ZNet Shows and On-Line 'Zine

I was able to be creative recently and it's something I haven't been able to do in a long time. First because I had no ideas, no desire, no Muse speaking to me. Second, when I finally felt I was going to hear from my long-absent Muse, I went and broke my ankle (in three places, no less) and had to have surgery on it. I wasn't confident/controlled enough on my crutches to get down into my craft room (even if it was only one step) because, the one time I tried, I lost my balance and fell again (without the same consequences as before, thank God!) so I wasn't about to try until recently.

That said, I was one of the group of designers for ZNet.com asked to participate in designing some jewelry for their upcoming on-line 'zine and received a bunch of lovely beads to work with. Me being me, I made earrings. I love earrings. I think I've mentioned before how much I love earrings because they are so feminine and swing-y. Here's what I managed to create using ZNet's recycled sea-glass beads (and some of my own). Enjoy! )Also, here's the link to the On-Line E'Zine and a link to the sea-glass page on ZNet's web site)

Clockwise from top: Dolphins, teal sea-glass
tubes and sea-foam pearls, light blue starfish
 and baby blue tulip-style beads all of
recycled sea-glass and a few of my own beads.

Top right; black recycled sea glass, multicolored
findings, orange sea glass.
Bottom left; teal sea glass tubes, orange sea glass,
garnet pearls on copper wire.

Top right;  pearls in black, gray, & white with
red sea glass and red crystal accents.
Bottom left; red and blue sea glass, white
pearls, & green crystals.

Top to bottom; two green sea glass squares,
teal sea glass tubes; green sea glass square,
yellow Czech glass squares; green sea glass,
white pearls on copper wire. 

Hope you enjoyed seeing them as much as I enjoyed making them.

(addendum) I wrote this right after I made these and I've since made several more earrings from ZNet's sea glass. I'll post them later.

Weekend Bangles

This weekend I spent only a short time in the craft room (still have a puppy to take care of!) but I managed to make these memory wire bracelets. I'm not usually a bracelet person so I was a bit surprised at (and pleased with) myself.

moonstone chips, pink & white square beads, one
murani style glass bead (just peaking from under
the moonstone in the center, there) and sea blue
glass beads as accents. I like this one. I'm actually
wearing this right now. 

 

made with crystal pearls from ZnetShows.com, silver
spacers from Michael's and a faceted black rondelle
as an accent. Like this one, too, but I let Saner Sister
have it, along with the one below.



black beads, square silver spacers, and one black swirl
glass focal bead. Really, I'm going to have to do this
again.... do I have enough beads? Hmm....

rose quartz chips, pink round beads, hot pink pressed
glass beads and a few glass moonstone beads as
accents (the glass moonstone are also from Znet)


And, suddenly, PUPPY!!


at 12 weeks... He's a Weimaraner (or Weim if you
want to shorten it) Also called the Gray Ghost
because of their coloring and style of hunting
(they're sight hunters)

1st visit to his new vet. He did SO well!

Waiting to see the vet... who came out and said,
"Oh! I see you have a pair of ears with a puppy attached!"
(snork) Yes, Weims usually have huge water absorbers
on either side of their heads.

 

exhausted from a hard afternoon chewing end tables



Learning that sleeping with Crazier Sister does not mean
IN THE SAME BED as me. Crazy, maybe, but not
insane! He's gonna be over 100lbs one day!!! Train 'em
now in the way you mean to go on! (13 weeks, 36.5 lbs)


And now you know what's keeping me busy!
What about you?

Black & White Challenge Blog Hop

Sally over at The Studio Sublime challenged us to a hop wherein we made jewelry using only the colors of black and white (not counting wire). Y'know, I've got black beads and white beads all over but I've never (except once) sat down with the express purpose of putting them together. So, here's my contribution to her unique (to me, at least) hop challenge:

had some black chiffon that worked beautifully
I'm really getting more into mixing in ribbon or
fabric into my jewelry. Love it.

going for the asymetrical style with this pair

It was really difficult not to add in red. I

wanted to SO badly!

                                           top to bottom: grayish crystals, milky grey/white

pearls trapped in a cage-like finding (Michael's)

and black faceted crystal dangles.

