Let's do art!

Since it was so hot, muggy and sometimes raining this weekend, the hubby and I didn't venture out much. I used the time to catch up on viewing art demonstrations online. You can subscribe and watch them on sites like Artist Network TV, or if you're not ready to commit to purchasing one yet, you can watch some free instruction on How to Draw and Paint, or you can watch shorter videos on Youtube and other sites.

In any event, I have such respect for portrait artists and am always trying to improve my skills in that area. Using a cosmetics ad from a magazine as my model, I came up with this...

I used the grid method to transfer her features to my paper and I drew my grid wonky and all her features are a bit off. It's drawn with a 2B pencil and blended with a tortillion. It's only practice, so I won't be too hard on myself, but it does go to show that you really need to have your feature placement dead on, to get a realistic drawing. I think that's why every portrait I draw has a "cartoony" look to it. Well, practice makes perfect.

Another thing that intimidates me is painting. I can never loosen up enough to get a painting that doesn't look stilted. I think that I perhaps I over analyze the process, so for this one I just grabbed a small watercolor pad and using acrylic paints and an old plastic plate for a palette, followed along with the tutorial for this little scene...

This was actually a study on how to use masking fluid and a sea sponge for texture. My masking fluid (years old) was dried solid in the bottle, so I used rubber cement. My sea sponge has long since migrated to warmer waters, so I used a regular sponge that I picked little pieces out of. You get the picture??? Once again it is only practice and while I cringe and see everything that is wrong, I'm still not going to beat myself up. I had fun doing them both and plan on doing more soon.

That's it for now. Hope everyone had a great weekend and is ready for whatever this week brings. Just remember, if you're bored or looking for something to do, check out some art videos and you just might surprise yourself.

Memorial Day

The real price of freedom.




One of many, James Reagan gave his life for us. You can read about him here. Join me today in prayer. Pray for the families of these brave men and women and remember them with pride.

Happy Memorial Day.

It's me again...

So you won't have to keep looking at those burned beads, I'll show you what I did with them.

I antiqued them with black paint and then with gold paint, glossed them up with Mop and Glo floor wax and made links using 14k gold filled wire. Considering everything, they turned out just fine.

I also put together a similar style necklace using beads from Peri's and my early attempts at polymer clay beads...

You are probably seeing a pattern here. Although I have silver hair and am a "True Winter" and not supposed to wear gold, I love warm coppery colors, combined with black and gold. I have lots of necklaces that are very similar to this.

I tossed together several donut necklaces and have a tutorial in the works if anyone is interested in how these super easy necklaces can be made. (Along with a very funny story about them)


I love wire work and have been wrapping beads on eye pins recently just for fun. I decided to combine some of them in a pair of dangly, but casual earrings...

Shucks, I even had time to do some seed bead work...

I was trying to learn to make a beaded bezel for this ring, but it wouldn't hold the stone, so I converted it into a beaded bead and went with that.

And just for fun, I'll leave you with a picture of me. I have always had super straight hair, that back in the day, had to be glopped with Dippity Doo and then spend the night sleeping under a hairdryer to achieve a bit of curl. Imagine my delight now that my hair is coming in wavy.

I know some of you gals might laugh at me for thinking this is curly, but believe me, I'm Shirley Temple compared to what I used to have.

So that's it for today. Hope everyone is having a good week. Take care and treat yourself tonight!

Fry-day

Well, there certainly wasn't supposed to be another segment of the Ugly Bead Project so soon. But alas, many things went wrong .

I forgot to take the beads off of the cardboard that I used to carry them to the oven...

I forgot to check the temperature...

I forgot that after spending an hour conditioning the dang stuff, that I had mixed Cernit with Sculpey III...

I shrugged it off when my hubby seemed concerned because he thought something was on fire and couldn't find it...

I still didn't think anything about it when he had me look at the haze ("don't you think that's smoke?") that had wafted thorough the basement...

