Sue Beads

This month, the theme for the Art Elements Challenge was chosen by Claire and she chose "white". Perfect for winter and the holiday season! I had all these ideas (I wanted to at least get to a white glass cabochon) but I did get one of the ideas done.

For a long time I have been pondering making a garland for my tree or mantle with my lampwork sugar beads - you may know what these are, but if not, photo is below. Pretty much every lampworker makes them, and at one point I had a pile of them. However, lucky for me I was able to sell them so no more inventory! I still think some type of garland with sugar beads would be a lot of fun, and maybe I'll do that someday.

I remembered a free tutorial for superduo stars by Deb Roberti of Around the Beading Table. She has many free tutorials, and she also has some awesome tutorials for purchase! She's actually having a sale right now, too! I hope you visit her link, she's so generous for providing so many free tutorials!

An…

Well I've completed my Facet Jewelry Box projects. If you recall from my last post, I was asked to review a box and I gave you a coupon code if you order in November. I'll repeat the info below. Here are the projects I completed.

This is the Embedded Peyote Bracelet. This was very easy to do, especially if you know peyote stitch. If you don't, its a great stitch to have in your repetoire and you can use the instructions to make this bracelet in a variety of colors! I think it would look great in southwest colors, myself!


These are the Woven Fringe Earrings. This was a little bit harder for me, just to maintain the tension needed. You need a little bit more patience for these, but they are worth it. And again, make them in a variety of colors! I've posted these photos on my Instagram and copied them to my facebook page as well.

You can find previews of future boxes on the Facet Jewelry Box FACEBOOK and INSTAGRAM pages, just follow the links! AND in addition to all thi…

We've moved to a once monthly challenge, which falls in the middle of the month, and the Component of the Month is at the end of the month - this gives us more time to be creative! Works for me, because I was very much inspired by the August theme of Faces.  Here's what I made!

This first one is called Mother Earth and features a face bead by Dana Swisher - I have a cat face cabochon from her too, but now I'll need to become a collector and get more!  I so enjoyed making this! Hope it shows!


This next piece features a bone face cabochon, dichro dots by Cindy Bos, and it's called The Four Cardinal Directions. I wanted it to have a buddhist, namaste feel.  I feel it!

I already have another one in the works, an Inuit inspired piece.  I'll show it when I'm done! Thanks for stopping by!

Appropriately, Jenny provided us with kintsugi hearts for the Art Elements February Component of the Month.


But not just any hearts - broken hearts, stitched up.  You may know that kintsugi is the japanese term for repairing broken things, in some cases pottery with gold.  That's what these hearts stand for! I chose one of the olive green hearts, mostly because that's my favorite color. And yes, as usual, I did not take a photo of mine before I started working on it!

Here's a close-up of my heart:


 I made a beaded bezel with some awesome metallic earth delicas I picked up on my trip to Houston in Fall, 2016.  Then I used some great old gold size 15s, and finally finished the bezel with bronze gold 8s and galvanized gold 15s that match the gold foil perfectly.

I used an awesome gold heart charm from Cathy Daly that I purchased in her etsy store to finish the bezel.

And here's a photo of it finished and hanging on a thin black cord.  I could also put it on a gold chain, …

Well, it's the end of June already, that must mean it's time for another AJE Challenge - this month it was a theme challenge, and the theme is Summer!  Here's what I made:



My favorite thing of all time really is the beach and the ocean.  On my bucket list is a trip to Fiji - hopefully one day this can happen! This cabochon by our own Diana of Suburban Girl Studio was perfect!



Please check out what everyone else made, and enjoy your summer!

Guests Rosantia Petkova
Melissa Trudinger Alice Peterson Tammy Adams Shaiha's Ramblings Betony Maiden
AJE team Jenny Davies-Reazor Niky Sayers Caroline Dewison Susan Kennedy
Lesley Watt
Jen Cameron