My post today is for Krafty Max's Age of the Dragonfly Challenge. I am a day late posting this because I was away from the internet since Friday. I always try to learn something new when I enter a challenge. This time it was using Vintaj patina on a brass dragonfly. I made the body blue and the wings green, even though this is not how real dragonflies look I liked it. I heated the patina for better adherence and sealed it when I was done. I enjoyed the experience and I am sure that I will use patinas again. I strung two beading wires  with a blue and green seed bead mix and used oval brass beads to keep the strands together. I finished the necklace with a brass toggle clasp. The dragonfly hangs from a wire coiled around the center brass oval bead. Next I made a dragonfly pin from wire and seed beads. Then I used the same seed beads as the necklace and strung them on memory wire to make a bracelet. I used a beautiful dragonfly button for the focal.  I hope you like what I created for this challenge.

Today is the reveal for A Time To Stitch 5. This is a blog hop put on by Therese Frank of http://theresestreasures59.blogspot.com/ and Christine Altmiller of http://onekisscreations.blogspot.com/. This is a stitching challenge. We were to choose our favorite stitch and do it in three colors, three sizes, or three shapes of beads. My choice was size and my stitch was spiral rope. The pic above shows the results. The rope on the left is made with size 8 beads on a size 6 core. Here is a pic of the completed necklace.

I used a beautiful faceted agate for the focal and the seed beads from the rope as fringe. I stitched a bail and accented it with a blue crystal rondelle. I put blue glass flowers on the ends of the rope to finish them and used black crystal rondelles to pick up some of the focal bead color. I added gold chain so it can be adjusted in size for different necklines.

My second necklace uses size 11 seeds beads on a size 8 core. The focal for this necklace is an enameled piece from C-Koop Beads. The clasp is a stitched button and loop from a Melinda Barta pattern that appeared in "Beadwork" magazine. I have used this clasp several times and I like it. It is fast and easy along with being pretty.  My third piece Uses size 15 seed beads on a size 11 core. It is shown unfinished (did you notice the thread?) in the first pic in this post. I did not get it finished. My Mom passed away June 7th and I have been attending to family obligations. Unfortunately when I packed I left my bag containing this project on my bead table instead of getting it into my suitcase. I did not get home until today so I apologize for not being done on time. This has never happened to me before.  I am serious about the challenges that I sign up to do and I have always finished them on time. The focal I am going to use in  this piece is a lampworked heart in white and blue that I got in Sacramento when I went to my niece's wedding. I think that my pic does a good job of showing the three sizes of beads in one of my favorite stitches. I will post a pic of the size 15 spiral rope necklace  next week. I would like to show one more pic.

This pic shows how different spiral rope can look just by changing the colors of beads that you choose. The necklace on the left is made with a repeating pattern of five different bead colors over and over again. The rope on the right is the same size 11 beads with a five bead repeat in three colors. I hope that you like what I made. Now please click on Therese or Christine's link to see what the other participants made.