Sue Beads

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…

It was my turn to provide the Component of the Month over at Art Jewelry Elements this month.  I chose to make beaded beads for everyone.

I got the tutorial from Datz Katz over on etsy - Debra Schwartz has many tutorials for beaded goodies if you want to visit her store!

Here's what I made from several pairs of my beaded beads!








Of course, there are other things you can do with pairs of beaded beads besides making earraings, but I really love making earrings so....

Please check out what everyone else made with their beaded beads!

Guests Elisabeth Auld Mischelle Andrade Karen Martinez
AJE Team Susan Kennedy Jennifer Cameron Diana Ptaszynski Kristen Stevens Jenny Davies-Reazor Lesley Watt Melissa Meman Linda Landig Caroline Dewison Lindsay Starr Niky Sayers

This month, it was Karen Totten's turn to provide the component of the month to the AJE Bloggers and their guests.  She makes amazingly meaningful ceramic components - you can find her shop here!  Here's what Karen made for us to enjoy.

As usual, I did not photograph the component I chose. It's the yellow and brown one in the lower left/center of the photo.

I knew what I wanted to make right when I got it.  So I asked team member Jenny Davies-Reazor if she had any face cabs left, and she did!

I used a tutorial I had purchased on etsy by Beverly Herman for "Queen Wanna Bead".  This challenge proved to be a little bit difficult for me. I think that, for this pattern, you really have to use what Beverly tells you to use for the base - I used ultrasuede because that's the only thing I've ever used when I bezel a cab.  But you really need stiffer material because this is a larger, busy piece.  I am going to try it again, and use the right materials, but I'…

Another month has passed (my popular refrain) and it's time for another Art Jewelry Elements Design Challenge Reveal!  This month, Linda Landig provided us with brand spankin' new ceramics that she just started making!  How exciting - she's really doing great things!  I chose this leaf pendant, and as usual, didn't take a photo before I started working with it!

 I consider what I made as a work in progress because, in theory, I like my idea, but in practice, it didn't turn out the way I wanted.  My idea was to use the waxed linen and wrap pearls in drops from knots as you can see. It's much harder, at least for me, than I thought.  It's very hard to get the drops to be the same on both sides of the pendant.  It was hard for me to work with the jump ring on the pendant as well.  I think the key is to do the pendant first, and work out.  I was working from the loop down, for the clasp.
 Here's a photo of what I made, I'm not happy with it at all.  If …

Yet another month has passed us by, it's time for the April Component of the Month Reveal over at Art Jewelry Elements!  Lesley Watt provided components for us for April - buttons, or clasps, however you wanted to use them!  The one I chose was right in the middle!

 As usual, I did not take a photo of the button before I actually used it, so here is a closeup! 

 I had a few idea in my head none of which really worked out.  I didn't have the right color beads, I couldn't find the right color glass to make beads, I didn't have the right color waxed linen...on and on.  Finally, I went to Michael's for a little visual stimulation.  While I was there, I picked up the citrine (???) chips and the bronze colored beads.
 I strung three strands of beads (I already had the seed beads at home, woo hoo!) and then braided them before I attached to the bronze clasp with the crimp beads.  The bronze clasp is kind of urchin-ey, so I felt it worked really well.  Plus, I'm really…

It's already time for another Component of the Month and this month, it was Melissa Meman's turn!  She sent us all copper enameled hearts, with various hole configurations.  This is the heart she sent me:

 I made a little wire-wrapped bail of antiqued copper wire (20 gauge) and a little dangle with a rose colored copper balled end headpin that I made - to get the rose color, you dip the headpin in water quickly after you ball it in your torch!
 I wanted to pull the colors in the frit (glass bits) on the heart so I searched my stash and found these wonderful faceted beads in the perfect colors!  I wire wrapped them all with copper wire I antiqued in liver of sulpher, and added small antiqued copper daisy beads as well.
 I needed a little green accent as well, and was happy I had these little rondelles. 
 The clasp was one I purchased at the same time I purchased the one for Rebekah's CoM!  Glad I got an extra one - didn't have enough time to think about fashioning one …

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!

Over at AJE it's reveal day for the June Component of the Month!  This month, the wonderfully talented Jenny Davies-Reazor provided us with a pair of components.  Yes, I made earrings!  Jenny makes the most wonderful ceramic goodies, and when she makes jewelry she pairs her components with gemstones!  I love gemstones - if I didn't make lampwork beads, all of my jewelry would be made with gemstones!  As it was, I tried hard to make some beads to match Jenny's charms.  Jenny and I have very complimenting beads and components sometimes, and I thought it would be good to show that off.  However, I just couldn't get a good match and with the work schedule and tree disaster, I decided to go with gemstones!


The charms have an ever-so-subtle hint of brown on them, and so I chose faceted khaki quartz rondelles.


Jenny is very into myth and folklore, so I thought I'd tell you a little bit about quartz.  The name means cross vein one, and has a lot of mythical meaning in Abor…

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'…

Please head over to Art Jewelry Elements blog to see how you can WIN one of these funky ruffle discs!  All you have to do is agree to make a piece of jewelry with one of them and reveal it on May 31!

Today is the reveal for the Art Jewelry Elements Component of the Month!  This month, Jennifer Stout Cameron of Glass Addictions provided us with a pair of glass headpins she made! 

I'm afraid I wasn't too imaginative, in that I made earrings from the pair.  While I wanted them to be dangles on something, like a bracelet, earrings just kept calling to me!  These are as close to mis-matched earrings as I will ever get!  The headpins came with a very long piece of copper and I cringed when I cut it - what if I dind't like the earrings I made?  Well, too bad, Sue, you'll have to live with it when you cut!  I feel like I need to add one more dangle to the earrings, and then I'll be happy with them!

Please stop by Art Jewelry Elements blog to see what everyone else made with their wonderful headpins!  And thanks Jennifer for the amazingly wonderful headpins!

It's that time of month again already! It's the Art Jewelry Elements Component of the Month!  This month, the lovely Jo Tinley, of Daisychain Designs, supplied us with one of her handmade copper hollow beads!  I chose one with flowers on it.  She showed how to make them on the Art Jewelry Elements blog and, let me tell you, it's a lot of work!  I really love her work and I hope you visit her blog and shop!


I paired my bracelet with these gorgeous blue beads I picked up at a bead show in Monroeville a week or so ago.  I meant to show you photos on my blog of what I made, but seriously just cannot keep up at the moment!  These are faceted and such an amazing color, I'm sure they're dyed but I still like them!

So this is the bracelet I made.  I love the blue color of the beads with the antiqued copper of Jo's bead.  The only issue I have with this bracelet is that the clasp is too big.  I didn't have ANY other clasps in antiqued copper and didn't have time…

This month the Art Jewelry Elements Component of the Month was made by Francesca Watson.  Francesca is a very sweet person who makes beautiful jewelry.  This month she made the enameled discs with silver accents for us to use in our creations!  I made a bracelet this time, this is not the first one I made either!  I had something in mind and it wasn't coming out the way it was supposed to, so I put it down.  I let it percolate a little bit and finally the design happened!  I'm using ebony twisted wood beads and three of my own lampwork beads, separated by sweet little silver heishe spacers.  Stop over at AJE to see what everyone else made!