. I actually got this dragonfly from the selection of sterling silver pendants months ago from Artbeads.com, as a part of their Beaders who Blog program**,but it disappeared mysteriously while I was still plotting what to do with it! Well, I found it last night, when I spilled some beads while working on the sofa. It was hiding under the cushions. I swear I looked for it there when I first lost it!



It's a gorgeous little bug, and it was originally supposed to be hiding out in my field of swarovski flowers in my Spring Waterfall necklace, but I think he'll be fine here with rose quartz and garnets instead.

**This post is a part of the ArtBeads Beaders who Blog program. They provide the beads to us free of charge, and we provide an honest review of their products. We are not paid to review or endorse them.