Turquoise and Silver

Only they're not.  I'm pretty sure that the "turquoise" is actually dyed Howlite, which takes dyes quite well because of its porous surface and is used to replicate other more expensive stones, like turquoise.  I'm not sure what the "silver nuggets" are, they may be pressed glass.  This is a kit from Annie's Simply Beads Kit-of-the-Month club.  I joined on a whim during my Christmas vacation.  I received the kit this past Thursday and made all three of these pieces that evening.  As you can tell, the kit had ample supplies and I still have some leftovers.  The directions that came with the kit presented several different design ideas, explaining the different techniques required to make each one, encouraging individual design creativity.  The necklace on the left was one of the design options presented, as were the earrings, the one on the right I made up with left over components.  I figured the club might be a fun and relatively inexpensive way to try some different things, plus I like getting surprise presents.  The initial kit was $13.94, but regular kits will be about twice that.  You can pick how often you get kits - minimum timing is once a month, I believe the maximum was one every six months and it looks like you can handle most of your account functions easily on-line.

So why the jewelry kick?  Well, the position that I moved into last October requires me to dress up a bit more than I used to, so I have been wearing jewelry on a regular basis, and I love to have a variety to choose from.  As I've said before, that is one of the advantages of my new position, I get to wear a lot of the beautiful things that I have made.