New Necklace and Auction

Tags

Allegory Gallery, Artists for Animals Auction, Candie Cooper, Madison Cat Project, Nostalgica, Patti's Destash Divas, Susan Kennedy

I made a simple necklace today, but it’s so cute.

I got the pearls from Nostalgica and the bird pendant from a Heather DeSimone destash on the Patti’s Destash Divas group. I love how it looks. The pearls are so pretty.

Also, the Artists for Animals Auction starts tomorrow. I’m looking forward to raising some good funds for Madison Cat Project. Here are some of the things I have in the auction.

Earrings that are perfect for sparking during summer.

These turtle earrings are super cute. The turtles are from Allegory Gallery.

Sweet dog pendant necklace. The dog charm is something Candie Cooper got in Paris.

I love these earrings. Materials from Nostalgica.

I did some tin experiments for this auction.

Beautiful lapis and Susan Kennedy lampwork necklace.

I hope people can stop by and see the wonderful variety of handmade items in the auction and the animal charities they support. The auction runs April 22 – 28, 2024.

Artists for Animals Auction Starts Soon!

Tags

Allegory Gallery, Artists for Animals Auction, Candie Cooper, Madison Cat Project, My Elements, Nostalgica, Sondra's Estate Beads Destash Depot, The Giggly Gypsy, Yvonne Irvin-Faus

My mom asked me the other day if I was done making for the Artists for Animals Auction. I said I didn’t know. It just has to strike me if I want to make more or not. I don’t even know how much I have at this point. I’ll probably take an inventory, measurements and write up descriptions next weekend. The auction starts on April 22, 2024 and goes through August 28, 2024. I did end up making a few things this weekend, and might make more next weekend. Who knows?

These earrings started with these little shell-like dangles that were, I believe, a freebie in an order from Sondra’s Estate Beads Destash Depot. I put them together with some pieces from a Candie Cooper kit and other things from my stash.

Then I saw something that made me get out my Yvonne Irvin-Faus My Elements. I dangled some Austrian crystals I got from Candie Cooper from these.

These were more difficult to get a picture of. Pastels always say spring to me. Just Yvonne’s work and some colorful rings!

I had been wanting to try The Giggly Gypsy‘s tutorial from Allegory Gallery to make these fun headpins. I love the wire work Jenn does on some of the Saturday morning tutorials, but wire work just fries my brain. I watch it and it seems easy, but then when I try to follow, the spacial elements just no longer make sense. I tried this twice before I took a break and then went back and made these. It’s such a cute look, I will practice more so I can use it again. Even imperfect, I still really like it. The bicone beads are from the Mystic Peasant and the Czech glass is from Allegory Gallery.

My auctions will support Madison Cat Project. There are a lot of artists making different handmade things and supporting a variety of animal charities. I hope you can stop by!

Two New Necklaces

Tags

Allegory Gallery, Anne Choi, B'sue Boutiques, Diane Hawkey, Fire Mountain Gems, The Bead Chest

I made two necklaces this weekend amidst a small amount of cleaning in my studio, which really needs it!

I got a large order of Delica seed beads (plus two white heart tubes) from Allegory Gallery. I always like buying fun beads, but less so necessities. But then I’m frustrated when designing and I don’t have those little “extras” to bring the other things together. Delicas are one of those. My mom uses them often as spacers, and they really finish off the piece. Also, I often need longer headpins. I also made orders for 3″ headpins in every known color from three different companies – B’Sue Boutiques, The Bead Chest, and Fire Mountain Gems.

I used some blue goldstone rounds, really cool manik manik beads and barn red Delicas from Allegory Gallery to make the necklace for this Diane Hawkey cat in a sweater pendant. The red Delicas give the beads just the right spacing and extra pop of color.

Here you can barely see the Delicas between the labradorite beads, but they have the same blue-grey (sometimes) flashy look of the gemstones. You can see it a little where I’ve used them to make the Anne Choi cat charm hang a bit lower with some Austrian crystals in the pendant. They also allow nice spacing for the labradorite.

I’ll probably end up using wire stringing material with these Delicas. I really like knotting with waxed linen to get a similar spacing with between beads. Now I have two choices.

AG Meet Your Creative Community and New Earrings

Tags

Allegory Gallery, Artists for Animals Auction, Kimberly Rogers, Madison Cat Project, Nostalgica, Numinosity, Sondra's Estate Beads Destash Depot

I made things last week, but did have a blog post because they were for a reveal that wasn’t until Friday. Today I’ll show those makes as well as some new earrings.

The Allegory Gallery Meet Your Creative Community event was for us to use materials from any Allegory Gallery kit to make something. I made three things.