I was actually surprised when I went downstairs with him to check on our crystal growing coal project and just casually checked on my beads that were cooling in the oven...

TO FIND THIS!!!

Sorry Hun, it seems you did smell smoke and yes, something was burning. Sometimes things really go awry don't they?. These faux coral beads are going to be antiqued, but I think some of them are too far gone. As Britney would say, "oops I did it again".

Well, not to worry, it's just a reminder that things can still go wrong. Even after fifteen years of working with polymer clay. So I'm off to see how this little project ends up.

How are things going with you? Think I'm the only one having bad luck? Nope, check out my friend, Shelly at Blue Ridge Lady and see how your day measures up.

Whatever you are doing this weekend, don't try for perfection. You just might be disappointed.

Enjoy!

Ugly Beads vs Lonely beads

OK, perhaps I was too harsh when I referred to the bubble gum colored beads as ugly. No, actually I wasn't, but as my sister pointed out, the way I presented them and the angle at which I took the shot made them seem much less hideous than they really are. That actually reflects the way I look at life. Sometimes things in life can get really ugly, but often when we change the way we look at them, they somehow get a bit better. I have always been an optimist and I'm sure I always will be. All this being said, I will continue to post some beads that, while possibly not the ugliest in my stash, have certainly been lonely.

There are several large baggies of polymer clay beads that I have made over the years and thought they were horribly disfigured, or just misfits. Either way, they were relegated to a life in a plastic box, under a table for a long, long time.

Here are a few, remember those awful pink things on the left, from ugly bead project #1.

On to ugly bead project #2. This next piece was created from these lonely (read u.g.l.y.) beads at the left of this photo. They were the result of my attempt to step outside the round bead box that I sometimes get hemmed into.

Well, they didn't turn out like I had planned, so I tried highlighting them with some silver paint and when that didn't go well, I tried dipping several of them in melted UTEE. UTEE stands for ultra-thick embossing enamel and is one of my all time favorite things to work with. I can usually rescue anything with UTEE. When this still didn't get the effect I was looking for, I banished them to that "I'm not happy with you box" under the table.

Fast forward to my current Ugly Bead Project. After dumping all these beads out onto my table and really studying them, I decided that the main thing the flat ones needed was continuity. So I painted all the edges black and then dotted red and yellow paint on top of that. Then I glued black square beads on the tops of the beads and then glued orange beads on top of them.

So take the continuity of the embellishments, along with some coordinating dangles and a bit of chain, and I have created a really fun piece that I like a lot.

Seems we've come full circle here. If life is giving you ugly beads, search for the continuity that is needed and then present those little beads in such a fashion that they are no longer the least bit ugly. Then pat yourself on the back and give yourself an "atta girl"!

Ugly Bead Project

Ugly Bead #1

What in the world was I thinking? This looks like something encased in pink bubble gum. Apparently pretty glass beads and sparkly pink paint didn't help at all.

More to come....

I hope it will be worth the wait...

Just popping in to say hi. I have been making jewelry lately and some of it has been quite less than satisfactory. That got me to thinking, how about an "ugly bead project" so that's what I'm working on.

I'm not an athlete, or a "mathlete" for that much, and I don't like being put on the spot of having to compete with a group, BUT (and isn't that a big but?) I do love to compete with myself. So tomorrow in addition to showing some jewelry that I actually planned out, I will be showing you the first installment of the ugly bead project. I have lots of beads that sort of went in their own direction and I'm going to see if I can corral them back into my world.

Wish me luck and let me know if this is a phenomenon which exists only in my own personal galaxy, or if you have "ugly beads" also.

Greetings

Hello there, for some reason I don't really have any pictures to post today. So if you are just a blog "picture only" person, you'll be bored. No wait, I do have a picture, hang on while I load it....


