Sue Beads

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'…

I have been a blog partner of Chinook Designs for a while, and Mellisa finally got back around to doing the design team again!  This time I was chosen, and we were given a very cool twisty bead, which you can find here in her shop!

Here's a photo of my bead, it's purple and very cool!



I used brown leather cord I purchased from Melinda Orr and made my own cord ends.  That was very tedious, but I'm glad I know how to do it now!  I also made the dangle from one of my own lampwork beads, a rhinestone rondelle, and a pretty potato pearl, to give the cord a little bit of femininity.


Please go to Mellisa's blog to see who else is playing along with this design challenge!  It was fun, and I'm sure there are many other imaginative ways you can use this twisty bead!