Comet Argent Bicone

Hi everyone! I promised on Thursday I would post the swarovski 6mm "comet argent" bicone and, finally, here it is. What an awesome bead. Looks like a diamond in one moment and a sparkly silver treasure in another. I'm not sure this bead needs many words....just admiration.

I hope you are all having a wonderful, sunny and SPARKLY holiday weekend!! Take care!

This Week's Bracelet

Hello! I hope you are all having a gorgeous, sunny weekend!! This week's bracelet is one that I wear when I feel simplicity is in order. Considering that it has a specific color in it, I find that it goes with many different colors. I think it's because it is simple and non-obtrusive. It is sort of a neutral accessory.

I LOVE the crystal bauble. I'm not sure if it has a "real" name or technical name, but it is made with 12 crystals using the right angle weave and after you add the last two beads, you cross your wires through the first bead and when you pull them tight, it magically becomes a ball.

If you would like instructions, let me know. The baubles can be used in so many ways. I have shown them on this blog as neck chain baubles as well as earrings before. This one is the focal point of a bracelet on memory wire.

Have a great weekend!!

This Week's Earrings

This week's earrings are 3 tiers of glass flowers! I love the bold colors! They remind me of the kind of flowers I can draw, very simple, but bright!

We're getting lots of rain today, so I know the real flowers are really happy!!

I love making tiers in earrings, the beads dangle so nicely that way! I hope you are all getting crafty this weekend!!! Thanks for stopping by!

Silver Flower Clasp

This is a very small little silver plated clasp that came with two in a package. I just thought it was so petite and sweet. It would look great with anything black, white or silver. A petite bracelet with 4mm jet crystals interspersed with silver findings is what I'm picturing.

Have you ever used the swarovski crystal called "comet argent"? It is so cool! It would look great with this clasp. I'll post some 6mm bicones tomorrow. They remind me of a cross between crystal and black diamond with two sides completely silvered.

A daisy chain with tiny black faceted beads would look adorable with this clasp also. In fact, I think that would be PERFECT!!

Matte Blue Bugles

Even if you are not a fan of bugle beads, I just know you will love these! The matte style allows you to see the depth of the blue color. These beads can be used in many ways. They would look great in multiple strand pieces all by themselves, but if you would add some sparkle or a variety of other colors, WOW! I wish I had something already made with these so I could wear it every day...(with crystals)!

Have a great evening!

1970's Hip

You might have spotted today's bead in yesterday's mess-o-beads grouping, but it really deserves a spotlight for a day! I just love this color combination! "How 70's!"

There is something so familiar about the striping on this bead that makes me think of a shirt hanging in a closet next to a nice looking polyester leisure suit. This sort of striping made a come-back in clothing in the 90's and again a few years ago. Styles never really go out of fashion, they just get slight adjustments. I think you could "update" this bead by interspersing it with several gold strands of rectangular chain links which are still enjoying some popularity.

Have a great evening!!

Cute Mess-o-Beads

This is a sight that is not unique to beaders, but I wanted to share because this mess of beads caught my attention as a sort of a sweet little still life...a moment in the life of a bunch of beads. They are each so unique and individual, but look very artistic and fun as a group of beads that just happened to come into contact with each other.

Interesting!... I'm just going to sit here and admire them without trying to come up with a design style or combination. They are perfect as they are!

Have a great evening!

Tiny Little Chicklet

Today's cute little bead looks so much like a little piece of "tiny chicklet" gum, it's adorable! The Tiny chicklets came in a paper packet with lots of different colors. You would have to eat a handful of it to get a good size piece of gum to chew.

I only have one of these little beads, but would love to have a whole mess of them so I could make a fun, colorful memory wire bracelet out of them!

If you know of where I can get them, please let me know. Have a great evening!!

Happy Green Bracelet

This week's bracelet happens to be a gift I received from my Dad during the last holiday season. I LOVE IT!! I love that he used all of the best materials for this and the green colors really POP next to the sterling silver tubes. AND, the VERY best part are the swarovski cubes. I don't even think he knew I had a thing for cubes at the time he made it.

I just happened to have worn this the other day and thought, gee, I should showcase that for this week's bracelet. I hope it gives you a warm happy feeling like it does for me.

Take care!!

Circus Unicyclist

Hello! It's Friday, yay!!

I just love this side-drilled wooden bead and have used some of them in a bracelet with the same combination of beads. I thought it might look interesting in a pair of earrings. When I put these beads together, I got a real chuckle out of them. Not only are the colors sort of circus-like, I also thought the aqua colored circle bead looked like a unicycle tire and the wooden bead looked like someone trying balance on it while crossing a high wire or something.

