Sue Beads

AAAANNNDDD another month has gone by, and this time it was Caroline Dewison's turn to provide the component for the Art Elements Design Challenge!  She sent these!

Beautiful celestial beads!  As usual, I did not take a photo of my set, but hey, you'll see them below!  So drumroll..... here's what I made!


I did another spiral stitch necklace, with Star Sapphire size 8 and 11 beads, and some gold plated hex beads (all found at Bead Fest because I remembered to bring the set Caroline sent me so I could match beads!!!!) Proud of me! The hex beads mimic the starts on the ceramic round perfectly!

I used a ball-and-socket clasp, I really like these when I make a spiral rope necklace, easy to apply and easy to use!

I'm not an "all matchy matchy" person but we did have these great round beads, and since I didn't use them in the necklace, I decided to make a simple pair of earrings with them!  I like them, I like simple jewelry so there you have it!


Please visit ev…

This month's component of the month is exciting - it's a lichen cabochon or pendant by Caroline Dewison of Blueberri Beads!  Here's what she made for us!


I chose a blue cabochon - I got the one on the bottom right!  As usual, I didn't take work in progress photos, which I really like to do on these projects, but here's what I made!


I was excited to receive this because I was attending the Bead My Love retreat in Delaware before this CoM was due, so I thought I'd get some great ideas there!  I really wanted to make this elaborate beaded cuff, but just don't possess the skills or patience or space to do it right now, but someday I will make one.  So for now, I made a beaded bezel, and used some of my new skills to add more rows to it.

I added a stop-bead row of purplish-gray size 8 beads to the outside of the peyote bezel, and then did a brick stitch row of beads in that pretty blue.  I also added a row of blue beads between the peyote bezel and the stop-bead…

It's hard to believe March is already over when it seems like it just began - it's time for the Component of the Month challenge again!  This month, Caroline of Blueberri Beads provided our inspiration.  Here's what I received - a very cool luna moth pendant!  You can't see in this photo, but the bronze overlay is very shiny.

 I was having a hard time deciding what I had to match the pendant when I remembered these beads from my inventory for Bead Fest - they'd go great with Caroline's moth!
 Here they are together, just waiting to be made into something wonderful!
This necklace consisted of a lot of wire wrapping - which I seem to be into lately.  I used bronze seed beads with both my lampwork and the african metal beads I had on hand.  I used bronze wire, that I slightly heat patinaed.
 I had a sweet little bronze clasp I had ordered a while ago, to go with seed beading projects, but it went perfectly with this project!

 Here's the finished necklace!  I l…