Vacay Bead Porn - Round 2

Hopefully, I am at this moment sliding down a snowy hillside in a saucer with my son and nephew and not breaking my neck in the process. While I'm out getting cold, tired, wet and probably bruised up, help yourself to some "drool on the computer screen" beady time:

I can't get enough of these bright dotty beads from BeadIntrigue. I just had to have every color. But I've got a cool design in the works for them so stay tuned!

I feel so sunny!

This beautiful sky-blue pair is from the so-talented Sue of Sue Beads on Etsy. Not only are these beads done in some of my favorite colors, but I thought the detail work on them was particularly outstanding. Good job, Sue!

Another great set from Sue - and if I remember correctly, these are made from glass that came from recycled wine bottles (or else I hallucinated that part which is entirely possible since, as the kid so kindly informed me last night "you are old and your brain doesn't work right any more, but I don't mean that in a harsh way." Yep. Uh huh. Thanks. Not harsh AT ALL.)

I seem to be kind of obsessed with "links" lately. I want everything to have at least two holes so I can easily link it to something else. I dunno why. These are from Cathy Dailey.

Sterling silver textured star charms from Cathy Dailey.

Golden yellow enamel bead grouping from Barbara Lewis. This set comes with several different sizes and shapes of beads, flower bead caps and even head pins with enamel ball tips. So cool!

Aqua chalcedony brios from Fabulous Rocks.

Green chalcedony brios.

Tiny iolite brios.

Pink chalcedony brios.

Lotus flower porcelain charms from Summer's Studio. I can't get enough of this gorgeous blue/green glaze combo she's got going. Yummmm!

So darling blue bird bead from Summer's Studio. PLUS - she sent me a free matching "baby bird" in the same package - AWESOME!

Periwinkle "script" porcelain heart from Round Rabbit. How can you not just LOVE that color?

This heart is also from Round Rabbit - another amazing color combo on it. I'm seeing some turquoise, smoky quartz, white pearls and gold to go with this. MMMMMM!

As you can see, I spent Valentine's Day treating myself to heart beads on Round Rabbit's Etsy site. The delicate branch detail and deep rich purple color on this heart made it irresistible to me!

Have a great weekend, everyone, and I will be back on Monday (assuming I survived the snow)!

KJ

Vacay Bead Porn

First of all, thanks to everyone who answered my desperate plea for beady help! I can always count on the world of cyber bead junkies for answers. I think I'm on the right track now, but it is cracking me up that I'm about to replace two strands of $3.99 junk glass bead from Michael's with a custom lampwork order that's going to cost...well...let's just say it ain't no $3.99 a strand and leave it at that. Also, no 40% off coupon LOL!

I'm leaving tomorrow on vacation. Takin' the kid and heading to the mountains with my brother and his family for some fun and, if we're REALLY lucky, some snow.

So, you get bead porn today AND I've scheduled another post for Friday. Woo hoo!

Sterling silver organic ring links from Cathy Dailey.

Hammered rectangular links from Cathy Dailey.

Sterling silver bird charms from Sweet Rock Candy.

Sterling silver dragonfly links from Sweet Rock Candy.

Purple enameled bead from Barbara Lewis.

Pink and lavender enameled bead from Barbara Lewis.









Floral porcelain charms from Summer's Studio.

Robin's egg/stoneware swirly ceramic heart from tgldesigns on Etsy.

Yellow shell pendant from Lisa Peters Art.

Green and blue porcelain heart pendant from Round Rabbit. Not only are the colors amazing on this piece, but that green shape in the center totally looks like a soaring hawk to me which is just so totally cool. I'm SURE Nancy did that on purpose ;-)

Lampwork glass beads from tordchdbeads on Etsy.

Etched lampwork beads from torchdbeads.

I loved the bright happy colors swirling in these beads also from torchdbeads. What can I say? She made me a great deal!

Frosted lavender dot pair from Lazy Cat Beads.

Happy Friday on a Wednesday to all and check back on the real Friday for part two of this week's bead porn posting!

KJ

HELP! Calling all lampworkers!

Okay, so, I finally found something in my stash of lampwork that is the right COLOR, but the beads aren't the right size or shape nor do I have enough of them sooooo...I'm trying to contact the original seller.

In the meantime, however, because I have zero patience when it comes to all things beady, I thought I'd ask here and see if anyone knows the name of this glass color:

I would call it an "opal-like" color because it has that translucent glow and it's on the fence between a pale blue and an aqua.

Here's a pic I took with my scanner, but I'm not sure how true I got the color to look:

Those "nugget" shaped beads in the picture are what I want, except I need 'em bigger - like 10-12mm size.

Okay...GO!

