My partner for this swap was Lisa Baxa. She sent me the awesome beads in the picture above. They are perfect for me. The first necklace that I created used the labradorite cabochon that she sent. I also had a labradorite cab that was a gift from my friend Cindy. I combined the two cabs in a bead embroidered focal piece. After bezeling with seed beads I surrounded the cabs with gray pearls and blue tin thread and edged them with gray seed beads. A blue pearl drop completes the focal. The straps were created with labradorite nuggets, seed beads, gray pearls, and the miracle beads from Lisa. The miracle beads have a blue flash that matches the labraborite flash perfectly. I used the clasp from Lisa too. I will wear this necklace often.

 

My second necklace was made with the ocean jasper cabochon from Lisa. Seed beads and green pearls form the bezel and the mercury finished rondelles from Lisa surround edge of the center. Next I mounted it on green leather and edged it with green seed bead loops. The straps are green stone ovals, seed beads, gray crystal rondelles, and green pearls. I used silver chain at the back to make it more comfortable to wear and a toggle clasp finishes it. Ocean jasper is one of my favorite stones. 

 

My third necklace was created with the bone cone from Lisa. The seed bead mix from her made the dangles by adding copper O beads, dark topaz rondelles, and black pearls on the ends. I created the bail and clasp using magnetic copper wire and made links for the straps from bone pipes with more of the copper O beads and black pearls. I hope you like what I designed. Thank you Lisa for bring a great partner and sending a wonderful swap stash. Please check out what Lisa made with what I sent her. Thank you Lori for being the best host ever. 

 

I participated in Lori Anderson's bead exchange. My partner is Norma Turvey. The picture above is what she sent me. I am thrilled with what she sent. The Aqua, teal, turquoise color family are my favorite colors. Norma's selections were perfect for me. Thank you Lori and Norma. I am forming a design in my mind already.

Toho Challenge Carnival Mask

If you read my blog you know that I enjoy doing challenges. This is my entry in this years Toho Challenge. I always try to do something unusual so that my piece gets noticed  instead of just getting lost in all of the necklaces. One of my friends gave me a cardboard carnival mask. It was laying on my bead board when I was trying to decide what to make for this challenge. A lightbulb moment happened and I began beading the mask. I am thrilled with how it turned out. Since bead embroidery is my favorite technique it was perfect. Toho chooses the bead colors and participants can use any shape in those colors. Only one focal piece can be added. Mine came from an old earring. I was not sure how to make it look like a plume on the top but I accomplished that with wire. I used chenille stitch on the handle. I hope you enjoy it.It was really fun to make.

Today is the reveal for the Bead Peeps Blog Hop 2018. Thank you LindaAnderson for hosting this fun challenge. Since my package did not arrive from my partner I decided to do something on my own. I bead with a group of friends every week. One of the ladies went to the Tucson Bead Show this year. She brought back the large green two hole rectangles and challenged us to make something with them. I decided to use them for this hop also. Since bead embroidery is my favorite thing to do I started there. I found a cabochon that is colored similar to the two hole rectangles and bezeled it. Then I attached it to a circular piece of backing. I stitched the two hole rectangles below it. A black seed bead and a green disc were uses to fill the holes. Next I created six fringes. One for each of the holes and stitched them below the rectangles. I found jade ovals for the edge of the circle. Then I filled in with green seed beads. The straps were created with faceted jade rounds, black discs, green bicone crystals, and black teardrop shaped beads. I chose a gunmetal toggle clasp for the closure because it matched the bead caps I used on the fringes. I also created matching earrings using a jade round and fringes with the same beads as the necklace only they are shorter.  I had fun creating this and I hope you like it. Now please check out what the other designers in this hop created at https://www.facebook.com/groups/beadPeeps/

Carrier beads are all the rage now so I had to try them. They certainly are fun and addictive. They stitch up fast and there are bunches of patterns to make. All of the pieces that I have seen are simply strung with a beads at each hole between them. I wanted to do something different, so this is what I came up with. I made a half a dozen tries at stitching them together  then gave up and went to bed last night. First thing this morning I thought of eyepins to connect them and they worked great. Three sizes of aqua rondelles, gold spacers, and white pearls create the straps along with a hook style clasp. An aqua drop hangs as an accent from the center carrier bead. A pair of carriers that match the necklace center bead were created as earrings. Simple wire wrapping connects them to the earwires. I am proud of how this set turned out and I hope you like them too.

