My sapphire hoop earrings featured in a treasury

Hi, I just wanted to share this because it's done in my favorite color, a lucious sapphire blue. My handmade sapphire hoop earrings were chosen to be featured in this collection. I made them with crystals, sterling beads, and sterling earwires. I sold 3 pairs of these just in the last couple weeks.......anyway, isn't this collection beautiful???

(My item is in the bottom full row. But they're all clickable, if you'd like to visit the makers' stores for more information.)

'Abby's Favorite Blue Finds, Saturday, July 30, 2011' by AidforAbby

Saturday is our BLUE color day. Enjoy these fine artisans works of the hands. Support handmade by commenting, clicking and sharing with friends and family.Bonnie and Abby

Pretty Sapphire Blue Dangle ... kattfiveCreati... $8.00	Pale Sapphire Blue Gerbera W... IndigoDaisyWed... $13.00	Sapphire Blue Nugget Drop Ea... acottagehearth $18.00
Tooth Fairy Pillow with Hang... ButterflyBlueD... $15.00	Handmade Lap Quilt - "S... Bonbonsandmore $128.25	Sapphire Blue Handwoven Swar... Irelandliz $75.00
Beaded Snowflake Ornaments, ... CraftsbyQuilla... $5.00	Sapphire Blue Chemo Cap BrimaKnits $20.00	Sapphire Blue Infinity Circl... sandeeknits $10.00
Sapphire Blue Chrysanthemum ... PinkFlamingoSt... $6.00	Sapphire Blue Shetland Yarn MadeForEwe $20.00	Deep Sapphire Blue Bowl thebelgianpott... $12.00
Crochet HeadBand with Flower... TheMadHatterDe... $7.50	Earrings sapphire blue cryst... ThePerfectJewe... $9.50	Sapphire Blue Bear Bead with... WhimzySupplies $3.50
Sapphire Blue Glass, Antique... Tissage $28.00

Treasury tool by Red Row Studio.

My first Artfire jewelry feature

I'm pretty excited. I've been featured in an Artfire collection for the first time. Here is my item:

And here's the (Coral) collection:

Coral-lation

  Curated By: PrettyJewelry...

ArtFire.com

Handmade Gifts

Sorry I've been so busy

I'm so SORRY I haven't posted. I didn't take starting this blog lightly; I promised myself I'd keep up. My fibromyalgia has been in a huge flare for 3 days. For now, here's a little bit of my jewelry that's currently listed on etsy:

The Beaded Bead, Part 2

If you read my previous Beaded Bead post, you know that I'm on a mission to find the *perfect* one. Perfect to me means a bead that's gorgeous, incorporates crystals (gotta love that bling!) and can stand on its own with only a few accent beads around it.

So I had the bright idea this weekend to create my own. Bad idea. The reason I've been searching for patterns is this: I know I'm not ready to make my own pattern for it. Here's the end result. You can see that it's complicated, and that I wasn't ready for it. Haha.

My idea was to create a right angle weave row, then sew the crystals onto it and fill in with seed beads. It was fairly quick. I think a lot of the problem is that there are 4 flowers, which makes it (a) not round and (b) leaves me with only 3 "corners" at the top and bottom to fill in with beads.

So if I do it again I'll make 5 or more flower sections and bring the seed beads down further.


In the meantime, I made this one into an earring.

Handmade Beadweaving Bracelet Chunky

This is my most recent beadwoven bracelet. I made it with about 6 sizes of seed beads in 10 or 11 different colors, then I added in gemstones. The main ones are aquamarine tumbled nuggets. There are 3 of those. Also there are czech glass "crackle" beads, which are done by cooling the glass rapidly to make it crack on the inside. And there are about 40 blue faceted crystals.

Let's see. The bead with a silver cap on it is magnesite, and there are some pearls that are smaller. I also included some clear glass beads, just to add to the icy feel of the bracelet.


Oh and there are quite a few silver plate beads in this piece.
The clasp is a toggle.

EDIT: This is no longer listed, it sold on July 21....I plan on making another although of course it can't be identical.  This would be a great funky bracelet for a bride -- it's "Something Blue" plus it's just so unusual. Please contact me TNBeader (at) gmail (dot) com if you would like a custom order. Thanks for your understanding!

In search of the perfect beaded bead, Part 1

I’ve wanted to create some beautiiful beaded beads -- some that would stand pretty much on their own, for awhile. I’ve seen patterns but haven’t really found the right one yet. some don’t have the look I want. some seem too complicated. some are beautiful but I don’t know how to make them.

So this is my first attempt. Here are some photos of the bead I made. I created with a purchased kit. I paid more for the kit than I EVER EVER wanted to pay.... was hoping that it would be the “first and last” one I needed. That’s how I justified paying so much.



I’ve decided that for this blog I am not going to call out names if I say something negative; so we won’t discuss where this one came from. The kit was nice and contained exactly the number of beads (seed beads and crystals) needed to do the job. The included silk thread seemed too fragile to me, but maybe that’s because I pull too hard/tight most of the time. :)


The instructions were OK but seemed like maybe they were written in a hurry. I redid the bead 3 times, writing notes into the several pages as I worked. In two cases, there were outright errors in the directions-- referring to the beads in numbered order, but they’d made typos. Sometimes I could get it right from the photos even though I didn’t understand the directions. And sometimes I just had to take a stab at it.

So the end result is not as beautiful as I’d hoped. You can see from the pics that it is very loose, even though I broke the thread pulling it tight a couple times. I think if I took it apart and did it once more I’d get it right this time. I don’t really have the desire to redo it though; it’s not the perfect beaded bead.

I have a couple more to try. If you have any ideas, feel free to send them along. Thanks!

Getting Started; my beading blog

Why in the world am I blogging? (I ask myself) I'm so *bad* at it. Yet I want to share what I learned/am learning about beading, beads, projects, etsy, and all things related to my obsession: beads. So, here we are.

I  have just started an etsy jewelry shop, and so far I think it's a lot of work with very little payoff. I've done everything they tell you to: twitter, facebook, participating in the forums, joining teams. Yadda yadda. Etsy's making lots of money off little people llike me, but they don't give you a great deal of assistance. The big idea there is to deactivate and then relist  your items, so that they get on the front page again and people notice them. Good for them, as they get the $$. Bad for the little people, who make crafts for pete's sake! haha. I haven't bought into the relist game yet, I'm too busy listing for the first time. And obvioiusly it works for some. But for me, all this stuff takes away from what I like to do: beadwork.

Here are a couple of my projects:

Black agate/onyx bead necklace, for sale on etsy

This one's actually a work in progress on my desk:

My favorite type of beaded necklace to make. The 3 large flat/wavy stones are jade. The toggle clasp at the back is aventurine, very cool. And the other beads are gemstones, like jade, amazonite, turquoise, others. Also for sale on etsy.