Sue Beads

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!

My latest pair of earrings for Art Jewelry Elements Earring challenge - lampwork by me ( SueBeads ) and charms by Marla James ( Marla's Mud ).  Check out Art Jewelry Elements daily for new and inspiring work and tutorials and information!

I had a couple of web site orders recently that contained some of my crystal bead styles (see SueBeads web site if you're interested in more crystal bead styles!) and since I was in the groove and had the press out, I decided to make some for the SueBeads etsy store too! 

The featured beads this week are Summer Minis!  For the week of February 25 - March 3, 2013!  Pretty summer rainbow colors, on special for $20!!!!  That's $5 off the price of the set!  Find them on my SueBeads web site!  And check out all my other made to order beads too!

My latest pair of earrings for the Art Jewelry Elements earring challenge!  Made with my own lampwork rounds, and Kristi Bowman's copper charms.  Brass findings and sterling earwires!

This is week 8 of Sally Russick's Focus on Life challenge and the word is Monochromatic.  This strawberry photo was the one I used for a previous challenge word.  I have been having a lot of fun playing on my phone with Pixlr and Pixlromatic and this is what I made.  I love the effects you can get from a simple phone app!  Too much fun!  Please check Sally's blog for everyone else's photos!

Bead Tutorial: Twisted Flowers Materials: 1 rod light turquoise 1 rod light ivory Tweezers Remember to occasionally flash your bead in the flame so it doesn't crack! Step 1: Gather your materials. With your tweezers, pull a few stringers of light ivory. Also, pull a short (1 1/2") stringer of ivory with a larger base, so you can hold onto it to twist. Step 2: Make a basic bead of light turquoise. Make sure you are happy with the shape - you won't really be able to adjust it after you add your dots. Step 3: Add 3 dots of ivory in thirds around the bead. Make sure they are evenly spaced and about the same size. Step 4: Melt the dots in. Be careful not to let them get too molten, or they will misshape. Step 5: Heat the space in the middle of one set of three dots. With your little handmade twisting tool, twist the space in the middle of the three dots, turning only about 1/2 to 3/4 of a turn. The more you twist, the more your circles will distort. Aft...

My bead soup arrived from my partner, Krista Quantrill ! It only took a week to go from Canada to Pittsburgh, and mine only took a week to get to her.  We mailed them on the same day, and they both arrived on the same day - that's too funny! Here's what she sent me.  The focal is a really cool ceramic greek focal, there's wood, swarovski pearls, copper rice beads, two very cool patinated copper beads, the patinated clasp and really cool czech blue-green melons.  I love the soup!  Can't wait to get started! We both happened to send our soup in pink packaging, really funny coincidence again! This is the teaser shot I published a few days ago: And here's what I sent to Krista: Another funny coincidence, we both sent the same color scheme!  I'm looking forward to seeing what we both make out of our soup!

Silver Treatments on Glass Beads Posted by Susan Kennedy on November 21, 2012 at 5:00am View Blog There are many ways to add silver to your glass beads!  I'll list a few here today, if you have any other suggestions, please post them in the comments! I'm always looking for new ideas! The first way to add silver to your glass beads is with fine silver wire.  I'm not sure why, but you are supposed to use fine silver wire as opposed to the silver jewelry wire you might have on hand.  I order my fine silver wire from Monsterslayer.  I like them and they always have up-to-date pricing as the silver market is so volatile lately.  I use 30 gauge silver wire, but there are different gauges available.  I like 30 gauge because it's more delicate.  If you want to use higher gauge wire, you can get different effects, like actually placing thought-out dots on your bead!   I cut easily usable lengths of silver wire (about 9 inches o...

I had some fun making these organic looking beads last week, you can find them in my SueBeads etsy store!

Same tulips, two different apps!  First one is pixlromatic!  It's quite fun!  Second one is percolator.  I love what you can do with photos that may not be that great when you take them, but what you can turn them into is really cool!

Head on over to Art Jewelry Elements to check out everyone's entries in the Earring Challenge Reveal #3! These were mine!

Our prompt this week from Sally Russick is Beauty of Flowers!  I'm all over this one!  My daughter recently had her Senior Banquet and on the tables were potted orchids from Manchester Craftsman's Guild ; all the girls got to take an orchid plant home!  This is a flower on her plant that I mixed up a little with Pixlr on my phone!  I love that app!  Just wish I could see a bit better to use it lol!  Head on over to Sally's blog to see the rest of the photos!

Here's my week 6 entry for the Art Jewelry Elements Earring Challenge!  I used my own enameled copper teardrop beads and enameled headpins, with some copper daisy spacers and a small bronze seed bead at the top!  Copper ear wires I made myself, as well! 