                                              Going for simple with these: the longer pair,

I used some cream/white glass pearls from

ZnetShows.com, the wire is copper that I

heated to ball up and dumped in cold water

to cause that rosy pink coloring. (hope it

still falls within the rules!) I did two pair

because I just wanted simple as well as

simple with a touch more elegance.

                                                 these are major shoulder sweepers! again,

I used material for the lower part, black and

white batik/African style print from a fan

that broke so I salvaged the cloth. It went

perfect with the round black and white beads.

again, top to bottom: cream/white glass pearls

from ZnetShows, white(ish) man-made blister

pearls, cones from Michaels and inside are a

small black bead, white pearl and larger black bead

(to keep things from pulling up too far into the cone)

                                           recycled white glass/sea glass from ZnetShows

strung with a silver finding and black seed bead.

                                          top to bottom: black bead, end caps from a small

set of vials I decided not to use, white glass beads

white man-made "shell" rounds (Michael's again)

So, that's my contribution to this challenge. Thanks, Sally, for the kick in the pants to get the ol' Muse thinking and creating again.  Please visit the other participants to see what they've done!
 

Sally Russick  (HOSTESS)

Monique Urquhart

Patti Vanderbloemen

Veralynne Malone

Duane Clark

D Lynne Bowland

Michelle Buettner

Pam Sears  (**YOU ARE HERE**)

Therese Frank

Dawn Doucette

Nicole Rennell

Cynthia Machata

Alice Peterson

Carolyn Lawson

Evelyn Shelby

Ailsa Cordner

Michelle Escano

Mischelle Fanucchi

Jess Green

Adrienne Berry

Lynsey Brooks

Kashmira Patel

Ann Schroeder

Marlene Cupo

Susan F.

Susan Kennedy

Kathy Lindemer

Paula Kramer

Lisa Johnson

Sandi Volpe

Donna Bradley

Karin Slaton

Jasvanti Patel

Stefanie Teufel

Liz Engriser

Christine Altmiller

Znet Shows Beachy Challenge

Well... I know I work best under the wire but,,, sheesh!  Anyway, I once again am part of the design team for Znetshows.com and this time they paired us up. My Beachy Beady Partner is Suzette over at Ellie's Bijoux.  What we were supposed to do was choose beads for our partners! Wow! Talk about mixing it up. I loved what Suzette sent me:  Here's a peek at the scrumptious pile of goodies I received:

Aren't they just awesome?  Gotta tell ya, though, I had an interesting time figuring out how I was going to use those lovely pearls!  BUT!  Here's what I came up with, enjoy:

Chinese Crystal Bling Ball in Olive
BDS1912 (BDS1912-22)

I wasn't sure, at first, how to use those "bling balls" but I remembered I had some cupped glass in my stash that I'd been hording saving and they worked wonderfully. I think they look a lot like artichokes (I'm sorry, I see things a weeeee bit differently) so these are Artichoke Heart earrings.

                                                     1) Cultured Sea Glass center-drilled
                                                       bottle lip-style P28 (P28-B30)
                                                     2) Sponge Coral twig beads
                                                         CB158 (CD158-05)
                                                     3) Glass Pearls BDS1617
                                                          (BDS1617-39FIVE)
                                                     4) Synthetic Calsilica Donut
                                                          BDS1746 (BDS1746-03)

I call these Boat & Buoys. Can you see why?  And I added the sponge coral twigs and glass pearls because they just seemed to work. (that's how I roll!)

                                             1) Base Metal alloy Bead - Twisted Vine
                                                 Wreath Charm M0111 (M0022-AB)
                                             2) Syntheti Calsilica Donuts BDS1746
                                                 (BDS1746-03)
                                             3) Chinese Turquoise Barrel Beads - bamboo
                                                  shape w/rondelle spacers TQS24 (TQS24-04)

This is Turquoise Skies.  The only part that doesn't come from ZnetShows are the washers in back, there. I hammered the bejabbers out of a couple washers, dabbed them with "Stream" alchol inks and buffed them with Ren-Wax to seal.  I like how these turned out. I am having a hard time not keeping them.  Of course, I have more of these components so I could always make myself a pair!

