Friendly Fishy

Hello! Today's bead is a very sweet, friendly looking little glass fish. I've had these for a while and can't recall if I have used them before. Possibly in earrings, but my memory is not kicking in!

There are fishes in blue, green and gold in my collection. Now that I have re-discovered these beads, I need to come up with a way to use them. These might be cute in a piece of jewelry that incorporates some furry yarn to represent algae.

If you have any ideas, let me know. Take care!

Speckled Bead or Giant Mis-shapen Jaw Breaker?

Okay, you guessed it, this is a very cool speckled glass bead. I love it! This bead was included in the same ziploc as the little misfit beads. I don't get it, they are all so cool. Well, they have all found a good home and I can't wait to put them into a fun piece of jewelry. I don't think they will be in the same piece, but they certainly deserve to be used and worn. Just like the rest of us. We deserve to live the life we were created to live!

Have a good one!

Island of Misfit Beads

Hello! Today's bead is actually a collection of 4 beads that I bought at a local bead shop. There was an entire bin full of ziploc bags that were each filled with special glass beads. I had no idea why each baggie was only $.88, but I could see they had cute little faces in them. Of course, once I saw little faces I couldn't put the bag down and walk off without them knowing they were looking for a good home.

I think these are adorable little beads. They seem to have a lot of character. What do you think?

Modern Design Leaf

Today's bead is a fun variation of the good old leaf bead. Leaf beads are great and can add realism to your floral inspired jewelry designs. This particular leaf bead has some modern design elements that will give your jewelry pieces a modern, artsy flair as well. It is slightly chunky and has subtle faceted-like indentations which give it that modern feel, maybe even a little art deco-like with the slightly brighter green color. It would be great to have some chunky tulip-like glass beads in colors that are slightly darker than primary, like a dark red and purple.

Hope you are wrapping up your weekend by doing something fun! Take care!!

Pearly Beauty

Hello, hope you are all having a great Saturday!

Today's bead is a great beauty. Not only is it gorgeous, it is extremely versatile. I've used these beads in a very simple bracelet intermingled with a/b crystals, but it could be used with lots of earth tones or even bright pearly colors.

I'm thinking about those spring colored pearls that were showcased a while back and maybe throw in some of the "mess of crystals" and the result could be a sparkly, eclectic piece of jewelry. Sounds really fun! (Don't forget the dangles!)

Happy beading out there!

Crochet Fun

Yay, it's Friday!! I'm sure I'm not the only one who is VERY glad the work week has come to a close! I just realized I missed out on posting this week's bracelet so I thought I'd share a fun one today.

After getting several library books out to learn how to crochet with beads, this was one of my first attempts. In preparation for crocheting with beads, I took a trip to the local bead shop to purchase some of the mix tubes they put together since they always have some fun surprises in them.

This bracelet is the result of using embroidery-like thread and a $3 bead mix along with a single crochet... I still like the outcome.

If you can do a single crochet, you could have an untapped source of jewelry design that you didn't even consider! There are no beading skills involved, just load your beads onto your spool of thread and just pull the bead up the thread as you want to add them. How easy is that?

Have a great weekend everyone!

Sweet Little Bead

Aww, is this just the cutest, little sweet bead? (Or is it just me?) I realize it could just be me, but come on, this is so adorable. There's something very milky white about the middle part of this bead and the contrast with the primary red is great. Maybe it's slightly santa-like, but I think it would look great with a bunch of red beads and a giant white focal bead...very summery (instead of Christmassy).

Have a great evening!!