Bead Soup Blog Party, Bead Hoarders Edition :)

Its time!!!  Bead Soup Reveal time!!!   YAYNESS!!!

Yeah, I'm excited.  :)  So, my partner this round is Krafty Max, and you can find her awesome blog here. She does wonderful bead weaving.  For reals, I'm in awe of her skill.

I want to send a big shout-out and lots of hugs to Lori Anderson, our fearless leader behind the Bead Soup Blog Party

Anywho! She sent me the most beautiful soup, with vintage focals, seed beads, clasps, and general awesomeness.

All my goodies from Krafty Max

Vintage Focals

I absolutely fell in love with those rectangular beads.  The colors (can you see the hint of red? fabulous!!!) I had this idea to make this really awesome 3 strand beadwoven necklace (I still might!!!!) but time and life conspired against me, and that idea had to fall by the wayside.  I was actually quite bummed.

But then I had another idea--a cuff! So, I decided that herringbone (apparently, as I disovered at Bead Night tonight, it's my old standby! lol!) would be best, as its so versatile, and slinky! I just love herringbone. I wanted to bring in the colors in the beads, so I used a base of Sea Foam lined Light Topaz seed beads, with lines of Metallic Iris Teal, Pepper Red, and black.  Then, I sewed one of the focal beads onto the cuff, and clustered Czech Firepolish around the bead.

You can find the Participant blog list here.  Happy hopping!!!

RanaLea

Bead Soup Goodies!!!

My Soup from my FABULOUS partner, Rachel of Blue Finch Jewelry, arrived last week, and it is AWESOME!  :) I can't wait to start playing!

Take a look!

TWO focals!  And TWO Sterling clasps!!! :) LOVE THEM! 

Pretty enameled beads!  

And the rest of my fabulous soup! LOVE the colors!!!  

 Go to Rachel's blog to see the soup she received!

Thanks for stopping by!
RanaLea

My Bead Soup Arrived!!! :)

Yay!  It's here! It's here!!  :)  And it's SOOOOOOOOO pretty!  My partner, Mary Govaars, really sent me an awesome soup, and I already have SO MANY ideas!  You'll have to wait for the ideas (I can tell you I'll be creating multiple pieces, and most likely using stringing, weaving, and wire work.  :)  I can't wait!!!!) But, I can show you pictures of the pretties!  :)

Okay, here's the box and what came in the box (I love the red bubble wrap.  It's my favorite color! lol!)

And Mary had everything packaged all up in a cute bag, and wrapped in the brightest tissue paper:

She included a lovely card with details about the beads she sent, and with the most gorgeous picture of The Golden Gate Bridge at night:

So, on to the goodies!  :)

Mary sent me a BUNCH of gorgeous lampwork beads:

Blue Accent beads by Canyon Echoes, Green hollows and orange/green focal by LL Designs (I can't seem to find a link for them), and big focal bead by That Bead Girl. 

And a beautiful set of coordinating beads, including seed beads, chips, and some awesome coral discs:

So, the focal an the clasp (the 2 pieces I HAVE to use in my design!)

A simple and elegant sterling toggle, and a fabulous focal lampie by LL Designs.  It's more orange than red in real life :) 

And I've already started looking through my stash for more goodies to round out my plans:

So there it is!  The pretties I get to play with! :)

And here's a partial pic of what I sent to Mary:

The lampie is by Nancy Gant. 

Bead Porn!!!

So, March is my birthday month....  :)  and as such, I decided I wanted beads.  So... Beads. I. Got... LOL!!

Okay, here's where you can get your own bead porn:

• The Green Jewel and Blue Elephant came from Flamekeeper Beads on Etsy (you can find her as Torch by Night Lampwork on Facebook)
• You seriously need to check out her lampwork Pirate Sculpture.  So far beyond awesome!!  
• Pink Tulip Earrings: The beads were made by Blissful Garden Beads, but they were made into earrings by Karen Snyder's O. Sebastian (and on Facebook)
• The Flowery Easter Eggs were made by Honey Bear Beads (and on Facebook)
• The Jeweled Waters Set comes from Javabead (Check out their brand new website!!!)
• And Ms Kitty? Well, Ms. Kitty is a bead made by 2 Cool Beads (and on Facebook).  I made her into the bookmark.  :)

More details later on what I do with all these lovely baubles!! I have all sorts of ideas!  :)

Oh, and keep in mind, these are all one of kind artisan beads.  So you're not going to find another exactly like them.  And really, why would you want to?  When these folks are so talented and are constantly making new, different, and even more awesome things!  :)

Fave Beads: Seed Beads

So, I've read a lot of info on line about different types of beads, etc, since I started on this awesomely awesome jewelry journey, but I thought it might be fun to give you my take on one of my favorite beads.