As always, it's possible these things just go on in my head, but it made me laugh, so I wanted to share!

Have a great weekend!!

Summer Pumpkin

Hello! I don't want you to get the idea I am ready for fall and pumpkin carving so I am calling this bead a "summer" pumpkin bead! In fact, I would like to make up my own new vegetable and call it a brown sugar squash. When you cut it open, it's full of lovely brown sugar and when you bake it, it would taste like coffee cake without adding any other ingredients! The best part of my new vegetable would be the fact that it would be zero weight watcher points!!

In all seriousness, since I'm not ready for fall colors yet, I would put this bead with bright yellow and orange beads!!

I hope you are all having a great week!!

Windows

Today's bead is PLASTIC, which is interestingly ironic since it resembles glass window panes!! You've just got to love bead designers!! They often seem to have spunky, rebel attitudes.

There are several different directions you could go with this one. Using all "glass" or clear beads along with some lightly tinted gold, bronze or brown would be nice. OR, you could think a little bit about microsoft windows and add some of their signature colors in with this bead. Especially if you know anyone from Microsoft!

Have a great evening!

Sporty Bead

Today's bead is so cute! It is top drilled and reminiscent of a golf ball because of all the little indentations. The striping on it makes me think of a tennis sweater. Maybe a golf sweater!

I think those are the reasons I thought this seemed sort of sporty or preppy! I could see a sporty golfer wearing a bracelet strung with a strand of these beads with a strand of tiny little round light green a/b rounds wound around it. Ooh, I think I might have to have one of those, how adorable! Do golfers wear bracelets while they are golfing or would that interfere with the game???

I hope you are all having a great week so far!!

Coat of Arms

I love the combination of colors on this bead! The dark maroon or brown color perfectly sets off the lighter colors of pink. If I had a coat of arms, I am pretty sure it would include swarovski cubes and probably candy of some sort and a happy little smiley face. I think there is a kind of freedom in knowing who you are and being willing to declare it!

This bead would look great combined with regal looking gold or silver beads with a brushed metal look. I would love to include some dark red or burgundy ab crystals!!

I hope you all made it through your Monday with a smile!! Take care!

Baby Zebra

Today's bead has a nice matte finish rather than a shiny finish. This gives it more of an earthy feel which works well for this zebra-like bead. It is calling out to be united with some really shiny beads. I'm thinking hematite rounds, 10mm shiny black rounds, 8mm black diamond bicones and a few 5 mm faceted white rounds.

I think at least 2 strands...memory wire would work really well with this design as well.

Hope you had a great and crafty weekend!!

This Week's Bracelet

This week's bracelet is one of the first memory wire bracelets I made using beads larger than seed beads. Back in the beginning of my beading experience, I was making memory wire bracelets using seed beads that wrapped around the wrist anywhere between 4-8 times.

This bracelet is just two wraps, but the beads are much larger than seed beads and heavy. I loved it so much I wore it probably every day for a year!

I believe most of these components came from Hobby Lobby. Unfortunately, the store in my general vicinity is no longer there, so going to Hobby Lobby now is sort of a trip to "the other side of town". A bit of a bummer, but usually well worth the trip.

I hope you are all having a great weekend!! Take care!

Wire Twists

Happy Friday!! Today's earrings are so simple, but they look rather complex. All you need are two ear wires and about 12 inches of craft wire for each earring. Start by putting the ear wire on the length of craft wire and bringing both ends of the wire together so the ear wire is in the middle of the wire. Give the wire a few twists and then you can start adding beads.

Add one bead at a time on each of the 2 wires coming off the earring. put on the bead and leave at least a half inch or so of wire from the ear wire, bend up about another half inch of wire and begin twisting. Continue adding beads on each wire until you have about an inch left. I added a larger swarovski bicone to the bottom of this earring for some extra sparkle.

Now you can just join the two sections by twisting them together and molding them into a form that you like.

Pretty simple!! Have a great weekend!!

A Little Bead Family

I love buying the same beads in a variety of sizes. They are like happy little families that always look so adorable worked into projects together. Even though they are identical in design, the size still adds dimension. If you like working with monochromatic designs, adding variations in size is like having an extra little trick up your sleeve.

I have enough of these for a nice multi-strand bracelet and was thinking of using black softflex. I'd like to make clumps of 3 beads by stringing each of the 3 beads on its own strand and then one large black faceted bead over all the strands to make the family grouping stand out.

Like most designs, it sounds good in my head, so I'm going for it! Have a great evening!

