Friday, August 19, 2011

under construction

I'm still waiting to get my beading space back, the foundation repair om my poor old house is taking a lot longer  than expected, and costing a lot more too......I thin my guys may have bitten off more than they can chew.....I am having beading with drawls.....I  recently won a beading kit from  Zaney May, and I received the beads for it yesterday!   It is a very simple right angle weave bracelet, amazingly enough called  "simple bracelet" I chose a blue green color combination....I dug out my ottlite magnifier last night and a  good lamp and sat down at my computer table, and with some difficulty, made the bracelet, the difficulty being that I am pretty much blind with out my industrial strength mag light, it had nothing to do with Zaney May's instructions, they were easy enough.....the bracelet turned out nice, even though it is a real simple design, it would be perfect for a beginner......
  I need to get started on my August challenge piece, that I am doing with Andrew Thornton, but I need better lighting and magnification in order to do it, and red has never been "my color" so it will be a bit more difficult for me than the July challenge

Saturday, August 13, 2011

my studio is a mess......

early this morning I had to clear off my work space, (my work space is a work box station designed for scrapbooking, but I have adapted it for jewelery making and beading...it is an armoire that it 7 feet wide when fully extended) any way to make a long story a little shorted, the foundation at the back of my house is sinking and my work area was situated across the sunken end, so we had to move all the heavier stuff to the front of the room, so we can get it fixed......so no beading for me for a few days........I can't just pick up my stuff and bead any where, because I am going blind, and have to work with a lot of light, and an industrial mag light on top of that, I won't even go into what I have to do to thread a beading needle...........We did find a treasure trove of lost beads, and ear plugs behind the armoire.........I use ear plugs to sleep, and my cats love them, so I am constantly having to replace them, because they love to hide them from me, and who wants to use soggy ear plugs any way.......eeeewwww
  I'm really glad my bead soup beads spoke to me so well, and my soup is all finished!  other wise I would be chomping at the bit wanting to work on it now!

Friday, August 12, 2011

give away winner

I had my hubby draw a name for my give away this morning.........And the winner is Pineridgetreasures........Please contact me with your mailing address, color preference, and preference of either a bracelet or a necklace, and measurement for your choice..........thank you to all that entered!

Thursday, August 11, 2011

finished my bead soup, and it was good!

I was so excited to get my bead soup today, I got pictures of it right away, because in the past I forgot to do that, in the excitement of playing with the new beads! Well I had to go to the bead store for some antique brass crimp beads, and of course found other things I absolutely had to have, but I only spent 15.00.......Which is pretty amazing for me! I came back home and went to work........I had some steam punk cogs and wheels I had gotten last week, along with some brass key and lock plates, I thought they went well with my soup, I added a few crystals and some stick pearls, and in the end, I had a necklace, a bracelet and a pair of earrings! I'm really happy with what I made, and its totally different from all my other bead soup projects! no bead weaving this time, so it went pretty fast......Now I have a long wait for the reveal.........and still have some beads left..........hmmmm.....

wrapped cord bracelet

Here is a pic of the wrapped cord bracelet I mentioned in an earlier post today, sorry the pic is a bit fuzzy

Bead soup goodies are here!!

I got my Bead Soup in the mail today!!! Thank you so much Chris! I love it.....The pretty Paris themed focal is really cool, and I love the orangey fall colors! I am going to have a lot of fun with this selection of yummy soup!

Last chance to get in on my give away

a couple post ago I announce that I was having a give away to celebrate my 100th follower......I guess very few of my followers actually read my blog, any way just a reminder that I am drawing the winner tomorrow, you still have a chance to enter today!
I just made my first wrapped cord bracelet, and I love it! I made it long enough to wrap around my wrist twice, and I couldn't find my leather cord, so I used sinew and turquoise beads, and a pewter triangle shaped button with a Celtic knot design, for the clasp.....it is really cool, and I have a feeling it will be my go to bracelet for everyday casual wear! I love it!
I'll try to get a pic of it later today if the sun ever comes out!

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Bead Soup Blog Party Partner

I contacted my bead soup partner yesterday, and we have both already sent out our bead soup to each other! My partner is Chris White of dzeyenrstudio.blogspot.com Her web site is chriswhitejewelery.com She makes some beautiful things, Her blog is new and this is her first bead soup blog party! I'm hoping it will be a fun experience for her....And I really hope she likes what I put together for her, because I had lots of fun doing it! I just never know if I put enough things together when we do these swaps, so I kept opening the package and adding more to it, in fact I was digging through my beads at 5:00 am today to add some more before sending it out!

Monday, August 8, 2011

A give away to celibrate finally getting 100 followers on my blog

I am going to have a give away to celebrate my 100th follower to my blog..........., it will be a piece of beaded jewelery, the winner can choose color and what it will be, either a necklace or a bracelet just leave a comment on this post and a way to get in touch with you , and I will draw a name on Friday,  to celebrate both my birthday and my 100th follower! feel free to follow my blog also if you don't already........

Monday, August 1, 2011

Andrew Thorntons July Challenge


a month ago, I joined Andrew Thornton's July Challenge.........I bought the Challenge Kit from Andrew, it was in beautiful shades of green! I chose to make a charm bracelet with the kit...but the chain included in the kit wasn't working to hang such substancial charms from, so I added some antique copper chain along with the antique brass chain in the kit, and it worked beautifully!since I had lots of left over chain, I went crazy with dangles comming off the clasp area....its a simple design, but I love it and have worn it a lot since making it, I call it wrist chimes, because it definitely makes a nice tinkling noise when it is worn!