Cape Cod in Bloom Necklace

Remember this bracelet?

Lovely design, but...it is a bit long and will slip off of my hand with very little encouragement, and those focal beads add a fair bit of weight.  I wore it to work one day, and while it never came off, it was worrisome.  So, I decided to get a second kit and make a necklace.  I was going to try to do matching earrings, but when I did that the necklace came out just a little too short.

Project - Cape Cod in Bloom.

Coiled Agate Bracelet

This is the second shipment from the Annie's Simply Beads Kit-of-the-Month Club.  This is a memory wire bracelet - something that I've never done before (part of the point of the club was to try new things).  It is a fun, simple project that took no time at all to make.  I have set things up to automatically charge one of my credit cards, and the charge appears the first of the month, so I go and check my account to see what kit I will be receiving next.  The kits ship out on the 7th and mine arrived in a week.  This month I will be receiving the Simply Earrings kit.

Swarovski Splurge

I spent all of last evening assembling some Swarovski jewelry that I bought components for.  First I finished up this necklace, Gulf Stream, which I got from Artbeads.  This is a variation of another necklace that I recently made, Nouveau Navettes.  This version did away with the extra length of chain, and it is all Swarovski beads.  I do like it, but it is a lot heavier.

List of Components:
Swarovski 13304 Rhodium-Plated Navette Charm with Crystal (13304-RCRY7, qty 16)
Swarovski 5810 10mm Round Pearl Turquoise (5810-TRQ10, qty 16)
Swarovski 5000 8mm Faceted Round Sapphire (5000-SAP8, qty 16)
Swarovski 5028 6mm Crystal Globe Bead Peridot (5028-PER6, qty 16)
Antique Silver-Plated Brass Curb Chain (BTF-0204, qty 2)
3-Inch Head Pin, 20 Gauge (Sterling Silver) (SS-HP03, qty 16)
6x15mm Stainless Steel Oval Trigger Clasp (CLASP-0361, qty 1)
4.5mm Gunmetal-Plated 21 Gauge Open Jump Ring (BGM-OJR04-A, qty 4)

This necklace and earring set I got from Fusion Beads, another great place to shop.  It came from their inspiration page and you can order all of the components and download a pdf of the instructions from the project page.

 

Cinnamon Sparkle Necklace and Cinnamon Sparkle Earrings.

Materials for the Necklace:

28 - 4mm Crystal Copper Swarovski Crystal Round Beads (04RD0203)

10 - 6mm Crystal Copper Swarovski Crystal Round Beads (06RD0250)

1 - 18mm Crystal Copper Swarovski Crystal Rondelle Bead (SC3935)

20 - 8mm Maroon Swarovski Crystal Pearls (PL6535)

6 - 10mm Maroon Swarovski Crystal Pearls (PL6536)

2 - 12mm Maroon Swarovski Crystal Pearls (PL6537)

1 - 4x.5x12mm Gold-Filled LobsterClasp with Ring (GF2801)

1 - 6mm Gold-Filled Closed Jump Ring (GF2722)

2 - 2x2mm Gold-Filled Crimp Beads (GF2788)

2 - 3.4mm Gold-Filled Crimp Bead Covers (GF2101)

2 feet - Clear Soft Flex Beading Wire .014 Diameter (SM0310)

Materials for the Earrings:

4 - 2mm Crystal Copper Swarovski Crystal Round Beads (02RD0106)

4 - 4mm Crystal Copper Swarovski Crystal Round Beads (04RD0203)

4 - 8mm Maroon Swarovski Crystal Pearls (PL6536)

2 - 18mm Crystal Copper Swarovski Crystal Rondelle Beads (SC3935)

1 pair - 20mm Sterling Silver Ear Wire with Front Loops (SS2600)

2 - 22 Gauge Sterling Silver 2 Inch Head Pins (SS4011)

 
This bracelet features the new Swarovski color - Tangerine.  I like simple sparkly bangle bracelets.

Tangerine Dream Bracelet.

Materials:

32 - 4mm Topaz Swarovski Elements Crystal Bicone Beads (04BI1137)

16 - 6mm Smoked Topaz Swarovski Elements Crystal Round Beads (06RD0132)

16 - 8mm Tangerine Swarovski Elements Crystal Round Beads (08RD0314)

1 - 11x16.5mm Gold Plated Base Metal 2 Strand Tube Bar Clasp (BM3068)

18 inches - Clear Soft Flex Wire .014 diameter (SM0310)

4 - 2x2mm Gold-Filled Crimp Beads (GF2788)

4 - 3.5mm Gold-Filled Crimp Bead Covers (GF2101)

Amber

Last week A Grain of Sand was advertising amber.  I missed out on the lovely pendants, but did buy a couple of strands when I ordered the extra strand of red pearls for my multi-strand pearl necklace.  I also bought a two strand clasp.  I just wanted something simple that would showcase the amber in a natural way.

