Sue Beads

The amazingly talented and incredibly kind Rita of Toltec Jewels (for Jewel School Friends) is hosting a blog hop today using none other than my flower chicklet beads!  I am very excited to see what you all made with the beads!  Here are some things I have made with them, some are repeats from yesterday and some are not.




I want to thank Rita for contacting me about this blog hop- she constantly surprises me with the variety and skill with which she makes jewelry, and her constant support and enthusiasm for bead artists and jewelry designers is amazing!  Please check out what everyone else made with their chicklet beads!

Just so you know, I will be visiting each and every one of your blogs, but I have two other blog hops to visit as well, so please be patient with me!  I appreciate all of you!


ARTISTS:
Guest of Honor & Featured Artist:Susan Kennedy
Sue Kennedy's blogs:                               SueBeads...A Beady Girl's blog Art Jewelry Elements Sue Kennedy's webs…

The lovely Rita of Toltec Jewels is hosting a blog hop today, The Color of Dreams, and Patricia Handschuh of The Color of Dreams on etsy provided the beads!

Here's the bead I received - as usual, I didn't take a photo of it before I made something!

 I was going to go for the obvious, which to me was to make a bracelet, but my imagination just wasn't cooperating.  So I thought I'd make a key chain!  I wanted to use blue leather cord I had, but the hole in the bead was too small.  That's ok - I used Beadalon and all went well! 

 I strung a random assortment of seed beads on the cord, and ended with a blue leaf.  The blue leaf because the design in the bead is leafy to me!
So, what are my dreams as of late?  I would have to say my business getting better and better, and being able to travel again.  My business getting better and better would be so great, because I have one child in college right now, and in two years, I'll have 2!  So, if you'd like to help on…

Andrew Thornton hosts a monthly book club called Inspired by Reading.  He picks books and we read the section and create based on our reading!  Although I've been able to read only one book (and it was good) so far, this time Andrew was nice and provided me with a selection from this month's book, "My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me: Forty New Fairy Tales", edited by Kate Bernheimer - basically adult fairy tales!

 The story I chose was First Day of Snow by Naoko Awa, a Japanese fairy tale that borrows elements from folktales about disappearance. This story is about a girl who finds a mysterious round hopscotch trail and takes it for what seems like miles and miles.  She finally sees snow and hears a rhyme; it's the bunny rabbits, appearing as snow to take her away from the world and turn her into a chunk of snow.  The only way she can get back is by chanting a rhyme about spring and a mugwort leaf.


My idea for the necklace was a white bunny bead I had f…

Over at Art Jewelry Elements, we continue to have our twice monthly earring challenge reveal.  I have been a bit busy, under the weather, etc. to keep up, but this time I posted 4 pairs of earrings to our board!  Here they are!

These earrings are made with my own lampwork headpins, and pink quartz heishe.  I also made the niobium ear wires myself.  I was hoping they would solve my ear wire sensitivity issue, but they did not. I guess I'm just going to have to wear 14k gold.  Boo hoo!


These earrings were made form cute little charms by Mary Welsh Hubbard (White Clover Kiln - I love her beads!) and my own swirly lampwork beads.  Still not sure about the color combo - think I need to go with more pinky/purple than aqua.


More earrings with my own lampwork headpins and czech faceted rondelles!  I really like these!


Finally my own lampwork headpins with some beads that were called "titanium hematite" by the vendor from whom I purchased them at Bead Fest Philly.  I did not get…

Today is the reveal for Kristi Bowman's Wonky Bead Blog Hop.

We purchased sets of polymer clay beads at a discounted price, and were challenged to make something wonderful with them!  They are very cool beads, btw!  Below is the group shot of the color palette I chose - I actually received the set second from the left.


Initially I thought chunky bracelet would be the way to go.  And then I thought that maybe it would be too predictable, so I decided to go with a wire-wrapped looooooong necklace.  I started looking for beads that I had made that would work with the colors.  On hand, the only ones I could come up with are these red transparent ones, and they just really didn't go.


I went through my stash of gems and found these cappucino jasper beads that I thought might work.  I tried setting them up in an assymetrical pattern with Kristi's beads, but it just wasn't happening.


I did find these red vintage lucite beads in my stash and they went perfectly.  So I patinaed …

Today is the day for the Art Jewelry Elements Component of the Month Reveal!  This month, the lovely and talented Melissa Meman provided us with amazing pendants that she made; we had a choice of pendants, AND whether we wanted them with holes punched already or not.  I chose not, because I wasn't quite sure what I was going to do. 


This is the pendant I chose.  When I received it, I knew what I wanted to do and punched the holes myself! 

I had some discs already made from Bead Fest, and knew I wanted to make the pendant using those.  I also knew I wanted it to be a long necklace that had dangles as well!


I used Indonesian glass beads I already had and "titanium hematite" beads I picked up from Bead Fest to make the dangles.


As you'll notice, it's not quite finished!  I did not have any olive green Indonesian glass in my stash, so had to order it!  It's on it's way, hopefully soon, so I can finish the necklace.

