Surprise Bead Porn!

I said I'd still sprinkle a few surprise bead porn posts throughought the year and after two straight weeks of illness at my house and with Spring Break coming up in two weeks, I thought now would be the perfect time.

So here goes:





Delicate sterling silver hummingbird and flower links.





Sterling silver round floral and branch charms. Both of these items are from Sweet Rock Candy.





Pewter dragonfly and flower toggle clasp/pendant. I just fell in love with this as soon as I saw it - so unusual. It's from Mamacita.





Muscovite squares. You can't see it in the picture, but these stones have a glittery sparkle to them in real life and a lovely rose/lavender color.

I already have a few strands of aqua terra jasper, but nothing in this unusual marquis shape. These and the muscovite are both from Mint DeStash.

GORGEOUS kyanite tubes - in a nicely substantial size and great quality. These were a bit more than I usually like to pay for a strand of stone beads, but they had such great glow and color that I couldn't resist. These came from Sweet Rock Candy - sort of unusual because that store mostly carries silver items.

Rose garden floral ceramic pendant from Yolanda's Clay. I've already got a necklace partially created with this one, but somehow the design stalled out halfway through. I've got it sitting on a stand on my work surface hoping that if I keep looking at it long enough, I'll get the right creative inspiration to figure out how to finish it off. I hate when the muse decides to be difficult!

Heart striped pendant also from Yolanda. I had one similar to this in blues and greens, but I like the red tones in this piece since I don't often design with that color and thought it might be nice to do something different.

Sweet ceramic bouquet pendants from The Classic Bead.

I snapped this one up from her as well because I'd never seen her do anything in pink before and I loved it!

My friend Julie turned me on to these unusual boro glass beads from Ronsick Originals. The pictures don't do them justice - all those clear bubbles sparkle and throw off rainbows of light in real life and there is a silver metal core down the center of the bead.

Plus, they look like candy ;-) And, he was having a sale so I had to get more than one.

Pink and ivory pansies from Serena29.

And some mint pansies, too. I bought several different shades because my original idea was to make an all-pansy bracelet with different pastel colored-flowers, but I forgot to pay attention to the fact that the holes aren't running the right way on these beads to allow them to work with my original idea so I have to figure something else out. And no, Erin, you can't have them ;-)

Gorgeous color mixture on these beads from Beeboo.

A new style of fairy skirt from Mermaid Glass. These are a little more "ruffle-y" than the original style. Plus, great color combo.

Of course, the original version is still gorgeous, too.

As you can see from my inability to resist them. I am DYING for the colors on this set.

These beads had my fingers clicking the "buy" button before the page even finished loading. Ocean colors? Drops of silver? Etching? A moonglow finish? I'm so IN!

And look - a matching focal bead. This set is on my worktable just waiting to be turned into something fabulous. I already have the idea - just need the time to execute it now. These beads are from Radiant Mind.

Donna Millard makes the most gorgeous lampwork pieces I have ever seen. They are truly amazing. Sadly, that usually puts them totally out of my price range, but I still go by her shop all the time just to drool and dream. And every once in a while, I come across something like this set of leaves which she had listed for a McCrazyPants price of less than $20! I was so happy! These leaves are really stunning in person - take them into the sunlight and you get all different shades of purple, lavender, amber and more. They are going to be luscious in a fall-inspired design that I haven't thought of yet (but will!)

Thanks everyone for hanging in with me through the recent Plague Days. Hope to get this blog back on track now!

Enjoy the weekend.

KJ