I'm back home. Last Thursday I flew to California for my nieces wedding. It was a great trip. On Friday we went to San Francisco sightseeing. Here's a couple of pics from there. The golden gate bridge,where we walked on the beach near Cliff House, & a huge carved ivory  ivory tusk in a Chinatown shop. It was my first time there & I enjoyed it a lot. The wedding was beautiful & everyone had a great time. Now I can get back to working on my pieces for the Bead Soup Blog Party. I haven't had a chance to go blog hopping, but I plan on starting tonight.

Here's the necklace that I made for my neice. She is Russian. I put the 3 pieces of Baltic amber in the necklace to represent the 3 parts of the life. One for her life in Russia, one for her life in California, & one for her new life with her new husband. She likes black so the rest of the necklace is links made of  blackAB rondelles with black glass rounds & chain. I used hematite drops as accents. When I showed the starting pic of this necklace in an earlier post I had the middle amber drop horizontally in the chain. I decided it looked better as a pendant.  I think she will like it.

My sister asked for a pair of red drop on gold chandelier  earrings so here they are. Hope she likes them.

Hi, since I am working on my BSBP pieces I can't show you what I am working on. However I am taking a break & making a necklace for my niece. I took a starting pic this morning & sent it to my sister for approval. I decided that I can share it with you also. So here is the start of another necklace. I will post  more about it when it is done.

Hi, I haven't posted in days. I am usually better than that. This week has been  busy & you know how that is life gets in the way. I have been working on my bead soup creation but I can't show it to you until August 25. In my haste to get started on my soup I neglected to introduce you to my partner. She in Anitra Gordy a beautiful new bride. Her blog is http://www.leelucreations.blogspot.com/   & her etsy shop is www.etsy.com/shop/LeeLuCreations  She told me that she liked vintage beads so I started with the flowered cab. It came in one of my treasure boxes from A Grain of Sand. The bicones, large orange lucite, the small rondelles, the metal shapes, & the white large beads on the left are all from my bead hoarder curiosity club (treasure) boxes. I added the adventurine rounds & a few pearls as well. The clasp I made. That is what is all pictured above. I decided to add some vintage purple pearls, vintage copper flowers, a copper clasp, & a brass metal stamping so that she would have choices about the color & the clasp. Unfortunately the pic with all the stuff in it got deleted so you will have to look at her blog to see the rest of what I sent her. I hope she has a much fun with her soup as I am having with mine.

Michelle Mach at http://michellemach.com/blog/  posted  a whole list of free giveaways on her blog Friday. I just found them today so I passing on the bead giveaways to you. Here is a great chance to win a bead stash giveaway. Cj at http://cjbauschka.blogspot.com/ who has a great stash is giving away 2 sets of stash beads. Check it out.

Beads of Clay Giveaway

Beads of Clay Giveaway

July Beads Of Clay

Giveaway Time!

Once a month we give you stuff 

Just look at these Awesome Beads and Pendants!

This collection is valued at OVER $75!

Left to right, top to bottom we have:

 Porcelain Heart from  Diana Ptaszynski

 Porcelain daggers from Joan Miller

Porcelain Heart with Leaf from Lise Nilsen

Stoneware Carved Beads from  Golem Studio

The amazing Lori Anderson is at it again. tempting all of us beaders with a 5 part giveaway. Pictured below are 4 of the prizes & #5 is a bead soup mystery mix that Lori will put together. Prize #1 is stuff she got at the Bead & Button Show. Aren't the filigree pewter ovals great? Prize #2 is a copy of Lori's soon to be released book about the Bead Soup Blog Party. Prize #3 is a free e-course about blogging that Lori made. Prize #4 is a tote for going to bead shows with the bead soup logo on it.  Please be sure to check out Lori's blog www.prettythings.com for your chance to win. T

