Sue Beads

It's that time again - time for the Art Jewelry Elements Component of the Month challenge. This time, it was Melissa Meman who provided us with some morsels to play with!  She makes awesome copper clay components.  This is the one I chose.

I knew I wanted to do bead weaving (again!!!) and I picked some awesome colors to go along with the copper - peacock blue and wisteria.

I did a spiral rope with size 8 peacock color beads and size 11 wisteria. I have to say, I don't like this method of using 3 8s as the base and 4 11s as the spiral - it's too loose for me.  I will write about this for my Tuesday post on AJE. 

I used some beautiful angelite faceted rounds I had as an accent to the necklace, with about an inch of spiral rope in between the trio of beads.  The color of this angelite is really amazing! 

As I was toggle clasp deficient, I decided to make some.  I punched 22 gauge copper sheet with my disc cutter, cut a hole in it, textured it, dapped it, filed the rough edges…

For the January Component of the Month Challenge at Art Jewelry Elements, we decided to do a "use your stash" challenge.  Use pieces you have from other AJE Team Members.  The guests were each chosen and sent a piece from one of the AJE Team Members to make something with as well.

Here are my pieces for this month!

 I made these earrings from heart charms I had from Kristi Bowman-Gruel.  I put the copper floral charms together with gorgeous pearls and gold filled ear wires - the gold filled ear wires don't seem to bother my ears like other metals do.
 These cute pink earrings were made from Diana Ptaszynski's flower charms - I made these for my mom - her favorite color is pink.
 These earrings were made from charms by Linda Landig!  I got these at Bead Fest in August!
 And these earrings, which are my new favorites, are with silver metal clay beads by Melissa Meman.  The photo below shows the detail on the beads!

I made these with cute brass spacer beads I bought at …

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 …

I promised I would post when my green indonesian beads came; here is the finished necklace using Melissa Meman's gorgeous copper component! 


Thanks for stopping back to see it!

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…