Rings & Things July Goodies!

The Rings & Things products to experiment with this month are here. The package had:

Gold filled 4 loop round connector
Gold filled 7 loop star connector
Sterling silver 2 loop pointed connector
Lime CRYSTALLIZED™ – Swarovski Elements 8mm faceted cube crystal, 0.8-1.2mm hole. #5601
Montana/Aurora Borealis CRYSTALLIZED™ – Swarovski Elements 8mm faceted cube crystal, 0.8-1.2mm hole. #5601
Solid copper, approx. 18x6.5mm tube-top bail for gluing. Gluing area is 12x6.5mm

And a yummy Tootsie Roll Midgie!

I'm quite happy with the quality of the gold filled connectors - they are both a lovely true gold color. The look of jewelry made with gold filled components is much richer, and from my reading about gold filled materials, they are more durable and much longer lasting than gold plated - some vintage gold filled jewelry from 60 or more years ago still looks nearly new.

I've nearly finished a pendant using the round four loop connector - this is as far as I got last night before bed. I've used tarnish-free gold artistic wire for the wrapped loops around the coin pearls and for the top drilled pearl. The jump ring for the mother of pearl circle in the center is 4mm, 14k gold filled and a bit thick, so I had to ream the hole in the circle a little for it to fit.

I'll hang another top drilled pearl on the left and probably do something with gold beading wire loops and more top drilled pearls for the necklace, the sketch below is approximately what I'm thinking of.

There will be another post later today with the winner of my giveaway and maybe an update on this necklace.

Friday Pick - Rings & Things Heart of Gold Necklace

I wanted to do a mosaic, like I did last time, but the graphics wouldn't work with the mosaic maker tool. Instead, I made the sketch above (I've got a ways to go in my drawing re-education, so no laughing!) and I'll list the products (with links) at the end of the post.

Rings & Thing's 5-Day sale through July 12th (Sunday) has beading thread, stringing wire, chokers and all-purpose cording at 15-25% off wholesale prices. So I matched up a gold pendant cord choker with some charms and a Swarovski Heliotrope colored 18mm heart crystal pendant.

The design idea I have in my head (and tried to show in the sketch) is to take the hanging cord (the two strands that are dangling from the center front of the choker) and tie the charms to them with a simple knot that I'll re-enforce with glue and cover with a crimp cover.

Then I'd put the prong bail over that and pinch it through the Swarovski heart with the pendant cap. The two cords would dangle out either side of the prong bail that is now covering the hanging cord knot on the choker.

Seems like a simple and fairly fast way to make a very nice, adjustable length necklace. Not too expensive, either - I estimate total cost of materials for one necklace at under $10. To purchase the materials costs more - for example the chokers and charms are not sold separately but in lots of 10 and the crimp covers are sold in a package of 20. I put all the items in a cart and it came to just under $44 less the 15% discount (on the chokers, but that's only good 'til Sunday the 12th) that comes up if you complete the order process, plus the shipping and small order fee if your order is less than $50.

For other tips on how to use pendant cords and tie things on them with knots, see the Rings & Things Tip Sheet.

Product list:

Double Cord with Contrast in Antique Gold
Swarovski Heliotrope 18mm Heart Pendant
Prong bail
Pendant Cap
Beadalon Assorted Crimp Covers

I got my Rings & Things goodies for July in the mail today - I'll write about them tomorrow, so do come back!

Thursday Feature: Reviews & Interviews - Bead And Wire Jewelry Exposed

Hi again. Sorry to have been away for a week, between my family's visit and changes at the day job, I've been a bit busy and wasn't able to squeeze in the blogging, but I'm hopeful that I'll be able to find time again now that I've caught up after a few days off.

I bought Bead and Wire Jewelry Exposed by Katie Hacker, Fernando DaSilva and Margot Potter the other day. In it the authors share design ideas which use beading wire and components in a variety of different ways. The book has 7 different design chapters plus sections on exposing your creativity, materials, tools, techniques, resources and an index.

The book takes you through design ideas with colored wire, metallic wire, coiled and shaped wire as well as some bead-weaving techniques. Throughout there are large, full color step by step photographs and detailed instructions. I'd say someone with just a bit of experience would be able to do any of the projects and anyone can learn valuable new techniques for more complex designs.