When I do finish it, I'll post a photo…

I met Alenka (Pepita Handmade) through an earring swap.  She makes some really great polymer clay creations.  She was having her year blogoversary and asked for participants to create something with a random component she would send. She didn't even know what she sent each participant, so the reveal was a surprise to hear too!  I received this bracelet bar:

Now, I had several ideas of what to make for the big reveal!  However, I did not have the right materials to make what was in my head.  And then when I decided to make something with parts I did have, it just didn't turn out the way I wanted. 

I made this bracelet, so that I would have something for the reveal:

I used three different kinds of antiqued copper chain, and an antiqued copper clasp that mimicked the lines of the bracelet bar.

However, this is not what I wanted to make.  I have an idea, and hopefully after Bead Fest I will be able to make what I really wanted to make.  I will show you when it's done!

Thank yo…

This month over at Art Jewelry Elements, it's Diana's turn to provide the Component of the Month!  She sent us these cute floral pendants, and I chose pink! 


The reason I chose pink is because she had a pink one available, AND because right now it's my mom's favorite color.  So I thought I'd make her a necklace.

Usually I like to include my own lampworked or enameled beads in anything I make, but I just couldn't do it this time!  I am so busy getting ready for BeadFest (Booth 463!!!!) that I didn't have time to make custom beads.  But I still like this design.  I used 22 gauge sterling wire, swarovski elements crystals, and candy jade in pink.  I think it looks really sweet and I hope she likes it!

Hop on over to Art Jewelry Elements blog to see who the guest designers were and what everyone made!

I was lucky enough to be introduced to Alenka (Pepita Handmade) through an earring swap a few months ago!  She makes amazingly cool polymer clay creations.  She announced a giveaway and blog hop a few months ago, and I am in!  She selected some components, put them in envelopes, and mailed them off to us, not knowing who got what!  This is what I received!

Alenka didn't even know what she sent me, so she's surprised reading about this!  I have an idea already, incorporating my own lampwork beads!  I also know these colors happen to be Alenka's favorite colors, so I think she'll like what I make!

I have to say, I really love this global community of beaders we have all created!  Alenka is really such a sweet wonderful person and I would have never known her or her art if it wasn't for facebook, blogs and blog hops!  It's fun! 

Please stop back on August 11th to see what I have made!

Sally Russick is hosting a Black and White Jewelry Design Challenge!  Here's my piece!


I used a black and white heart from Nancy Schindler, and I made some matching lampwork beads!  The beads were made with clear, coated in white enamel, and then striped with black!  They go great with Nancy's heart focal!

Here's a closeup - I am having a jump ring issue as you can see.  If anyone has a better idea of how I could attach the pendant to the bracelet, I'm all ears!  Right now it's with two jump rings and I just don't like it!

Here's the rest of the participants - I hope you check out what they made too!  And thanks for hosting a blog hop Sally!


Sally Russick Monique Urquhart Patti Vanderbloemen Veralynne Malone Duane Clark D Lynne Bowland Michelle Buettner Pam Sears Therese Frank Dawn Doucette Nicole Rennell Cynthia Machata Alice Peterson Carolyn Lawson Evelyn Shelby Ailsa Cordner Michelle Escano Mischelle Fanucchi Jess Green

The beautiful Ms. Rita from Jewel School Friends blog is hosting a Summer Elements Blog Hop today!  I made three pairs of earrings for myself, in a summery theme, and thought I'd show you those! I got the beads from a bead show here in Pittsburgh over the winter, or maybe even in the fall, and just never got around to showing them on my blog!  These are faceted beads, have no idea the stone, but they are opaque, I'm thinking some kind of dyed agate.


These are gorgeous faceted angelite beads!  They are just too pretty, I want to eat them!
 And then these ones, I picked up from a table and the owners of the booth were probably pretty upset that they had to be at a bead show that day, from their attitude.  I have no idea what the "stone" is - they are not real stones, I hope they aren't asbestos or something like that.  But I did like the crackled effect and they are faceted as well!  I'm on a faceted kick right now!



So here are some of my home elements, water a…

This month was my turn to provide the Art Jewelry Elements blog followers and designers with the Component of the Month.  If you may recall, this is what we're working with this month - my lampwork ruffle discs!






This turned into a very real challenge for me.  I may have mentioned I am working a lot lately, to help my boyfriend get this very large job finished up.  I have not worked outside of my home for quite a while, so it's a challenge for me to get everything done and do the whole jewelry/bead gig as well.  I had other ideas, but they did not pan out.  I probably redid this bracelet 4 times, but here's the final result!


I actually pilfered from another bracelet to finish this one.  I made it with freshwater pearls and turquoise tubes, with silver seed beads as accents.


I used the ruffle disc as the clasp, the back I somehow finagled to make work!  I'm sure there are some kind of tutorials out there to show how to make a clasp out of a one-hole bead, but couldn'…