Bead soup party II

WHOO HOO!!! Lori is hosting another bead soup party!!! And I am going to join once again, the first one was lots of fun, so this one should be a blast too......

computer crash

this past Friday my computer pretty much crashed on me...........I had gotten some emails warning about malware and virus's going around through emails in one of my beading groups, and thought I might have opened one of them by mistake.........someone suggested a certin virus protection program, so dummy me I downloaded and bought it. as soon as it was installed a window pops up saying something about windows updates and it looks to be coming from the new program, so again dummy me I click on it.........IT WASN"T A WINDOWS UPDATE!!! DUH!!! all kinds of things start automatically downloading, every time I turn on my computer, so again dummy me, I do a factory restore, which usually works for me when I am having problems...........but when I start up ther computer, I have lost all my documents ( meaning all my beading designs I haven't backed up yet) and all my photos as well, lots of my grand kids and family pics, the last pics I had taken of my mom before we lost her..........everything.....I'm so sad.........
So Saturday one of my geeky friends comes over and spends almost 12 hours trying to recover my stuff........but only succeeds in saving some unimportant stuff........and winds up removing everything from my computer that was left, and re installs windows and a new virus program and a few other goodies, now my computer runs like it did when it was new, with one exception I have no sound, which I do miss, but can live with out if I have to.
Any way he saw a bracelet I have been working on, its a uneven peyote strip with a Chinese
style dragon that I figured I would work on since I didn't have a computer to play on( I needed to teach my self how to do uneven count flat peyote, I had tried several times in the past and had just ended in frustration, but geared with some tips from a few people in my bead groups and a book with some good diagrams, and a nice word chart for a pattern, I got it licked!!!! woo hoo, any way my friend sees my efforts and says wow I really like it, his girlfriend has a tatt of a similar dragon and he is thinking, he would love to give her this bracelet............so needless to say we bartered his geekieness for my beadieness...........now my computer works and soon his girlfriend will be the new owner of said dragon........not sure who got the better part of the deal, I was kind of liking the dragon myself............but have been thinking I will do another one in different colors and turn it into a sea dragon.......silvery blues and greens instead of the chinese reds and golds, I'll post pics of both when done

Fab Fibers bead give away

Fab fibers is having a bead give away........some very bright and beautiful beads from Carolyn Driver of Blue Heeler Glass.....the beads are called calypso https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg54MSBAHrmnZxqLxMfgNRRn2lm5kmXyE_CLDtO33rg_yT4xm5QWATbJRkToF6mpEeizv6MUOfY0aBe2UzPLFbsPXNgTJAy330J4ax4uuHUt8YbhKmQS3t3IaJYX2ZrMqnOthqEU7h5Jk4/s1600-h/bluhealer+beads.jpg

a very good day

I have been having a very good day today.......I got an inspiration yesterday while visiting my dad ,

I was showing him a bracelet I had just finished, it had some lamp work roses on it......and as I was looking at it I decided I didn't really like how I had used them. So this morning I took the bracelet apart, dug out the rest of my lamp work roses, I had some yellow ones, some pale pinks, some reds, and some purples, just enough of each to make a bracelet in each color......The yellow one I added 3 mm gold rounds and two sizes of peridot colored crystal rondels I got at the gem and mineral show a few weeks ago and some gold leaves and a very small gold magnetic clasp. I really love how this one turned out.

The red one has two sizes of peridot crystal rondels and ruby colored crystal rondels , the pink one has frosted pale blue disk shaped beads with silver spacers and rose colored and aqua marine blue fire polish beads. The purple one has silver spacers, rose fire polish, peridot and some really beautiful purple ab crystal rondels.

Also I decided to order myself a new toy today, I have been wanting to make fused glass cabs, but couldn't afford a kiln, and recently I saw a microwave kiln for doing small jewelery sized projects, so I checked out Paragon kilns today, I signed up to get their catalog, and got a 10.00 off coupon for doing it.........and they just happened to have their Fuseworks microwave kiln on sale for 30.00 off so with the extra ten off with the coupon, I feel like I scored!!! and being a kit it comes with stuff to get me started, and the funny thing was it was cheaper this way than just buying the microwave kiln by its self!!! CAN"T WAIT TO PLAY WITH IT!!!!!