Materials:
1 strand Baltic Butterscotch Amber Nugget Beads
1 strand Green Caribbean Amber Stacked Beads
Soft Flex Extreme 925 Sterling Silver Metallic Flex Wire (0.019 inch diameter)

Pearls, pearls, pearls

I bought two strands of each color  when A Grain of Sand had pearls on sale last month just because I thought they were pretty.  When I saw the two colors together I knew that I wanted to make a multi-strand necklace with them so I ordered another strand of each color.  Last weekend I pulled the clasp out of my stash and discovered that it had seven attachment rings on each side, not six, so I ordered another strand of the red pearls.  Of course when you wear it, you would "style" it by twisting it around thusly:

Materials:
4 strands red and 3 strands natural pink rice freshwater pearls
Soft Flex Extreme 925 Sterling Silver Metallic Flex Wire Fine (0.014 inch diameter)
Multi-strand silver clasp

Polymer and Pearls - Last One

This is the last Polymer Clay bead in my bead stash.  I used Peacock Green and Pale Cranberry pearls, both from Artbeads.  Strung on Soft Flex Extreme Flex 925 Sterling Silver Metallic Flex Wire, Fine (0.014 in diameter).  Now that I have made necklaces with all of the Polymer Clay beads I will have to decide which beads to tackle next.

Vintage Italian Lucite Moonglow Beads

I don't usually go for large beads, let along "plastic" beads, but these Vintage Italian Lucite Moonglow beads from the famous Bead Horde at A Grain of Sand just spoke to me.  When they arrived I immediately started playing with them on one of my Bead Boards and was delighted when the design just fell into place.  I even happened to have the perfect clasp, also purchased from A Grain of Sand, in my stash.  I had to order more of the sapphire blue beads to finish this necklace, but then had leftovers that I needed to use up (I hate having left overs) so I strung another simple necklace and used one of the matching Lucite clasps that I had also bought.

Of course you can't really get the full effect unless you put them on, so here they are being modeled by my dress maker dummy.

Bracelets

I went on a bit of a bracelet kick this past week.  You know how it is, sometimes you see a design and it just grabs you.  A couple of weeks ago this bracelet design was featured on the Artbeads web site and I just had to make it.  This is the bracelet that got me to buy Swarovski crystals.  I have resisted the sparkle for years, even though the bling is plentiful at the Bead & Button show every year.  This is the Emerald City bracelet.  You can buy all of the materials right from the project page.  Pretty clever of Artbeads...

List of Components:
Swarovski 5625 10mm 2-hole Stairway Bead Dark Moss Green (5625-DMG10, qty 19)
Swarovski 5000 5mm Faceted Round Crystal (5000-crys5, qty 32)
Swarovski 5000 3mm Faceted Round Crystal (5000-crys3, qty 40)
Swarovski 5328 3mm XILION Bicone Dark Moss Green (5328-DMG3, qty 24)
Swarovski 5328 3mm XILION Bicone Crystal (5328-crys3, qty 24)
Swarovski 5000 10mm Faceted Round Crystal (5000-crys10, qty 2)

I liked the design so much I bought more beads to make another bracelet in Amethyst and Topaz.  I would have finished it this week as well, but one of the square beads was chipped.  I emailed Artbeads and they are sending along a replacement, with their profuse apologies.

While I was perusing their website I also picked up a couple of kits.

This is the Cape Cod in Bloom Bracelet.

And this is the Tanzanite Temptation Bracelet.

These kits included everything you needed except the beading wire for stringing, which I have.  They called out a different brand in the instructions, but I always use Soft Flex.  Both of the kit bracelets were strung on the Soft Flex Extreme Metallic Flex Wire Medium (0.019 in diameter), in the 925 Sterling Silver.

More Polymer Beads and Pearls

I put together some more necklaces with the Polymer Clay beads that I've had in my stash for quite a while.  I bought a number of these beads my first couple of years going to the Bead & Button show and they've been sitting in my stash ever since.  I've been trying to work through some of my bead stash lately and these are easy pieces to work up.  I had to order some more Soft Flex and clasps, and some more pearls and my orders came in last week.  For this one I used Glorious Green pearls from A Grain of Sand, accented with Blue Peacock pearls from Artbeads.

For this one I used Blue Peacock pearls from Artbeads and accented with leftover Glorious Green pearls from A Grain of Sand.

For this one I used Blue Peacock pearls accented with Purple Peacock pearls, both from Artbeads.

All of them are strung on Soft Flex Extreme Flex Metallic Flex Wire, Fine (0.014 in diameter).  I used the 925 Sterling Silver for the first one and the 24k Gold for the other two.