                                                    used the aforementioned sponge coral
                                                    twigs and Chinese glass pearls for this

Those of you who follow me know I can make earrings all day long and no problem.  But I can never make a necklace and leave it at that. The necklace MUST be accompanied by a pair of earrings.  So, here's a set I call Silver Beaches using the sponge coral and glass pearls.  I wire wrapped the pearls to the coral and hung it and some gorgeous recycled sari ribbon from a washer I hammered. I'd actually worked on the washer for another project but had set it aside. The hammering on it just made me think of a sandy beach (don't ask why.... did I mention I'm not really a beachy person?  I am much more a mountains and forest person... Saner Sister is the beachy person)  Anyway, paired with the ribbon it just all seemed to go well together.  The necklace is approximately 18" long and the earrings not quite 2" long. I also added a blue glass bead from the sea glass to the earrings so it had that touch of blue in the necklace.

And there you have it.  I still have plenty of beads and glass left so I'm sure there will be more stuff coming.  I also finally bought my ferric acid and have plans to try some etching soon (for why I've been absent, check out my previous post here).  To see what my partner in crime, Suzette, did go here and be prepared to ooh and ahh over her jewels!   Also be sure to check out the ZnetShows Blog as they are having a give away! With all the yummy stuff they have available, you'll want to be sure to hop on over and enter as well as see what other pairs have come up with in their challenges.

Oh, How Beauti-mous!

I showed you a few posts back that a beading buddy of mine was making me a bracelet.  Said beading buddy works with seed beads and does beautiful work.  Well, same-said buddy sent me the bracelet a couple of days ago and I'm almost afraid to wear it, it's that gorgeous.  I showed my dad and he says the same thing. It's a work of art!  Here are a few shots I took with my iPhone. Yes, sorry, that is my wrist in there.  Yes, I have freckles. It's what happens when you're a fair-skinned (used-to-be) red head.  Anyway, enjoy the pics of her gorgeous art work:



Love the Plume Agate: can't really tell from
this shot, but that "warp" to the right? Yeah,
those have faint blue inclusions in them.
I loved that when she let me pick the stone.



She picked the Blue Lace Agate to compliment
the blue in the Plume Agate. Love it! :)

Didn't I tell you? Art work! This is even
prettier in real life. The work is so delicate
looking yet the stones and size give it
enough weight to not look silly on my wrist.

Seed Bead Phobia

I have a friend at work who also makes jewelry, but she uses the seed beads where I use the larger glass or stone beads (or, soon I hope, made-em-myself polymer clay beads).  She has made numerous creations in the last few years that I've known her and I just feel my jaw unhinge every time she shares a photo of what she's working on or has entered in this fair or that contest.  Dorothy is just so creative. And WAY more patient than I am. I just don't believe I have it in me to sit down and work with those teeeeeny tiiiiiiny seed beads the way she does (and can). I just know myself well enough to know I'd get frustrated in a short amount of time and I'm not sure where the seed beads would end up, but it wouldn't be my table or a design (lol).

Anyway!  Dorothy is in the process of making me a bracelet and I tho't I'd share it with all of you and brag on her abilities just a little bit.

She tells me the main focal stone is plume agate and the side
stones are blue lace agate. Isn't this just GORgeous!?!?!

New Year, New Work

Okay, I've been working this last week on some more jewelry for my store and was finally able to take pictures.  Happily, I was able to use my new Canon Rebel camera for the pics and they look pretty good. Semi-happily I was able to set the items up in my table top studio. Sadly, only part of the studio was in working order (one of the lights refuses to work which means we're going to need to take it back and get a new one... which may need to be ordered... which means I won't get to use my studio for a while longer... sigh)

Oh, well.  It'll get here eventually.  Until then, here are some of the pics I took.  I'll work on some more this weekend and see what I can set up outside, around the house, etc.  You never know! :)

I kept these, but I'm going to make
another pair to go into my store.
Cute, eh?

~Earth Metal~
Now in my Etsy store

My first attempt to play with copper
tubing and some wire I had. Debating
whether to put this in the store or wait
until I've made a few more attempts at
any kind of wire/metal work.



~Forest Wisdom~
Again with the Autumn colors. This
is the necklace I restrung with the
cute little hooty-owl. Going into my
Etsy store soon, too.



I bought these from Lima Beads. I tho't
they made cuter earrings than they
did necklace or bracelet embellishments.

Set 2, this time with a
little blue dangle used from
Michelle Mach's snowflake
challenge box. Cute, eh?

Pearl Fans - simple pair
of earrings made with gray
and charcoal pearls.