Sunday Photo

What's on Sale in the Jewelry section?

When you're Beading on a Budget, you always need to know what's on sale in the jewelry section of your local craft store. A couple of weeks ago, I found these for less than $2.00 US each.



Nice earthy, organic materials and colors - wood circles with pre-drilled holes and antique copper finish flower filigree charms.

I decided on a pair of earrings using my mini spirals in mango and combined them with findings from my stash. I bought the gunmetal findings on a trip to the Rings n Things Bead Tour. I'm still working out the details of the design, you know how I'm a commitment phobe but this is one design I think I'm gonna keep. I skipped a hole on both sides of the mini mango spirals to give the filigree charms some room to move. These earrings will be about movement and earthy colors.

What do you think? You like?

Keep the names coming.....

Hello Readers!

At least I hope there are readers...afterall, I don't REALLY know that do I? I mean I can't see you and this isn't a book you take out of the library so I'm assuming someone is reading my blog and not just me when I proofread it.

How I love to digress, anyhoo...yesterday I was telling you about how jewelry designing colleague, Cyndi Lavin and I are trying to come up with a name for a necklace she designed.

Readers have been posting their ideas for a name - keep 'em coming! If you've posted once and think of another idea, feel free to post again. One particularly creative reader added a history which I found unique - you may not read all the comments so I'm going to post it here. It was posted yesterday by Kwikarma

"It reminds me of the 1900's in new orleans when the creole madams would lock their girls in their room and keep time to get the cut. They were very exotice, dark and beautiful. The key is also a replica from that era . I think it should be

Madame Labeaux' Sanctum"

Collaboration Design Numero Quattro

I'm a bad girl. Yup, I admit it. Why you ask? On a day like today, when we're excited about unveiling the Collaboration Exploration with Beverly Herman and Elaine Ray? Well, I'm bad because when I received the beads from Elaine, so many ideas ran through my head about how I could combine her beads with my spirals that I haven't really been able to settle on just one. You might remember my commitment issues with beads. I have a hard time committing lovely beads to just one design forever and ever.

I wonder if Elaine and Bev had a hard time committing? Maybe not - I'll be excited to see what they've done! A BIG THANK YOU to both of them for playing! This has been a blast! Thanks to Art Bead Scene for bringing us together!

Since I ran out of time before I was able to commit, I'm unveiling while still in the design process - today's design is number 4. Yup. I made 3 necklaces with this set of beads and took them apart to make this one. Design numero quattro! I'm still not satisfied with the design. Numero quattro is only a stepping stone to design number 5. But I ran out of time - we all agreed to post today.

So, this design is a whim - I wanted to try out the Cascade yarn I bought on a whim one day. The colors in the yarn are a bit brighter than the autumnal colors in the beads - a harbinger of warmer days to come. The yarn is 100% viscose so it's very soft (and impossible to knot). I love Elaine's off white oval beads, an unexpected surprise in the crocheted necklace. Since the necklace is full of such surprise and lightness, it's appropriate to call this Collaboration Necklace, "Whim."

The shoreline....

It's September which means I have to let go of summer...sigh...it always comes too quickly for me. I was organizing the summer vacation photos and was inspired to create a spiral that reminds me of the beautiful hues of green and blue in the water of Lake Huron.

Striped Spirals....

Certain colors of glass will "interact" - when layered on top of one another, the glass colors will create new colors causing outlines, brown halos, and unexpected colorations. I've been playing with the idea in the spirals. This is my latest creation - the striped spiral. You can see a fine line of brown where the blue and the yellow meet. I like the iridescent striping and yellow is always one of my favorites. What do you think?

Spirals go Wholesale!

Spirals are being offered for wholesale. If you're a qualified buyer, you can now purchase spirals at wholesale prices. Go to the wholesale page on my website for details.