The book features use of Crystallized Swarovski Elements and Beadalon products in the creations, but one could use their own beads and alternate supplies from their own stash. They also show how to use things like rubber tubing, bead bumpers, clasps and crimps as integral and exposed (thus the title) design components.

For example, one of Fernando DaSilva's designs uses rubber eyeglass holders to form the links between beads wrapped in Colourcraft wire (page 66). Margot Potter uses half circles from bracelet sized memory wire and E-Z Crimps to make a fabulous necklace (page 90). Another DaSilva design puts a slide-bar clasp front and center instead of hidden at the back of the neck (page 84). Katie Hacker's bracelet design on page 60 uses large twisted wire jump rings you make from colored craft wire to beautiful effect.

I've gotten great inspiration from this book and highly recommend it. If you click on the Amazon link above to buy it, a couple pennies go into my beading fund, too.

Hope you'll be back tomorrow for my Friday Picks featuring Rings & Things products.

Happy 4th of July!

Having a family get together for the 4th - son arrives today, daughter tomorrow and Dad over the weekend. I may not have a post until Sunday's Wandering Around the Beadosphere as a result.

Wishing you and your loved ones a great holiday!

Mid-Week Mutterings - A New Lanyard + Kyanite and Vintage Swarovskis from The Beadin' Path

When I was in L.A. one of the strands of beads I bought was a set of glass coin beads in a light blue with subtle white stripes that reminds me of blue lace agate. I decided to make a new lanyard and strung it with light sapphire Druk beads and a matching light blue opaque Czech glass bead between 4mm scalloped Tierra Cast bead caps. Since it's a lanyard I put two lobster claw clasps on it and it's 29" long.

The next piece is a necklace, 24" long with a silver flower clasp. I noticed how well the kyanite beads I had also purchased in L.A. went with the Indian Sapphire vintage Swarovski Sunflower beads from The Beadin' Path, so I used some of those and matching Swarovski bicones. There are floral decorated Bali silver tube beads from the Rings & Things road show, silver disk spacers and Tierra Cast scalloped bead caps as well.

The Rings & Things Gemstone Index has fascinating historical information on this stone and notes that it is also "widely used for industrial applications, especially in the manufacture of spark plugs, electrical insulators and heat-resistant ceramic (to reduce shrinkage as it expands)." I particularly liked this part of the introductory sentence "kyanite can become the sparkle in a necklace or the spark plug in an engine." I could use some spark right about now!

I'm working on something with the charoite and peach sunstones right now, hope to be able to share it soon!

Tuesday Tidbits - Two Dressy Necklaces with Copper and Gemstones

While the temps soared in the upper 90s this weekend I worked on some jewelry and avoided heavier work around the house that still desperately needs to get done before my kids and dad arrive for the holiday weekend. I guess I'll be busy on the 2nd and 3rd!

First, I finished the necklace I showed in progress a while back since I got the rest of the Mocca Swarovski briolettes I needed when I was in LA. I think this would work with any number of outfits, especially in the fall and it's a nice length for lower necklines or open collars at 22".

Next is something completely new I did on Saturday morning. It was made with 14mm peach toned pink aventurine coin beads I've had in my stash for awhile and natural peach jade puffed squares (which I got from my first Lima Beads Fresh Pick) which I didn't realize were a perfect match until I saw them together.

In between the larger peach stone beads, I put a 5mm White Opal Swarovski bicone (from the great stash of Swarovski I picked up at the Rings & Things bead tour) and two "American purple shell" roundells also from the same Lima Beads pick as the jade. I used Tierra Cast Raja bead caps in copper with the squares - had to adjust them a bit to fit - and Tierra Cast 4mm copper scallop bead caps with the bicones.

I originally thought I'd make a lanyard necklace, but those just aren't selling all that well and I liked it so much as a necklace, I stopped a bit shorter than the usual lanyard length, 26"1/2 inches and finished it with a Frilly Oval Copper Toggle Clasp I got from Dry Gulch. (Thanks, Tish!). I think this turned out beautifully.

Tomorrow I'll share the blue pieces I made with kyanite and some blue glass beads that look like blue lace agate that I bought down in L.A., and vintage Swarovski Sunshine beads from The Beadin' Path.

