Sue Beads

Aaaaand another month has gone by, and it's time for the July Component of the Month challenge.  This month, Lesley Watt provided us with these awesome summery ammonite pendants to work with!  You can get some great ammonite items and more in her Thea Elements shop on etsy . The one I chose is pretty much smack dab in the middle of the photo - the olive green colored one!  I had a really hard time with this one, probably because I admire Lesley and her art and the jewelry she makes so much that I wanted to do this pendant justice.  I went through many iterations of a design, including trying to use Lesley's tutorial that she posted here . I ordered a bunch of beads I thought would match, I had s-lon cord that was great, and I ordered the chain you'll see below as well.  But it just wasn't working for me, so I got out my beads and started trying to come up with another design. I really wanted to use the fossil coral I had, but it just wasn't working....

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

It was my turn for the Art Jewelry Elements Component of the Month and I made baby cabochons.  Unfortunately, even though I was the host, I wasn't able to complete my project.  But I thought I'd show you what I started, anyways. This was my original design - making a paisley design with the cabs as the focus.  I drew my design out first, and the outside edge would be picot off of size 8 beads with a size 15 stop bead. Here's how far I got - I still have pretty far to go.  I feel pretty bad that even though it was my own CoM I didn't finish, but this is a crazy month so I guess I'll give myself a break. I hope you visit everyone else to see what they made! Guests Allison Herrington Lola Surwillo AJE Team Members Susan Kennedy - host Diana Ptaszynski Kristen Stevens Jenny Davies-Reazor Caroline Dewison Lindsay Starr Lesley Watt Jennifer Cameron Niky Sayers     Thanks for stopping by!    

I've been having fun playing with these gorgeous colors of glass by GG Glass.  My newest beads are these two-toned bicone beads, which you can find in my SueBeads etsy store !

This month, Jenny Davies-Reazor provided us with amulets for the Component of the Month Challenge!  Yep, forgot to take a photo of the one I got before I used it, but here's what she made! Here's the one I received.  Notice the bottom of the amulet - so awesome! I chose the stone Angelite to go with the amulet I received.  I've always been attracted to this stone and have a small hoard of it.  Little did I know that Angelite really speaks to me!  Here's why: Angelite is associated with the Throat Chakra.  It so happens that I am a thyroid cancer survivor.  Angelite is also a stone for creative people!  Angelite helps the wearer raise conscious awareness and promotes peace.  You can see more about Angelite on Caryl Haxwoth's page - very interesting! So here's what I made.  I chose to keep it simple on purpose.  I was going to try and fashion some sort of "lid" for the amulet out of a silver disc, or go to Michaels a...

As another month rolls around, so does the AJE Component of the Month challenge - this month was a theme challenge and Lindsay Starr is our host - theme is EYE.  I hope you go back and read Lindsay's original post, as it is very interesting.  I won't rehash what she already elegantly explained about the symbology of the eye.  I'll just get on with my post!  Incidentally, Michael's happened to have TONS of eye-themed components this month!  Lindsay must be right on trend!  Here are some photos I took! I also wanted to show you the little tiny evil eye charm I picked up in Greece about 10 years ago - I was going to use it in this project, but just couldn't bring myself to use it up!  Then I wouldn't really be able to hold it and fondle it lol! I also meant to make some lampwork evil eyes, and may still, but didn't really get the chance to do that! For my project, Kristie Roeder, a ceramist, was offering some great evil eye cab...

In case you still come by here occasionally, I have some headpins available in the SueBeads etsy store, and more to come this week!