Pink Ribbon Turtles

The Pink Ribbon Turtles or now on eBay, for your viewing and bidding pleasure!
Of course you've seen pictures of my "Basking in the Sun" from a few weeks ago. Here are some pictures of the other things that are available for auction, with the proceeds going to the American Cancer Society for breast cancer research.

"Swimming for Freedom of Fear" was created by Karen L. Cohen. It is a 5.5" X 9.5" wall hanging that is bead, machine and ribbon embroidery on cotton.

"Bubbles" was created by Maria Teresa. It is a professionally framed bead embroidery picture in a 6" X 6" shadowbox frame.

"Fiona" was created by Jena Tuntas. She is a teeny beanie baby that is completely covered in bead embroidery.

And "Montees in Pink" is made by Bev Moon. An original design made with pink swarovski montees, and sterling silver beads.

There are only a few days left for the auctions, so I urge you to run over to the pink turtle website!

New Fall Goodies...

I added some new things to my etsy page today! Yeah! What a sense of accomplishment...I don't add often, so when I do, I feel good. This lovely necklace was sparked by the chunk of agate that is the centerpiece. We got a nice load of stone beads at Purple Sage, and lots of nice big chunks were part of it. I just couldn't resist the color of this one...

I wanted to go pretty simple with it, and let the stone BE the necklace...so over to the seed bead department I went. I couldn't decide between these three colors for it, so I decided to use them all, and try my hand at a triple spiral (Ive only done single, and double before...). What fun it was! A tight fit for all of those size 11's, even with a size 6 seed bead base. I bent my needle all up (and broke one also).

I couldn't decide which side of the stone was the right one(after discussing with my hubby and realizing we had a difference of opinion about which side was meant to be in front) so it is now labeled "reversible"! I also made the bail big enough that it could be taken off all together, so just the rope can be worn.

A beaded bead makes up the clasp, with a RAW loop to secure it. The bicones I used on the beaded bead are glass, but have a texture to them that is very similar to the stone.

I also finished this lovely spiderweb necklace that I made last year. I made this necklace because I wanted to try something out that I had seen in a magazine right around that time. I believe the article was by Dustin Wedekind, or "bead boy" as he is sometimes called. Anyway, it was right around Halloween, and the etsy-beadweaver challenge happened to be "animal instincts". I thought this necklace would be perfect, but let myself get talked out of it by people who said "spiders aren't technically animals...". Another women entered a spiderweb necklace made with bugle beads, and hers sold very quickly. I had missed the entry deadline, and was then so discouraged, I didn't even finish it. It was tossed aside to the UFO pile until just recently.

Well we all know that Halloween comes around only once a year, so my window of opportunity on selling this one is closing quickly...

I already had all the spider "bodies", which are swarovski crystals. So I finally sat down, and put the spiders in their webs, and I must say, I think they look at home there!

Star light, Star bright...

First star Ive beaded tonight! Well not actually beaded tonight, but you get the picture. I had a last minute rush job of making a tiara and barrettes for a bride who is getting married tomorrow. So in 2 days time, I designed and executed this star themed tiara. I was very worried that she wouldn't like it, but she said she loved it, and it was better then she imagined! I don't do a lot of custom orders, so this is all very new to me.
I made 1 large star with an 18mm rivoli bezzelled into the center of it, then made 2 smaller stars, and some crystal stars to go around it. The focal piece is on the left side, because this is how she wanted it! She really likes stars (not only the theme of the wedding, but in everything she does in life).

I wrapped topped drilled crystals (both 6mm and 8mm), 4mm pearls, and silver stars onto the rest of the tiaras length. Lots of sparkle for the day we all want to be the sparkliest (is that actually a word?).

Then I had these barrettes to make for the flower girl. I was told that she had very fine hair, so they needed to be small. Each barrette is about one and a half inches long, with 1 large star (same size as the smaller stars from the tiara) and 2 crystal stars. I don't know whether she will wear both, or just one. The hairdresser will get to decide that.

I am really happy with how it all turned out. I felt good when I went to bed last night(a little later then normal), and feel even better about it today after giving them to the bride and getting her reaction. The stars were not as easy as I had imagined, but easy in the long run. I used Diane Fitzgeralds' book Shaped Beadwork for the inspiration. I started with a pentagon shape, and added 5 triangles for the points. Easy as pie, right? Well actually, easier then pie (I hate making pie crust!)!

