Holiday Ornaments and Snowflake Earrings

I can't tell you how excited I was to find a variety of shatterproof ornaments at k-mart this year. When I saw so many colors I went a little crazy and bought lots of them. Shatterproof is the way to go IMO, why bother with glass ornaments if you'll be worried about your child or pet hurting themselves with glass.
I'm not sure how many more ornaments I'll be doing, as it's time to be working on holiday gifts!
Here are the ornaments I have so far, all listed in my etsy and artfire shops.












The snowflakes I used for the last 2 ornaments, and for the snowflake earrings below are an original pattern from Sandra D. Halpenny, and is used with her permission. Thanks Sandra!
The snowflake earrings would be great for holiday parties or even everyday wear. They're cute and they weigh next to nothing.

Holy beading Batman!

For a good portion of the summer I didn't do ANY beading - I was too busy being outside and working on my hoopdancing to be stuck inside.

Now that the leaves are all on the ground and a little bit of snow has fallen, I'm back to hibernating and beading like a madman. Recently I finished this Batman cuff bracelet. It's woven with delica beads in matte black, yellow, and steel. The steel makes it super shimmery when it moves, yet it's not exactly feminine either. It measures 7-1/2" long, and 2" wide at the widest part of the cuff and is finished with a sterling silver slide clasp. Elegant indeed!

Hello again!

Hi there readers, fellow bloggers, fellow jewelry designers, and everyone who stumbles onto my humble blog. It seems that I've taken a bit of a hiatus. See, I spent so much time taking pictures and blogging and doing the social networking thing - and I just got a little burnt out. I'd much rather be beading but I suppose it comes along with the territory. SO, I'll be back here every so often with some beady goodness. I can't promise it will be every day or even every other day, but it will happen. Once a week sounds like a reasonable goal right?!
I just got started on some Christmas presents, so I'll have those for you to oogle shortly.

Hope everyone had a happy halloween last night! My husband and I had a good number of little ghouls and goblins come to the door, but not quite enough...we still have way to much candy left over!

Paisley Peacock Necklace

I've been itching to show this one off, but I had to wait! It was a custom order for a friend, and he gave it to his fiancee for Valentine's day. He says she absolutely loved it - which I absolutely loved to hear!

When he first came to me for a custom order, he said she loves mettalic colors, swirls, and anything peacock. I came up with a quick sketch design and sent it off to him. He approved the design and off I went!

I started with a glass swarovski pearl, teardrop shaped. Around that I beaded with delica beads, in brick stitch. After finishing the four petals I assembled them the way I thought they would sit best, and added a swarovski crystal drop. The chain is gold filled, and the ovals are large enough to clasp on to, so that the necklace can be worn either long or choker style. I can't wait to see the necklace on her, she is very beautiful already...so I'm sure this necklace compliments her well!

Well hello again!

It's been awhile. I hope everyone had a pleasant holiday season, one filled with lots of love, family, egg nog, all that good stuff!
Unfortunately for me, things got a bit hectic at my office job. Without delving too deeply into everything, I've had less time to do more. Suffice to say, my internet presence and social networking have taken a back burner.
I still have made time to bead, but I haven't been as aggressive as I usually am about it. Last year, I put a lot of time into photographing, descriptions, listings on online auction sites, and marketing. While I can't say that it did nothing for me, perhaps I had a few sales from it all, it's not how I want to continue to spend my time. So, I decided that this year is going to be for me. Sure, I'll put a few items on etsy from time to time, but I have one main goal - to have fun! There's a bunch of patterns out there I want to try, ones in magazines that I enjoyed looking at and "mentally beaded" along with, that I never actually physically did. There's some cross needle 3-d patterns I want to try - because they look fun, and a bit challenging. If I get around to listing them for sale, that's fine, if not, that's fine too. As long as I am having fun, it's all good.

Not to leave you completely without beady goodness - here is a little something I made for myself for New Years Eve. The necklace was inspired by Russian beading, and the earrings are a classic Russian Leaf. I wore a lovely black and gold sequin dress and gold sequin boots, so this set really completed the outfit for me.