Inspiration struck!

After going through Touch of Glass, I pulled out some beads and tried to a piece similar to one in the book. I had about twenty gold-foil floral lampwork beads, and used some gold-toned flowers as spacers, and blue Czech glass beads between beads.



I made a pendant to dangle at the bottom of the necklace using a gold head pin, with gold bead caps to surround one lampwork bead.




The whole thing took just over an hour! The Czech beads are from Blue Moon. The lampwork beads were found at a local bead shop. Touch of Glass might be the best book I have in my collection now!

Christmas presents!

I made this set for my sister, to go with the bracelet I gave her on her birthday:



She gave me a Borders gift card. I went out yesterday and used it to buy a beading calendar and yet another book for my craft library! A Touch of Glass has many beautiful projects. I'm inspired to get back to beading now that the craziness of the holidays is over!

My sister also gave me some beading supplies- storage and findings; and a Michaels gift card. The Michaels near Richmond, Virginia has an amazing selection of beads...so I'm waiting until my next trip down there to use the card.




I sold seven of my necklaces! I can't believe people liked them so much. I'll keep making jewelry, and if my friends want to buy them, that's great. If not, more for me to wear!

Three new necklaces!

Each took twenty minutes! I love the leaf.

Most of the beads came from Blue Moon/Enchanted Planet (the seahorse). The leaf and heart are Artistrywear from Plaid. They have a beautiful line of glass pendants!

Simple is sometimes best...

I love doing these simple pendant-on-cord necklaces. They've been popular with family and friends- I've already sold two, and more people want them!

I'm not doing this for profit or anything- I already have one business and have no desire to start another! This is just for fun, and if people want to buy my stuff, that's just icing on the cake.

The latest batch:

I want to keep this one for myself...but if anyone buys it, I'll just buy myself another pendant at A.C. Moore.



I like the colors of this "doughnut":





My mom loves this one:



I used leather cord...but my next batch will be done on ribbon.

A variation...

...of a necklace I did earlier. Same pendant, new accent beads. This one is for a co-worker of my mom's!

Camera is acting funny...

...but here are pictures of two new projects.

For my mom, because she picked out the pendant herself:




And this one, for a friend. I got paid for this one. :D The picture isn't great, but the necklace is really pretty.



One of Mom's coworkers just asked me to make a necklace for her, too. Maybe I should start buying my beads wholesale.

This one is mine:



All beads were from Blue Moon except for the middle pendant. That came from Plaid. Funny, I always thought they were known best for rubber stamps!

Starry Night!

I made this set a couple of weeks ago. I'm not totally happy with it, so I might re-string it later.

All beads were from Blue Moon.




A close-up:



A friend from choir liked my mom's necklace (from the last post) so much that she wants me to make one for her to buy. :D That's pretty cool, considering that I'm an amateur!

A quick and easy necklace!

The beads and cord all came from Blue Moon beads. It only took me 20 minutes to finish!

I picked up a new book to add to my beading library: Simply Beautiful Beaded Jewelry. I now have nine or ten books to look through when I need inspiration!

A quick Halloween project!

I bought some cheap little tin buckets at Target (two for a dollar!), and wrapped a wire strung with autumn colored beads and pumpkin jingle bells.



I was going to make a bracelet, too, but ran out of time.

Another blog begun...

Now that I'm hooked on beads and jewelry making, it's time to start posting my projects and their progress in a separate spot!

A few things I've finished recently:







Simple projects, really. I'm still getting the hang of it! I have several books to study from, and a new set of tools to practice with.

Beading Basics

It's All About the Beads