Meanwhile, my Jacaranda Blooms Fresh Pick beads arrived today and I need to start tinkering with the design idea for those. Need to go buy colored pencils, an artist's sketchbook, and while I'm there I want to get some of the inks and pens Margot Potter has talked about in various posts on her blog, to experiment with. I'm glad I cut out a nice 15% off coupon for Michael's from one of the bead magazines I get.

Monday Miscellany - Rings & Things June Blog Partner Review Continues: Three Soft Flex Trios Necklace Experiments

Over the weekend I experimented with my Soft Flex Trios which were my choice for the June Rings & Things blog partner's review. The first one used Amethyst colored wire and an assortment of purple beads I got from a bead of the month club run by Elise Matthesen. I curled a couple of the wires using my round nosed pliers to add a bit of a sculptural look. I also figured out the Figure-8 knot, thanks to the SoftFlex website.

The next one I did using Quartz (white) Soft Flex from the Romance Trio and a number of Swarovski drops, beads and briolettes as well as some glass roundel spacers. I used an Opaline bead in the center, from a strand I got at the Rings & Things bead tour plus clear, translucent white, and opalescent beads I've collected from various sources (including a great Etsy shop, Prolifique) for this one.

The final one uses two shades of green from the Renewal Trio - Emerald and Chrysoprase. I used some sea-green pressed glass and Czech Druk beads, as well as a silver plated shell charm that came with May's The Beadin' Path bead club. I wanted an 'under the ocean' look to this one, so I again used the round nose pliers to curl the wires. I thought that would give the impression of a bed of seaweed and I thought the circles of Chrysoprase Soft Flex, with the Jonquil Druk beads looked rather like bubbles.

As always, I'm very interested in your thoughts about these ideas.

Don't forget to write reviews of products on Rings & Things
to be entered in their June-July contest.
Deadline is July 31.

Dawno's Weekly Wanderings Around the Beadosphere

Congratulations to A Bead A Day for being asked to join not only the Rings & Things blog partners program but also for being asked to join a blog circle that shares links every week - if you follow Margot Potter, The Art Bead Scene or Earthenwood Studios, among others, you'll have seen these weekly promos for each other. Don't miss any of her daily posts, but I really enjoyed the one yesterday about the Swarovski sculpture ring she created, what a cheerful and fun piece!

Just A Tish is running a contest! Enter soon, she picks a winner on July 1st. The whole week was great on her blog, with a game and a Rings & Things challenge post, just to pick two.

I particularly liked Willow Walker's "Peachy Keen" this week - very elegant, and check out the beautiful cabs she photographed on Thursday and Friday!

That Russ Troll really gets around! See him at his visit to Silver Parrot Designs. Then check out what Wendy T. Gibson has done. She's put up a cool Google Map to follow the adventures of Russ Troll. There's a Rings & Things Flickr page with lots of Russ "sightings" pictures, too.

ErtheFae has a lovely blog and designs gorgeous jewelry, if you're not following or bookmarking her blog, I highly recommend it. She works in all sorts of media, too. Very inspirational!

Check out Cindy Gimbrone's (aka Lampwork Diva) post about the Rings & Things Bead Tour stop she visited.

Margot Potter did a post on slick surface embossing - something I would love to try one of these days. It looks like a great technique for making unique and customized focals, among so many other things.

I'm usually a bit hesitant to toot my own horn here, but I certainly was thrilled when I saw that Soft Flex Girl mentioned me on her blog the other day - I'm such a fan of hers!

I completely understood the way Jessica felt in her post "Adventures in Asymmetry" on the SmuTopia blog. It's always a bit scary to move out of ones comfort zone, but she did a beautiful job.

The Daily Jewel posted about the Saul Bell Design contest - I won't duplicate her effort except to say the deadline is September 1st. Please check out her post for more details and also check out the rather sad post about the Japanese cultured pearl industry.

Some Fun Stuff - My First Giveaway Drawing!

