Natalie Pappas is Giving Away One of Her Beautiful Whistles

Natalie Pappas is a talented potter that makes pottery, beads and whistles.  To promote her new Etsy Store which features her whistles she is having a giveaway.  She is offering this beautiful yellow whistle.  Click HERE to go to her blog so that you can enter to win it.

Click HERE to go to her Etsy Whistle Store.  I don't have any of her whistles yet, but I hope to have one soon.

Click HERE to go to her Etsy Bead Store.  I love her beads and have many of them.  I bet you will love her beads and whistles too.


6400 PV 03/15

Bracelet - Beads by Pippa of PipsJewellery on Etsy

I recently won a set of beads that were being given by Pips of PipsJewellery on etsy.  She was offering a complete set of five beads of winner's choice.  I chose these bronze capped beads as my winning set.  I am saving them for closer to fall.

But, while I was at it, I purchased these turquoise water petal capped beads. 

They came all the way from England to be in this bracelet that I made using Pips beads, three of Natalie Pappas beads, one of Ingrid Mueller's beads,  some howlite orange and yellow melon beads, sari silk, and pastel seed beads.  I made the clasp out of a vintage wood button - I really liked the green color with this piece.  It is put together with brass.

I have two of these beads left and am going to try to come up with some earrings to match.

I decided I liked these beads being "directional" once I quit fighting it and embraced it.  I also managed to work in one of my UTEE head pins - hah, you will probably be seeing a lot of them.  I do need some different colors though.

Pips, I hope you like it.

Long Exotic Earrings Inspired by Marina Rios.....

Recently Marina Rios a/k/a Fancifuldevices issued her invitation to other jewelry designers to copy her designs.  Well, knowing that I could never copy her unique design I just looked on at what others created - in awe - of course.  Her work is amazing.  But, her attitude on sharing is even more amazing.  If you are not familiar, you really need to read her Art Theft Manifesto.  I really don't have words to describe her work.  You know that drawer that you all have where you just throw stuff because you don't want to throw it away, but you don't know what else to do with it, and in the back of your mind you think "well, I might need it someday?"  Well, she can take things from that drawer and make beautiful jewelry with them. 

She recently started using Ingrid Mueller's beads in her work too.  Ingrid has a couple of bead designs that are truly her own -- the two I'm thinking of are her stonies, that actually contain bits of gravel to give them texture, and her beads done in very matte finishes.  I have known for a couple of years now that Ingrid's work was wonderful, but now it seems as if other designers are figuring that out too.  But, I digress.

I received some beads from Natalie Pappas a week ago and even though they are not matte or stonies, they are magnificent.  They have swirls around them and not where you would expect them to be either.  I began playing with them and while I was doing so, I kept thinking of Marina's style and soon, voila!

Now, these are long - 3-1/4" long.  Ingrid would love that.  I like them and I really like the fact that I got to play with my wire.  I left the copper very dark, like Marina would have done. 

Now, Marti Conrad makes a bead that she calls a knuckle bead.  It is truly her own.  I am playing with them today in this same design to see what happens.  See I'm now starting to talk like Marti and Natalie -- they say things like "look what came out of the kiln today."  Well, I am just going to see what comes off my table today......stay tuned for the next installment of this experiment in Marina.

Thank you all - Ingrid, Marti, Natalie and Marina.  Knowing your work makes me a better designer.  I appreciate you all.
Disclaimer:  There are many more of you that have remained unnamed in this post.  Your day is coming.....

Well, I finished these using Marti Conrad's "knuckle" beads.  They have African copper heishi in the center row and faceted Czech beads in a variety of earthy colors with picasso finish in the bottom row.  They are also a bit longer....

I want to maybe try one more set if I can find some of Ingrid's beads that are begging to be made up like this and I can find the appropriate coordinating beads, etc.  And, also, I would like to try making a pair out of the annealed steal wire I have rather than copper.  We'll see.

Eyepod......

This was a fun necklace to make.  I love Marti's take on the "Eyepod" and her striped oval bead and Natalie's pod beads seem right at home here too.  Add some wire wrapped sari silk and some copper chain and here to go.  "Eyepod".

This necklace has many materials including porcelain, copper, leather, silk, gemstones, wood, jobe's tears (seeds), yarn fibers.


Reminder that tomorrow is the reveal date on the Kristi Bowman Copper Bracelet Blog Hop - Be sure to check back.  You won't want to miss it.

Natalie Pappas Also Does Lampwork....

I really need to start reading the descriptions of the things I buy on etsy.....I guess I like pictures better than words.....maybe I have become sick of words being an attorney the last twenty years.  Anyway, I received some beautiful beads from Natalie Pappas yesterday.  I had found a great little set of four beads in her shop that just begged me to buy them.  So I did.  One of them was a porcelain white with a pink, purple, and green flower decal.  Loved it.  She had paired it with two green coin beads on which she made a three leaf design.  She also included a pink and green bead that just seemed to tie everything together.  I pulled out a pink and a purple lampwork bead made by Joyce O'Shea and also a large soo chow jade that also begged me to be included.  Well, to my surprise, the pink and swirly porcelain bead made by Natalie wasn't porcelain at all....it was lampwork.  So I ran back to the listing to read -- yep, sure enough, she does lampwork too.  Then I heard one of Ingrid's butterfly pendants begging me to let it join.  Man, I get so tired of begger beads.......

I built this necklace around copper wire and also used olive green glass pearls and more of my new metallic Greek leather in light fern.  It looks so springy, and layered, and all full of Natalie's and Ingrid's and Joyce's gorgeous work.  It won't be long we will all be looking for spring accessories and this one will be in the shop.....waiting, waiting.

Today's Pictures ....... Lariat Style Necklaces

I love lariat necklaces.  Always have.  I guess that's the cowgirl in me....I know that not all lariats are western or cowgirl style, but the ones I like the best are.  Over the past months, I have received some beautiful hand sculpted beads from two of my favorite stoneware artists, Natalie Pappas and Marti Conrad.  I wanted to make something with them that really made the beads stand out. 

The bird bead is by Natalie Pappas and the fish is by Marti Conrad.  I love the way they came out.  Not true lariat necklaces, they certainly are in the lariat style and I think the beads pop on these.  Let me know what you think of them. 

Yellow Stoneware Bead Necklace

I finished the necklace using the gorgeous yellow stoneware bead by Natalie Pappas.  I used tri-cut czech beads with picasso finish and czech striped iridescent beads on hand forged, oxidized and tumbled copper wire. 

I finished the neck strap with hand rolled and sewn gray silk cording and a handmade copper hook and eye clasp.







It is a bit longer than I normally make, but it just seemed to be

better this way.  I like the way the bead dangles on the handmade

bail made of square copper wire.  It is 20" long.

Natalie Pappas Beads

Natalie Pappas makes gorgeous beads.  Each one is a work of art.

She just blogged about this set of beads saying "These came out of the kiln this morning."

It's like they just crawled out one day! 

Aren't they gorgeous!  I have several of her beads but always have to make myself use them in my projects because I have a tendency to want to hoard them.

She sells these wonderful things in her etsy shop.  Check it out at http://www.nkpbeads.etsy.com/