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.

Stoneware Bracelet - Flowers, Headpins and Pantone Colors

Today's bracelet was made with Marti Conrad's textured focal in Starfish (taupe).  I made the wire-wrapped strap from her stoneware disc beads which are puffy enough to have the strength to support a bracelet strap.  I have some cute brass clasps with a flower design and it just jumped out at this piece.  I finished it with lucite leaves, glass flowers, a Vintaj leaf and.............................wait for it:

a UTEE dangle that I made using the tutorial published by Marina Rios of fancifuldevices.  I had so much fun making these.  I had her tutorial spread out all over the kitchen cabinet, with spoons, and a heat gun, and headpins and little beads.  What fun!  My husband came in and wanted to know what I was cooking.  Well, there are a lot of things other than cooking that you can do in the kitchen!

Anyway, it may not be the most appropriate component for this bracelet, but I was dying to use it, so here it is.  Let's just pretend that it is perfect and completes the bracelet......

And, this bracelet is also chocked full of Pantone Spring 2012 colors -- Cockatoo (teal), Solar Power (yellow), Starfish (taupe) Caberet (pink), Tangerine Tango (orange), Margarita (lime).

Anyway, a word about Fanciful's tutorial.  It was wonderful.  I so enjoyed it.  I'm going to keep working on these because even her excellent tutorial is no substitute for experience.....I would recommend it if you are interested in making your own enamel looking headpins.  I used some of my sister's old eyeshadow to give the dangle its purply color.  Who'd a thought...

Bracelet and Earrings Made Just for St. Patrick's Day

Well, our next "jewelry" holiday is St. Patrick's Day.  I have dedicated some pieces in my shop that would be appropriate for St. Pat's day but this is the only set I am planning to make especially for St. Patrick's Day.  It is a charm bracelet with lots of green beads, some with four petal flowers and some capped and a few little green glass beads that I've had for awhile that had a gold shamrock on them.  I also attached a shamrock charm.

I made matching earrings as well.

 You will notice that I put in a little red glass ladybug bead.  Two reasons:  1)  I love the little surprise of bright red color amidst all that green.  2) It makes the bracelet just as appropriate for wear all summer long with the flowers, and leaves, and the bug.

How many of you out there are Irish?

Pantone Colors for Spring 2012

The following is a good guide to Pantone's colors for Spring 2012.  They have chosen Tangerine Tango as the Color of the Year.

When I made this bracelet with Kristin's bracelet focal I couldn't help but notice how many of the Pantone Spring 2012 colors are represented in it.  It's got about everything but the lilac, cabaret and sodalite blue. 

I really love the tangerines, yellows, greens, and brown grays that are going to be popular this season.  But, I love those colors all seasons.

Enjoy.

Well, I'm just going to put this out there for you to look at........

As a designer, it is always a bit scary to try something new that you haven't seen done before.  At least it is for me.  I have seen several different designers connect two strands of chain with beads and simple loops.  Okay, I wasn't crazy about it, but it seemed to be well received by the jewelry buying public. 

Months ago I saw a piece of Raku on Karen Totten's Starry Road Studio in a triangle shape.  I believe it was a pendant with one hole if memory serves me correctly.  I was just gaining interest in the curved bracelet focal pieces that I use so much and asked her if she could do the same piece with three holes and a slight curve for a bracelet.  She did and here it is. 

I am always aware when I begin to design jewelry with a piece such as this its strengths and weaknesses and how it may or may not handle different construction techniques.  In this case, the hole on the point was too far to connect with a jump ring small enough that would do the job and not be too large.  So I went for metallic rust leather. I don't want to bore you with every thought process that I had last night sitting and staring at this piece listening to it tell me what to do next, but I decided to try connecting the two strands of leather with beads and simple loops like I had seen done with two strands of chain.  The lampwork beads are Rustic Copper by Outwest with faceted labradorite.  I want to like it, I think I like it, but I'm not sure.  It fits well, I can't find a thing wrong with the way it fits, wears or performs as a bracelet.

