Today I am showing my Winter Dreams necklace. I won the button focal from Tari Sasser of Clay Buttons. The lovely snowflake button is also the clasp. I made multiple strands of light blue, clear, and white beads as the straps and lightly braided them. The fringe  below the button is made with mostly white and clear beads with and a few light blue accents above the drops. I thought the colors looked like a sunny winter day.

Creative Spark Winter 2015 has gone live. Here is the link to it http://joom.ag/sFfb  In case you don't know what that is I will tell you. http://www.znetshows.com/ publishes an online magazine 4 times a year. It features their designers(which I am one of) using their products. The earrings in the pic above are the ones I designed for this issue. It is my first time publishing a tutorial. The Znetshows people are great to work for. They are known for their cultured sea glass which I used in my earrings. Here is a link to see their extensive line of cultured sea glass products http://www.znetshows.com/gemshow/retail/sea_glass_beads.asp The cultured sea glass has unlimited design possibilities and is fun to work with while being very really reasonably priced. I also used some of their Chinese crystal beads in the earrings and here is the link to them http://www.znetshows.com/gemshow/retail/chinese_crystal_beads.asp .  They also have gemstones and glass pearls. My earrings used tiny white pearls too and this is the link to their pearls http://www.znetshows.com/gemshow/Retail/ptvlstsuba.asp?ProductsubType=glasspearls . It is worth your time to check out the magazine for inspiration and ideas. Also please visit http://www.znetshows.com/ to see great jewelry making products that are very reasonably priced. There is a pic of the cover above for an idea of what you can see inside. Enjoy.

I am part of the facebook group Bead Peeps. We are having our first Swap and Hop. This is where we exchange beads with our partner and make something with those beads. I truly enjoy this type of challenge. My partner for this hop is Kathleen Breeding of 99 Bottles of Beads on the Wall. Isn't that a cute blog name? She works and teaches at Michael's in Las Vegas.  Above is a pic of my favorite piece that she made. I have fallen in love with fascinators since I made one for the Team Toho Challenge. I think her fascinator is way cool. It was a commissioned Piece.

Here is another piece by Kathleen with a sunflower pendant. She makes really unique jewelry and I am lucky to have been partnered with her. If you would like to see more of her work you can go to her blog at http://99bobotw.blogspot.com/ or her facebook page. I am excited to see what she sends me to work with.

In my last post I wrote that I had more designs in mind for the remaining Checkerboard hop beads so I though I would show them to you today. This bracelet goes with the red and black necklace and earrings that I previously posted.I used the rest of the flat black freeform shapes, red barrel nuggets, and the clear crystal rondelles like I used in the necklace for this piece. The gold chain on the end makes it multi-sized.

Here is the necklace that goes with the red and white earrings. I used red heishi sea glass  with vintage white faceted rounds that I got from an A Grain of Sand Bead Hoard box. The seed bead spacers are size 11 triangles. The focal is red sea glass hourglass beads that I wire wrapped the long white sea glass teardrops on. I used 4mm ruby colored bicones on the ends of the drops. The hourglass beads  are spaced with white glass rondelles. It is finished with a gold hook style clasp. This piece says Valentines Day to me.

The final set that I made used the lovely large twisted crystals. These shouted elegant and dressy to me so I paired them with size 6 silver lined topaz seed beads to show off the crystals to their best advantage. The center of the necklace uses gold corrugated barrels. Gold chain is used at the back of the necklace. A magnetic clasp is the closure. This set could be worn with a little black dress or any other color for that matter. I wanted it neutral for maximum wearability. I  really enjoy using Znetshows.com products in my designs.

Today is the reveal for the Checkerboard Blog Hop. This hop is hosted by Lisa Lodge. Thank you Lisa for including me in this challenge. I like the combination of red and black. I made wire links using the red barrel nuggets, black square spacers, and clear crystals. The links are joined by double jump rings. I find the added texture and security of double rings a plus when designing. The focal is a black flat freeform sea glass flanked by clear crystals and red heishi. I suspended this on a gold curved tube. Then I wrapped red and black seed beads on wire and wound it around the tube for added texture and flair. The necklace is finished with a hook style clasp. I made matching earrings  too. Earrings are something I have not made many of lately but the long white drops spoke earrings to me so here is a second pair. I used red heishi above the drops and dangled red sea glass shapes below.  I have a couple more designs planned with more of the beads and I will post them when they are done. I enjoyed participating in this challenge and I find seeing what other bead artists made with the same materials as me very interesting. To see what everyone else made please click on the following link http://www.bloglovin.com/blogs/a-grateful-artist-pine-ridge-treasures-5006009?post=4171305823&group=0&frame_type=a&context=&context_ids=&blog=5006009&frame=1&click=0&user=0&viewer=true

I read Art Jewelry Elements blog daily and this month I was lucky enough to be chosen to play along. YEAH! I received a pair of Melissa Meman's lovely teal flower charms. Here is the necklace that I made with them. I coiled copper wire for the bail and hung the charms on the end. The focal is a patinaed flower. Then I made links with teal sea glass and stone flowers for the straps. I hooked the links together with copper jump rings and teal rubber O rings. The end is copper chain with a lobster clasp. This necklace is a nod to spring which I hope comes soon. I really enjoyed being part of this challenge.

I have been hoarding these components from Kristen Stevens for quite a while because I wanted to do them justice. Since this months theme is use your stash I decided it was time to use them. I placed her stitched leaf in a wavy rings and made firepolished dangles as accents. Chain with more of the firepolished rounds makes the fringe to complete the focal. The bail is a green peyote stitched tube wrapped with wire. At the ends of the bail are Kristine's beautiful beaded beads . I painted bead caps to show them off and also to tie in with the strap colors. The straps are a four strand bracelet that I repurposed. I used fold over glue on bail leaves as accents which tie in with Kristen's lovely stitched leaf. The leaf bail idea came from Michelle Mach's new book "Unexpected Findings." I highly recommend reading her book as it contains many really unique ideas. I am sure this necklace will be worn often. I hope you like my designs. Now please check out what the other members, contributors, and guest made at http://artjewelryelements.blogspot.com/ 
I want to than the Art Jewelry Elements members for letting me play along this month. I really enjoyed it.

Bead-it-Forward is something dear to my heart. If you don't know what that is let me tell you. Beaders stitch 1 1/2 inch squares on a theme. They are assembled into quilts, ornaments, and other items. These items are sold and the proceeds go to benefit beast cancer.  This years theme is "wild about finding a cure." The squares are to be animal related. When I think of wild animals a lion is the first thing I think of so I chose to stitch a lions face. I googled lion images and chose one. Then I sized it to the graph paper. Next I cut out his face and laid it on the paper and roughed sketched it in. His mane was cut and traced around his face. I used colored pencils and made the pattern.  It took me a couple of tries but I like how it turned out. Jeanette Schanigan is who started this. She is a beader from Alaska who's Mother died of beast cancer. She started with about 20 people and this has grown to be a worldwide challenge with hundreds of beaders participating. I am proud to have been part of this for the last six years. The reason I hold this to my heart is that my Mom and Sister have both had breast cancer. I consider it an honor to help with this cause. If you want to know more about it here is the link http://bead-it-forward.com/ You can find patterns to stitch squares and see past years entries.  I want to thank Amy Severino for tanking over the task of making the quilts and selling them this year.