New Obsession

Well okay, so 'obsession' it's not... really... well... LOL maybe a bit at first ... lol

Oh and YES, look! Two blog posts withing the same MONTH!! Whoohoo! And not only that, but the month is not even half over!!

I know... I'm rather astonished as well...

But enough of giving in to the shock of the unexpected blogging ;)  I figured I'd share a new 'thing' , and tell a bit about what I've been up to, in between visiting the Bead Hoarders hop list from my last post... yes, I'm still hopping... you guys should know if the list is longer then twenty blogs, I'm not doing it in one day... or possibly even one week... lol The problem is that all the pretties blend together until I can't remember who made what... and I'm buried under 'ideas' until I just can't take another step on the 'hop path'.  I know there are those who feel similar, so at least now you know you're not alone :)

Anyhow, the other night I went to a retirement party for a coworker, and rather than give her a specific piece of jewelry I took a small selection and told her to choose the one she wanted. For those on my FB list who saw me post of the 'necklace' that morphed into a pair of earrings... those were the ones she chose :)

note- this pic was taken before I changed the ear wires to a simple oval style instead

And that was despite the fact she doesn't wear green, she just loved them too much to NOT choose them :D  I was fairly confident that she'd go for the blue goldstone pair, since she wears a lot of browns, and despite my saying she could have two pairs, she decided to 'be strong' and just took the one... at which point other coworkers wanted to see what I made. By the end of the night, I'd sold three pairs of earrings and a necklace. I was also told that I should take that little case with me all the time... and one lady told me I needed a bigger case ;) lol  Needless to say, it was a wonderful boost for my creative 'ego', which is never sure if people will like my stuff well enough to buy it.

I am really glad that I decided to do it, and had the foresight to get some change that morning at the bank. I'll be toting along my little bag from now until Christmas at least... the case of jewelry is in one pouch, money for change is in another, and a whack-load of little black organza bags is in the third. I'm considering whether or not to move it into a bit bigger bag and add a small kit with tools to be able to do quick adjustments, just not sure I want to carry it around too ;)

That night when I got home, I found my one of my stashes of finished pieces and filled the empty slots, then set aside a bunch I wanted to either change, or add to. Last night I added some little bits to three 'charm' bracelets I'd made ages ago, but never fully finished. No pictures taken yet, but I really like the way they turned out, and I doubt I'll have them long once I offer them for sale. I'll try to have pics taken of them for next time. All three are on nice thick silver-tone chain, with glass bead dangles and hook clasps so they can be adjusted if needed. One is blue, and I added a few little silver snow flakes and owls. The green glass one has a few little silver leaves and roses, and the purple glass one has silver dragonflies and fairies. Why? Because I felt like it ;) lol 

What..?

You want to see them now?

You don't want to wait until whenever I decide to post again?

Well... I suppose you have a point.... gods only know when this blogging bug might bite again...

 Hang on while I go grab the camera, play photographer, then pop them through fotofuze to fix the back grounds.
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Still waiting?

:D hehe .. okay, here they are :)

 Didn't they turn out pretty :) The blue and the green I did first, and since the headpins had nice big heads, I didn't even think of adding anything on the ends... Apparently I used all of those nice big ones though, because I remember having my purple beads slide right off the headpins when I started it, and that's why I thought of adding the silver spacers to the bottoms. Now I wish I'd put them on all of them, but I refuse to  redo all of that just for that itty bitty bit of muse-poking; they're beautiful as is, and I tested each bead individually to make sure there was no way it was going to come off that pin.

The green tested me, since usually when I think 'green' I think 'gold' or 'brass' ... silver and green just doesn't bite me as a usual combo... however, I was out of gold chain at the time I had the desire to make these, and when I tried, I found I rather liked it. The leaves and roses make me think 'summer' which also leans towards the gold tone... but despite that, I love it the way it is with the silver :) See? I pushed myself away from my usual and went with something different.. and it works :D



 Oh yeah... I never did tell you about that obsession thing I started to write this thing for, did I? Well, I have pics to go with that too, so...   how about I do that ? That would be a good idea, huh? lol

So a couple weeks ago I was out doing some Christmas shopping and I discovered a new store had finally opened, so I popped in. They had the cutest wooden buttons that immediately demanded I buy them and make jewelry with them. It'd looked like each pattern was on one large button and two smaller ones... perfect for pendant and matching earrings :) When I got home, I discovered that the two smaller ones where actually different sizes >.< So... I went back and got another pack of each, then sorted them out into sets of three, tossing in beads to match, and getting right to work in cutting wire and choosing components. Everything went into a container with compartments, so everything for each piece was all in one slot. I recommend doing this whenever you get the ideas for something and know EXACTLY what you want to put together, but don't have the time to get right to work on them :) I know if I hadn't done this right away, they'd have ended up stuck in a drawer or bin somewhere, forgotten :(

 Here are the ones I have the earrings and pendants made for.

For this one, I went with antique brass wire, and grey/purple tones.Those are greyish-purple Czech glass leaves, with one grey, and two different shades of purple crystals.

