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!"

Montana Sapphire

This is my entry to the etsy-beadweaver August challenge, First Ladies of Style. I got these BEAUTIFUL montana crystals from Artbeads.com , and when I saw them, I knew they had style written all over them! I think one of the finest jewelry combinations of all time is the sapphire and diamond, so I decided to surround these beauties with crystal AB crystals(and lots of them!).

The focal piece for this necklace is a whopping 40X27 mm tear drop (or "fancy pear" as they call it) that is nothing less then drool-worthy. What a pleasure to work with! I don't know about the rest of you, but montana is not one of my favorite swarovski colors (its not bad though), but when I got this crystal...WOW! Most people that have seen it didn't even realize that it was montana! What a beauty! I surrounded it with 4mm crystal AB crystals, and then connected it to its little rivoli buddies (also surrounded by crystals )2 size 14mm rivolis, and 3 size 12 mm rivolis on each side of the necklace. After 2 days of contemplation (okay, really I was trying different ideas, and ripping them back out ) I decided to go with braided herringbone ropes to finish off the straps. Both the ropes, and everywhere else in the necklace I used size 11 delicas and size 15 seed beads in a silver-lined crystal.

For the toggle I used a sparkly wheel (original pattern designed by Nikia Angel) made with 4mm montana and 4mm crystal ABs and a peyote tube for the bar. I will say again, just how beautiful these crystals from Artbeads.com are, and I cant wait to get started on the crystal copper rivolis (that also came from Artbeads!) I plan to use for the etsy-beadweavers September challenge, Indian Summer Dreams!

If you want to see the rest of the creations that the etsy-beadweavers made for this challenge and to vote for your favorite, got to the etsy beadweaver blog between August 9th and 15th !
If you are interested in buying this piece, please visit my etsy site at http://www.beadwoman3.etsy.com/