Sue Beads

This week, January 28 - February 3, 2013, the Featured Beads of the Week are my Terrazzo beads!  You can have them either etched or unetched; they were $36 but are $30 all week!  Please check out my SueBeads web site for this special and other beads that are made-to-order!

This week's prompt by Sally Russick for the 52 Weeks Photo Project was Make Art.  I made the art bead, and made the photo arty as well!  It was fun!  Check out Sally's blog to see all the participants!

I was feeling focal-y this week and made some pretty focals with shards and murrini!  You can find these in my SueBeads etsy store!

In case you were wondering what you could make with the Featured Beads of the Week, here's a cute little pair of earrings I just whipped up today!  I used twisted silver tube beads, and rounded squares as accents.  These will go in my SueBeads Jewelry store on etsy shortly!

Silvered Aqua Terra In order to get some traffic to my website - SueBeads - I'm offering a featured item of the week!  This feature will be on sale for an entire week, from Monday to Sunday.  Then the next Monday there will be a new Feature of the Week!  I'm hoping this will introduce you to my web site, and also make me update it more frequently with my made-to-order beads!  So, this week, the featured bead set is Silvered Aqua Terra!  It was $30, but this week it's $25!!!!  Please go check it out, and check out all the other beads I have to offer for made-to-order!

This is the first reveal for the Art Jewelry Elements Earring Challenge!  You can read more about it here .  The challenge is to create a pair of earrings each week, and post about them every two weeks.  Participants sign up for quarterly increments and post on a special AJE Pinterest board.  The earrings must include an art bead.  These are the earrings I posted!  The first ones are cool wintery earrings with my own shimmery lampwork beads.  The second ones are probably more for fall, and feature my enameled leaf charms.  You can find both of these earring pairs for sale at my SueBeads Jewelry store on etsy!  Please stop by and check it out!  It's lonely!  If you head over to AJE , you can check out what everyone made via the linky tool!

This week's photo prompt from Sally Russick is Take Time - take time to do something for yourself.  My boyfriend and I ran errands on Thursday night and then he asked me where I wanted to go and eat.  Hmmmm.  I didn't really care.  He suggested Outback Steakhouse.  I said, ok...  Then I remembered their Wallaby Darned drink.  So this was the time I took for myself this week - I had a good steak and a good drink!  And it was a fun mid-week date! 

Yesterday, after I made my bead orders, I played a little bit!  That's always fun, I'm looking to expand my horizons as far as bead making goes, so hopefully I'll be doing that!  One thing I did was use that piece of brass wire I had sitting down there.  I wanted to see how a headpin would look with it after it anneals in the kiln.  Didn't change the color at all, which is great!  This is too thick of a gauge, I think, so I'll be trying 22 instead of 20.  What do you think - is 20 too thick for a headpin? I made a big hole heart bead - this was tough.  It took a long time, kept cracking, and it's really rough.  But I think it's a cool idea, probably for a toggle.  It would need to the the focal, though, because it's large! I did some cabs too.  One broke - wah!  But I love this one.  I made more today.  Cabs are fun, because you can play after you shape the cab.  This one will be making it into the store l...

I've listed a bunch of enamel work in my SueBeads etsy shop, with more to come!  Check them out!  I'm putting the enamels away tonight to start my first glass work of the year!

Sally Russick is hosting a weekly photo challenge, Focus on Life, and I am taking part.  This is week 2.  Our prompt was to Pick Your Word.  This is easy this week!!!!!!!  I have been spending any "free" time, meaning I have time and I feel like it, to organize my house.  I have this overwhelming urge to be "moveable".  Not sure why.  I don't plan on moving.  I would never get another mortgage at this point!  If I do move, it would have to be cash and a smaller place, for sure!  But thank you Sally for giving me an easy one after last week's self-portrait!

Enamel beady goodness coming soon! Compound gear/sprocket beads Teardrop beads Fluted floral head pins Compound beads - still working on these Round floral head pins

I just listed some new enamel bead caps in my SueBeads etsy store!  And I'll be making more today!  Check them out! FYI - I just found out that my source for the fluted bead caps is now sold out, and the source for my round bead caps is sold out after I get my next order.  If you want the fluted ones, I would buy them now, because I don't have many left.  I will keep looking but I'm not optimistic about these ones...

Over at Art Jewelry Elements we're having a challenge!  An earring challenge!  A year-long earring challenge!  But you don't have to sign up for that long!  It will be quarterly, so if you need an earring break, you can take one!  Please check out the Art Jewelry Elements blog for full details, but here's some quick facts for you: Participants will sign on for 13 weeks at a time. We are challenging ourselves to make one pair of earrings a week. Our earring designs will feature at least one artisan component, such as a handmade charm or bead.  The artisan components may be made by you or by another artist. When we post our earrings, we will credit the person who made the artisan component(s). AJE will provide a Linky Tool every 2 weeks, so you can link up your pictures for everyone to see.  If you have a blog or online shop, you can use it with the Linky Tool, but you can also link to a Facebook or Flickr page.  The Linky Tool...

I mentioned I would show you some more of the ornaments I made this season with art beads! I am having fun making these ornaments and will probably make more throughout the year. Too bad I don't have any shows I'm going to do to sell them... This first one is made with a cute cute birdhouse made by Rejetta Sellers !  I love her little polymer clay creations!  I used two shimmer beads by me, two faux rhinestone rondelles and a larger faceted glass bead and two little red rondelles to accent the birdhouse!  The hanger has a cute little peppermint that Rejetta included with the birdhouse! These next two use polymer hearts by Martha Eason, from Menagerie Studio .  I have lots of her creations and will make more with them for sure!  This first one is made with czech rondelles and two of my tangerine sparkle beads.  The colors just pop on her piece with these beads! This next one was made with faux black rhinestone rondelles, my shimmer beads, ...

I'm participating in Sally Russick's 52 Weeks Challenge - a photo a week for the whole year, revealed on Saturdays.  She sends us a prompt and we have about a week to take the photo!  This first week is self-portrait.  Thanks Sally.  Cuz I really loooooove me some photos of myself.  NOT.  So I sucked it up and got it done on Thursday.  So there.  I edited it a bit with picmonkey.  It's me in my kitchen.  Where I always am....  But really, thanks for making me take a photo of myself.  I like that I can edit!