Red White and Blue Earrings!

Happy Fourth of July all!  Here are some red white and blue earrings made from fire polished crystals.  I wish you all a wonderful holiday, and hope your weather is sunny and beautiful today!

Beautiful Gifts!

I just received a lovely gift from blogger and author Lisa Crone of A Bead a Day.  The pendant is large and adorned with aqua and red crystals in an antique brass frame.  It will coordinate with the faceted bi-color crystals in red and brown.

You can see that the pendant is completely open.  I would like to use this in a project where I put some sort of artwork as the base and possibly sealing it with resin.  I just have to do enough planning so I don't irretrievably muck it up!

As if that wasn't enough, I also received various bead strands in lovely shades of blue and turquoise.  Another project to contemplate!  I think I might use silver accents rather than the golden accents that it came with.  The turquoise might "pop" well with yellow or orange colors.  I have used the Cousin jewelry products in my designs before, and they always have many pretty things to get my ideas flowing.

These items were gifted to me, rather than purchased.

Ladybug Earrings

I came across these red ladybug beads and made them into earrings.  They are actually quite a lot larger than real ladybugs.  Ladybugs make me think of spring and gardening. 

Ruby Red Three Strand Necklace

I was thinking about Valentine's Day coming up, which led me to thinking about red.  So I collected many red beads, round, oval, faceted, in several shades of ruby red and made a nice three strand necklace.

 This has a nice rich look to it.  I like the pewter clasp and end bars, too.

Ruby Baroque Crystal

These pieces have a very simple design so the focus is on the crystals.  This is Swarovski's "baroque" pendant in the color "ruby", which has more of a blue undertone than a real ruby.

The pendant has many facets and a rippled edge around the bottom and sides.

I used the smaller sized pendants to make matching earrings.  I can't seem to find these pendants in a lot of colors, but I do like this "ruby" color.

Farewell to Autumn

We are losing the autumn colors now, and changing into a black and white palette.  I've seen a lot of gray in the skies lately, so I thought I'd bring out some photos from only a few weeks ago.

Black Filigree Beaded Brooches

A while back, I found these black enameled filigree disks.  I'm not always sure if I'm using a component in the manner it was intended, but then again, I'm not sure if it really matters.  I made several brooches with these little filigrees.  The first photo shows the brooch with fuchsia rhinestones and cream pearls. 

This one was done with all green.

White and red.  When I used seed beads rather than perfectly round beads, you can see the thread a little more.

This last one has a red beaded center and heart shaped rhinestones.  I think I'd like this one for Valentine's Day!

Brown Lampwork Focal

I thought this brown lampwork bead was really nice.  It has a foiled core, and splashes of color, such as yellow, green and red.  I placed it on golden crinkle wire, which is permanently crinkled stainless steel flexible wire, and set it off with green, red, and yellow beads which echo the color splashes.  It is a nice clean look which brings the eye immediately to the focal bead.

Red White and Blue Crocheted Bracelet

It is almost Independence Day, so here is a red white and blue design.  It looks a bit scrunchy in the above photo.

I crocheted red beading wire, which makes the design look scrunchy until it's on your wrist.  I had these beads that were blue stars with little rhinestones.  I originally thought they would be weightier, but once I purchased and opened the package, I realized they were quite lightweight, and really wouldn't work as charms.

I also had some red beading wire, for which I had no purpose either.  Therefore, I combined them all into this lacy stretch sort of bracelet.  The ends are attached to ribbon endings, and then into a button clasp.

Framed Glitter Pins

I made some brooches using resin, various types of glitter, and rhinestones.  I used purchased metal frames.  Resin can be used in a lot of different ways.  With these brooches, I used a monochromatic color scheme and decided the interest would be in the various shapes and textures.  I used fine glitter, microbead glitter, flakey glitter, and flatback rhinestones. I still need to determine the best way to photograph these.  I had them pinned to a jewelry roll, but I think there must be a better way.

