Jewelry Made

I was up late last night again making jewelry. I made two necklaces, a bracelet, and two pair of very dangly earrings. The one necklace, bracelet, and pair of earrings are made with 3 sizes of crystal ab fire polish czech crystal. GORGEOUS! Very sparkly. The necklace has some beaded beads I made using the 4mm size fire polish and seed beads. They look great on the necklace! This is good since I made some colored ones to go on another necklace! My goal is to get 3 of the necklaces made this week that have been lingering sadly partially finished on my various work surfaces. I tried making a necklace last night that has the clasp down in front as part of the design, but it doesn't quite work, so that one gets to go back to the design board. I really love the color scheme though, topaz and amethyst very autumn. This is also the color scheme for the other pair of earrings I made last night/this morning. Both pairs of earrings are made with chain and then the dangles are wired to the chain.
What else is happening in my world? Mina is competing in her first Quiz Bowl competition tomorrow. She went to her first boy/girl party Saturday night. She had a great time participating in the Hastings Jr. Community Theater production of the Enchanted Forest, Friday night and Saturday night. Mina and Chris worked with the Daisy Girl Scouts last night. Halloween (my favorite holiday) is Friday, and Mina gets to celebrate by not having school that day! Lucky girl. She is going to dress up as a cave explorer who is being attacked by bats. Have to work on that yet! More jewelry/bead making tonight, kicking into high gear to be ready for the holiday showcase at Graham Gallery, and the Blue Hill Holiday Bazaar (which Chris will be doing demos at with his torch). Pictures soon!

Our Little Piggy

Mina has been bitten by the acting bug. She is going portray one of the 3 little pigs in the Hastings Jr. Community Theater "Enchanted Forest" production at the YWCA for Halloween. This is a maze that the "Fairy Godmother" leads the little kids through and the get to stop and visit with the fairy tale creations from the stories. Mina is dressed here as the Luau Pig (which doesn't seem the wisest choice for a pig) but she does actually play the smarter of the 3 pigs. I wanted to share the costume with you in case you need one for Halloween. We used hot pink duct tap for the ears and nose and tail (below). We covered a head band with the duct tape and then the ears were made separately. The nose uses craft foam and a medicine cup as the base and then is attached to Mina with pink satin ribbon. The pink clothes I found at Wal-mart, and we had all the other additives. Her tail has a wire inside the duct tape to hold the curly shape.

My Designs

These are what I have been working on. This fringe bracelet, is all silver and turquoise. The nuggets are surrounded by fringe made with silver galvanized size 15 seed beads and a turquoise chip on the end of each. Around the center nugget, are 6 silver shade Swarovski crystals on branched fringe using the size 15 beads, the crystals on the ends, and a branch with a chip on it also.
This is my design. I did the whole thing on my own! I played with the leaf design for awhile for the holly, before coming up with one that didn't fold in half. There are many colors of greens in the holly leaves and the Lucite flowers are from The Hole Bead Shop with seed beads in the centers. For the holly berries, I made a fringe stem with a cluster of Light Siam 4mm size Swarovski bicones. I started this before Christmas last year, and didn't get it finished in time, but I think time was on my side, don't you!

Other New items

Here are a batch of Chris's mushrooms. As much rain as we have had in the past few days, they could be fresh picked from the yard! His mushrooms are a popular selling item, and we are getting things put together for the Christmas season!
This is a FABULOUS pair of earrings, which may sometime soon be seen on a pageant contestant! I used Swarovski prism style 6106 almond shaped beads for the bottoms, Swarovski crystal pearls, and Swarovski cubes to top off the sparkle! My friend Laurie, purchased these as a gift for Miss Rodeo Nebraska, who is getting ready to compete for the national title. Laurie's daughter, Kristin, is Miss Teen Rodeo Nebraska. Want to know more about these gals? Check it out here www.missrodeonebraska.org/.

More Little Monsters

If this little red monster looks sad, it is probably due to the fact that he is lying on one of the cacti in Chris's collection. (Chris likes to get "arty" with his backgrounds!) That is great because it does add to the photo. This little guy is a bead, and the hole runs horizontally between the eyes and above the arms.
This is a marvelous little sluggy guy made by Chris. I just love the expressions he gets on their faces! Sluggy is a bead, but he also has a nice long sluggy tail, so we haven't quite figured out how you'd be able to wear him comfortably. But he does sit up on his own.