Yep, my goodies came in from our recent session of retail therapy. This is from a store in San Diego called Great News. It's a fabulous store that sells all things related to cooking. They even sell online, for those of us who can't just jump in the car and visit on a whim. We bought cook ware and all kinds of other goodies. One of the fun things I got is a peculator. (Oops, that should be percolator, thanks Sis, I was relying on the spell check and clicked the wrong one) Anyway, how long has it been since I had perked coffee?? Heavenly, I am telling you.

At the risk of sounding like a shopping fanatic, or a mall rat, I have another quick story that I thought was funny. DH (that's Darling Hubby when he's being good) had errands to run and I know that sometimes he gets sidetracked and doesn't get everything done, so I went with him to help. We had several things to get that required going to said mall, and I had him almost running from store to store, especially looking for the elusive oval shaped table cloth. Everyone has oblong, but no oval. Why didn't I remember this at the shop in CA? Sorry, I digress, just had a shiny moment. You know how birds and other animals are distracted by shiny objects, that's a shiny moment according to my sister... Shoot, I did it again.... anyway, after sprinting from one store to another, he finally stopped and said quite emphatically, "my toe hurts!" and without breaking stride, I told him "my toe has hurt for three years, keep shopping".

I finally let him stop and take a break and even "let" him stop at the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. I told him I didn't want anything since I'm dieting, but I did mention to him that he might want to try a chocolate covered pretzel and that he might like that coffee flavored cream and that he might like... Well, anyway he got a bit of a break and we decided to find the table cloth online and call it a day.

I tried to get him to do this,



but he wasn't going for it.

They also had a riding/driving simulator that bounces you around inside, while trying to make you think you are sailing over sand dunes, but he didn't want that either. You got to remember that this is the same guy that convinced me to go on the Skyfari at the Zoo...

and I was terrified, while he loved it. All this leads me to reason, that his toe really does hurt. Needless to say, after finally having to take his shoe off and massage his toe because it was cramping like crazy, we decided to donate those shoes.

As you can see, I'm hopping all over the place today. First I say no pictures, then I end up with three, and I can't seem to stay on topic. Have you ever been typing and think there is a bug on your foot and go crazy and then realize that it's the cord to your mouse??? Sorry, another shiny moment.

Well, I'm driving my own self crazy, so I better go get focused on something. I have made two pieces of jewelry this week that didn't work at all, so that is a bit frustrating. I think I'll find a nice easy pattern and make something that I know will work.

Take care, enjoy the rest of your weekend and if you're a mom, Happy Mothers Day.

Spring time fun

As you know, I'm back from my trip and we're settling back in to everyday life. When the hubby picked me up at the airport, he asked me if I wanted to take a quick overnight trip to his college to hear one of his friends play music. I opted out of this trip and sent him on a little retreat of his own. He only stayed one night, but had fun seeing them play and then meeting up with the members of his old garage band and belting out some 70's favorites. He had a blast.

Ok, so now we're back to settling in to everyday life and having fun together. We always go to the Strawberry festival that is held to raise money for one of the local schools, so we headed out to check out this years event.

Here's DH getting the tickets (we figured this out after a brief wait in the serving line and having to change lines, man, is every thing is so complex these days?)


We did enjoy the sundae and shortcake and even got a friendly passerby to snap a shot of us.

Shucks, I even found a heart shaped bite...


After partaking of all the strawberry yumminess, we headed out to see a movie. DH and I have been waiting patiently for the release of The Runaways, and it didn't disappoint. There is a bit of sex and drug use, but considering the time and subject of the movie, it was completely necessary. The actors did such a great job of portraying these legendary female rockers, that I completely forgot that one of these rowdy little gals is being played by Dakota Fanning. They grow up so quickly, don't they?

Not much art to post, as I have been beading lately. I have finished this...

Loomed Bracelet

Bead embroidery butterfly

and I'm almost finished with this little number...

Free form bead bracelet with custom blended polymer clay cabochons.

