Coral Bead Earrings

I decided I needed earrings in a warm pink color, and found these coral beads somewhere in my bead stash.  I'm fairly bad at remembering bead stitches, or even following a pattern diagram (so sad!) so I just tinkered for a while with thread until I came up with this flower pattern.    Hopefully, I'll remember how I did this for the next time!

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!

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. 

Green Crystal Earrings

I was thinking green because St. Patrick's Day was coming up.  So I used two colors of green crystals for these earrings.  The faceted rounds have a sort of milky opaqueness to them.  The center beads are Swarovksi roundels, which always look good in anything!

Kuan Yin Navy Blue Pendant

Kuan Yin is often seen as the saint of mercy and compassion in Asian religions.  I created a pendant based upon a vintage form and used it as a pendant on this necklace.  I've used shades of dark blue, crystal, and silver.

She is painted clay, made in my silicone mold.

Silver Cable Necklace

I found this cute pewter pendant and thought I would try it with a cable necklace.

The cable chain is a bit flexible but stays in a circle around the neck.
It closes with a barrel clasp.  I think it is an interesting look.

Pretty Pewter Goodies

I recently won a pack of pretty pewter (say it three times quickly) from a twitter contest at Happy Mango.  There are some charms, findings, and other things in this nice little pack, and I haven't yet decided what to do with them.  I have a photo of each piece, so you can think about what you would do with it.
 

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Large Gray Pearl Clip On Earrings

I recently made these large gray pearl earrings for a member of a wedding party.  I think gray is such an elegant color. 

These are 16mm which are a bit difficult to find sometimes.  They are on clipon earring backs.

Jade Buddha Head

I picked up a strand of antique jade Buddha head beads at a bead show a while back. I liked them, but then had a difficult time deciding what to do with them.  They are a bit large and heavy, so they don't lend themselves to earrings.

 I eventually made a necklace with one bead as a pendant, using organza ribbon.  I think I was in a "ribbon phase" at the time.  I combined it with some pewter beads.

The bead is also too large and awkward for bracelets.  I might attempt a different design with chain or cord.  I don't want it to be paired with anything heavy, because then it would make for a really heavy necklace.  I'll continue to muse over this for a while.  I still really like the beads.

Blue Mother of Pearl Bracelet

I like the colored mother of pearl nuggets quite a bit.  These are in a pretty aqua color.

I've paired them with pastel aqua crystal pearls, and then accented them with chocolate brown seed beads.

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.

Chalk Turquoise with Bamboo Coral Jewelry Set

These chalk turquoise nuggets have an irregular shape and lean towards the green side of turquoise.  I paired them with bamboo coral, which are shaped like gem chips.  I like turquoise and coral together. 

Also in the mix are labradorite rondelles and swarovski vitrail bicones.  Then I made some earrings to match.

Carved Jade with Carnelian

I picked up carved antique jade beads and faceted carnelian briolettes at two different occasions at two different shops.  It took me a while to decide what to do with them, but you see I have put them together into earrings.

I like these two colors together -- the brown and the orange.  I also think the shapes of square and teardrop look nice together also.

Gilders Paste Color Comparison

Gilders Paste is a wonderful little thing.  I currently have a selection of four of their metallic colors.  I would like to have all of their colors, but cannot find the rationalization for such a thing on my budget right now.  Something to aim for!  It is a type of color rub.  You will see from my close ups that it is not really a full opaque coating but is more of an accent color.  These comparisons were done on coral colored baked polymer clay.

This is gilders paste in "gold".  I needed 2 coats to get this level of opacity.  It is pictured next to a gold plated toggle.

This is "antique gold".  It has more copper and less yellow in it than my antique gold jewelry findings.

This is "copper".  You can see it is more the color of antique copper than shiny new copper. 

This is silver.  This had an odd texture.  The other ones are like a hard cake of shoe polish.  This is more souffle-like.  It got everywhere on my desk with its fluffiness.  I don't know if all the silvers are like that, or I got an odd container of gilders paste here.  It is pretty though, with a color a bit darker than the silver plated toggle shown next to it.

I haven't found these in any bricks and mortar stores, but some internet stores will sell these.  One great place to buy them is B'sue Boutiques.  Her shipping is reasonable and very speedy.  She also included a couple little candies in my order, their photo is not available due to reasons I don't care to mention.  Ah, they were gone too soon!  :-)  

Turquoise Necklace with Square Focals

I made this necklace some time ago for my personal collection.  The focal beads are puffed squares of a turquoise composite, purchased at Aunties Beads.  I've used glass beads in complimentary colors of turquoise, tan, and silver to complete the necklace.  This is one of my favorite pieces and I wear it often.