This little periwinkle monster has already gone to live with one of our favorite customer's Carol. She loved him, and we strung him on a purple cord that went through the horizontal hole and then came up to his eye stock where we did a knot. I thought it made the monster look like he had his hair up in a purple bun on his head!

Little Monsters

These are new series Chris has been playing with. They are little monsters, and the detail is awesome. I really love the kissy lips, and their facial expressions. This is the front view.

This is a side view so you can see how the bead will be strung.

Here is the little guy's spiny back.

Tune in tomorrow for more in the Little Monster series!

Cats & H H H H....

Chris has been working on his kitty cat making skills. It took him awhile to figure out his style, but he seems to have it down now.
More cats in the hand of their creator.

This is part of a new series, which came about due to the cat experiments and combining the cats with holiday attire. Thus, the series Homely Housepets in Holiday Hats, or H H H H for short. I laugh every time we mention the name. And we have sold two of the homely critters, so that's not a bad thing! The one in the photo is not the ugliest of the bunch. That one looks like a cross between a cat, bulldog, and pig in an attractive Santa hat! Now you understand the laughter!

Harvest of Harmony Parade

No, we haven't fallen from the face of the planet! Yes, these pictures happened two weeks ago and I am just now getting them posted, sorry for the delay. What does this have to do with beading, absolutely nothing, but it occurred in our lives and I wanted to share it with you.

In Grand Island, the first Saturday of October every year, is the Harvest of Harmony parade. This was our first year going. We went to spot our Blue Hill band and our AWESOME band director, Mr. McMurtry, and to see if we could find our nephews who were marching in the Palmyra band (they got put on the bus at 3am to make the parade, after homecoming the night before!).
Here is the opening banner, no idea who the people in the picture are.
Mina and Taylor, goofing around before the bands got going.

Blue Hill High School marching band.

The band and Mr. McMurtry. The back of the Palmyra band, which it just happens to feature Nick on the tuba, and Dan right in front of Nick playing the trumpet. How I managed that I will never know, since it barely registered that Nick was the one with the big white instrument! We searched all over for Todd and Lisa, the parents of the nephews, and they searched all over for us. Turns out, we were less than 1/2 block away from each other on the same side of the street!

Look Finished Jewelry!

Yes, I can actually finish jewelry projects! These two lovely bracelets were made from some lonely bead sets that hadn't sold, but were too pretty to sit around. This one has a slight Halloween feel, but I really love these colors together all year round. I got to use the button loop closure technique I learned from Carla to finish this bead set into a bracelet. Chris had made the button as part of the set.
This bracelet also has the button loop closure. This time the beads are black base with green and a bit of blue swirled through them. I pulled the blue out with some Caribbean Blue Opal and Pacific Opal Swarovski Crystals. These button loop bracelets are fun to do!

Inspiration+New Beads=More Unfinished Projects?

The past couple posts I showed you what I haven't finished. This is a gorgeous pile of beads that I have been acquiring lately! I got part of them from beads and botanicals, and some from Auntie's beads. The top nuggets are so pretty. They are each different in color, and they have facets and the oblong shape is nice. Also in the pile are some mottled Czech pearls from beads and botanicals, a strand of Larimar Blue Crazy Lace Agate heshi cut and faceted rounds, Rubylite Crazy Lace Agate heshi cut, and Bronzite nuggets. A lovely pile of beads, waiting to be made into jewelry for the Christmas season. (I can't believe I just said that! How is it possible Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas are so close!)
More new beads for your viewing pleasure. The top strand is small rounds of blue tiger eye, gorgeous blue Czech pearls, bronze colored diamond shaped Czech pearls, another strand of Larimar Crazy Lace Agate, and a small rondelle strand of Indian Agate.

These pretty little buttons came from Hobby Lobby. I LOVE them! I really like using them on fringe (which is probably where these are headed, or on the seed bead rings I make. There are little silver colored beads that look like cookie cutters. They have no hole so perhaps they will get the charm bracelet treatment!

Works in Progress...

Here are more of my started but not finished projects. This one shows the tiny ornament I am covering with charlottes (I think size 13) to make him into a pumpkin. I haven't gotten very far, and Halloween is looming it's bright, orange face at me, (can you believe the calendar says it is October 1st!) so this one will probably wait until next fall. The bracelet uses the anemone style fringe with matte black and matte orange. The bottom picture shows it by itself, just waiting for me to get back to it! You would be amazed at how many Vellux beading mats I have in embroidery hoops with projects in them!