I thought you might like to see the Christmas ornaments that I made for friends and family this year. They have a wood bead core and are stitched with super duos, size 11 seed beads, and 4mm pearls. I had fun making them. My friend Lisa showed us how to make them at bead retreat. The first two I made were in cobalt blue, gold, and white and pink, white , and hematite. They are pendants for necklaces. I adapted to Christmas colors and these ornaments were born.

The annual holiday ornament hop hosted by Sally Russick is today. This is the beautiful ornament that I received from my partner D Lynne Bowland. Isn't it fabulous? Lynne made the lampworked bead and enamel accents which she put in a copper frame. The bead is removable so that I can wear it on a chain as a necklace. How clever is that? Christmas is my favorite time of year and my tree is my crowning glory. I cherish my ornaments. I have a book where I record the ornaments that I get each year and where they came from. This ornament will always be special to me.

Now on to the ornament that I made for Lynne. I started with the turquoise marquis shaped pieces, which I believe are vintage and I glued them to backing. I bezeled them in the stripes to match the lampworked disc bead  in the center. Then I filled in with seed beads and pearls. The pearls came from my mother-in-law's estate. They are vintage. The packaging on the smallest ones say 29 cents. Then I added the crystal rondelles on the points for accents and backed it with ultra-suede. I wanted a non traditional looking ornament. I hope she likes it.

I have one more ornament to show. Some time ago I had a pay it forward on my blog. Lynne was one of the first three to comments. She chose an ornament as what she wanted so here it is. A traditional red, green , and gold ornament. It is two layers of seed beads with pearl and firepolished accents strung on wire and shaped. The center is pearls in a gold bead circle. A red ribbon was used as a hanger. To see what the other participants made please go to Sally's blog at http://sallyrussick.blogspot.com/2014/12/2014-holiday-ornament-swaphop.html
Thank you Sally for hosting this fun hop.

My sister-in-law asked me to make an illusion necklace for her to give as a Christmas gift. This is what I made. The center is a lampworked bead. The other components are glass bicones and discs as well as corrugated metal beads. This is my first illusion necklace. I hope that she likes it.

Today is the reveal of the Bead Hoarders Blog Hop. I have been wanting to try Soutache embroidery for a while and I let this challenge inspire me to do just that. I used  lampworked beads by Heather Kelly that I bought on etsy and have been hoarding to start my design. Three colors of green and a metallic brown soutache braids surround the beautiful lampworked focal. I bezeled the focal with light green beads and added a dark green hex bead halo around the inner layer of  soutache cords. I put another layer of the cords and finished it with bronze seed beads. The bottom had three dark green teardrop pearls with the center one capped by bronze flower bead caps. The top of the piece has two  lampworked spacers also by Heather  that match the center bead. There are two jump rings that will have the straps hung on them but they will have to wait for another day. It is not perfect but I am happy with my first attempt at soutache embroidery.  I hope that you like it too. I want to thank Lori Anderson of  http://www.prettythingsblog.com/ for hosting this fun hop. To see what the other participants created click on the link to Lori's blog.

Today I would like to show my attempt at playing with polymer clay. Back in September Beth Wegner did a make and take at my bead group. She is a polymer clay artist. I made the polk a dot beads and one of the swirled beads that day. Not long ago I was doing a clay piece for something else and I decided that while I was firing I would try a couple of polymer clay headpins. I used clay that was left from the September class and made these. They are my first decorated headpins and I am proud of them.

This is my first tutorial. My bead group has an annual Demo & Do Day and I will be teaching this bracelet. I usually just sit down and make something so it was a different experience to write it out as I worked. I wanted to use some of the new beads that have come out in the last couple of years and this is what I came up with. I started with a right angle weave base of 8 size 6 seed beads. The next row I stitched pairs of piggy beads in the centers of the squares. I split the side pairs of 6's and added twin beads between them. Then I made picots on the twins with delica beads. I made a button and loop closure. The last row I added copper colored O beads. It was not as scarey as I thought to write a tutorial and I think that I will be doing more of it in the future.

Octoberfest Challenge

Today is the Octoberfest Challenge at http://www.jewelschoolfriends.com/ . The minute I saw this challenge I thought of the copper leaves on a wall sculpture from my friend Ceil and I knew that I would use one of them. However the rest of the necklace turned out nothing like how I pictured it in my head at the start. I associate fall with nature so I decided to use mostly natural elements in my design. After I clipped the leaf from the sculpture I knew it needed copper accents so I made a copper coil with a brown pearl dangle to complete the focal. I hung it from a short copper chain and used a glass tube bead for the bail. The other dangles are two brown pearls and four double 4mm brown Swarovski bicones. My friend Cindy gave me the brownAB faceted glass coins and I thought they would draw the eye to the focal so I strung them front and center. Then I placed four bone discs. The next set of four beads are some kind of seeds that my friend Ruby brought me back from her trip to Hawaii. Following that is another set of the bone discs. Then comes four wood slices from my friend Lori and more bone discs. Following that is a set of four faceted round picture jasper beads and the last set of bone discs. I made the clasp from 16 gague copper wire. Since this necklace has components from so several of my friends it has special meaning to me. I associate copper with fall for it's rich color so this necklace is a perfect example of fall to me. I hope that you like my design. Please click on the link above to see what the other participants made for this challenge. Thank you Rita for hosting  this challenge I really enjoyed making this necklace.