Pink Stone

Today's bead is a very shiny rhodonite stone. Nature is quite unbelievable at times, it is no wonder so many people appreciate what is called "science fiction". It is not that far off from reality sometimes. It's hard to believe this is manganese insolicate, which crystalizes as a rose-red color tending to brown because of surface oxidation.

Honestly, this is just a tad over my head. Take a look a this chemical composition:

Calcium 1.55 % Ca 2.17 % CaO

Magnesium 0.38 % Mg 0.62 % MgO

Manganese 38.29 % Mn 49.44 % MnO

Iron 0.86 % Fe 1.11 % FeO

Silicon 21.75 % Si 46.53 % SiO2

Oxygen 37.17 % O

This is nothing less than a miracle!!! Don't you think so?

Interesting Knot

Today's bead came from a "vintage" multi-strand necklace. In all honesty, in this particular case, the word vintage is being used to mean a necklace that came from a garage sale or flea market and is at least 10+ years old. I don't think that qualifies as "vintage", but it sounded better than "an old piece of jewelry from a garage sale".

If you have a chance to dig through bins of "vintage" jewelry, it's a lot of fun to grab a handful and spend some time taking everything apart. Once you disassemble things, you see them in a different way. You might be surprised how easily we see things as a whole and judge them so quickly without giving each individual a chance.

This exercise in appreciating each bead's individual, unique qualities is a lot of fun and helps me to broaden my perspective and open my mind just a little bit more. This bead is very interesting and cool. It looks like it was knotted, filled with cement and accented with peanut butter cookie criss-cross marks.

I hope you have all had a great day!!

Casino Slots!

It could just be me, but I could almost hear the melodic tones of the casino slot machines when I saw this bead! Not to mention all the coins hitting the tray! My favorites are the old fashioned slots with the little bunches of cherries!

The last time we took a trip to Niagara Falls and I knew we would probably hit the slot machines, I made a bracelet with lots of tacky, dangly dice. Yes, I won. I'm thinking I won two or three hundred Canadian dollars. I would have been happy with just a few dollars, so that was an extra fun trip. I also remember buying a mood ring with the maple leaf on it. Don't you just love vacations?!

Have a great evening!

Angular Shell Bead

Today's bead is unique because it is drilled across the pointed section. This means when you put these on stretchy cord you will get a great effect when pulled very tight. All of the beads sort of flip up in opposite directions rather than lay flat. It's very cool. The key is using stretchy cord.

I wouldn't have known about this special effect if it hadn't been for a co-worker who bought a strand of these beads while on vacation. The bracelet came apart so I didn't realize it was pulled tight. It took me forever to get the beads to all lay down nice and neat. I wondered how she could wear it since it seemed like it would be too big. When I took it back to her and it fell right off her wrist, she explained that the beads stuck up every which way.

That sent me back to the drawing board! If you have had success with this technique, I hope you'll share a link back to a photo so we can all see it.

Have a great evening!

This Week's Necklace

Instead of a bead, I wanted to share this necklace today. It is a very simple design, but stood out nicely with a black blouse. This was the craft I chose to teach this weekend at our craft-night extravaganza.

Craft night is usually held quarterly and includes family and friends. Everyone comes in the door armed with food, drinks, crafts, gifts and pajamas! It's great fun especially because everyone comes prepared to stick around for the night which is unusual considering most people have constantly changing and hectic schedules. It's all about realizing the importance of doing it and MAKING the time!

Everyone comes prepared with all the materials needed to teach their craft. My craft is usually jewelry related and varies in complexity. I thought this one would be fun and easy for the non-beaders. The cording is "tattu magic" which is black nylon cord. There are a few beads between silver crimps on each side of the necklace. My version is made to fit right up at the neck just slightly larger than a choker. The others each made theirs with slightly different beads and different lengths which is the best part of doing crafts together so you can see how everyone interprets things individually.

A great time was had by all! If you ever get a chance to do a craft-night, I strongly encourage it!

This Week's Bracelet - Daisy Button

Hello! I had mentioned recently I wanted to make a bracelet out of this daisy button on memory wire. I thought I had white rubber tubing, but I only had clear. I opted for white seed beads with a few faceted clear ab's for the band.

To keep the button from sliding around, I cut two short pieces of the clear rubber tubing and put them through the rather large shank behind the button. I ran the memory wire through just one of the rubber tubes and it seemed to work very well.

I LOVE IT and hope you do to! Have a great weekend!

Orange Spirals

Happy Friday to all of you!! Hope you are having a great one!