So, I want to know what you think.  Not just "Oh its pretty."  I know you will all say that.  It would mean a lot to me if each of you that look at this took a moment to tell me what you think of the strap - even if its just a yes or no, but it would also mean a lot to me if you took the time to tell me why you think its a yes or no.  In the meantime, I'm going to go ahead and list it in the shop.  Its another piece that because of the focal and lampwork beads will be on the pricey side and I don't want to waste such beautiful components on a stupid construction if that is what it is in fact.

The beads do have the ability to slide up and down the leather, but they don't move too much from where you place them.

In keeping with the "Arrowhead" theme, I also made some copper "arrowhead" charms to hand here and there.

Orange Seahorse Bracelet

Today, I have an Orange Seahorse bracelet to show you.  I made it using a focal from Marti Conrad of her speckled stoneware clay with the seahorse glazed in a lovely orange glaze.  The color people, name escapes me right now as I haven't had coffee yet, tells us that Orange is supposed to be a very popular color this coming season.  I'm glad because I love orange.

I made the chain strap from red agate nuggets, one of which I capped with some new copper caps, and dark carnelian rounds.  Each bead was hand wrapped on copper wire, oxidized and tumble polished for that wonderful pinkish orange glow.

The second strand was woven onto orange waxed linen.  I just purchased waxed linen from White Clover Kiln in 54 different colors.  I'm loving that linen.  She also makes earthenware components, but I digress.  I alternated some dark amber AB seed beads and amber bugle beads and "tied" with small carnelian rounds.  I made the toggle clasp from copper and seed beads, added a couple of charms and here you go.

Earrings and Bracelet - Southwest Flavor

I have recently started buying lampwork art from a couple of etsy suppliers and I love their work.  The first is Outwest.  She makes beads that really capture the flavor of the west.  The second is Lynda Cogbill.  Her beads are broader in style, but I was drawn to this set of southwest beads.

The turquoise is from another etsy seller that I recently discovered.  Her products are great, her selection is managable, and her service is perfect.  Most of all, she is friendly.  Take a look at  Rosemary's shop sometime you have a moment.

I rarely use an entire set of lampwork in one piece because really good lampwork by a really good artist can make a piece very pricey, but this set was an exception.  It would have been like splitting up ninetuplets (or whatever you would call a litter of 9).  I simply separated with faceted pyrite, added some wavy copper spacers and stuck on a clasp.  That wonderful little heart turquoise magnesite bead also came from Rosemary's shop.

I hope you enjoy looking at them as much as I enjoyed making them.

Kristi Bowman Blog Hop Reveal Day

Well, today is the reveal day for Kristi Bowman's Blog Hop challenge.  I was excited to participate as I really love Kristi's copper clay components.  She has developed several wonderful textures and this is one of my favorites.  She gave us a choice of two bracelet connectors with which to participate - one with an ammonite design and one with a sea urchin design.  I love them both but I chose the ammonite.  Just a word on the beads that I used.  Some months ago, I received a packet of bead soup as a free gift with an order that I placed on etsy.  I don't remember who gave it to me, but I wish I could show them what I made with it.  Using the bead soup was not a challenge as it was exactly the type of beads I love working with.  I also wish I had taken a picture of the bead soup before I started, but again, I didn't.

These beads were included in the soup:  One etched evil eye barrel agate, one lampwork glass heart, five nugget shaped crackle fire agates, four wild horse jasper coins, and an assortment of light and dark amber seed beads with silver lining, and a small supply of very small matte black seed beads. 

I used everything in the bead soup except the few seed beads shown in the photograph.  They are in a copper bowl that Kristi made also with an ammonite texture design.

From my own stash, I added only a few red and orange lentil glass beads, a dark red African trade bead, the green trilobite Czech pressed glass bead and the brown leaf Czech pressed glass bead.

I hope you like the bracelet.

Click on the links below to see the bracelets of the other participants.  What fun this is!