I received my Bead Soup partner over the weekend - she's Krista Quantrill of Kanata, Ontario, Canada!  I was finally able to mail her bead soup today - here's a little teaser of what I sent her!  I used a photo editor called Be Funky - it was fun, and easy to use!  When she finally receives her bead soup, I'll repost with a photo of what I sent!

I didn't even know it, but my beads were in the February 11th issue of Beading Daily !  Thanks to Melinda Orr who pointed this out to me!!!!  I'm so excited!  You can find these beads on my SueBeads web site!  You can buy them there in singles, so if you want to make one pair of earrings, or 50, you can choose your amount! 

Patti Vanderbloemen is such a talented jewelry maker, and she uses my beads a lot in her jewelry.  I'm so grateful for that!  She just took Kerry Bogert's on-line wire course and made this amazing necklace with my denim sparkle beads and a hand-made wire spiral chain that she made after taking the course!  Please visit her blog to see more photos of this incredible necklace!

Kathy Nomura, from Jewels by Kat , make these sweet valentine's with Bo Hulley hearts and my enameled fluted bead caps!  You can find more of these bead caps in my SueBeads etsy store!

Over at Art Jewelry Elements we have the Earring Challenge going on for the year - our challenge is to make a pair of earrings a week for the entire year!  Here are my Week 5 earrings.  I have been making egg beads because it's almost spring!  You can find them in my SueBeads etsy store in lots of different colors!  I made these with sterling ear wires that I made myself, silver rounded squares and these cute little silver plated birdie charms - I love these so much, I need to get more! You can also follow our AJE Earring Challenge board on Pinterest to see what everyone is making!

Just thought I may as well continue the theme and show you some more customer work! This first one is by Kashmira Patel.  These are gorgeous earrings made with my enameled leaves!  I love them! This next pair of earrings is by Loralee Kolton of Loralee Kolton on etsy.   These were made with my pixie shimmer beads, they are so amazingly perfect for winter or a fancy night out! Finally, these earrings are by Sharyl McMillian-Nelson of Sharyl's Jewelry on Artfire.  She used my baroque beads to create these very unique earrings! If you have any creations you'd like me to share here on my blog, please let me know! 

I thought I'd showcase some more customer work. The first one is by Lesley Watt of Thea Jewelry on etsy.  I'm sure these are sold, but she makes wonderful jewelry.  You really have to check it out!  She's also a member of Art Jewelry Elements with me and I really admire her work so much!  You also have to check out her components shop, Thea Too - she is simply amazing The next two are from Andria McKee of McKee Jewelry Designs on etsy.  She used my enameled filigree and my enameled bead caps to make these great earrings! 

Just a few more days.... The SueBeads web site Featured Beads of the Week are Monet Swirl - 8 pretty beads that were $32 and this week from Feb. 4 - Feb.10, 2013 are now $27!!!!!  Please check them out and see if there's anything else you might like!

Two customers shared some work they did using my beads!  So I'm sharing with you!  The first is by Rejetta Sellers ( Jettabug Jewelry ) and she was actually able to take advantage of my customer loyalty program because these pretties were published in Stringing Magazine!  These next three are by Traci of Downtown Glam .  Traci is actually a Pittsburgh girl, just like me, but she lives in Canada now!  Please check out both of these etsy stores, these ladies are so nice and talented!

As you may know, over at Art Jewelry Elements we have a year-long earring challenge occuring! This is the second reveal for the challenge! Below you will find my entries! These first ones are made with my silvered aqua terra beads, which were my bead special of the week last week.   This second pair is made with my little clear frosted heart beads, perfect for Valentine's day!  You can find both of these pairs of earrings in my SueBeads Jewelry shop on etsy! Please check out Art Jewelry Elements were you can see everyone's link to their entries!

Tracy Statler, over at Make Bracelets , is hosting a Wellness Words Blog Hop today!  We were supposed to take a word that meant something to us and make a piece of jewelry that interpreted that word.  My word was health.  However, that's pretty generic, so my real word is more like thyroid-health.  I had thyroid cancer about 9 years ago. I had surgery and radiation and I am fine now.  Yes, there are side-effects to both the surgery and radiation, but I want to concentrate on figuring out how to feel better at this point.  I haven't been treating myself very well, and this year I am going to change that! I concentrated on two parts of that - the chakra, for one, and in particular, the blue chakra for the throat and ability to express truth through the spoken word.  I feel deeply that my habit of holding in feelings contributed to my getting cancer in this area.  Please see Three Hearts Company - they give you a really good overview of the chakra...