Short & Sweet

Because my computer's already crashed twice, and my lunch hour totally got pre-empted by work, I'm going to make this short & sweet. Here's my latest & greatest.

Red Czech glass beads, my own hand made red tin beadcaps, ice blue vintage semiprecious stone beads, gunmetal wire, chain & clasp.

Coconut shell beads & Czech glass.

Dyed turquoise beads & antiqued bronze owls and bead caps.

Antique bronze swirly drops & faceted garnet beads.

Recycled rhinestones and shell rounds.

Pink Lucite flowers w/ Swarovski crystals (request for a friend).

I've got something coming up soon -- I just need to figure out a clasp and one small detail, but it's my first necklace with a Green Girl Studios piece, and I'm pretty excited about it!

Enameled Beads Give-Away!!!

Barbara Lewis is having the best give-away on her blog!

Look what you can win!!!

Her enameled beads are fabulous, and you can have a Look Inside her book on Amazon to see more about how she makes them, and how you can too. I would love to learn how to enamel beads, but until I have some sort of dedicated workspace, I'll just have to read about it and enjoy the beads without making them myself.

Anyway, go check out her page for the fabu give-away, and the info on her book!

Just in Time for the Hot Hot NOLA Spring Weather...

a nice Autumny owl necklace!

What can I say, I'm a few months behind/ahead of the times. Oh well - we all still like owls don't we? My friend Jessi made the owl pendant. I got it from her last time she was in town at Christmas. Now that she's back in town for the summer, it reminded me I really needed to do something with it. I'm glad I waited though, because most of the beads I used in this necklace were fairly recent acquisitions.

I have been too busy this weekend to accomplish much in terms of jewelry. Though I did meet up with someone who just had to have the bunny earrings from last week's post. Unusual to have a local customer I don't know, so it was nice to meet her. Then Saturday, I went to my hair salon to drop off a few new items and guess what! Someone bought the yellow necklace! I was so so very happy to hear that it'd sold. I knew it would find a home, but I didn't know it would go so quickly!

And I got a Very Exciting™ package in the mail this weekend as well. I was a lucky winner of one of the beautiful toggle clasps Lori Anderson recently gave away on her blog.

I can't wait to use it! But I will wait until the right design presents itself. I hate when I use something hastily just to use it instead of waiting 'til the perfect piece comes along.

Bunnies, Flowers, and Resin

I was SO very excited when Artbeads.com  had a 50% off sale last week and saw that some of my favorite Golem Studio pendants were included! I ordered two, and I couldn't wait to put at least one of them to use.

Golem Studio pendant, missficklemedia saffron rings, Czech glass, bone, jasper, antique bronze, sari ribbon & handmade clasp.

The next necklace I made for myself to go with a new top I bought. I had a wedding to attend over the weekend, and it was the perfect excuse to make myself something new. I'm sure I'll keep it, as half my wardrobe is black & gray anyway.

Hematite nuggets, Lucite & rhinestone flower, rhinestone rondelles, vintage black beads, vintage rhinestone, gunmetal wire.

And finally, some fun earrings.

 Bunnies! and cute aqua metal wavy disks.

Resin & coral and my handmade earwires.

Who Knew How Much I Could Love Yellow???

A couple of weeks ago, I found this fun vintage Lucite yellow & blue flower (I found two actually!) and I just had to have it. I spent several days this week agonizing about the perfect beads to go with it, and scoured my fave online (and in person) bead stores only to find the perfect solution in my very own stash! I wanted to jump for joy at 2 am last night when I finished making it. I don't have a single thing that would go with it. Neither that yellow or blue look good on me, but I know someone out there will be so happy to have it.

Before I made the yellow & blue necklace, I was compelled to use one of my precious carved butterflies. I was trying to avoid monochrome and I was really trying to avoid The Aqua & Brown thing, and what's springier and more stylish than honeysuckle pink cherry quartz? I really do agonize, I promise these things don't come together as easily as it would seem upon seeing the finished product. I'm sure everyone else does that too. But sometimes it feels like I spend hours putting together just the right combo for a very simple pair of earrings or something. Anyway, the simple, but agonized-over butterfly necklace:

 

 

Finally, here's a pair of amethyst earrings with some fine silver dangly leaf charms. I made those Thursday I think.

 

The reason I had to make those necklaces last night was because I had a hair appointment this morning, and I wanted to bring in some fresh new pieces to the salon. Jeanne loved everything I brought, and even my picky sister really liked a couple of the earrings. But sadly, not one thing sold since my last trip there, which was about 3 weeks ago. I can only assume it was because it's Jazz Fest season, and most of her clientele are Jazz Fest fans. 

For those of you who aren't familiar with Jazz Fest, it's a 2 week long music festival here in New Orleans, that attracts hundreds of thousands of people every year. It can be quite expensive, by the time you buy your tickets and buy all the wonderful Creole, Cajun, and Carribbean food (not to mention alcohol). It's very easy to spend well over $100 a day. So hopefully after people's budgets recover from Jazz Fest, they'll get back to buying my jewelry!

P.S. Happy Mothers Day to all you mothers out there!

P.P.S. As if my poor dog hasn't been through enough lately, she got stung by a bee last night! She's okay now, but she was limping and licking her paw for hours. Poor baby!

No Time to be Chatty

My productive streak has indeed continued. Hooray!

I made a Shannon Levart inspired bracelet.

And several pairs of earrings (including one for myself, not pictured). 

And just because I'm always talking about my dog, I thought I'd include pictures of our cat. I had to buy her this fancy contraption to elevate her food so the dog couldn't reach it. It took a few days to adjust, but now she likes eating up there.