So other than making room for my shipment of goodies from our retail therapy, I'm taking it easy. I got three magazines to amuse myself with while DH was gone, Bead Unique, Cottage Style Design and Taste of Home Chicken cookbook. Great choices for me, as I can read these mags over and over again. What better way to spend your weekend? Planning jewelry, planning bedroom redecorating and smacking my lips over chicken recipes. I'm happier than a baby pig slipping around in the mud.

How about you, you having a good weekend? I hope so. Take care and enjoy each day. It's been given to you for a reason. Live it and love it.

That's it from me for a few days, see you next week. Have a blast until then!

She's Baaaaaack!

Just a quick note to let you know that I'm back. Remember that I said that I called my sister to let her know a package was coming for her birthday and she said she wanted me there as well??? I got there right after her package did. What did I send her, you may ask? She just discovered Hannah Montana and has had a blast engaging in marathon viewings of Hannah and all her antics. What would be a better present than a box full of Hannah gear. Yep, that's right, I sent my silver haired sister a long blonde wig and a microphone and a very usable shoulder tote. If you hang in there with me through out all these pictures, you just might see Sister in the wig. Don't worry, I asked her first. That's it, so enjoy...

She was happy to see me!

We had fun playing drums...

We belted out a few old favorites (the playing is so totally staged, but I did wail out the tunes)

I made new friends...

and laughed until I needed Depends...

I had my first fondue experience...

I even got to see some surprise snow...

We did lots of retail therapy, so as the packages start to arrive, I may share with you some of my various birthday booty. I had a lovely time and am very thankful to have such wonderful sisters. They know that I love them, but I wanted to say it again. I had fun and while there's no place like home, California if a great place to visit...if you have a sister there.

Just a quick trip!!!

Just a quick post to let everyone know that I am taking a quick trip to CA to see my sissy. It was quite unplanned. I called to let her know that I had sent her birthday package and she got excited about that, but what she said she really wanted was for me to come see her. Since my birthday is on Sunday (we are five years and five days apart), I decided to shock her by agreeing to hop a plane and fly out. I am not the greatest traveler, but once I get in the airport, I do alright.

Therefore, I'm off to San Diego early Friday morning and will get back 9:00 pm Monday. Maybe I'll have some fun photos to share when I return. So keep me and all the pilots in your prayers and I'll be back soon.

This and That

I'm still in the midst of spring cleaning, so I really don't have any art to post. I did make a loomed bracelet on a child's craft loom to get back in practice. I have a large beading loom, designed by Don Pierce, that I am planning a project on, which will be fun I'm sure. If you are not familiar with beading on a loom, check out his web page.

I am always seeing fun things out in the yard. I have several squirrel nests high up in my trees...

If their nests become flea or insect infested, they abandon them.

My neighbor has feeders. I'm not sure if this is a bird feeder or a squirrel feeder, but the hubby was able to get a quick shot, through the screen and quite a distance away, but you can see the determination in this little fellow.

What a hoot!

Look carefully and you can see him stretched out between the feeder and the tree that he is literally hanging onto my a claw. Funny.

As some of you may know, the Cardinal is the state bird of Virginia. There is a good reason for that. I saw this little guy fly by today and was able to snap a quick shot of him.

Isn't he gorgeous?

Several weeks ago I mentioned that I'm not a practical joker. I have one favorite joke that I pull on my hubby. Whenever I'm letting the length of my hair grow, I always get a little fake hair scrunchie and wrap it around my short little pony tail to mask the growing out process.

My trick on the hubby is to come running out of the bathroom with the fake hair in my hand and act like a big glob of my hair has come out. I know this is not really very funny and the last time I did it to him, we were on vacation in California and it just about scared him to death.

While doing my reorganizing, I came across my "partner in crime",

Looks like Ric Flair hair!

and thought I would show her to you before she is retired to a life as a doll wig.

Well, that's all from me today. If I get some art or jewelry finished, I'll be sure and share. Until then, enjoy your week, give someone a hug today and tell them it's from Susan.