The AB tubes and small clear drops are from an Allegory Gallery Kit-a-Palooza kit. I added small rubies, also from Allegory Gallery.

This is from a kit that William put together. Almost all the materials are from the kit except the Austrian crystals at the bottom, the green bead, spacers and the clasp. This kit also had some gorgeous green curved tubes with leaf designs. I tried to work those in, but wasn’t successful. I’ll have to make something else with them.

These lucky troll charms and green beads are from the Lucky New Year 2024 kit. The silver dice are also from Allegory Gallery. The Austrian crystal dice are from Nostalgica. These earrings amuse me quite a bit.

If you would like to see what other people made from various kits, visit Allegory Gallery Design Challenges.

Today I made some earrings for the Artists for Animals Auction coming up April 22 – 28, 2024. My auctions will benefit Madison Cat Project.

I love Kimberly Rogers‘ lampwork headpins. I put these on some fancy links from vintage brass chain.

Here I used rainbow clover metal charms from Nostalgica and hummingbird charms from Sondra’s Estate Beads Destash Depot. I think they are very summery.

These earrings are a mix from a Nostalgica kit and a few things from my stash.

I geared these earrings to spring and summer because I’m really looking forward to some warmer, sunny weather. We still have snow on the ground here.

Upcoming Artists for Animals Auction

Tags

Artists for Animals Auction, Auntie Moons, Jeni Houser Alasad, Metamorph Supplies, Miracle Horse Rescue, Patti Vanderbloemen, Susan Kennedy

The next Artists for Animals Auction is coming up April 22 – 28, 2024. I make over time for it, but once it is near, I get an extra oomph of motivation. I got even more motivation this time when Patti Vanderbloemen gifted me with a treasure trove of wonderful beads. Patti has her own store that also supports animals, in her case Miracle Horse Rescue, so check out their great work.

First I made a necklace that I designed and started last week. I had to start over when I ruined one of the knots, but it was worth it. I think it’s a gorgeous necklace.

The lampwork heart pendant is by Susan Kennedy. The dangles and larger beads are lapis, and the matte beads are dumortierite. You can’t see it so much in this photo, but there are shiny parts and more matte parts in the pendant, and I like that this is echoed in the shiny and matte beads.

Next I used these wonderful sea glass drops. I really love sea glass, but I don’t get much of the real stuff. I used fluorite with it to continue the theme of soft spring tones. I hammered my wire form a bit to flatten the parts above the beads. I think these are so pretty and organic looking. Perfect for spring and summer.

I’ve been experimenting with tin, a material I’ve always loved. I used mismatched rounds in purple, blue and silver with light amethyst Austrian crystal for a little bling and vintage blue glass squares.

Here I’ve used some Jeni Houser Alasad (Auntie Moons) pod headpins with Austrian crystals and pearls. They are hanging from patina copper ovals from metamorph Supplies.

I’ve been coming out of a creative slump, and I really feel like this weekend was a triumph!

Earring Inspiration Realized

Tags

Allegory Gallery, Artists for Animals Auction, Madison Cat Project, Miracle Horse Rescue, Patti Vanderbloemen, Susan Kennedy

Patti Vanderbloemen, who makes beautiful jewelry to support the rescue organization Miracle Horse Rescue, recently gifted me with a bunch of amazing beads. As I was opening them, I thought of so many projects. I should have taken notes! But I recently bought some boxes to organize the beads, so when I go through them again, I will have a whole new round of ideas and an idea book to capture my ideas. Meantime, I made a couple pair of earrings. Beads are so often their own inspiration.

The drops are Czech glass and the rondelles are blueberry quartz. I love blue with gold findings.

These lampwork beads are by Susan Kennedy. I added a little sparkle with druzy quartz and hematite copper. The sweet dog charms are from Allegory Gallery.

Both pair of earrings are destined for the Artists for Animals Auction next month. I just ordered a hanging earring display because a clean photo is better, but some earrings don’t take a good photo flat. It will be nice to have a hanging display for those.

My auctions support Madison Cat Project. I look forward to raising money for them again as we move into the spring.

I Did Make More!

Tags

Allegory Gallery, Artists for Animals Auction, Candie Cooper, Kimberly Rogers, Nostalgica, Numinosity

I thought yesterday that I might make more things today. I feel like I’m a bit of a slow maker, so I often only have one making session per weekend. As much as I might not want to, there are other things that have to get done. But getting back to making felt so good that I did go back into the studio today and make a couple more things. The Artists for Animals Auction has announced the spring dates: April 22 – 28, 2024. That is a motivator as well.