I realized that I never posted what I created for the first Miriam Haskell challenge. This is the necklace and earrings from the first set. The petals on the large flower were painted with nail polish because I could not find the color that I wanted. Tiny white pearls were stitched in  the center and the flower was attached to an oval filigree. Then I used the metal flowers from the kit with bright pink pearls as centers on the lower corner of the filigree. The top has small pink glass flowers with white pearl centers. Two pink glass leaves finish the focal. The straps are the large white glass rounds separated by pink seed beads in the Haskell style. A box clasp from the kit is the closure. The earrings are one of the white glass rounds above three of the small pink glass flower dangles.

I created the pin on a metal form from the kit. White seed beads wrap the frame as I have seen in Haskell pieces. The center is more of the pink glass flowers with some cranberry colored ones also. A pink flower slider was used for the largest flower . A clear AB glass leave is the accent. Lastly I created another pink petal flower in a single layer that matches the necklace to use on the bracelet. The band is the large white rounds matching the necklace. Although I have never seen a Haskell piece with a snap as a clasp I chose to use one for the bracelet. If you don't know who Miriam Haskell is I suggest that you google her as you will see some of the most amazing pieces of jewelry. I had a wonderful time creating these jewelry pieces. I hope you like them.

I created this parure (set) for the second Miriam Haskell Challenge sponsored by A Grain of Sand.
When I think of Miriam Haskell jewelry I think of floral component based pieces so that is what I made for the necklace focal. To make the necklace I started with the round filigree from the kit. I stitched some of the black seed beads from the kit and a 4mm black round in the center, then I made loops of the pearly white seed beads that were a free gift with my kit to form the black and white flower. I also stitched some of the black seed beads into leaves. I was inspired to make this flower by one I saw in my Miriam Haskell book that was a bracelet center and was a Robert Clark design. I found a large brass flower in my stash and embellished it with more of the pearly white seed beads and used a matte light yellow glass flower center. I attached these two flowers to a larger filigree piece. Next I attached two pale yellow enameled flowers each in a different shape and with a different black glass flower center. The finishing touch for the focal was 5 small matte light yellow glass flowers. The straps were made with the large black faceted nailheads from the kit plus some I already had.They were spaced out with the black seed beads from the kit and black size 6 seed beads. I saw straps in my Miriam Haskell book which were made with black fire polished beads spaced in this way. Most of the Miriam Haskell pieces that I have seen are very colorful so black was more unique. I used the black faceted clasp from my kit for the closure. Next came the earrings. There were a pair of floral inspired metal pieces in the kit which I used as my earring bases. I glued black Swarovski crystals into the indentations and hung one of the yellow set crystal from the kit on the bottom to keep with the color scheme I had going. Earwires was all that was needed to complete these simple earrings. I used the large yellow cabochon with the crescent shaped holes to create a pin. I wired one of the yellow AB crystals to the center. It is surrounded by small black round beads. I created a harness with wire on the back. To this I attached three of the yellow set crystals so that they hung below the cabochon. Next I punched a pair of holes in the metal bow from the kit and used a pair of oval jump rings on each side to attach the embellished cabochon to the bow. I used wire to attach a pin back and this creation was done. I had fun creating these designs. I am working on another pin and I have a bracelet design in my head too but they will have to be finished after the challenge is over. It was fun to design these pieces. I hope you like them.