Five new friends

We have five new friends. At least I thought they were friends. They seemed to be a bit miffed at me for taking their picture and haven't been back for several days. Imagine living in a reasonably large suburban area and having these sweeties in your back yard. I love it. While everyone else on our street has back yards, my neighbors and I have yards and wooded acreage. We have a very small crick that runs along the property line and since having so much rain and snow this winter, this little stream is supplying lots of critters with a cool drink. I've seen groundhogs and squirrels, but way too many bees for my tastes.

In addition to watching the wildlife, I have been doing a bit of spring cleaning. Yesterday I tackled one of my art storage areas.

Shower stall in extra bathroom used as storage

This is just the first area I'm working on. I'm planning on organizing the closets, the laundry room (where more of my polymer, lampwork and beading supplies are) and maybe getting new curtains or draperies for several rooms. Lofty aspirations I know, but that's what a little bit of sunshine and fresh air does to me. Right now I have the hubby toting heavy stuff out to the curb for the bulk pick up guys. Ahhh, springtime.

As most of you know I have a weight loss blog, so I usually don't post that sort of thing here. Recently though, I read several statements that really rang true with me. One of the things I read somewhere was "if hunger is not the problem, then eating is not the solution". This really hit home with me. How often do I eat when I'm not hungry? Only all my life. The other thing that I wanted to bring to your attention is the current post of Roy Cohen. He mentions how much time we spend doing daily activities and how we could borrow from those minutes to make time to work out. Really good article, I hope you have time to read it.

In Roy's profile he uses the word mindful several times. This is a word that I have often used and to me it means that you have thought something through. Being mindful of the way you live is a good thing. If we all just went through life willy-nilly, nothing would ever get done.

As we all know, life is like anything else... you have to think it through, figure out what is the best way to go about things and then do it. If at first, what you thought was best isn't, that doesn't mean that you just stop trying. Certainly it's ok to sit in a chair with binoculars and watch the deer for twenty minutes at a time, but you need to eventually get out of that chair and do something else. It doesn't have to be productive or mean something, but you do need to grab onto life and show it you're in it for the long haul.

Set aside an hour or so for blog reading and then get up and do some one minute exercises. Do some stretches or what ever you are physically capable of doing. Unless you aren't mindful and overdo it, you'll feel better.

With all this being said, it's time for me to hit the treadmill. Enjoy your day and if you'd rather, put on some peppy music and dance your way through life. At the very least... you'll be getting some exercise.

Happy Easter

What's in your "to do" box?

Today is April 1st and since I don't really like pranks, I thought I would address one of the little jokes we pull on ourselves. You know the one where you start a project and for some reason you never finish it?? Yeah, that one. Whether it's a knitting project that just got boring,


...or an entire shopping bag of jewelry that you keep because you KNOW that you are someday going to redesign the pieces, we all seem to do this.

What about you? Do you or any one you know do this routinely? It could be the latch hook kit that your mom put away for so long that mice ate the yarn (I know someone else that remembers that one) or maybe you have a bag of half-done embroidery projects. I have a beaded project that I decided to give up on and placed the magazine with the instructions and all the components into a bag and was going to give to someone else to finish,


but....I just can't seem to part with it. I know I can finish it someday. Blessedly I have room to store these treasures, and it's a good thing, because I plan on being able to do my crafts and art and jewelry for a long time to come.

And I ask again...what about you? Do you always finish all your projects? Do you feel guilty if you walk by the same necklace for months at a time and then make yourself finish it and then realize that it took about ten minutes.



Have you been wanting to whip up some stretchy bracelets and are such a whiny baby that you find every excuse not to? Now's the time.



Even though I'm much more a "lady of leisure" these days than in the past, I still find myself procrastinating on some things and spending way too much time on others (blogging and web surfing, just to name two).

Here is a piece that I started several years ago, that was inspired by the neck wear on Dancing With The Stars, but what would I ever wear it with... so here it sits..



