Post Heat Wave Bead Porn

It's not very often that I find myself at a loss for words, but this week was an exception. Maybe the record-high heat on Monday burned out my brain temporarily or something, but I just could NOT come up with anything to blog about. So I broke my own cardinal rule of blogging (thou shalt post frequently) and gave myself an unofficial hiatus.

Thank goodness for bead porn so I have something to post today. Perhaps if I were to, oh, I don't know, GET A LIFE, I'd have more to write about, but since that doesn't look likely to happen any time in the next 11 years, there may be more unscheduled blog hiatuses (hiati? what's the plural of hiatus?) in the future. At least I have the weekend to try to come up with something for next week.

In the meantime, here's this week's porn:






Yummy antiqued-copper-looking beads from Excellent Gem.





And I say "copper looking" because they are actually metallicized resin.

What a great way to get the look of metal in a design, but keep the weight down!

In the "actual metal" category, these are awesome etched brass pendants from Summer's Studio.

Couldn't get the leaves without getting the dragonflies, too.

"Come sail away..." (probably my favorite Styx song EVER) and this gorgeous ship button from Miss Fickle Media made me think of it. I also thought it might make a great dangle or closure for a necklace using the lighthouse or sailboat ceramic pendants I posted a couple of weeks ago.

And since I can't ever just buy one thing from Shannon...how stunning is this "water and wood" chain?

And darkened copper rolo chain, too. I'm working on a design right now using this and it is YUMMY!

Czech glass flowers in a lovely aqua Celsian finish from All Things Beaded.

Same vendor has a great supply of Czech glass rondelles and other shapes in unusual colors and lots of Picasso finishes.

I'm really loving this red, brown and aqua set for fall.

And I hadn't seen this "nugget" shape before - will be great for beach or watery designs.

More nuggets - how cool are these going to look with that chain from Fickle Media?

I just love porcelain. It makes me think of high tea, ladies in hats and all things English. This pretty set of rose porcelain beads in a lovely, wintry color palette is from Excellent Gem

This pretty and delicate porcelain flower in shades of spring green and pink is from the same vendor.

Fun ceramic leaves from Sandhra Lee.

This set is so earthy-looking at first glance, but when you look closer, you start to pick up hints of blue, rose and lavender in the crevices - such great colors on these pieces. This is from Yolanda's Clay

As is this fun and brightly-colored pendant.

This stunning pendant is from Artisan Clay. I couldn't resist that shimmering turquoise color. It's like a hypnotic swimming pool of gorgeousness.

The incredibly juicy colors in this set of lampwork disks got me to loosen up on my lampwork restrictions. These beads are just so bright and fun and happy - couldn't resist. Disk beads from Alisha White.

More serious, but just as gorgeous in a more elegant, earthy way. Love the texture and hints of silver on these beads from Outwest.

Another outstanding set of beads from Juls. I have nothing in this color scheme so fit right into my "no more lampwork unless it's truly outstanding" rule. They arrived in the mail last week and are still sitting on my bedside table because I don't want to put them away. If I put them away, I wouldn't be able to look at them all the time ;-)

This weekend will consist of more Tae Kwan Do classes and Cub Scout events for the kid. HE has a life (as opposed to me). So, unless I get abducted by aliens or a meteorite lands on my house, I'm kinda wonderin' what Monday's blog post will be about...???

Have a great weekend!

KJ