Happy Mother's Day to Moms Everywhere!

Mom turned 100 years old last January and is still enjoying life.  She walks a little slower and her eyes are growing dimmer, but her mind and wit are still pretty quick. Here she is with all four of her kids, from youngest (on the left) to oldest.  Yes, we are still kids at heart!  My younger brother claims to be Mom's favorite but I'm not so sure about that.

Each year I make Mom a necklace for Mother's Day.  She's wearing one in the picture above, but it's hidden by the flowers.  This year is no different.  I created a beaded bead from Cindy Holsclaw's Fiberoptic Dodecahedron pattern and then hung it from a Russian Spiral beaded rope. 

I hope I will get to see her wear it in person at her next birthday!

Give your Mom some love for Mother's Day!

Innuendo - Metal Beads and Swarovski Bling

A while back (ok, many months ago), I finished a new bracelet I called Rhapsody.  I used 24k gold plated metal beads to create a right angle weave base and added some Swarovski bicone crystal embellishment on top.

I had every intention of making my Rhapsody bracelet in silver and then creating a tutorial showing them in both colorways.  Somehow during the beading, the plans changed and I ended up with a simpler bracelet.  It uses the same techniques, same right angle weave base and craw embellishment, but there are some differences I'm sure you can see.  I omitted the diamond cluster of crystals in the middle of the bracelet and those going down the sides.  I used round vitrail crystals in the same grouping of four down the center of the bracelet.  Here's how it turned out.

 

Since I'm a silver kind of girl, I like the silver one best.  I created a tutorial for it and the Innuendo pattern is now available in my Etsy shop.

 

I also sell the size 8 silver plated metal beads and the Elegant Elements clasp used in the project. 

 

 

If you like the gold one best and you know cubic right angle weave, it would be very easy to add the extra embellishment.  Whichever you like best, I hope they inspire you to create something today.

 

Happy Beading! 

Metal Beads, Super Duos and Rizos

The challenge was to use three of my favorite bead shapes in one design, Super Duos, Rizos, and Metal Seed Beads.

I've been using metal seed beads for some time and love them for their consistent shape and size.  They work so well with right angle weave and I've used them in several different bracelet styles.  Here's my Trinity Bracelet using size 11 metal seed beads.

The super duo beads have two holes and have an unusual shape.  Here's a bracelet I made using super duo's.  I called this one Cinnabar because of the unique picasso finish on the beads.

 

 

The third bead is called Rizo and it is pretty new on the market.  It is shaped like a tiny grain of rice and has one hole in one end of the bead.  Here is a pair of earrings combining super duos with rizos.  The rizo's are used at the tips of the bottom triangles.

 

 

The design using all three types of beads with their own unique shapes and sizes was an exciting challenge.  My Luxury Squared bracelet is the result of the challenge.  Of course, I also had to add a bit of Swarovski crystal bling to the mix!

 

 

The moral of the story?  Don't be afraid of challenges.  They can inspire and bring out your creative muse in some very interesting ways.

 

 

Fun with Super Duos

Just a quick post to share some fun things I've been making with the new Super Duo beads.   I created these earrings for a fun earring exchange this Christmas.  These are the earrings I sent.  I'm still waiting to receive mine from an unknown Santa.

 

I also made a necklace for my Mom for Christmas.  She's told me at least 35 times how much she likes it which makes me very happy.  Mom will be 100 years old Jan 11 2013 so I called this necklace Centennial.

 

I love the Super Duos.  They have two holes (one in each end) and are very uniform in shape so they are easy to use in many different ways.  There are lots of new colors to play with too.

 

Happy Beading!