Yesterday I had put together some materials for a necklace using these lampwork pieces by Kimberly Rogers of numinosity. But when I started actually putting it together, it wasn’t quite working. the beads weren’t quite the right color or size for the pendant. I found these other stones that made a much more cohesive piece.

I had bought these earring forms from Candie Cooper‘s Nostalgica (or were they in the Paris bag?) wanting to make wire wrapped earrings. You have to be in the mood to deal with that task. I love these earring forms because they have a vertical hole at the top to make hanging a dangle in the middle easy. The Czech glass beads from Allegory Gallery that I used as dangles are really beautiful. I wanted something to go with them but leave them the spotlight. I got a hank of metallic light blue fire polished crystals in a mystery box from Margot Potter when she was closing her bead store. Those fit the bill.

These were satisfying projects to finish. I have a lot of materials matched up in boxes in my studio. But you never know how things are going to turn out once you start making. It’s always nice to get some of those projects made.

Back to Earrings

Tags

Allegory Gallery, Andrew Thornton, Ava Motherwell Collection, Famous Vintage Bead Hoard Destash Take Two, Nostalgica, SagaHus Components, Vintaj

I haven’t been feeling very creative lately (you may have noticed this by lack of posting on my blog) but I think my muse is coming back. I got into the studio to make some earrings this weekend.

I got these sweet bows from Ava Motherwell Collection and matched them with vintage glass and crystals from Famous Vintage Bead Hoard Destash Take Two and rhinestone spacers from Nostalgica. I love coming back to iterations of this design of little black dress meets tuxedo bow tie in earrings and necklaces.

I used Vintaj patina paints on Vintaj brass butterflies with Czech glass, rhinestone spacers from Nostalgica and I can’t remember what the blue beads are, but I know they are beautiful and from Allegory Gallery.

These materials are from Allegory Gallery. I really love the stainless steel charms and just love using them. The little turquoise colored round is from a kit. Allegory Gallery has wonderful kits, and I like to save leftovers from the larger kits to use as accent beads in later projects.

Allegory Gallery also has a line of wooden charms from Andrew Thornton‘s original art. They are mostly pendant sized, but they tried an experiment with little earring pairs. I really love them. I used green pearls with fiber and wire cocoons from Sagahus Components. I love how they turned out.

I’m glad I did some creating this weekend. It felt good. Who knows? Maybe I’ll do more tomorrow.

Pine Ridge Treasures Beach Blog Hop Reveal

Tags

Beach Blog Hop, Lisa Lodge, Pine Ridge Treasures

Today is the reveal for the Beach Blog Hop hosted by Lisa of Pine Ridge Treasures. As usual, Lisa provided a generous kit. This one included jasper, cultured sea glass, metal, agate, cotton cord, shells and seed beads.

The first thing I made is a necklace using some of the sea glass.

The pendant, which says “health” and glass slices at the bottom and clasp are from the kit. I added a strand of shell beads and earthy Czech seed beads from my stash. Very beachy!

Then I made earrings with agate rounds, crystal bicones and metal pineapple charms from the kit. They remind me of one of those fruity drinks in a pineapple shell with a little umbrella.

Next I wanted to use one of the crystal hearts.

In addition to the heart pendant from the kit, I used rice shaped mother-of-pearl beads and floral motif vintage glass.

After I used the shell beads from the kit as photo props, I used them in a necklace!

In addition to the shells from the kit, I used the turtle charm, one of the large cultured sea glass pieces and some of the light and dark blue crystals. I added some findings, glass beads and additional cultured sea glass from my stash.

There are so many more materials to use (I didn’t even get to all that lovely jasper!) But that just means more to use later. Thank you to Lisa for a fun challenge. Please check out the other participants below to see what they made with their kits.

Lisa Lodge, Pine Ridge Treasures – Our host

Kim Dworak, Cianci Blue

Lisa Prewett Knappenberger, LiRaysa Designs

Bead in the New Year – Day #20

Tags

Allegory Gallery, Bead in the New Year, Heather Powers, Humblebeads

I only have one thing to show, but it is from an Allegory Gallery Bead in the New Year prompt.

Day #20 – Nature is your inspiration today!

I got a beautiful kit from Allegory Gallery. The kit was built around a beautiful painterly polymer clay floral bead by Heather Powers of Humblebeads. Heather is a master of nature inspired things, so this was a natural to use for the prompt. The kit also included white vintage glass, tiny amethyst, a blue gemstone (I can’t remember what) and another strand of glass beads that didn’t make it into the necklace.

I don’t always use kits all together in a project, but the beads in this kit so perfectly complimented the pendant. I added a carved amethyst and an organic serpentine bead (both also from Allegory Gallery) and a few sterling pieces to the necklace. I love it. It looks just like spring.