Sue Beads

Stars is the theme of the week - I just happen to have some stars!  I made these little mini cabochons a while ago for a component of the month - I really like them!!!!  The top star is from glass that looks like agate, and the bottom two are turquoise glass that fumes metallic!

Better late than never, right? I have such a hard time keeping up with EVERYTHING - however, I learned this cool collage technique on my Potomac retreat - more about that later when I steal everyone's photos - and made this.  The subject is JOY!

Not a great photo, but you get the idea!

This week's internal challenge over at Art Elements was beetle.  I had just the thing I wanted to try.  My kids brought me back this scarab bead from the British Museum, I am assuming it's supposed to be faience (I know not real, that would have cost a fortune!!!!).

I have wanted to replicate it for a while, and this was the perfect chance, as I was making headpins for a facebook trunk show!

Here are my beads - the first one is the museum scarab, mine are the second two.  I used opaque turquoise blue glass, and two colors of transparent enamel powder to mimic the faience look.  I think the second color looks the best.
Thanks for stopping by, and look for my post next week!

It's time for the January Component of the Month and this time, Lindsay Starr send us leather cabochons!  As usual I did not take a photo of mine before I started working, but this photo is from her post over at Art Elements!

In her post, she explains the elaborate process she went through to make these cabochons.  I chose one that, to me, evoked the sea and jellyfish!  Here's my finished project.

Lindsay had sent along some extra coordinating components, and one of them was this tassle.  While I was originally going to make the jellyfish tentacles with beads, I decided that this tassle was actually a really good choice!

 I stitched the bezel using a really pretty delica bead that picked up the colors of the cabochon, and used the small size 15 beads to pick up the most subtle shade on the cab.

I was going to add some beads to the tassle, but didn't do that yet.  I'm going to ponder it a bit first.  As for now, this is going to make a great ornament!  Check out what ev…

And it's time for another Component of the Month with Art Elements.  This month we had a guest contributor - Kristie Roeder of Artisan Clay.  Even though I didn't get chosen to use one of the components she gave away, I had one in my stash that I had recently reclaimed from an unsold necklace, so I decided to play along!

As usual, I did not take a photo of the piece before I used it.  But really, did you expect me to?

I really enjoy the zen I get from bead weaving, so I decided that's what I was going to do with this ceramic ring.  However, the hole in the middle presented a dilemma to me.  I had seen Jennifer Cameron made a piece and filled in the hole with a perfectly sized czech bead; however, I didn't have any.  I did, however, have this lucite flower bead, and I used a small czech flower in the middle, and a size 15 cobalt bead to hold it all in place! 
I have these awesome black necklace blanks so I decided to make the loops to simply string on one of them.  I h…

Art Elements has a new group on FaceBook!  Art Elements Extras!  Here we will destash some of our own beads and creations, and later, other components and beads as well!  Since it's opening weekend, we have some giveaways too!  So hop on over and ask to join the group!

You may have noticed that we changed our name and look over at Art Jewelry Elements - we are now Art Elements.  Read all about it!


Also it's time for the October Component of the Month - this month, Jennifer Cameron provided us with these cute sugar skulls! I managed to take a photo of mine this time, before I made my necklace!

I love the colors she used, and wanted to make a colorful necklace as well! Here's what I made, using seed beads and czech flowers!  I think it's fun!




I was so happy to be able to use these czech flowers, as I am currently obsessed with them. I went to Prague this summer but was not able to find any czech beads for purchase!

Thanks to Jen for the sugar skull inspiration!  Check out what everyone else made!

Guest Designers Staci Louise Smith Karin Grosset Grange Solange Collin Art Elements Team Caroline Dewison Susan Kennedy Laney Mead Claire Fabian Diana Ptaszynski Jenny Davies-Reazor Cathy Spivey Mendola Lindsay Starr Niky Sayers Lesley Watt Cooky Schock Jen Camero…