I'm a little late in posting this. My cow water system froze and that had to be fixed first. I am taking part in Sally Russick's "Focusing on life." This week our prompt was make art. Since I do not draw well I decided to let my jewelry be my art.  I'm not kidding about the drawing. I drew stick figures even as an adult. Then I became interested in costuming dolls in historical costumes and my drawing skill improved. My husband and sons would just roll their eyes when I asked them to pause the movie so I could draw a picture of a dress.  Art was a class that brought down my grade average. The last two weeks have been spent designing with cultured sea glass. Bill Zhang of www.znetshows.com contacted me and asked it I would be interested in designing with their sea glass. I said yes. There are 24 people  who were given the glass to design with and they will pick the best to present at the Tucson bead show. The pic above shows what I designed. The necklace on the bottom left is convertible. The center section unclasps and becomes a bracelet. There is another dangle that can hook on to the necklace. I wanted to show that the sea glass was a versatile medium so the first necklace is strung. The second necklace is bead embroidered and has spiral rope straps. The third necklace had brass chain at the back and used as dangles next to the sea glass tusks. For necklace #4 I made links out of wire and a vintage corrugated circle behind the sea glass focal. The final necklace has magnetic copper wire coiled around the sea glass rectangle. I used small copper discs as accents and I made the clasp with seed beads on copper wire. I used one of the sea glass tusks as the toggle. Please wish me luck on getting at least one of my pieces chosen. Thanx Sally I think you are doing a wonderful job of getting all of us to see ourselves better. If you want to see any of the jewelry pics larger just scroll down. They are in the last two posts.

Oops. I missed one. When I went back and read my blog post I realized that I had missed one of my necklaces when I took pics. So here is the last one. I coiled magnetic copper wire and formed it around the sea glass rectangle for the focal. I used dark topaz crystal rondelles to set the focal apart. Then I strung the sea glass shapes with seed beads and copper flat discs. I used one  more coil and rondelle before the copper chain. The clasp is a toggle that I made with seed beads on copper wire and a sea glass tusk is used as the toggle.

Bill Zhang at www.znetshows.com Contacted me and asked if I would like design with some of their sea glass. The pic above is what he sent me to work with. Here is what I made. The first necklace I used 3 orange sea glass Shapes as the focus. I paired it with turquoise twin beads, hematite discs, orange Czech flowers and seed beads, a ceramic rectangle, and some of the silver flowers from Znetshows. I used a toggle clasp closure.

The second necklace is bead embroidered. I attached an orange sea glass to one of the silver findings. It added depth and interest to the sea glass. I used yellow crystal rondelles and matte brown sea glass rounds  around  the center. I also added tan pearls and an orange seed bead  edge. The bail is herringbone stitched. The straps are spiral rope. I used a sea glass slice to draw attention to the tassel. The ends of the tassel are also yellow crystal rondelles from Bill.  I made the clasp.Here's a close up of the focal.

Next I made this necklace.

I used a vintage corrugated disc behind a sea glass round. There are yellow glass flowers accents on the sea glass. I made wire links for this necklace. The links are connected with silver jump rings.   I also included two of the silver flower discs from Znet. The brown and yellow rounds are from Znet too. The closure is a gold plated pewter floral toggle clasp.

These are the earrings for the necklace above.

This necklace used the yellow sea glass slices. I used 3mm bright yellow fire polished rounds and dark blue rondelles as accents. I added the brass chain to give it a modern feel and also for movement. There are three yellow 10mm pearls too. The focal is made by altering a bead cap to hold the yellow  sea glass piece.I made a pair of earrings too.

Next I made a bracelet to go with the necklace and earrings above. I used the yellow sea glass oval as the center. I attached two brass chains on both sides. With blue wire I made links through the chains with yellow sea glass rounds and the yellow rondellles with blue rondelles and seed beads.

