I am participating in this years Bead Peeps challenge. My partner is Kathleen Breeding. She was Extremely generous with what she sent me to play with for this challenge. This pic shows aluminum wire,  pink chain, focal and gears, acrylic beads, pearls, sea glass, flowers, stickers, seed beads, cloisonne, hearts, butterfly, brass clasp, wishbone, earwires, and frames. This is just the start. She pack a priority mail box.

Next came seed beads galore including two hole duos, piggy beads, peanuts, and bugles.

Aren't those polymer clay beads yummy? Just look at those peocock beads, they spoke to me right out of the package.The yoyo beads are interesting as well as the faceted brass squares. I am intregued by the cork and I know I need to find something interesting to do with it. The jump ring opener was a nice inclusion.

There are several focals in this pic that I can choose from including the black and coral heart, seed bead bezeled polymer piece, and the wire wrapped focal.

Several more seed bead tubes to choose from.

Stones galore in this pic including magnasite, calcite and rose quartz. Shell rounds and mother of pearl too. Several types of flowers to play with also. Didn't I tell you she was extremely generous? I have so many ideas floating in my head. Now I just need to get busy. I will be sure to pass on lots of my extras to other beaders.

Last year I got to go to the Bead & Button Show for the first time. I was lucky enough to get a kit from Toho beads  and became a member of Team Toho. I was asked to create something with my kit. I wanted to do something different than the usual necklace, earrings, or bracelet. I came up with the idea of a fascinator and that is what I created. I sent for a buckram form but it got lost in the mail so I made a wire frame to support the beadwork. I made flowers from the petal shapes, triangles and seed beads as embellishments and stitched flower trim around the edge too. I made wire and seed bead accents and added two feathers from my friends cockatoo. The inside is finished with pink ultrasuede. I am pleased with how this turned out. If you would like to see what the others made with their kits here is the link http://teamtoho.net/challenges-and-contests/2014-toho-challenge/  Most others focused more on the blue beads but I was drawn to the metallic pink. Our bead group was well represented as 5 other members also participated in this challenge.

I am participating in  the Bead Peeps Blog Hop. This is what I sent my partner Kathleen Breeding. I bead embroidered the pendant. My friend Cindy gave me the stones. I believe that they are goldstone. They are copper colored with black, navy blue, and sparkles. I also made the clasp and  links. I used magnetic copper wire for these. Magnetic copper wire is used inside electric motors. It has a coating on it that makes it darker and richer looking than regular copper. The coating also makes it not turn green like regular copper. I included some of the 20 gauge magnetic wire for Kathleen to use in my package. The black nuggets are stone that I got at Dakota Stone and I believe the marquise shapes are carnelian. The rounds above the black nuggets are red jasper. I am not sure what the strand of rounds in the upper right is but the color seemed right for this mix. Under the carnelian is shell discs and a pair of cabs I got in a mixed bags of goodies. All of the items to the left of the pendant are vintage. The tan two hole discs I got in New York City at CJS Sales. The other beads in the box with them had tags that said made in Czechoslovakia In 1989 the tags started saying made in Czech Republic so they are older than that. The large orange pearls, faceted cabs, and orange luster pieces all came out of the Bead Hoard boxes I got from A Grain of Sand. I includes size 11 copper seed beads and the two colors of size 15 seed beads that I used in making the pendant so she has something matching to play with. She said that she preferred copper and orange was her favorite color. I hope that she likes what I send.