Sunflower Bracelet II

And here is the other color way.  This bracelet worked up a lot faster than the first one seeing as how I pretty much had the design memorized by this point.  The only issue I have with this design is that it was a pain getting the chatons centered in the beaded bezels.  I think it is because you start with a round of size 11 beads and use the size 15 beads on the other rows to create the shape to hold the chaton and that round of size 11 beads creates a bump that keeps the chaton from really nesting in the bezel.  Beading around stones is something of a challenge.

I tried Tulip beading needles with this project.  I've had them in my needle stash for a few years and everyone has been raving about them at Bead & Button (we always sell out of them at the show) and I'm happy to say that all of the praise is not hyperbole.  They are easy to thread, have a nice stiffness (I tend to bend beading needles), and come in cute little tubes with the needle size marked, so there is no mystery when you are looking for a beading needle, as long as you remember to return them to their tube when you are done with them.

Design:  Sunflower Bracelet by Yasmin Sarfati (December 2013/January 2014 Beadwork Magazine)
Materials:
2 g silver size 15 beads
5 g silver size 11 beads
8 g opaque blue luster 5x3 mm 2-hole sead beads
5 foil-back sapphire blue 8 mm crystal chatons
4 silver 6 mm jump rings
1 silver 14x15 mm filigree oval box clasp
silver size B nylon beading thread
Size 11 beading needle

Sunflower Bracelet

This is the Sunflower Bracelet by Yasmin Sarfati from the December 2013/January 2014 issue of Beadwork Magazine.  I bought this as a kit from Interweave mostly because I didn't have the beads (especially the crystals) to make it in my stash.  There were two color-ways available, this one and a blue one, and I bought them both.  In the original design there are five of the flowers, but my wrists are so slender I only made four.  I also modified the clasp attachment a little.  There were tiny little jump rings on the clasp that the larger jump rings were supposed to connect to, but if you do that the larger jump rings don't lay right.

Design:  Sunflower Bracelet by Yasmin Sarfati (December 2013/January 2014 Beadwork Magazine)
Materials:
2 g gold size 15 beads
5 g gold size 11 beads
8 g opaque rose/gold topaz luster 5x3 mm 2-hole sead beads
5 foil-back rose 8 mm crystal chatons
4 gold-filled 6 mm jump rings
1 gold 14x15 mm filigree oval box clasp
Gold size B nylon beading thread
Size 11 beading needle

Aventurine and Jasper

I bought these strands as you see them from A Grain of Sand and all I had to do was string them on Soft Flex and add a pretty clasp, also from A Grain of Sand.  The strand on the left is green Aventurine and the one on the right is Jasper.  Strung on Sterling Silver Extreme 925 Flex Soft Flex Metallic Flex Wire, Medium (0.019 in diameter).

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.

A String of Pearls

Every woman needs a string of pearls, or three.  I love pearls, their lustrous sensual beauty, the way they feel against your skin.  They are classic, elegant, timeless, and you can't help but feel classic, elegant and timeless when you wear them.  The graduated strands I bought from A Grain of Sand, and the multi-color strand I bought from Artbeads.  All three are strung on Soft Flex 24k Gold Extreme Flex Metallic Flex Wire, Fine (0.014 in diameter).  Typically pearls are strung on silk, separated by knots, but silk needs to be replaced every few years, so I use Soft Flex.  I separated each pearl with a size 14 bead, transparent crystal for the white and multi-colored strands, and transparent pink for the pink strand.

Polymer and Pearls

Polymer clay is pretty big in some circles, and early on in my trips to Bead & Button I bought a number of polymer clay beads.  They have been sitting in my bead stash ever since.  Last week I decided to pull them out and make some necklaces.  I like to use pearls with the polymer clay because they have a similar glossy finish.  So, I ordered some freshwater pearls from Artbeads and they came last week and this morning I did the assembly.

For this bead I picked Pale Cranberry and Olive Green freshwater pearls.

For this bead I picked Purple Peacock and decided to add in some of the Pale Cranberry pearls.

For this bead I picked Butterscotch and added some Peacock Blue pearls.

All of the necklaces are strung on 24k Gold Extreme Flex Soft Flex Metallic Flex Wire, Fine (.014 in diameter).  I use the fine Flex Wire for pearls because they generally have small holes.  I have a few more polymer clay beads, but am still working on finding the right colors to go with them.  I may end up with gemstone beads instead of pearls.

Carnelian and Onyx

Even though Larry Scott no longer comes to the Bead & Button show, I still have a number of beads by him that I have not yet turned in to jewelry.  This weekend I decided that I really needed to.  Part of the motivation is that the job I am currently in requires me to dress up a bit more than I used to so I actually have a reason to wear a lot of the beautiful things that I have made.  One of the reasons that I hadn't done anything with these beads is that I thought I would try using seed beads with them instead of the gemstone beads, but last week I was wearing one of my sets of Larry Scott beads and I realized that I really just love the look and feel of the gemstone beads.  I also really enjoy working with them, choosing the colors to compliment the lampwork, laying out the beads.