Played around some more with the Beadalon quick link connector bracelet base pattern from the other day and created this using fuchsia colored pearl or pearl-like chips (they were part of a mix and I don't know what they actually are made of), pink crystal drops, pink lined beads with a crackle or sparkle in them (can't really tell, again from a mix) and some iridescent coated glass fuchsia beads (they are rather large for seed beads, at least as I'm familiar with them, but not as big as pony beads - not sure where from or what size). Wore it to work the other day, seemed to be a hit!

If you'd like to win a bracelet like this, but in your choice of bead color(s), just leave a comment saying what color(s) you'd like and two weeks from today - July 11th - I'll draw a random winner from the comments and post about it here and on Twitter.

I will use a selection of several kinds of very nice beads from my collection - might be gemstones and pearls in it, as well, depending on your color choice(s). The only restriction is that I only have the silver plate base componants right now, so I can't do one in gold plate.

Dawno's Friday Picks - Artbeads

Last week I shared a 'Fresh Pick' using the feature on Lima Beads. This week I created a mosaic using the online tool, Mosaic Maker and a wish list of beads, chain, findings, centering around a beautiful painted onyx bead that's on sale right now.

Upper row from left to right: 19x25mm Oval Black Onyx Pink Ornament , CRYSTALLIZED™ 5000 6mm Faceted Round Indian Pink , CRYSTALLIZED™ 5810 6mm Round Pearl Mystic Black, CRYSTALLIZED™ RDS 6mm Silver-Plated Roundelle Jet.
Bottom row from left to right: CRYSTALLIZED™ 5040 8mm Faceted Roundelle Indian Pink, Sterling 6mm Flower Petal Outline Beadcap, 6mm Bright Sterling Silver Roundel, 090 DC Long Rollo Chain.

What I'd like to create with these is a multi-strand necklace with the bead and silver components strung in one strand and then create a second strand with the rollo chain, probably with some bead dangles hanging from it. I really need to get some colored pencils to draw a sketch... I'm really liking this idea!

So what do you think about using the Mosaic tool for spurring creativity? I didn't have anything in mind when I started browsing Artbeads and collecting the pictures for the mosaic, now I have one and a shopping list.

Next week, another one of my favorite suppliers will be featured!

Thursday Feature: Reviews & Interviews - Soft Flex Trios from Rings & Things

This month Rings & Things provided their blog partners with the opportunity to select what product(s) we wanted to review. I've been reading about the Soft Flex Trios on the Soft Flex Girl's blog as well as at the Flex Your Creativity Contest and the free patterns on the Soft Flex site. So my selection was a variety of Soft Flex .019" diameter, 49 strand Trios. Each Trio has three coordinating colors on 10' rolls.

The wire is color coated stainless steel with a test strength of 26 lbs. They say it can be knotted, which I tried with some light yellow quartz beads and the bone color from the Harmony Trio (Bone, Lemon Quartz and Copper)

The beads curved instead of lying along a straight line when I tie simple knots between them, so I went to the site to see what they recommend, which is a figure 8 knot. I couldn't figure out how to get the knot tight to the bead, however, and until I learn how, I won't be using this for knotting.

The pricing at Rings & Things is lower than the list price, but you do have to meet their minimum purchase requirements and there's a small additional cost for purchases under $50. The plus side is a full selection of trios, quantity discounts, and great customer service (plus a candy treat in the package).

By the way, if you do get a product from Rings & Things, there's a contest on this month - you only need to submit a review to enter.

There are several things I want to try, but first I decided to make a quick and fun necklace using some glass beads I'd gotten from various bead mixes. I used three strands, quartz (white) and Rhodocrosite (light pink) from the Romance set and Pink Tourmaline (a bit darker pink) from the Mystical set. I used a large sized tube crimp that all 6 strands fit into (unfortunately, I don't know the exact size) to form the loops for jump rings at the ends so I could add a clasp.

I also knotted the strands as tightly as I could against the last beads on each side and then left the rest of them bare to show off the color. Unfortunately, I had to do some adjusting and one side got a bit kinked. I'm hoping that the weight of the beads might pull out the kink, but I'm not too optimistic. Next time, I'll forgo the knots. The small pink beads between the larger glass ones are strung on just one of the three wires, by the way, to allow some additional color to show.

(click to enlarge for detail)

I'm having fun thinking up new things to try with these colors and may even make something I feel good enough to enter in the contest (deadline is September 1, 2009).