My bead soup package arrived yesterday. Yeah!! My partner is Anitra Gordy of  http://leelucreations.blogspot.com
Isn't the owl pendant charming ? I really like the seed bead mix. The first pieces that I put together were the owl & the light green rectangles. There are wood beads in blue, green, & natural. The pic doesn't show it well but the beads at the very top are jasper. I told Anitra the yellow & orange are the colors that I have least of in my stash so she included some in my soup. The beads to the left of the owl have very  intricate carving on them, yum. Toggles are my favorite clasps so that part will be easy. The small copper hand is stamped handmade. What a nice finishing touch. I have several ideas already cooking in my head. This is my first blog hop & I am very excited to participate. My reveal date is August 25. Please stop back to see what I make.  I want to thank the amazing Lori Anderson of www.prettythingsblog.com for hosting this wonderful party. There is a link on her blog so you can check out all the participants. Have fun.

As promised "Triangular Resistance." I used electrical resistors in threes connected to pewter rings to form triangles & make this necklace. I added a few seed beads to make the resistors fit the spaces better. I used larger resistors to make links & joined everything together with jump rings, The back has a short piece of chain & a toggle clasp. This is the second necklace I have done with resistors. They are a ceramic center on wire & come is lots of sizes & colors. The wire that they are attached to makes them perfect for wire wrapping. I think this is a fun piece.

FREE BEAD GIVEAWAY ALERT!!!  Cyndi at www.beading-arts.com  is giving away free tagua nut beads. I signed up & you should check it out too. This is something I have not worked with  & I would like to try them.

I preparation for my upcoming bead challenge I have been challenging myself to work with things that are not normally thought of as jewelry making materials. Last night I made this necklace with a rubber o-ring center. I used black & turquoise o-rings in decreasing sizes joined by 6mm silver jumprings. The o-rings came in a multi- pack from an unclaimed freight store.  The center focal is attached to the chain with 9mm jumprings.I added black chain & a black o-ring on each side for interest then attached a silver toggle clasp to the other ends of the chain. Simple to make & different from anything else I have seen. It only took a few minutes to make but I like it. Today I am making a necklace with electrical resistors. I will post it tomorrow. The bead challenge that I entered is the amazing Lori Anderson's (prettythings.blogspot.com) Bead Soup Blog Party. You should check it out if you haven't already.

A mother of pearl donut bracelet is what I am showing today. This is the third time around for this bracelet. The first time I just linked the mother of pearl donuts together with gold jumprings. I liked it simple & it looked great on my arm. The creamy white made me look very tan.. I wore it to the grocery store & when I got home the jumprings had opened & the bracelet came apart. So I tried again. I used black waxed linen cord & macramed some knots. I put turquoise rubber O rings over the macrame knots then strung size 8 turquoise seed beads on the tails. In theory it would have been pretty but after a couple of joins I didn't like how it looked so I took it apart. This time I like it.  I used gold craft wire to join the donuts together for stability. I wire wrapped the top of the wires  then strung  two 6mm round hemalyke beads on each wire. The bottom of the wires I spiraled sort of wonky to enhance the handmade look. I used a gold plated pewter toggle clasp for the closure. I also made earrings to go with the bracelet.

Good Morning. Today I can finally show you the necklace & earrings I  made for my sister's 70th birthday.  Her party was yesterday. I have had it done for more than a month. It is hard not to show something when it is done, but I didn't want her to see it here so I waited. At my first wholesale show I found the yellow pearls. I could see them from several tables away. It was like they were glowing. They are larger than what I normally use& are yellow which I almost never use, but with at least a dozen colors of pearls  I could see these shine from several tables away & I had to have them. The next day I was emailing with my other sister & she said Rita's favorite color was yellow followed by blue. I knew then why I had bought the yellow pearls. The necklace & earrings are made with yellow calcite, yellow pearls, yellow bicones, yellowAB stars & light blue Czech pressed glass. I was great to see her face when she opened it. She just lit up & then she hugged me. I hope you like it too.  This pic was taken before I attached the clasp & earwires.