A give away to remember at Lorelei's blog

Lorelei is hosting a give away of three pendants she made this past weekend, two lovely hearts and a cute butterfly! I so would love to win them, as I don't do this type of work myself.....so head on over to Lorelei's blog and check it out!

reverse side of tiger eye bracelet

tigers eye cuff

tiger eye chip cuff bracelet

I just finished a herringbone cuff bracelet, encrusted with tigers eye chips......it is really substantial, and very weighty, but it feels wonderful on the wrist, and it turned out really good, its my first try at embelished herring bone and my first time with gemstone chips.......I've never really liked the look of gem stone chips, but was gifted with a bunch of them, so thought I would give them a try......and discovered I really like them! I made the bracelet for a friend, but I like it so well I plan on making one for myself.... I'll post a pic as soon as I get some taken

woo hoo, got my pics done for the use the muse

woo hoo!!!! its finally all done........pics and all.......tomorrow is the deadline, so was calling it a bit close, the pics and the application are "in the mail" I'm so relieved. I had to do my own pics and I'm not so good at it, so I hope they will be good enough.....will post pics after the "big reveal" still not sure I like it, as the "muse" didn't really inspire me and would have been happy to have left it out totally, but I think I pulled it off ok, I suspended a beautiful lampwork poison bottle from it........and managed to use some of all the beads in the kit, and all of some of them.....had to buy more to finish the project.......

My Hubby is gone for the next three days, he is due home on Wednesday night.......he is in Seattle for some classes for work..........wish I could have gone and made a side trip to Shipwreck beads......I always have so much fun when I get to go shopping there!....maybe next time.....guess I should be taking advantage of my time alone and be doing some beading, I do have a bracelet I need to finish for a swap, it is herringbone in tortoise shell shades embelished with tiger eye chips it is getting heavy but it feels really good on the wrist, I hope my partner likes it because I really do, in fact I am thinking of making one for myself, but it will have to be different gemstone chips.....I am almost out of the tigers eye chips.

garden path bracelet

I made this bracelet for a mothers day bracelet swap, it is two drop peyote, with small glass flower beads and seed bead leaves fringing the edges and a branch fringe dangle with a dragonfly charm

my first attempt at kumihimo

kumihimo braid done with dark pink, black, light pink and blue embroidery floss

My use the muse is finished!!!

I was beginning to thing I would never get it done......with running out of beads, and then not being able to get them, art beads was out of the ones I needed.....I finally found them at bello mondo, thank goodness. a few days later art beads notified me they were back in stock.... but already had mine!

I have never made a spiral rope quite this long before, or one that isn't uniform......this one is kind of bumpy, because I used some larger crystals and fresh water pearls, and two sizes of tiger eye rounds, I think the bumpiness gives it a more organic look, especially since it is mostly earthy colors.....

I have to wait for the weather to clear up so I can take some pics........its been really windy and wet for about a week now, we should be about due for some drier weather, I hope.......the deadline is next monday, so need those pics real soon. So as soon as the weather gets better I will post some pics.......I am really happy with how it turned out, it looks kind of medieval....I've named it earth magic

kumihimo

I got my kumihimo disk in the mail yesterday......so I strung it up and proceeded to make my first braid......I only had the instructions that came with the loom, but I used four colors instead of the two suggested as a first attempt. And it turned out really pretty. I used it to hang a pretty glass heart pendant from, and for a first attempt it looks really nice! Right now I am trying my hand at doing it with beads and novelty yarn, I am using some toho gold silver lined triangles, and some transparent forest green # 6's the threads are various shades of pink embroidery floss, and two strands of a fuzzy silvery blue with metalic threads, and after a few failed attempts, I viewed a tutorial on utube a few times and am now trying again, and its looking pretty good. I'm excited, I haven't caught on to bead crochet yet, so this is a pretty good alternative!!

Still working on my "use the muse" finally have (I hope) all the beads I need to finish it.