Becky Pancake Bead Designs

Evening Elegance is the title of the blog hop that I am participating in today. It is the brainchild of Lisa Lodge of http://www.gratefulartist.blogspot.com/.  Thank you Lisa for inspiring me. We each received a kit with which to design our creations. The pic above is the kit that I received. 

The first beads that I chose to use were the blue top drilled stone diamonds. They needed to be the focus of a necklace so I spaced them apart with royal blue sea glass rounds and blue stone discs. The necklace is finished with silver chain and the clasp from the kit. I also made earrings to match the necklace. This necklace is simple but very wearable.

Since the hop was called evening elegance I wanted something that felt classic. For this necklace I chose the large dark fire polished rounds and the small Montana blue crystal bicones. I added grey pearls from my stash to complete the center section. The focal uses the two large clear crystals from the kit and a black crystal rondelle from my stash. I again finished the back section  with chain. Chain makes a necklace comfortable and lightweight. A hook type clasp makes the closure. I created earrings for this necklace too.

The  blue and white lampworked beads by Lisa Anderson in the kit just begged to be earrings so I topped them with small cobalt glass flowers, placed a white disc below, and suspended three of the cobalt ovals from the bottom. They look much better when worn that they do laying on a surface. Cobalt blue and aqua is one of my favorite color combinations so I enjoyed designing with this kit. Since the cobalt ovals are drilled front to back I wanted to figure out a way to make them lay with their faces showing instead of just the sides, as they would have if I had strung them. I decided to knot them on waxed linen cording. It took me a some experimenting to get it right but I am pleased with the outcome. I recycled an enameled earring as the focal that is edged with the same cobalt blue as the beads. The small aqua AB rounds make the cobalt glass ovals stand out. I had cobalt bugle beads that I used between the ovals. I hope you enjoyed my creations.  Please click the link above to see what the other designers made.