I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. I just love Christmas time. I take great pride in my tree. Over the years we have made many of the ornaments including painting eggs from our chickens. I by Christmas ornaments to remember special occasions. I even have a book that I enter all my ornaments in.  This year I got a special treat. Back in the early 70's I was in a Leewards craft store and saw my first beaded Christmas tree. I thought that it was the most beautiful thing I had ever saw. However the cost of the kit was what we were living on for a whole month so I knew that it was just a dream. I also knew that some day I would make one and I started collecting small treasures to put on it. This year when I went to bead retreat in the fall Julie had a Christmas tree kit for $5.00. I finally got my mini-beaded tree. I have spent the last week making and decorating it. I don't have the toys and presents under it yet but I wanted to show it anyway. Hope you like it. I am sure that over time I will make more ornaments and replace some of the simpler ones, but for now I am happy.

I haven't blogged in a while. I pinched a nerve in my back and I haven't been good for much. It's finally getting better and I can get back to jewelry making. A surprise came in the mail. Back in September I entered to be part of pay-it-forward on Michelle Mach blog Beads & Books. You can check out her blog here http://michellemach.com/blog/   I chose the bead assortment and the pic above is what she sent. Aren't they beautiful? There are enameled rectangles, ceramic beads, a metal snowflake charm, crystals, a pair of boro yoyo beads, electric blue jump rings, long earwires, headpins, and lots more delicious new fun. All of these beads were sent in a small tin. Michelle thoughtfully included decorative papers and other embellishments to decorate the tin with. How fun is that? Now it is my turn to pay it forward. The first three to comment on this blog will receive a pay it forward gift from me sometime in the next year. Up for grabs are 1) a pair of earrings made from some of the beads Michelle sent. 2) a wrapped bracelet -color of your choice. 3) the tin Michelle sent decorated by me and an assortment of beads- color of your choice. You in turn pay it forward to someone else with handmade things. Please join me in this fun adventure. Just leave a comment on my blog and maybe you will be one of the first three.

Today is the reveal for the challenge of color blog hop hosted my Erin at http://treasures-found.blogspot.com/  We were each given 2 color pallettes to choose from. The pics came from "The Earth as Art" series from NASA. How cool is that? My first choice was Bolivian Deforestation. My favorite colors are pink and turquoise so this was a natural. I challenged myself to not buy anything new for this hop. My first choice was the lampworked pendant by Carol St. Johns. I have been hoarding this pendant for 2 years.  I  peyote stitched tubes using 6 shades of pink and 6 shades of turquoise with white seed beads. I finished the tubes with pink glass discs. Between the tubes I used cranberry pearls with pink faceted jade rounds and teal pearls with amazonite rondelles. I found the light pink beaded chain in my stash and thought that it was a good match for the pendant. The third strand is cranberry glass shapes that I wired into a chain to echo the cranberry color in the pendant. The center of the necklace looked too plain so I added 3 swags of the turquoise seeds and I am pleased with the outcome. I peyote stitched a button from Beadwork magazine for a button and loop clasp. The red in the NASA pic is healthy plant growth. It's amazing to see how much of the rainforest is already gone.

 

My second color pallette is from the Namib desert in Africa. When I was growing up in Minnesota I saw pics of the desert and thought that it looked lifeless. My first trip to Arizona I was amazed at the wildlife sounds and the feel of that glowing sun on my skin standing in the desert. The Namib desert is located on coastal Africa. The winds off the ocean can cause 980 feet sand dunes. To represent the glowing sun feel I chose silver lined glass lentals and seed beads. The lentals have spots of the light green in them.The grey green rectangles are a stone called silver mist and they are the same green as the spots on the lentals. . The small discs in the center of outer strand are bone. The rounds that complete the straps are yellow and green adventurine. When I was designing this piece I thought that I would use a filigree piece to wrap the focal but in the end I used the filigree as a bail. Light brown pearls in rounds and a drop, bronze glass flower caps, filigree connectors, and dark topaz crystal rondelles complete the ingredients for this necklace. I am honored to be a part of this challenge. I hope that you enjoy the pieces I made. Now please visit the other participants in this great hop.