Mid-Week Mutterings - Beadalon Quick Link Connectors Bracelet

Trying to jump-start my creativity, I got out some silver plated jump rings and the large sized silver plate Beadalon Quick Link connectors. It only took a few minutes to make a basic bracelet with those.

The Quick Link connectors just need to be pinched closed with pliers. Beadalon recommends their pinch bail pliers, I used bent chain nose.

Beadalon also makes an EZ Lobster, a quick close lobster claw - again, you just pinch the open end closed over the jump ring to attach.

This made the base bracelet fast and easy to assemble. The jump rings needed a little wiggling to get closed, but otherwise it is just connect and pinch. I'd say you could make a bracelet in 15 minutes or less, but I neglected to time it. The bracelet base used 12-6mm jump rings and 11 connectors for about 7" length.

Then I started adding beads either directly on to jump rings or with simple loops made from head pins.

And this is what the finished bracelet looks like flat -

And hanging on a wrist -

I just got a package from Rings & Things full of Soft Flex Trios, and I'll be playing with them tonight and reviewing them my Thursday Reviews & Interviews post.

Tuesday Tidbits Today

My apologies for posting late to my regular readers - had a busy day yesterday and didn't have time to write and schedule a post for early morning today.

And, today's post is just a tidbit - Earthenwood Studios posted a note on their blog about putting some new items up at Etsy and I just had to have this:

The pendant is from the "Toolbox Treasures" collection and it's gorgeous, and I got those cool gear links as a free gift! I'm really looking forward to figuring out what I want to do and making something very special with them.

I've finished stringing the necklace with the hessonite, pearl, sunstones, Mocca Swarovski briolettes and copper - as soon as I get the clasp done, and if I don't decide to make a multi-strand necklace (which I'm pondering) I'll take a picture and share. Hope you have a great day and a wonderful week. See you tomorrow for Mid-week Mutterings!

Monday Miscellany - Beads from Redondo Beach

I just got back from a wonderful 3-day weekend with my family. On Saturday I borrowed the car and visited a lovely bead store in Redondo Beach called The Bead Store. Found some lovely stuff, too. Blue Rhyolite, Charoite, Kyanite and Turquoise...

Plus some Hypersten/Hyperstene (what a really cool stone) and a bunch of great Czech glass - this is just a part of the glass, a strand of blue coin beads that look a bit like blue lace agate, mixed "Monet" glass, mixed Rivolis and these great lusterous pink and beige beads with a bit of a copper metalic gloss to them that really look wonderful with copper wire or other copper components. Sorry I couldn't get a great pictures, it's late and I don't have the right lighting here at the computer and I'm too tired to go set up the light box upstairs.

Since I had the new beads and had bought some inexpensive 22 gauge wire and we had time before the evening festivities (dinner out with dad, my sister & her family and my daughter), I sat out with my dad on his porch and linked up some of the rivoli's into a bracelet, complete with a clasp I fashioned from the wire.

I also picked up the Mocca Swarovski briolettes I need to finish the necklace I mentioned and showed towards the bottom of my Saturday post.

All in all, a great weekend for family visiting and beading!

Dawno's Weekly Wanderings Around the Beadosphere

~Happy Father's Day to any dads who happen to be reading. I'm enjoying my dad's company this weekend, but I made sure to schedule this post in advance~

Had a busy week? Not able to peruse a lot of beading, crafting and other artisan's blogs? Dawno's traveled the Beadosphere and has these "catch up on the week's highlights" suggestions for you:

• As usual, it's been a bright and fun week with Lisa at A Bead A Day - check out her pictorial with Russ Troll. But the highlight of the post is the insider story she tells about Russ Nobbs, the 'model' for the bead. The rest of the week is fabulous, too, so don't miss a day.
• Tish of Just a Tish features a wisteria themed piece featuring a Mirage bead and how she has THREE pieces in the June issue of Bead Trends. Go Tish!!
  
