Leafy Greens are Good For You!

For the past few weeks I've had the pleasure of collaborating with Marsha Hedrick, a porcelain artist I met on facebook.  Marsha created some new porcelain pendant and end cap sets and she asked me to use a few of them with the Kumihimo braiding technique to create some necklaces.  Here is a picture of the Leafy Green set from Marsha's website, Amazing Porcelain.com which I used to create the first necklace.

For the Kumihimo braid, I used two strands of multi colored fiber, two strands of metallic gold cording, two strands of green and amber triangle beads, and two strands of size 8 transparent dark green seed beads.  I used the round braid pattern to create a 15" necklace.  The slider pendant fits snugly on the 11mm diameter necklace braid.  I attached a bezeled glass drop from the hole in the slider pendant.

After tying off the Kumihimo braid ends, I attached the porcelain end caps and metal toggle closure using needle and thread.  Another option would have been to use wire which can be securely attached to the braid ends and then inserted through the holes in the end caps.  I chose to use thread because I wanted to use matching beads to extend the closure.  The total length of the necklace with the end caps and closure is 17".

Please check out all the other new pendant sets on Marsha's website HERE.  And great news, all the new items are currently on sale!  Stay tuned for more collaboration pieces to be shown soon.

Hidden Glory - Colors of Fall

The theme for Artbeads current blogging design partners is "Colors of Fall."  It was fun to select these gloriously colored artisan lampwork beads for my project - colors I wouldn't normally choose, but that fit the theme perfectly.  I was delighted with the colorful coral and beige mix mini Kaleras lampwork beads in coral, tan, and brown, with hints of blue and green.  To go with the lampwork beads, I chose some Toho Natural Picasso size 11 seed beads and they were a perfect match.  Artbeads has a huge selection and variety of Toho seed beads to choose from.

I added some other seed beads for contrast and created this bracelet which I call Hidden Glory.  The glory of the orange lampwork beads is hidden within the more common browns of autumn.  The bead weaving stitch is the Oglala stitch, named for the beadweavers of the Lakota nation in South Dakota (a great state where I was born)!

I'm very happy with how the bracelet turned out and will be listing it in my Etsy and Artfire shops.

My evaluation of Artbeads' products is given honestly and freely and I receive no compensation from Artbeads for my participation in their group of blogging design partners.



If You are Afraid of Clowns, Don't Look

I was exposed to a new bead artist by a facebook friend this past week and immediately fell in love with her work.  The artist is Uliana Aleksandrovna and her website is way too hard for me to pronounce but you can click here.  Google will translate the site from Russian into English and it worked wonderfully!

Uliana is located in Ukraine, but I didn't let that stop me.  I spent a lot of time looking at her beaded works of art and I kept going back to the Clowns.  I couldn't resist - so I sent an e-mail to her via her website to ask about purchasing them.

She is not on Etsy and doesn't use Paypal, but it was explained to me that I could send payment via Western Union.  Having never done that before, I ventured into a Vons store in San Diego where they have offer Western Union to their customers.  It was so easy - just a form to fill out and cash in hand to pay.  I was given a "Money Transfer Control Number" which I e-mailed to Uliana.  After she confirmed that she had received the money, she mailed the package to me and amazingly to me, it arrived in less than 1 week!

Here is the most joyful beaded work of art I have ever seen.  It makes me smile just looking at it.  If you are afraid of Clowns - don't look!

And part of the joy of the piece is that you can turn it over.

And to top it all off, the clowns came in a beautiful gift bag closed with a hand beaded "closure."

I definitely know how to buy presents for myself!  And I'm so pleased with my gift!  Thank you Uliana.

Beautiful Artists and Their Works of Art - Part 1

This post has been on my list of "to do's" far too long.  I confess I have been procrastinating and I'm not sure why - especially confusing because the subject matter is so dear to me.

It is so rewarding for me when someone uses something I've created to create something even more creative and beautiful.  This series of posts will feature those artists who have purchased one (or more) of my dichroic glass cabochons and turned them into works of art.  My deepest gratitude to each of you.

The first artist I want to thank is Anita Martinez whose Etsy shop name is Turiana07.  She purchased one of my dichroic glass cabochons and turned it into this masterpiece she called "Celestial Wings."

It all started with one of my dichroic glass cabs I called "Scuba Diving Twin B."

There are many other beautiful works of art in her Etsy shop like this necklace she calls "Aztec Princess."

Be sure to stop by and let her know how beautiful her work is.  Thank you Anita!