KJ

R&T Goodies and an Unrelated Rant

Rings & Things sent me an awesome package of goodies to play with this month (which was very nice of them considering I am behind on designing something with LAST month's stuff - but I will get there...eventually).










A fun group of pearls in different shapes, colors and sizes. I love the dark teal rounds and the cranberry keishi pearl.

This is a yummy concotion of various sizes and colors of shell pearls mixed with some very sparkly crystal rondelles.

These shell pearl and crystal mixes come in different colors. Normally, I'm a "blue" kind of girl, but I'm really loving both of the mixes they sent me and can't decide which one to play with first!



In other news...is it possible to seethe in frustration? I know you can seethe with anger, but does that term work for frustration, too? If it does, that's what I'm feeling. I had this great necklace all designed and ready to go. All I had to do was put a clasp on it. It was easy and effortless - y'know, one of those ideas that everything just "works" the first time? I had all the right beads in the right shapes and sizes, had the right findings, everything was really rolling along.



Or so I THOUGHT! Y'see, I bought two strands of blue glass nugget shaped beads at Michael's for this design. They were exactly the right size and shape for the design and the blue color matched the blue in the pendant I'm working with perfectly...IN THE STORE. It also matched perfectly during my lunch hour in the office which is when I was putting the design together.



Got home last night and went to put the clasp on and all of a sudden, those blue beads?



Not blue any more.



They are now LAVENDER. And I don't mean a bluish-lavender. I mean really strongly almost purple kinda lavender.



WTH?



(and no, I was not drinking at the time, just in case you were wondering)



Further experimentation reveals that these beads are blue under fluorescent lighting (like at Michael's and in my office) but lavender in daylight and under the lights in my house.



Do I have ANYTHING else in my stash that can match or replace them in the design?



OF COURSE NOT!



Everything is either the wrong color or the wrong size and shape.



AAAGGHHHHHH!!!



I do this hobby for fun, right?



KJ

Lost in Space

I finished my "wilder" entry for Erin Prais-Hintz of TesoriTrovati's "Space" challenge. It's quite the craziest design I've ever done, but I think it actually came out pretty well. The hardest part for me was including all the diverse elements but still ending up with something attractive, wearable and most of all, SALEABLE (sellable? whatever...)

I had several different "jumping off points" for this design:

-Some Discovery Science Channel shows the kid and I watched that had to do with different possibilities for "earth-type" planets somewhere out there and also some information about all the trash and junk floating in orbit around OUR planet. (Even in space, we humans can't seem to do anything without leaving a big ol' pile of garbage behind.)

-A strand of Czech glass beads that resembled frozen chunks of "space ice" to me

-Bead colors and shapes representing many different elements of outer space - planets, moons, rings, suns, black holes, etc.

So here's a close up of my "ring" world - it's a frozen icy world (represented by moonstone) surrounded by a giant ring of frozed blue ice. Nearby is a black hole (represented by a deep midnight blue 5 Fish lampwork bead swirled with small specks of glittering silver).

In this part of the galaxy, three rings show the impact points of many meteors - similar to the surface of our moon. Nearby, a planet of frozen green-blue methane gas (represented by one of Sue Bead's transparent aqua lampwork beads) spins through its orbit.

In this section, a frozen chunk of "space ice", possibly from a comet that has broken up, floats next to a strange, purple planet and an unusual orange nebula.

Here's another view of the entire necklace - towards the back you can see a couple of deep green planets, a water world and even a couple of small silver flying saucers. Hey, you never know who might be traveling out there on the fringes of the galaxy.

Happy Monday!

KJ

I Feel the Need...

...the need for bead (porn).

I had a great pair of earrings published in "Bead Trends" last year that featured marquis-cut quartz stones so when I saw that Gemme Tresor was selling more of this cut, I decided to grab some up.

Green aventurine.

Opalite.

Green quartz.

Sterling silver fleur de lis pendant.

Sterling silver fleur de lis charms from Sweet Rock Candy beads on Etsy.

Sterling silver leaf toggle from Sweet Rock Candy.

Rosebud and leaf charms from Sweet Rock Candy.

Raku-fired clay seashell from Star Spirit Studio.

Black clay and gold/silver "Spirit Horse" pendant from Star Spirit Studio.

Orange ceramic flower bead from Little Cup on Etsy.

Triple link connector in pink, yellow and green from Little Cup.

Etched pale blue spacers with cheery white polka dots from Bead Intrigue on Etsy.

Dreaming of summer with these juicy orange and white dotted beads from Bead Intrigue.

Cool, clear aqua glass pair from Sue Beads.

And...the matching bead set...because that's just how I roll.

Lastly, a beautiful turquoise pair from Libelula.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

KJ