Garnet Red Barrettes

I purchased some barrette backings a while back, and then couldn't decide what to do with them.  I tried gluing ribbon, which failed.  I tried gluing glitter, oh that didn't look right.  I thought large flatbacks or buttons might look strange.  Then I made a section of bead weave, which, after many different attempts, came out just right.  So it reminds me of the story of Goldilocks, who kept trying things and saying "this one's too hot, this one's too cold" until she came across the right combination. 

If you are a beadweaver, you will see that I used the right angle weave.  I originally tried Miyuki 6's, and they just flippity flopped.  When I used these 6mm druks, it all seemed to work out nicely. 

I plan to try out some other beads, like glass pearls, fire polished rounds, or maybe some 4mm druks.  Then I might venture out into a peyote stitch with the smaller seed beads to see how that works.  But don't hold your breath on me fiddling with a complicated stitch pattern and the tinier seed beads!  Oh no!  To paraphrase Dr. McCoy from StarTrek, "Jim, I'm a beader not a weaver!"

Pink and Red Hearts Charm Bracelet

I recently got these red and pink heart charms, and was really pleased with their look.  They are about 5/8" long and was concerned that they might be too big for a charm bracelet, but you can see it turned out nicely.  Of course, it is not subtle, but then I don't do a lot of "subtle". 

Black Friday Sale

Happy Thanksgiving!  The time of year for eating and shopping (but then, when isn't it?).  I have put everything in my Etsy shop on sale, at 10% off.  The items will read "Black Friday Sale" in their description with the reduced price.  Some items may not read that way, which means they fell off the "Etsy on Sale" application boat, a story with which I shall not bore you.  Nevertheless, if the items are not showing the 10% discount, I shall merely credit back the discount to the purchaser.  There is undoubtedly a less confusing way to communicate this, but I am feeling fatigued.  And, I am still adding items to my shop.  The sale will continue on to Thanksgiving Day, Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Sloppy Sunday, and Cyber Monday.  I made up the Sloppy Sunday name, as I'm not sure if it has a handle yet.  Keep checking the shop!  I must have added at least 20 more earrings in the past 48 hours, I have about another dozen bracelets to add, and haven't even checked out the necklace inventory updates.

Scarlet and White

I wanted to design something with scarlet and white, the school colors of the University of Hartford.  I will be there this weekend at Homecoming with a craft booth.  I am an alumna of the university, getting my graduate degree there back in 19(mumble mumble).  I always like a coil bracelet, since there is never any problem with a clasp.  So I have used pressed glass, lampwork, crystal, and seed beads in different variations of red and white to make these coil bracelets.  I think they turned out nicely.  Although I am not looking forward to the long drive, it should be a nice day Saturday in Connecticut, and the University has a very attractive campus in Bloomfield, just on the outskirts of Hartford proper.

Red and Green Agate Beads

These are large puffed coins of polished agate in colors of red, green and brown.  Each bead is over 1-3/4" in diameter, which is a significant size and therefore weight.  These were acquired at one of the regional shows of Rings and Things.  Rings and Things has an Internet store and also travels nationally to do local bead shows.  They have a large selection of jewelry supplies and excellent customer service, so I do recommend this store.

Normally, I prefer glass over gemstone, and lightweight over heavy, but these really piqued my interest.  I first decided to use them in a necklace only, as I believe they were too heavy for earrings and too awkward to put in a bracelet.  Then I had to determine how many beads in a necklace.  I thought about one center focal bead, or possibly two beads each up by the collarbone area, but settled on three beads in the center.  The necklace needed to be short enough for the large beads to lie flat, so I chose 22".  Anything longer and the beads would dangle in such a way that wouldn't display their great color and natural design. 

It didn't take me long to decide the beads would go on wire rather than beading wire.  I didn't want to have any qualms about wondering if the beading wire would break after a customer gets it home.  I used sterling silver wire for the beads, and then strung five strands of seed beads on each side, using medium beading wire.  That gives it enough strength to hold up the three beads.  Then I finished it with a sterling silver hook clasp.