The seed bead....

This humble little bead is the staple of many of my jewelry making endeavours.  The funny part is--when I started making jewelry about 3 years ago, I saw no use for the seed bead AT ALL!  I mean, what did I want to deal with those things for!  My god!  So tiny and annoying!

Then, I discovered they make good filler when you're trying to extend a design into a necklace in the easiest and simplest manner (with simple stringing).  So, I bought some seeds beads in various colors.  Not too many, just some to make stringing necklaces and bracelets easier.

And as I continued to learn more techniques, and explore the world of handmade jewelry more, I learned about the gorgeous woven pieces I could make

And this time... "My God!! So gorgeous!  Love it! Hey, can I do that?"  And then, "YES! I CAN!  But I need seed beads to do it!!!  Oh dear....   But I don't like seed beads!"

Well, now I do... and here's why:  the seed bead, that humble, itty bitty, tiniest of all beads, is without any doubt in my mind, THE single most versatile bead ever created.  Now I admit, I've not gone so far as to research when and where it was for developed, etc (I'd imagine, sometime in prehistory, but don't quote me on that...) but ever since I started weaving, I can tell you seed beads have gotten more play in my designs than any other bead I own...

And the really cool thing about seed beads--they come in a seemingly infinite variety of shapes and sizes... don't believe me?  Go here.

So there you have it... the worth of the tiniest bead...  Now, I'm off to weave something!  With seed beads!!

School is out...

And not a moment too soon!  I actually managed to finish all the grading about 3 hours ago, which must be some sort of record for me.  But finally!  It's done!  I have a whole month of blissful free days ahead of me!  No more slightly neurotic, occasionally forgetful, but still wonderful students!  They're all off relaxing (I hope...) YAY!!!!

Of course, for the next week, I'll be frantically making Christmas gifts (starting with the cards I need to go finish up here shortly.  I still have 100 passes through the Sizzix to go.  Joy....)  I have ornaments to make, jewelry to string, wreaths to design, and a couple of gift cards to buy (so of course, I'm going to have to make holders for those!)

I also have myriad ideas floating around in my head of things I want to try... Thankfully I've got my art journal and while I can't sketch to save my life, I'm pretty good at writing descriptions... lol! I really want to work on this bracelet idea I have using weaving and earring forms... we'll see how it works out...

Right now, I'm either off to sleepy-time land, or off to finish the die-cutting... not sure which.  Either way, stay tuned for pics of projects coming, since I'm out of school and have some time to play again!

Biggish day for lil' ol' me!!!

So, last week, as I begged my boss and all the office ladies to vote for my Art with Heart piece (which they did!  So, yay!!!) they also asked to see what else I made.  So, today, or I guess, yesterday now, I took all my work in so they could see.  And guess what!  I sold a pair of earrings, and have orders for five, (yes, FIVE) African Helix bracelets. YAY!!!!!!!

I know it's not much, but it makes me happy! :)  And now, I get to play on Artbeads and buy some new seeds and druks. Whoo-hoo!!!!!

I also ordered the kit for Art with Heart Cycle 3, and I cannot WAIT to get that sucker!  Here's a link; check out those colours. How gorgeous are those!  And that focal!  I'm tempted to get a few of those just to have on hand. I can feel a fabulous piece in the offing!

Well, that's it for my quick update.  Look for some new pieces in the shop in a few days, and have a great weekend!

R.Wilson

Earrings!

I love making earrings, and I love wearing earrings, so it's handy that I enjoy making them, huh?  Yeah, circular reasoning if ever I saw it, but it works for me... lol!

So I made earrings today.  Two pairs; I tried for a third, but the inspiration just wasn't there... although, it might be now... I'll be right back...

....

......

.....

Yup--just got another idea!

And just made the other idea!  LOL!  So anyways, I made three pairs of earrings today...

Turquoise and Copper

Falling Leaves

So, the first pair of the day was the Turquoise and Copper.  I just thought they looked like a lot of fun. And the most recent pair is Falling Leaves. Also, just a lot of fun.

But I also made a pair I'm calling Beautiful Death, and those were my baby today:

Beautiful Death

I'm not sure of the name yet, but I thought I could try it out here for the time being. I bought the skull beads ages ago from a seller on Etsy, and they're actually the first beads I used in anything I sold.  I have a great earring and necklace set that I made for myself, ostensibly for Halloween, but I wear them year round (it's subtle, and until someone really looks, they don't actually know I'm wearing skulls.) My goal with Beautiful Death was to go over-the-top (ish) joining the death icon (the skull) with flowers and soft colors.  There's even a little blue butterfly, if you look closely. I really like the way they turned out.  So much so, I may not sell them (the danger in making things you like....)

Enjoy, and thanks for reading!

R.Wilson