• Not only does this mom travel the world with her family on bikes, she beads and has a gorgeous collection of finds from her travels! From her "about me" section on the site: "Nancy and her family have recently embarked upon a year-long adventure bicycling around the USA, and it is inevitable that even more beads and more stories will be added to her bead box. There in one thing that is sure: Nancy's life is anything but "typical" and so is her beadwork!" You can follow Nancy on Twitter, too.
• Earthenwood beads shows what Russ Troll is up to there.
• So does the Crafty Princess! Russ Troll and cats seem to have this 'thing' going on...
  
• Cell Chic - a clever niche crafter with lovely products.
• This post from Archivia worries me as an Etsy shop 'owner' - hope Etsy does something about it. The Archivia blog also has great vintage resources (long post - towards the bottom is the Jewelry section with great links - do scroll down and check them out!).
• A Must See post on photographing sterling jewelry from Jen Kiaba's blog, Picture Today. Be sure to click on the main link and read more - good stuff!
• At Daily Jewel a post about a call for project designers from Lark Books. For the submission page at Lark , click this. To download the entry form, click this.
• Soft Flex Girl mentions A Bead A Day! (hope you read my interview of Lisa on Thursday, too!)
• Rings and Things blog has a new page up about their blog partners program
• Want to get some awesome tips about baking poly clay? It's a Rings & Things forum post, but I'll make an exception because it's worth reading.
• Speaking of Rings & Things, are you still wondering about Russ Troll? The collected sightings can be found at Flickr, too. I'm sure it'll be updated regularly, so bookmark the link and visit often!
• Heather at The Beadin' Path talks about vintage findings. I have got to get to Freeport, Maine one of these days!
  
• On Friday I posted about the Lima Beads "Fresh Pick" feature - here's a little info on their planned move. Looks like a great new space!

An "I'm Not Really Here" Saturday Post

I'm visiting with my family this weekend and won't be able to do a 'real time' post, so I've prepared this in advance and am setting it up to publish automatically today (same goes for tomorrow's post, too).

On Wednesday I put up a picture of my little laptop DIY workbox with some pieces I was fiddling with. They're still works in progress and here's where I currently am with those same pieces.

This first one is the copper choker frame and peach glass drops. The circles and wire wrapping just didn't work out right, so I unwrapped the copper wire and took off the circles, put on these copper beads as spacers between the peach glass drops on the vintage copper coated steel chain.

It felt unfinished still, so I tried stringing the choker form with chain. Hmmm. Nope.

The beads may have to go...I've put this aside for now so no more version pictures today, will update next week.

The second necklace had one pearl between two copper spacers. Then I remembered I had these gorgeous Swarovski faceted briolette drops in Mocca. I unstrung the beads and put a small middle-amber hessonite bead after a pearl then the briolette, another hessonite bead and another pearl. This I really like. Now I have to get more briolettes, I didn't have enough, on top of wating for the rest of the spacers to come (they shipped today).

Since I will have given these to my sister by the time this posts, here are the earrings I made for her using Champagne color dyed freshwater pearls I bought at the Rings & Things road show in March plus a green coin pearl, also from Rings & Things. The ear wires and eyepins are gold filled and they're set on a gold plated curb chain I got from Rings & Things, as well.

Hope you're having a wonderful weekend so far. Come back tomorrow for Dawno's Weekly Wanderings Around the Beadosphere post!

"Fresh Pick" Friday

I don't know if this will become a regular feature here, and if it does, I hope to be able to create other picks from other suppliers and put them together in a similar mosaic. Just need to figure out how...anyone know of a website or application that will help me build a mosaic-like picture similar to what's shown below? I have Paint Shop Pro but have had a devil of a time trying to figure out how to put multiple images into one frame. Paint Shop Pro is easier to use than Photoshop, but still not all that user-friendly (IMO) to someone who hasn't been working with imagry software for ages.

Anyway, this post was prompted by a comment Dave from Rings & Things left about the picture of my little work-box on Wednesday's post.

Dave Robertson said...

Hi Dawno,

You & I were discussing how hard it can be sometimes to bead-shop at a distance. The pairings of colors and materials shown in your workspace are a great example of the kinds of stuff someone might want to get in a single order. They all go well together. Love that hessonite!