My last necklace has a beach theme. I used the silver component which I colored to look like seaweed as the center. I used two real shell pieces, some green pearls, and two silver shell shapes  along with the sea shapes from znet to make the center section.  The rest of the necklace has sea glass slices, shapes, and rounds with yellow crystal rondelles, yellow sea glass  rounds and an oval, green pearls and bone discs. I made wire links for this necklace too. The fun part of the necklace is that the center detaches and can be worn as a bracelet. I made another attachment and the necklace can be worn with it. You can see this in the pic below.

The last pic is what I had left when I was done. I really enjoyed this experience and I want to thank Znet Shows for this opportunity. If you want to see more of their beautiful cultured sea glass click this link
 http://www.znetshows.com/gemshow/retail/sea_glass_beads.asp



If you click newer post there is one more necklace that I forgot to post with the others.

Good morning. I am participating in Sally Russick's "Focusing on Life: 52 pictures." http://thestudiosublime.com/ Sally's prompt this week was give yourself permission to take time off and do something for yourself. My first thought was to polish my fingernails. My husband & I restored & customized classic cars for more than 20 years so painted nails never lasted even 1 day. For many years that would have been a real treat. Since my boys are grown and on their own I now have time for me whenever I want. What pleases me best is making jewelry so that is what I posted a pic of. My word this year is achieve so practicing my art is the best way to achieve my goals. Last week Bill Zhang of www.znetshows.com  contacted me about designing pieces with their sea glass. If any of my pieces are chosen they will be displayed at the Tucson bead show and I will be credited. They will also appear on their website. I am jumping up and down happy. This is the first piece I designed for them. I hope they like it.

I am participating is Sally Russick's challenge Focusing on life 52 pictures. I joined to encourage myself to take better pics. This weeks prompt was our word for the year. I chose the word achieve. I want to achieve some of the goals that I have set for myself. One of them is taking better pics. I believe that one of the best ways to achieve is by educating oneself. Since I live in a rural area I often educate myself through books.I felt that this pic was a good representation of my word. The second pic is of my favorite book. I have learned so much from this book. I go back to it again. I like bead embroidery really a lot and this book breaks it down step by step and gives lots of options for each step. She doesn't just show how to make a certain necklace. She shows how to design them. I go back to this book again and again. I highly recommend it for anyone who wants to learn bead embroidery.  Another of the goals that I want to achieve this year is to submit one of my pieces for publication.

Good Morning. I am part of Lori Anderson's Memories & Thanks blog hop. The bracelet that I created I named "A Rose for Molly". My most vivid memory of my Grandma is that she never sat down even for 5 minutes that she didn't pick up her handwork. Grandma was a knitter. When I was about 5 she crocheted 5 bedspreads with roses on them. Grandma had 1, Mom had 1, My Aunt Fern had 1, & my 2 older sisters each had 1. They were old enough to have hope chests so this was for their hop chest.  I remember sitting fascinated an she turned a single thread into a multi- layered flower.  I was very jealous of my sisters. Just before she passed away my Aunt gave me her bedspread. I was so thrilled. When I put it on my bed was the first time that I realized that my creativity came from Grandma. So thank you Grandma for all that you gave me.  I have had it in my head to make a rose for her for a long time and this hop was the perfect time. I hope you like my entry. Now hop on over to the other blog to see what they made. Here's the link http://www.prettythingsblog.com/2012/11/participants-for-memories-and-thanks.html

Good morning. I added another skill to my jewelry making talents. Monday at bead group we learned to crochet with wire and seed beads. I always thought that it would be difficult to keep stitches even and I thought that I would kink the wire. I was wrong on both thoughts. It's easy and evenness of stitches is not required. This bracelet was fun to make. Another bonus of wire crochet is that it can be scrunched or stretched to fit the person. Sizing is not as critical as with other bracelets where a 1/4" can make a big difference in the fit. I realize that this example is a first attempt and I will get better. I also plan on using some larger beads so that the beads are more the focus not the wire. Enjoy.