Turn up the heat!

Back in January, I was contacted by Artbeads letting me know the topic of their next blogging for beads program*, Winter enchantment. We were to design a piece that represented what we found beautiful or inspirational about the winter season. And to me, there is NOTHING inspirational or beautiful about it. I can sum it all up for me with four simple words...TURN UP THE HEAT! I freeze my booty off all winter long, so I made a necklace that would warm things up. A ring of flames! I started with a teardrop pendant (swarovski of course), which I bezelled, and then brick stitched into a flame shape.

Then I took 30 swarovski teardrop beads, and brick stitched around them to make lots of little flames. You might recognize this pattern from Diane Fitzgerald's "Beading with Brick Stitch book." Its the paisley pattern (but I think they look like flames)! I even made a paisley toggle to finish it off! The beads are all silver-lined so they REALLY sparkle, and of course the crystals help the sparkle factor too!

Now this next one is something I made when the etsy-beadweavers were doing their "Fashion through the ages" challenge. I didn't take part in the challenge because I came up with this four days before the deadline. Lots of people were posting their entries which were inspired by the fashion from their youth so I started thinking about what I wore when I was younger...

Everyone wore studs when I was younger. I hung out with the "punk" kids, and lots of people had jewelry or belts made of black leather with silver metal studs on them. I think my husband still has one of these belts hiding in the closet somewhere!

So a band of matte black delicas with silver metallic studs was born...and I really like it (just like I did back then)!

*disclaimer- all products recieved from Artbeads.com are free of charge in return for my honest opinion of the product