--Dave

Here's the "workspace" which is actually one of my DIY laptop beading boxes:

So that got me to thinking about how one supplier I use now and then, Lima Beads, makes it easy for me to 'collect' ideas in a virtual workspace and get a feel for the colors and supplies needed. I thought maybe what I could do would be to come up with a design concept (I don't actually sketch out designs very often, but I'm thinking about getting colored pencils and giving it a try) and then create the mosaic using the Fresh Pick feature at Lima Beads and show you how it works. Please note, I'm not linking to each product, you can click on this "Fresh Pick" link (or the one below) and from there click to any product you want more details about.

So, my design concept was inspired by the incredible blooming Jacaranda tree. I'm not sure where I first saw a picture of one recently, but it just popped into my mind as I was wondering what kind of design I might choose for this article.

If you are unfamiliar with the Jacaranda, this is the time of year they are covered in the most beautiful purple flowers, which are really pretty messy when they fall off, they stain the sidewalks purple for one thing, but as long as that's someone else's problem, I love looking at them!. So I set about thinking of what I might want in a necklace inspired by the Jacaranda.

I went to Lima Beads and started with the bark and found some antique jasper beads I thought were perfect. Then a little bit of green for the buds and leaves that barely show through - the Tsavorite Faceted Rondelle 2.5-3.5mm looked good (wow, pricy, but I'm brainstorming and going with my first reactions).

Some Thin Pillow 36x18mm Dogtooth Amethyst beads 6x9mm Violet Faceted Teardrop CZs, Lilac Faceted Bicone 4mm CZs and some 5-5.5mm Wild Orchid Fresh Water Potato Pearls, for the blossoms.

Finally decided to add some butterfly links, ribbon links, east and west facing bird links and a Stampt Antique Gold (plated) Blooming Flower 21x20mm Filigree to work into a pendant, were the final touches.

I needed one more thing to fill out the mosaic so I picked a tiny brass bead cap, which could be used with the brown beads or the Tsavorite rondelles. Here's my "Fresh Pick"

You can save your picks privately or publicly. There are picks that Lima Beads chooses to be promoted on the home page with 20% off on the items. You can also click on any pick (and there are pages of customer picks and the Lima Beads Team's own choices) to buy the items in it and get a page with the listings of each item and a button to move the item to your cart.

It's really handy. I actually did that with my first Lima Beads pick. May only get a few of the pieces from this one if any - I'm way over budget on bead purchases right now.

One final Lima Beads note, their new Design Gallery has opened - it's set up so folks with Lima Beads accounts can upload pictures of their work directly and comment on other's.

REMINDER!!
The deadline to order a kit for the Use the Muse II contest is June 27, 2009!

Thursday Feature: Reviews & Interviews - Lisa from A Bead A Day

One of my favorite blogs in the Beadosphere is A Bead A Day. It's a daily dose of cheer, with shiny beads tossed in! Lisa, the author of the blog, has also been a steadfast commenter here, bringing her enthusiasm and support to my blog and efforts to become better at my craft. I am so grateful for that and her generous feature of my work not that long ago on A Bead A Day.

On February 5, 2008 Lisa said in her first post "This is a new site geared toward all beaders who appreciate the individual beauty of beads and the unique works of art they are used to create." And indeed, each day since she's done just that.

You can also follow Lisa on Twitter. Now, let's hear what Lisa has to say!

Dawno: How did you get started blogging about a bead a day on A Bead A Day? It's a great idea!

Lisa: Thank you! I am working on a jewelry book that is being published by North Light Books at the end of the year. Prior to the Acquisitions Editor presenting my proposal, she suggested that I begin a website or blog. I wanted to get something up and running that day and the first thought I had was to talk about beads since they make me so happy. I didn't realize then how much joy this blog would provide and how many friends I would make in the process. It has been a wonderful experience!

Dawno: Did you have any goals or hopes for your blog when you started? Has that changed? How?

Lisa: I wanted to maintain consistency and produce something the publishing company would think was appropriate. I never dreamed I would get to know so many talented and wonderfully encouraging and kind beaders and crafters! I also had no idea of my potential for rambling on about beads!! : )

Dawno: Have you always been interested in beading and are there other crafts you like to do?