The next one, I went with silver artistic wire, peachy streaked Czech leaves, and a mix of crystals in green, peach, and a dark purple. Sorry about the slightly blurred pic... I was too lazy to find my stand for the camera and move to set it up right >.< lol

This one is the first one I put together. Silver Artistic wire with blue, white, and purple crystals, and a blue glass faceted teardrop.

I'm still debating on the chains for them... so far I keep going back to a simple chain, with a few beaded links to tie it together.  Either that or a cord, instead... although, since I have two sets of each pattern, I might just do one on a chain, and one on a cord :) Satisfy both sides of the muse ;)

Huh... you know, I just realized that all of the crystals, clasps, head pins, silver charms and beads, and the czech glass used in  all of these pieces in this post... all came from Bead Box Bargains... I guess I'll have to go share these pics on their fb group page, too :)  The larger glass beads were bought locally, and I have no memory of where I got the chain... but it's possible it came from BBB too... I'm just not sure >.<

I have several more to do yet, some of which are partially done and just waiting for me to finish off adding a bead or two, and others are waiting for me to find where I hide my gold toned 20g wire to make the pendant... if I can't find it soon, I'll have to figure out an alternative method using the headpins instead, since I KNOW where they are ;)

Oh, and I'll have to do another post soon to show you the fun I was having playing with resin, assorted metal bits, and nailart sprinkles :D SPARKLY!! :D heheh... but that can wait for another time ;)

Hope you enjoyed this extra little post with lots of pictures and things that I actually managed to get MADE :)  Maybe when I manage to completely finish my button jewelry sets , as in chain/cord and all, I'll offer one up in a little giveaway to celebrate :)  Any one interested? ;)

Bead Hoarders Blog Hop.

Like most creative types, I have my own little 'hoard' of treasures.

Well, alright... actually I have several different hoards, since I have many creative interests... >.<

However, THIS is about one type of hoard in specific... BEADS. More to the point, those 'special' beads that were bought on a whim... or for a very specific reason or idea, but were never actually used. Those beads that get taken out and looked at, touched, teased by ideas of 'what if's' and 'maybe if I's, but always end up put away again unused. They usually reach a point where you're no longer sure if you 'can' use them simply because they've been a part of your collection for so long...

Lori Anderson of  Bead Soup fame, has challenged us to dig deep into our bead hoards and put some of those treasures to use at long last.  Luckily for me, this was a challenge that I've been trying hard to do all year long... and yet, while I've managed to use quite a few of my special art beads... most of them were newly acquired and barely had time to become part of my hoard >.<

For the past month I've been considering what ones to use for this challenge. I have a little set from Grubbi beads that I bought a few years ago with an idea ... that vanished by the time the beads arrived, and have since been in two different 'bead soup' possibles, and have lost out on going both times. I could certainly use them... have plenty in the colour palette right here within arms reach...

I could also definitely use some of my Skye Jewels treasures. All of the beautiful tiles I've bought form her over the past couple years, were all bought with a plan in mind... and yet only ONE has even managed to get used and move on to a new home.

.... and I can't seem to find where I put that picture... >.<   NEXT!!


Or my nice little Treewing Studio collection... of which I believe I've used all of two, and passed on one in my last BSBP to my partner, Audrey.

TreeWingStudio's Sleepy Critter Owl

In the one above, I even used some of my Czech flower hoard... yes I have hoards within my hoard.... don't you?

TreeWing Studio Owl.

Another thing I hoard... gemstone chips. I LOVE gemstone chips... I just rarely use them >.< lol And pearls.. another love to collect  yet rarely use.. and in the above piece I used both! so I dipped into THREE separate hoards within my hoard for that one :)


And of my Marsha Neal collection I've managed to use two ...

Marsha Neal Skull pendant, with some assorted gemstone beads

Both of the ones featuring my Marsha Neal treasures, also dipped into my gemstone hoard. Specifically, my black/grey section of that hoard... one of my smallest parts of that collection oddly enough despite the amount of black I use... that particular hoard should be bigger... don;t you think?

Marsha Neal Bat pendant with assorted gemstone beads

And I just shared some of the creations I made using some of my Marti's Buttons n' Beads, and MarlasMudd  treasures in my last post,  and I've got a whole bunch made using my Tori Sophia treasures, but most of those are too new to have been 'hoarded' very long, so I'll save those for a future post.

Now, you've seen all of those before here, so I suppose I should share at least one new piece made using some of my 'oldest' treasures...

Waaaay back when the Blogger/Non-Blogger challenge started at BSC, I won one of the rounds, and Robin Kae Reed sent me a massive pile of treasures as my prize. Most of that little treasure hoard I haven't used at all... so for this challenge I made myself dig into it. Among the treasures were some huge gemstones, some rough cut, some smoothed. I had no CLUE what to do with them to start with, since I hadn't begun to delve into wire wrapping just then. This is one of those stones; An amethyst just over an inch long. I've paired it up with some peacock pearls that I've been saving from my very first bead order. That gorgeous Sari silk there is the last bit left over from my latest BSBP soup.

Well, there you have it. If I do come across that photo of that dragonfly necklace I mentioned way up there, I'll edit it in here, because I KNOW I posted it somewhere... just gotta find it >.<

Hope you enjoyed seeing some of my treasures put to use, and be sure to check out everyone elses!

You can find the list of participants here -> HOP LIST