Well, yeah, okay, so they're extremely inexpensive and the colors are pretty. They're so pretty that I wish they were chocolate-filled so I could eat them and...er...never mind.
Then it was time to shop for my customer who wants me to design necklace(s) to match three sweaters she has in varying shades of pink and mauve. So, I found more shell beads that would be great possibilities:
The color variations don't show up very well in this picture, but the top and bottom strands are a bright, delicate pink and the center strand has more mauve, gray and brown tones and the beads on that strand are also faceted instead of flat. And no, I don't know what the design is going to be yet, but I usually start with focal beads in the right color first and then work from there.
I continued to search for pink/mauve beads and came across a great deal on Swarovski pearls so I got several strands ranging from white to pale pink to deep mauve to a yummy color called "toasted almond."
Mmmmmm! More beads that just look delicious!
I grabbed a couple of strands of Venetian foil glass beads:
One is silver foil with pale pink stripes and the other is pink foil with darker mauve stripes. Again, I was looking for items to match my customer's requested color palette.
I thought I was done, but I came across a vendor offering 50% off on some unusual agate strands. I believe some of these may be dyed to achieve the color combinations, but I still thought they were pretty and different and the price was right. Sadly, the scanner does not do justice to the true colors on these - they are much brighter and less "muddy" looking than they appear in the picture.
I took a chance on their wearability and was fortunate that they stood up to a color-fastness test I gave them when I got them home. From the same vendor, I also purchased this pretty strand of faceted black onyx coin beads. My customer had mentioned that she always wears her sweaters with black pants so I thought it might be a good idea to do something with the black as well.
Lastly, I hit my very favorite metal and findings dealer and got some great new components in different shapes and finishes:
I seem to be on an earring kick lately so I can't wait to start playing with these. I'm almost out of wire and chain, though, so it's time to hit the local bead store this week as well for those. There were some good prices at the show, but the minimum order quantities were just too high for me this time which was a bummer. I saw some GREAT chain that really needed to come home with me, but oh well, maybe next time!
And yes, I'm STILL plugging away on the bead-embroidered cuff bracelet. Man, I cannot WAIT to get this thing finished - I'm really getting quite sick of it and that's pretty unusual for me. Sadly, I had a lot of "re-work" to do at a certain stage so that really held me up but that portion is finally done so I just need to get the beaded edging done and it will be FINISHED! After which I will throw a party - at least until I have to figure out how to photograph the darned thing because it will NOT work in the scanner.
That's it for now!
KJ
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