Is the key multi-tasking or motivation? Right now I'm out on the deck making this post because it's just too beautiful to stay inside (multi-tasking). I do set little goals for myself, and try to stick to them. I clean the house for two hours and then allow myself to play in the studio for three, (motivation) . What's your method of getting your favorite things worked in with the must do things?

Right now I have to make a decision. I want to stay out here on the deck,



but in between dodging all those wasps with the crazy long legs, that keep circling me, and the desire for some tea with honey to combat my scratchy throat and cough, I think I'm going to have to go in.

How did you spend April 1st? Any jokers in your crew? Are you now so worried about your "to do" box, that you can't concentrate on any thing else? Hmmm, maybe I'm more of a trickster than I thought.

Take care, and let me know how you deal with some of the quirky little things that we do to ourselves.

Enjoy.

Thursday's art

You may remember that I've been working on an art bead for a Flickr group challenge. This month's inspiration comes from Van Gogh's beautiful "Almond Branches".



My initial thought was to make a landscape cane with the entire image formed into the cane. This proved much more difficult to execute than I expected and looking back, I think that I should have used an inlay technique instead. In any event, this is what I ended up with...


I tried to duplicate the look of hand painted porcelain by adding some extra accents to the branches with various pens and paints and after curing, I coated the pendant with a product called Faux Dichro Liquid Glass which gave it a lovely glazed ceramic look.

Much to my delight, the current assignment for Art Beads. com's Beaders that Blog program is Spring. We were told to pick anything from the catalog that made us think of spring. I thought that it would be fun to combine the challenges and decided on blue jasper calsilica coin beads as a complement for the Almond Blossom piece. I mean after all, what says spring better than the beautiful blues and woodsy browns that are in these jasper beads. The beads that I received are so gorgeous, that they almost outshine the focal bead that I made. I'm thinking of also using them in a multi-strand necklace. I've very happy with them. To complete the design, I made some accent beads to match and I decided on light yellow seed beads as spacers.

These challenges just might be the motivation that I needed to get out of my slump. When working on a design, I'm not usually very dreamy or poetic. The beads I chose are calsilica, actually a man-made amalgamation of various minerals and stone fragments that are held together with resin. While working with these beads and the polymer clay, I did stop to contemplate the many ways of combining natural elements with man made products. It seemed to make a statement about how we can retain our love of nature and yet use modern technology to enhance art, as well as so many other areas of life.

That's it for now. Hope everyone is enjoying their week and getting ready for the weekend. Take care and stay creative.



*FTC compliance disclosure* the products attributed to Artbeads.com in this post where provided as a promotional gift by Artbeads.com in relation to the blogging program. My comments pertaining to these products are my personal opinion, no compensation has been received.

A give away

I still don't have any art to post, but I'm working on it. I am offering a little giveaway over on my other blog and thought some of you might be interested. I won't give away the details here, but I will give away a cool item over there. So join the rush to enter your name at my healthy living and weight loss blog, "Let's Lose Weight This Year" and meet some new friends and maybe win something!

I'm still working on my art bead necklace and will post that later this week. Between crazy weather, a hubby with a cold and motivation that is apparently taking a vacation, I've been pretty slothful. But this will pass, it always does.

Take care and enjoy your week.

In between projects

I'm in the process of making an art bead for a challenge that is due before April 1, but in the mean time I thought I'd pop in and just say hi and post a few fun links. I'll be posting some art soon, but I thought until then I would ask you a quick question...do you have little guilty pleasures? One of mine is watching court shows. It started back in the old days with Judge Wampner and The Peoples court. These days I love to watch Judge Mathis and Judge Judy. I have to think of my little uncle (God rest his soul), of how much he loved and respected Judge Judy, so I don't feel but so guilty about it.