Materials:  Lampwork Byzantine beads by Larry Scott, carnelian and onyx gemstone beads, Soft Flex Extreme Flex Wire

Sea Shell Bracelet

I bought these lamp work beads at the 2011 Bead & Button show because they are purple, and fun, and weren't very expensive (as lamp work beads go).  Needless to say, they were an impulse buy.  The blue and white beads came with.  The lavender gemstones I had in my stash, and the clasp...well, the clasp is a scarab clasp that I bought from A Grain of Sand.  So what does a scarab have to do with sea shells?  Nothing, absolutely nothing, but the blue perfectly matched the blue of the beads.  Once again, the bracelet is strung on Sterling Silver Soft Flex Metallic Flex Wire, Medium Weight (.019 in diameter).

Tiger Eye Bracelet and Earrings

I've had these faceted tiger eyes in my stash for a while.  I picked them up at Unfinished Creations in Yellow Springs, Ohio and was just waiting for the perfect project for them.  I had thought I would do something with seed beads with them but this morning I decided that I just wanted to do something that would let them shine.  I separated the oval stones with small tiger eye disks from a strand that I had bought a very long time ago, at my very first Bead & Button show.  I bought the clasp recently from A Grain of Sand, a wonderful resource for unusual and vintage beads and findings, and the spacing is perfect for these beads.  The bracelet is strung on Sterling Silver Soft Flex Metallic Flex Wire, Medium Weight (.019 in diameter).  I thought about using spacers in the bracelet itself, but decided that I didn't really need them and I like the way the strands move when I wear it, which I've been doing all morning.  After all, I did need to do a test run to make sure that it was wearable.  Conveniently I had two beads left over to make earrings.

Nouveau Navettes

Interweave has recently been offering kits, all sorts of kits, and I've purchased a few - mostly weaving kits, but also beading kits.  I ordered this one last Monday and received it yesterday.  All of the other beading kits that I have ordered have been seed bead kits, this is the first time I've done anything with chain.  I decided to try the kits because I thought it would be a fun way to try some new techniques and new bead shapes/types that I don't have in my stash.

I decided to do this kit last night because I was tired and didn't feel like knitting, and didn't want to fall asleep on the daybed after supper, which I have been doing on a fairly regular basis lately.  It is a strange thing, but when I bead time just seems to stand still and my fatigue and any worries just fade away.  I put this necklace together in about 4 hours.  The instructions were a bit skimpy, and I didn't really like their order of construction so I modified things a little.

I started out mounting the sparklies in their settings.  That was easy, and was the first step in the instructions.  Then I cut the chain for the two top strands to the length in the instructions (7 1/4 inches and 7 3/8 inches) and whatever was left became the third strand.  I put the two top strands on a jump ring and started adding the beads on the head pins.  I worked from left to right.  The head pins are attached to the bottom strand with small jump rings.  After I had all of the beads on the head pins attached to the top two strands I attached the other jump ring on the right side, and attached the bottom strand of chain.  When attaching the head pins to the bottom strands I worked from both sides to the middle, alternating.  I did this because the spacing didn't seem to be working out right when I worked from one side, by working from both sides in I could at least make sure that the spacing was consistent and symmetrical.  Then I attached the dangling sparklies to the bottom chain, centering them as best I could between the head pins.  All that was left was to attach the larger chain and the clasp.  Easy peasy.

The necklace has some weight to it, so it hangs pretty well.  The two smaller beads are glass and the large ones are lucite.  If you wear it as designed it hangs down a bit and the curve is compressed, so I put the clasp into the chain itself to pull it up so it hangs just below my collar bone, which also opens up the curve into a nice arc pretty much as you see it laid out here.  I worked this necklace on one of my beading trays (you can see it in the background of the picture).  You will recall that last year I came home from Bead & Button with a large rectangular bead tray.  Last month I ordered a second one - a 12 inch circular one, which I thought would be perfect for working from while sitting on the daybed.  It was.  You can get your own Bead On It Beading Board here.  They are a little spendy, but well worth it - beautifully made and wonderfully functional.

Project:  Nouveau Navettes, kit available from Interweave

Stone Treasures

This morning, after exercising, emptying the dehumidifier that we run in the basement during the summer, and cleaning out the cat litter box, I was playing with some of the semi-precious stone beads that I picked up at Bead & Button this year when it occurred to me that one strand would go very nicely with a polished and carved stone pendant that I had picked up at the show last year.

I use Soft Flex for stringing these necklaces, both for the ease and the strength.  There is nothing worse than having your necklace come apart on you while you are wearing it.  A couple of crimp beads and a nice clasp, and voila, you have a necklace.