Erin Prais-Hintz
Brandi Hussey
  Rebecca Anderson

Kris Auderer  

Chrizette Bayman

Lori Bowring Michaud  

 Courtney Breul 

Lynsey Brooks
Stephanie Buss 

Iveth Caruso
Shannon Chomanczuk
Lisa Cone
Cece Cormier

Lori Dorrington
Dawn Doucette
Jeannie Dukic    (life threw her a curveball, spread some sunshine to her anyway!)
Kim Dworak
Beth Emery
Janice Everett
Pam Farren
Donetta Farrington
Gloria Ferrer

Cherrie Fick
Therese Frank
Patty Gasparino
Tanya Goodwin
Ambra Gostoli
Jess Green
Denielle Hagerman
Mary Harding
Karla Hartzog
Kim Hora
Emanda Johnson
Jennifer Justman
Sue Kennedy

Ema Kilroy
Lee Koopman
Linda Landig
Kirsi Luostarinen
Cynthia Machata
Alicia Marinache
Beth McCord
Mary K McGraw
Karen Mitchell
Cheri Mitchell-Reed
Aimee Moisa
Karla Morgan
Penny Neville
Becky Pancake
Kashmira Patel
Alice Peterson
Kayla Potega
Debbie Price
Bobbie Rafferty
Caron Reid
Nicole Rennell
Cynthia Riggs
Andrea Ross
Sally Russick
Annie Scherz
Pam Sears
Renetha Stanziano
Sandra Stein
Kristen Stevens  (her Muse is on vacation - hop over and give her Muse a nudge ;-)
Tracy Stillman   (hard to bead with a wrist injury, send healing thoughts)
Sherri Stokey
Lola Survillo
Kay Thomerson
Jo Tinley
Emma Todd
Cory Tompkins
Pam Traub 
Melissa Trudinger
Michelle Tucker
Shelley Graham Turner
Monique Urquhart
Rachel Van-Walsh 
Patti Vanderbloemen
Lesley Watt
Lynn White 
Joan Williams

Look what I found in my mailbox yesterday. This beautiful pearl necklace was made by the talented Suzette Bentley of  www.ElliesBijoux.com I have admired her lovely jewelry for a while now.  I found her post with a chance to win this necklace. I am not normally very lucky, but I was that day. I will wear this necklace proudly. I feel very lucky to own a piece of Suzette's wonderful jewelry.

Here's a bracelet that I made for my show on Saturday. I called it Christmas Charms. I used clear 6mm  fire polished round beads, matte green glass squares, red 4mm swarovski bicones, and of course charms. It got lots of looks and compliments but it came back home with me. I'm starting to feel the Christmas spirit And I hope that you are too.

Another magnetic copper necklace and earrings is the jewelry pic I am showing today. I adore the color of the magnetic copper and the coating should make it not turn green. I find this wire in 20 gauge easy to work with.  I shaped marquis elements, made double coiled beads with copper bead caps, added protection the the area where the bail is, and added 1/2 inch coils to the fringe all with the magnetic copper wire.  I made the focal out of 2 copper filigree stampings and attached it to the necklace with a jump ring bail. The five focal fringes are made with light brown pearl drops, dark topaz crystal rondelles, coiled copper, and small faceted copper beads on headpins. The section between the double coiled beads and the marquise elements is composed of two copper twisted glass ovals with a brown 6mm pearl in the center and a brown 4mm swarovski bicone crystal on each end. The whole section between  the two marquise is strung on copper beading wire and crimped together. I used a wire guard to protect the stringing wire from wear.  Above the marquise on each side  is another twisted glass oval section. This time it is made as a wire link and attached with 2 copper jump rings. There is copper chain and a hook type clasp on the end. I made earrings too. I am pleased with how this came out and I hope you like it too.

I joined in the Humble Beads Blog hop put on by Heather Powers of .www.HumbleBeads.Com. And today is the reveal day. I thoroughly enjoyed this challenge. I used all of the beads that she sent except 1 gray round, the double leaf charm, and the silk strand. All that I added was a larger leaf stamping, seed beads, jump rings, and brass wire. I bezeled the disc branch bead with brick stitch and peyote, then I attached it to my larger leaf stamping with seed bead loops. I attached the 2 small glass flowers at the tip of the leaf. The branch I tried to drill, but even with a diamond bit I was not successful, so I wire wrapped it with brass. I made 3 links with the branch rondelles and each is different. When I first laid out the beads I put the three aqua glass rondelles face up & I liked them that way, but I wasn't sure how to make them sit face up. I made a long link with them but I didn't like it so I ended up making a wire triangle with 2 loops and attaching the rondelles to it with brass wire. Three of the bicolor glass wavy beads are each separate links. I made a spiral rope using similar colored seed beads to go around the neck and finished it with the bead caps. I made my necklace asymmetrical with the clasp on the side, because I think that they are easier to clasp that way and I like how it looks. I have only made a few asymmetrical necklaces. On the left side one link is made with 2 gray glass rounds and a branch rondelle. The next link is 2 brown pearls and a branch rondelle. The link closest to the center is made with the 2 aqua matte glass ovals separated by an aqua crystal rondelle. All of the links are attached with 2 brass jump rings to make them more secure. I am not totally satisfied with how the disc bead is attached to the leaf because the bezel is pulled a little funny so I will change that. I hope you enjoyed my challenge Idea. Thanx Heather for challenging me.The link above will let you see the other participants.