Sue Beads

It's that time again!  Art Jewelry Elements Earring Challenge reveal!  Here's what I made!  Both pairs of earrings are made with my little lampwork beads and Kristi Bowman-Gruel's newest polymer clay creations!  Don't you love them!  Check out AJE Blog to see what everyone else made!

Use coupon code FLASH15 to take 15% off your order from now through April 1st! The only catch is, I'm taking a couple days off and will mail orders on April 2nd! Shop away! www.suebeads.etsy.com

I have been working with my boyfriend of late, a few days a week, installing some electrical for outside lights on a property. We'll also be doing some major landscaping work if this weather ever breaks!  It has taken me away a bit from blogs/blog hopping/blog reading and I apologize for that.  There is just not enough time in the day!!!  But I did score some free reclaimed copper!  I think I'll use this to try those cool beads that Patti Vanderbloemen made!  I'll have some photos and beads later!

Here's my latest contribution to the Art Jewelry Elements Earring Challenge!  The first pair are made with my latest flower beads, which can be found in my SueBeads etsy store!  The second pair are with my latest bicone beads, in a spacy nebula type design!  You can also find some of these in my etsy store, or ask for a custom listing if you like!

If you read my post from Sunday, you saw the process that took place to come up with these little flower beadies (originally posted on Art Jewelry Elements)! I used the plant poke flowers for inspiration to create these little flowers, in some of the color combos I really really liked!  You can find the little flower bead pairs in my SueBeads etsy store!

This was originally posted on Art Jewelry Elements - I wanted to share it here with you in case you don't read that blog so you can see where I started with this process.  Tomorrow you can read about the latest little flower beads you'll find in my etsy store!

I started making these flowers on my bent mandrels because 1) I can't throw them away, that would be wrong, and 2) I have lots of short rods of glass that I can't throw away either.  This solves both problems!


So on Friday, I decided to have a play day, and I made some more, but I added some dots of color to the petals and feel that they are waaaaaay cuter and more interesting with the dots.


Here's a closeup of one of the them.  When I took them out of the kiln, I took a photo and posted it on facebook.  I got a lot of "likes" for them, and one question about whether they were going to show up in my store.  I don't know if anyone would be interested in them, I may sell them on my blog,…

My tired daughter all wrapped up.  It's senior year - lots of AP courses and projects, and sports, and senioritis!

Cute floral glass headpins, more coming soon, with a full four inches of wire - you can even make it into your earwire!  Plus it was a disc bead day the other day, I think these are cute!  You can find them all at the SueBeads etsy store!

And don't forget, these Olive Chunky Discs are on special this week at SueBeads web site!  You can even buy them in pairs or singles!

Getting some new beads and headpins listed at SueBeads etsy store!  The headpins are made on brass and are 4" long - lots of wire to work with!

This week, from March 4-10, 2013, the Featured Beads of the Week are the Olive Chunky Discs.  They were $6 each, or $30 for the set - this week only they are $5 each, or $25 for the set.  You can buy single beads or extra beads too!  Just head to the SueBeads web site!

These are my two entries for this two-weeks' Art Jewelry Elements Earring Challenge!  Hop on over to the Art Jewelry Elements blog to see what everyone else is making!

This week Sally Russick's prompt for the Focus On Life Photography Series is Knock Knock.  Photos of doors.  In or out.  What's on the other side?  My photo is from Santorini, Greece.  I was there years ago (and by years I mean probably almost 8).  I don't travel as much anymore but I have fond memories of my travels.  I went to Greece with an ex-boyfriend for business (he was an invited speaker at a conference) and before we went to the conference we decided to visit Santorini for a couple of days.  This was the door at the top of the steps that went down to the hotel we were staying in.  At the top of the photo you can see the caldera - a caldera is a sunken volcano that has filled in with water.  Imagine sitting outside on the patio chairs watching the sunset from right here!!!!!  Head on over to Sally's blog to see everyone else's doors!

Today is the reveal for Erin Prais-Hintz' Challenge of Music.  The challenge this year was music with no words, or instrumental.  I chose Holst "The Planets".


I have always loved music, mostly contemporary, although my dad and I would play a game in the car where I would have to name the music that was playing and of course, he wasn't playing Led Zeppelin!  But I did gain an appreciation for all sorts of music.  TV shows of the 70's like Lawrence Welk (we watched this with my grandmother all the time!!!) or Hee Haw (yep, even Hee Haw had music!) allowed me to learn about different music.  It wasn't until I took a college course in Classical Music (we called it Clap for Credit) that I gained a real appreciation for instrumental, classical music.

In this class we learned about Gustav Holst and "The Planets."  This 7-movement piece was written between 1914-1916 and each movement is about one of the planets in the solar system - not including Earth, and…