Cube Bracelet

This is a new bracelet that I just finished up using Carole Rodgers cubes pattern. She uses a button closure and I always want one of my beads in it. I like the layers that you make though it gives it some texture.

We are having such a great day here, it is above 40 degrees and it feels like summer time after the last month and a half of sub zero temps. The sun is out and water is running everywhere. My hubby is out trying to bust up the 5 inch ice patch that happens right outside the garage door. Nothing seems to keep it from building up right there so every so often you have to just go out there with something to chip it away. I worked on it for about half an hour before my arms said NO MORE! Jeff will probably hurt like heck tonight as he has been at it for about an hour now. I am off to make more jewelry.

Intorducing Cyd!

Hi everyone I would like to introduce you to Cyd. She has graciously, after lengthy discussion, agreed to travel with me this year. She will be attending all the shows with me and hopefully a trip to Florida later in the spring. I truly believe she needs some jewelry but I think a fur coat might be the first order of business.

More blues!

Here are some more blue beads. They are a little different as they are more opaque, but they still have the same kind of watery feel to them. The shade of blue is just so yummy.

Silver Green Lentils

The silver green glass was just too captivating I had to make some big lentils with the same color combo as yesterdays beads. These are big puppies about 1 and 1/2 inches across. I love this shape it fits so nice in the palm of your hand and lays so nice when you use it in a necklace.

Reactive Glass

Some more new beads. I just really love the way that one glass will react chemically with another glass. Often times it is glasses with high amounts of silver that do this. These are silver green on topaz. Aren't they pretty!

Blue Lentil Beads

These are some big lentils the same colors as yesterdays beads. I made one like the Vapor Trails but I really like the one that kind of looks like the moon over the ocean.

Vapor Trails

Some more new beads to look at. If I had realized how much the decoration on them looked like Vapor Trails when I was making them I would have made straighter lines. These look like a bunch of fancy flying to me. I do really like the yummy sky blue in these though makes me think of a nice summer day when it is once again below 0 out there.

Some new Beads

I have actually been making some beads here lately. Not many but a few. This is one of the new sets and I just love the reaction between Iris Gold and Ivory. There are colors there that you will never see in the picture though. And this pressed shape is one of my favorite as it feels so nice on your arm.

Looking Back

Wow! It has been a week since I posted last. It is amazing how fast the time goes by. I was thinking about that when I was deciding what to post today. I made this bracelet years ago back when we lived in Nebraska and I was new to making lampwork beads. I have had it on my jewelry table for a long time as well, a good three years, to take apart because I do not like the way it lays or bends. It is fun to look back and see how my ideas of what I want my jewelry to do have changed.

Cold!!!

Well I am off in just a little while to Mitchell to the Women in Blue Jeans Expo. It is always a great evening but I am so cold I could really just stay home. My son said it was at least -28 last night and might have been colder as this was at 5am this morning. Plus as always the wind is blowing I am cold just thinking about going out there. And unloading and packing up will be just miserable. I can not believe how cold it has been and for how long. We usually have this stuff in January but it started at Thanksgiving this year.

Well enough whining. The show will be fun as the conference is all for and about women who work pretty much from home and those that work with them. Lots of good chocolate tonight as well.

Bracelets and Pendants

Hi thought you might like to see what I have done with a few of the nugget beads I have been showing you. Here are several bracelet and pendant sets that I made up in the last couple of days. I have a show tomorrow night in Mitchell SD that I am getting ready for. I just love how the pink set came out.

A good part of the nuggets I have been making were blanks to make etched ones with decoration. I love these beads and have so much fun coming up with new designs but I sure hate trying to get a decent picture. They always seem like they have lint on them but I can never see it with my eyes just the camera sees it.

We are having another snow storm today I left going to town till today because it was so bad yesterday but the list was getting very long and it took for ever today then the guy at the door did not want me to take the cart to the parking lot they are having trouble with them blowing around. He helped load the truck though so I guess I should not be ungrateful.

Way Behind!

I have been making lots of nuggets lately. Now I have to get busy and turn them into bracelets and pendants. I have my first show of the year this Thursday and wanted to have them done for that so I guess I had better go work rather than stay on here and talk.

In trying to come up with a name for the new necklace I asked my friend Jodie Marshall for help and this is what she had to say.

I thought of one for you--

"Ancestor"

Because it looks kind of tribal, and the different lengths of the glass bars represent a family tree of sorts.

Jodie

So the new necklace is named "Ancestor" because she is so right as to the look of the piece.

Finally done!

I have been working on this Rivet Necklace for several weeks. Needless to say I am not that fast when it comes to working with seed beads. I reworked the way the rivets were held because I just really did not like the wire. I do love how it came out. Now I have another piece with the rivets on the work table I think I will do something with macrame this time instead of the seed beads.

I have been working to refill my bead boxes so that I am ready for the shows that start coming up in just a little over a week. Amazing how little I have gotten done this winter. Guess moving the studio and being sick has really cut into my bead making time. I will have to do double duty the next few weeks to even think about catching up.

These are called Comet Tails and I love to etch them as they just almost glow when you do.

Etched Lunar Lump Beads

Well I got the Lunar Lump beads etched yesterday and boy was I right when I pictured them this way. I just love them. They are so soft and luminescent. I had them all strung together and oh boy did they yell necklace so I will just have to make more so that I have some to sell because I want to use all of these to make a new piece of jewelry.

Lunar Lump Beads

Well finally some new beads from me. These are going to be called Lunar Lumps they were so luminescent that they made me think of the way the moon glows when it is full. I had in my mind though to etch them when I started and they came out of the kiln just too shiny and happy so I had to make another whole set which I hope to get etched to show you tomorrow.

I hope everyone had a nice holiday. We are so laid back about New Year's that we went to bed way before midnight and got up late the next day. It was very quiet and relaxing around here though just doing nothing for a change.