Anyway, what is your little pleasure, that perhaps no one knows? I have several...in addition to my judge shows, I love watching reality shows in general. I always loved to dance, so my other little secret is that when no one is looking, (imagine me whispering this) I try to teach myself how to do those "booty shake" moves that I see on the dance shows. I know you are laughing, but I'll bet you do funny little things like that, too.

Come on, fess up...you know I'm not alone.

What's up with me

The weather the past few days has been beautiful. We went shopping several times and ate out several times and have just had a nice time recently. In between times, I have been doing my usual things... housework, laundry, listening to talk radio, and being creative.

I was quite happy with the agate cane from last post, so I put on the mad scientist lab coat to see what I could make with it. To start off, I sliced the cane into equal slices and flattened and elongated each piece slightly. This was done using a small piece of white PVC pipe that the folks at Home Depot gave me from a pile of ends that was next to their cutter. Never know where your next tool will come from, huh? Any hoo, I poked holes in the tops of the slices and baked them in my trusty toaster oven.

Side note to my Sis...I'm still using the same little oven that we placed a label on that read "polymer clay only". Upon seeing this label, our other partner in crime exclaimed "Where in the world did you find an oven for polymer clay only?" We hooted and hollered and Sister just held the label maker up, gunslinger style, blew the smoke from it and tipped her hat. Ok, well maybe that was a bit of an exaggeration, but it was really funny in a "duh" kind of way.

Back to the slices. This is what I ended up with.




On to another matter. I don't know if you remember, but a while back, I was contacted by Art Beads.com and invited to be a member of their group "Beaders that Blog". The way it is set up, they have certain beads that we can get from them, as a promo gift and then we review them. I have made several nice pieces using beads from this program and I have been able to try new items, that I ordinarily would not have tried. I took apart several vintage necklaces and made this piece, and then I tried my hand at resin and blogged about that here. Having not used the copper bracelet with the resin, I still had it and have just been looking at it and waiting for the right time to create something.

All of this is leading up the the creation of a faux scarab type bracelet from the ends of the agate cane. I love to challenge myself to use my scrap clay in a pleasing way, so I formed little beads and pressed them into that copper colored bracelet. TAA, DAA...


I still participate in the Beaders that Blog program and after choosing and receiving my latest beads, I got stumped. I had originally visualized making a sparkly neck piece using both the garnet tear drops and the purple faceted CZ beads together, using a wire wrap technique.



This last time I chose purple CZ beads and garnet teardrop shaped cubic zirconia (CZ) beads from their online catalog. As you can see in the picture, I was going to use sterling silver wire and wire wrap the tear drops to make a loop on them to attached to silver chain. Well, this was my first time working with this type bead, and they were too delicate for this technique, so I had to put my thinking cap on. I normally have no problem with design, but when I had to go back to square one, it took me a while. After several weeks of looking at these beads I designed this necklace.


I used amber colored crystal beads from my stash, and place the teardrop garnet cz's between them. It's really comfortable and looks quite fancy for such a simple design.

I really liked the purple cz's but they weren't speaking to me until today. I had used my beading board (which is a neutral gray) to try out endless color combinations and didn't like anything. It wasn't until I took a piece of hot pink fabric and placed the beads on it, that inspiration came to me. While it didn't involve pink at all, it did make me realize that these purple sparkly beads needed aged copper beads as their new best friends. Don't you agree?



Sometimes we need to just sit back and think about simplicity. This is the simplest bracelet ever. Copper beads and Purple faceted CZ rounds on elastic. I have it on right now and I love it.

Since I always wear earrings, I whipped these up, also.

Well, that's it for me today. A little bit of this and a bit of that. I should get my treadmill tomorrow, so that will be fun. I'll be sure to let you know how that goes. Take care and remember to have fun and be creative in your own special way.




*FTC compliance disclosure* the products attributed to Artbeads.com in this post where provided as a promotional gift by Artbeads.com in relation to the blogging program. My comments pertaining to these products are my personal opinion, no compensation has been received. It's probably a good thing, too, because I'm sometimes way too honest in my reviews.