Basking in the Sun

Well Ive finally finished! I came up with this idea in January, but put it aside until it was almost to late. This is for the Pink Ribbon Turtle Project 2009. Many years ago Jena Tuntas started making pink ribbon turtles in memory of her mother. She would raffle off a picture that she had made of turtles, with pink shells... the rink ribbon turtles! Last year a story was published about the Pink Ribbon Turtles, and I contacted Jena to see if I could help.

This is now my second Pink Ribbon Turtle (I helped with a 4-way project last year). Jena really made it easy this year to get involved, by saying do whatever it is you want for a project, just remember the shells of the turtle must be pink. I'm a little late with my donation (its been that kind of year), but better late then never, right? The Pink Ribbon Turtles are already underway this year, so go and check them out!

I made my turtles out of Swarovski rivolis in dark rose, and fuchsia. I bezelled them, and then did some st. petersburg stitch around the rivolis to make their shells. They have top drilled bicones in peridot for their feet and heads, and regular bicones on their tails. I square stitched the lilly pads, and made a water lilly flower according to most of the instructions from Diane Fitzgerald's book, The Beaded Garden. I just changed the middle of the flower to one pale yellow bicone, instead of a beaded bead like in Diane's version.

Block Party 2009!

Once again, Monica Magness is doing a raffle to help raise funds for breast cancer. She is taking all sorts of donations, and there is an art block quilt that are all up for raffle. Please check out her site, Girl-gone-thread-wild , to read more about it! I have decided to donate this necklace that I made to the prize wheel, so if you like it, go buy a raffle ticket. Maybe you'll win it, and even if you don't, you'll know that the money is for a good cause.
This 20 1/2 inch long necklace features a pendant made by Anderson Coats (my brother) of GuruGlassworks . The necklace is a herringbone rope made up of multiple sizes of beads including size 15's, delica 11's, size 11 seed beads, size 10 triangles, size 8 seed beads, and 4mm swarovski bicones. The sizes are graduated to give the herringbone rope more visual interest.

I finished the necklace off with a sparkly wheel toggle made with 4mm swarovski crystals, delicas and size 15 seed beads. It really is a very nice necklace, in a golden lime color, which the pictures do no justice. The crystals are lime AB, and there are rose and olive highlights throughout the beadwork that are also in the pendant.

I really hope you all go over to Monicas' blog, and read more about this, and take a look at all of the goodies she has on the prize wheel (more then just jewelry!). Breast cancer has once again hit my family, and almost everyone I know has a loved one that is affected by cancer. Only together can we actually defeat cancer!

A couple of new things...

At work on Saturday August 8Th I had the pleasure of repairing a necklace that was just fantastic! It was a choker entirely made up of seed bead coral fringe. The texture of it was just amazing so I was compelled to make this bracelet(which takes less time then a whole necklace!) It was a lot of fun to make, and it feels great on. Very luxurious!
I just listed it on my etsy site, so if your interested, stop by and take a peak. There are more photos of it there also.

After fixing the above mentioned coral necklace, I had to make a few beaded beads for a customer, and decided I needed a couple of those for myself, so I bought some lime green pearls, some peridot crystals and made up 8 of them. Well, the dilemma of what to put with these beaded beads then presented itself. Green goes with turtles, and I haven't made a rivoli turtle in a while so I made my pendant a turtle with a brick stitch bail.

Isn't he cute? He's made out of an 18mm rivoli with a 10mm round crystal for his head, some 8mm top-drilled bicones for legs, and two 4mm bicones for a tail. I'm starting to think about writing up the instructions for making this cutie, and selling the instructions. Any thoughts on this, or advice?

After making the pendant, I still needed some length to this necklace so I made some peyote tubes. I added some more pearls, and crystals, and a bunch of sterling silver to finish it all off. This ones for my own collection, which is something I don't do often, but I thought I needed a new piece to wear to work and it got great reviews!

Use the Muse II

Scarlett Lansen has finally revealed the winners of the Use the Muse II contest! There is a great photo gallery of all the entries at her website, if you have time you should check it out. Since the muse has finally been unveiled, it now means I can share what I made with my kit.
The entry deadline for this contest was on July 18Th, which was also the day my youngest sister got married! What a coincidence that the wedding was on the beach at Fife Lake, and all the colors in the kit reminded me of water. It also had pearls and the 'muse' was a shell piece by Lilly Pilly. I bought a few more fresh water pearls, and some crystals to add to the kit, and just stitched until it said "done!"