This orange bead with the spirograph circles is so cute and it seems this is a very popular color these days! I've been thinking about using this bead since I posted it a while back as the daily bead. As I think I have mentioned before, when I make earrings I have a tendency to picture them hanging on a person with a nicely pressed, crisp white blouse. If it seems like they would be a good match, I'm happy with them.

It would be interesting if there were a beading psychology book for analyzing why people make the things they do. Maybe we are better off not knowing....What do you think?

Gold "Medallion"

This gold piece is hole punched on either side and came with jump rings already attached. This one came in a package of probably 30 pieces. I had all kinds of ideas for this and I regretfully report they are still sitting in the package!

I had thought about using sparkly crystal rounds wired in between for a long necklace or even a multi-strand long necklace. Of course, I am a bracelet fan, so I had also pictured a nice delicate bracelet. AND, since it is summer, this would be a great component for an anklet! Very nice and fun for the beach!!

Hope you are all having a great week and a great summer!

Vintage Bubbles

Do you ever find yourself getting lost while taking photos? I think I could probably spend hours taking pictures of the same object. It seems like the light changes slightly or something happens differently each time. The rest of the world seems to melt away during this process. I guess that is just an added benefit.

I had that experience while photographing this bead. An unsuspecting person might just pass this one over without much of a glance, but when you look closely, you see the bubbles inside the glass. When the sunlight hits this bead, it's awesome! I hope you enjoy the bubbles, angles and shadows on this bead as much as I did.

Take care!

Lilly Pads on a Golden Pond

I just love this vintage amber bead. The white embellishments did remind me of lilly pads and the amber made me think of golden sunshine on water. Just those words seem to make me happy. You really can't go wrong with interesting or unusual vintage beads for creating interesting or unusual pieces!

This one fits the bill and would look great in so many different ways. I'm thinking of bringing out the white in the "lilly pads" by using some bright white beads, possibly flat discs in white among some amber colored round swarovski a/b rounds. I'm picturing a person wearing something like this, but it sort of seems like the person should also be wearing a hat and gloves.

Maybe that's because I have the movie, "Now, Voyager", playing in the background. Who knows where creative thoughts come from.....

Sparkle Issues?

Hi everyone! Today's bead is a 7mm square, 1 hole CZ-Gem Dropz, WOW! Sometimes I wonder where I have been!! I am betting these things have been hanging around for a while and I just never noticed! Well, there's a time for everything and now that I have discovered them, I am so excited to begin using them. These cubic zirconia beads are gorgeous! I'm interested in finding some examples of jewelry made with them so I'm going to check out the Beadalon site since that is the name on the package.

The back of the bead is pointed like a diamond which I believe is what gives it the depth. That's the only part I'm wondering about...how to use this in a piece so it will lay nicely on a necklace. It's possible that the best use is earrings or bracelet dangle.

Please don't hesitate to let me know how you have seen these used.

Too Cute Daisy Button

It's Sunday and it's time to look around for a little extra cheer as we gear up for the work week! This button did it for me!! I LOVE IT!! In real life, the daisy would have yellow in the center, but this is perfectly, plasticly pristine in all shiny white!

This is going to make a great memory wire bracelet! I'm thinking about using white rubber tubing for the first time just to keep it simple. What do you think?

Have a great Sunday!!

Great Glittery Slap Bracelet!

Hello and happy Saturday! Since today is bracelet day, I wanted to share this one even though I didn't make it myself. I bought this one in a pack of a dozen for $3 earlier this week. Within walking distance of my work is a great place in downtown Columbus, Ohio called the Yankee Trader. This is one of those stores where you can find things you probably remember from the back of old comic books or the treasure chest at the dentist office!

Metal, geometric shaped magic tricks, trick gum, magic 8 ball key chains, pencils with everything from smiley faces, dinosaurs and aliens! They also carry any kind of party theme supplies including life size cutouts of Elvis!

In addition to the pack of glittery slap bracelets, I also bought smiley faced stress balls and smiley face pins. The most important thing you get when visiting the Yankee Trader is free...lots of real smiles! What a great way to spend the lunch break!!

Have a great evening!

This Week's Earrings

Hello! Today begins a new trend on "A Bead A Day"!! Friday is now earring day!

I made these earrings this morning sitting in the parking lot before heading to my building. I had grabbed the beads and links and threw them in a baggie because I couldn't find earrings and for Friday, I thought I would wear some a little longer than usual.

These took about 2 minutes each to assemble and I love them!! Believe it or not, I received several compliments on them!! My mission for today at work was to make as much fun as possible considering the often overly serious and fast moving environment. These earrings definitely helped!

Hope you are having a great Friday Night!!