Sue Beads

Better late than never! I participate every year and didn't want to miss it this year - the Art Bead Scene Ornament Hop!  I'm also doing ornaments for the Art Elements hop, but I'll show you what I've made while exploring the fusing capacity of my kiln!  I love them! The trees are typical Christmas holiday colors! The stars are sparkly dichroic and clear!  You can find them in my SueBeads etsy store if you need some!!!  Thanks for stopping by!

Not sure if you heard, but Facet (Stringing, formerly Bead Style) is launching The Bead Box - one stop kits for jewelry making! It's a monthly subscription and you can choose one of two options! "We are so pleased and proud to be launching   the Facet Jewelry Box — a subscription-based service for beaders of all stripes! We’ll have two different boxes to choose from:   The Quick & Easy Stringing Box , and   The Bead Stitching Box . Sign up today, and a new box will be delivered to your doorstep once per month, with not one, but TWO surprise beading projects. Everything that you need to make two finished pieces of jewelry will be included: all the beads, wire, clasps, and findings, plus complete how-to instructions with photos and patterns — in full color. All you need to supply are the tools!" Not only that, but if you go to THIS LINK , you can also enter to win prizes!  The box subscriptions start in January, but you can sign up now! Please n...

This month, it was Niky's turn to provide the Component of the Month - she sent us these awesome hare coin clasps! She makes such awesome things! And yes, as usual, I didn't take a photo of it before I used it.  I do that, I admit it. I wanted to learn a new stitch, and thought flat chenille stitch would go perfectly with the size of this clasp.  I chose size 11 and 15 Japanese seeds in coordinating colors, colors I thought would look good with the brushed silver of the coin.  And then I learned flat chenille stitch. To be honest, I'm embarrassed at how long it took me to actually figure it out.  It's a pretty easy stitch,but for some reason, I was having trouble initially in turning over to the next row.  Once I got it, it went really quickly and it's a pretty fun stitch, with quick results!  Here's the whole bracelet, very easy to wear as well! I have another clasp of Niky's from last years' CoM, and I already have beads picked out to t...

This month it was Laney's turn to provide the Component of the Month, and she made these cute little Zombees!  I did not take a photo of mine before I made something, if I did you would probably drop dead at this point! Here's my little zombee creation all done up with a cool effect from PicMonkey.  Are you aware that you now have to pay for PicMonkey - a yearly subscription.  I paid my dues because I use this program a lot and don't have time to learn another free one.   So here's my creation - a bookmark.  Yep.  Lame.  I did not have a good enough idea until it was too late to do anything about it, and I wanted to make something, anything.  So I made this bookmark.  The zombee is trying to get the fall flowers.  My real idea at this point is to make a glass cabochon that looks like a pumpkin, bead bezel it, and make it into a cute necklace, with the zombee being part of the strap - I was going to a strap in some sor...

Forgot to add my Inuit piece to the keep your sanity post, here it is!

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 ha...