Kristi Bowman Design http://dreamsomedesigns.blogspot.com/
Lana Kinney is sharing on Kristi's blog above

Jean Wells http://jeanawells.blogspot.com/ YOU ARE HERE

Melinda Orr http://orrtec.blogspot.com/

Sue Kennedy http://suebeads.blogspot.com/

Shannon Chomanczuk http://formysweetdaughter.blogspot.com/

Pam Brisse http://bluebetween.blogspot.com/

Melissa Cable http://createrecklessly.blogspot.com/

Cindy Wimmer http://www.sweetbeadstudio.com/

Mary Harding http://maryhardingjewelrybeadblog.blogspot.com/

Karen Totten http://starryroadstudio.blogspot.com/

Jan Molten Mayhem http://moltenmayhem.typepad.com/molten-mayhem/

Linda Landig http://lindasbeadblog.com/

Kristi Harrison http://kristibasket-itsanewday.blogspot.com/

Kimberly Sturrup http://bahamadawn.blogspot.com/

Sally Russick http://thestudiosublime.com/

New Bracelets

I just love making bracelets - I guess because I love wearing them.  I wear them more than any other type of jewelry with the exception of my wedding ring.

I found a shop on etsy a few months ago, Keystone Clay and Bead, owned by Kristin Baldschwiler.  She had a connector listed that I really liked but it was flat and I wanted to use it as a bracelet cuff.  She made one special just for me, along with several other pieces, and I am excited to debut a braclet made with her cuff.  I love the colors of it and I think the bracelet does it justice.  This is one of the pieces I have been struggling recently to finish and last night, I took another stab at it and it just came together.  I am anxious to also work with the other pieces I received from her.  She also generously included several gift pieces.  Thank you Kristin!

 I so enjoyed making the bangle with the clasp that I posted a few days ago that I set out to make another one.  I decided I wanted to make this one with smaller beads but still needed to stay with the handmade clay or some other beads that would fit on the 14 gauge wire that forms the skeleton of this bracelet.  I used a copper glaze heart from Karen Totten at Starry Road Studio as the focal.  I used two small red lampwork beads from Joyce O'Shay and four really small stoneware beads also by Karen.  I love the color palette of the green copper, brick red, and mustard tan.  I finished the ends with a variety of small copper beads. 

After I had the basic beads placed on the heavy gauge wire, I generously wrapped more copper wire between the beads on which I had strung small seed beads.  Remember the light and dark amber ones that I had left over from the Kristy Bowman ammonite blog bracelet - yep, I used those along with some copper seed beads.

I like this version, but the stoneware beads sort of fade into the copper wire wrapping.  This is one of those designs that is difficult to redo so I am leaving it like it is, but next time, I will know to use a tad larger beads.
 

Big Handed Woman Bangle Bracelet

I have big hands.  I mean big hands.  Women's gloves in a size large are tight on me.  Fortunately, they still look like women's hands, but they are large.  Did I say they are large.  Anyway, I have always loved bangle bracelets, especially the ones in silver and turquoise in the American Indian designs.  But, I have never been able to wear one because I could never get them over my hand or if I got it over my hand then it was too large on my wrist and looked like a hoola hoop on my arm.

Well, over the last few days I have been playing around with anything in my stash that even resembled a heart.  I came across this porcelain textured heart that I purchased from Ingrid Mueller.   I love the heart and when I spent a little time with it, I decided to try to put it and some other beads on a 14 gauge copper wire.  One thing led to another and I ended up with this bracelet.  What I love about it is that it has a clasp.  Even though it is very stiff and no doubt is a bangle style, I can still get it on without it being too large for my wrist.  I have now listed it in the Valentine's Day section of the shop.  I hope you guys like it.  It also includes other porcelain beads by Ingrid and a couple of lampwork beads.

I am already planning my next one.  I love to work with copper wire and this is a great way to get to do that.

Isn't that a gorgeous heart bead.  Ingrid, you are sooooo talented.