Lisa: I've always loved crafts, but until I started to bead, I had no idea of the wide variety of crafts and products available. I started to bead in 1990 after a vacation to San Francisco where I purchased my first piece of beaded jewelry from a street vendor. It was a strung bracelet using all the same hematite beads. It dawned on me when we got home that I could probably do something like that and I started buying beads at Joann Fabrics and Hancock Fabrics. I didn't have any awareness of swarovski and glass designers, etc. until much later. Several years later I got hooked on memory wire. In the last 8 or 9 years, I have taken classes and started reading every book and magazine I could find about beading techniques.

I also enjoy decopauge and anything having to do with hot melt glue and glitter!

Dawno: What has been your most challenging project?

Lisa: Good question! Sometimes I find projects challenging that do not even appear to be challenging. That's when I know I need to step back and realize this is supposed to be fun! That usually happens when I know I am making something for a specific person or purpose. Otherwise, since I'm not doing craft shows right now, most of my beading is for fun or gift giving.

Several years ago I made a woven bracelet using hemp cord and wooden beads that required every bead to be reamed in order to get 2 strands through each bead. That was definitely a tad challenging, but it wasn't until a couple of craft night friends admired it and I decided to teach them how to make it that the challenge began! I then had to ream beads and prepare kits for 5 other people. That was a bit of a challenge and my fingers were pretty sore afterwards. The reward was that they all turned out great and everyone was happy!

Dawno: What kind of beading do you like best?

Lisa: I have a love for memory wire. It is easy to use and has so many possibilities. You can make formal or informal pieces with it and technically just need one pair of pliers to turn the ends as long as you have a heavy duty pair of scissors to cut the wire. If you plan to use a lot of it, definitely invest in a memory wire cutter! It's a wonderful medium to teach because it is not intimidating to most people. It is usually adding a clasp and crimping that many people are concerned about learning. With memory wire, you can focus more on your design.

Dawno: You have a great eye for colors - any idea how that developed or if there was an early influence?

Lisa: That is very nice of you to say, thank you! I haven't thought of myself in that way, I just sort of go with things.

Dawno: If I were just starting to think about getting into making my own crafty jewelry, but was on a hugely limited budget, what "must have's" would you suggest starting with?

Lisa: Memory wire!! As I mentioned above, especially if funds are limited, you can get away with using a $2.00 pair of pliers and some kind of cutting tool you might have around the house, if you begin by using memory wire. Once you buy a package of memory wire, all you need are beads! As many or as few as you like. There are just a few limitations regarding beads. If they are too long or too fragile, they might not produce the results you are looking for on memory wire. However, most beads work great and if you are looking for immediate gratification, most projects are quick and easy!

Dawno: Sort of a "desert island" kind of question - you're going away somewhere and you can't buy any supplies while you're gone. You can only take a small tote full of stuff to work with to keep you sane, but you can also use anything you might find in your hotel, as well as your tote stuff to craft with. I'll be kind and let you come back to the world in one week :-) What is in your tote?

Lisa: Lots and lots of crystals!! They don't take up much space, but they provide lots of sparkly happiness wherever they go. You don't even have to make anything with them really, just LOOK AT THEM! I promise your mood will improve!

What do you think you could find to use? Gosh, I'm stumped! All I can think of is taking the laundry bags to put more stuff in! : )

Dawno: You can buy $500 worth of only one type of stone or bead to use in your jewelry - what would you pick and why?

Lisa: How funny, as I just mentioned above, I would buy crystals and for the simplest reason of all, the happiness factor. I don't know how you could look at even $10 worth of them and not become happier. Looking at $500 worth of all shapes, sizes and colors would be heavenly!

Dawno: As a beader/crafter, why is blogging and/or social networking important?

Lisa: Up until a year ago, my world was so much more limited. Once I began blogging I was able to better communicate my thoughts and feelings associated with beading/crafting. I have learned about many more techniques and products available. I have had the privilege to "meet" some of the brightest, and most popular, jewelry designers who are all so encouraging and willing to share what they have learned.

Once you begin meeting others on blogs or through facebook and twitter, you just can't go back! It restores your faith in humanity because everyone who is out there doing self promotion is also willing to take a minute to help you do the same. I would definitely encourage individuals hoping to promote either their craft, their art of themselves in general, to get on twitter and facebook and begin building relationships.

Thank you so much, Lisa, for letting us get to know you better. I hope everyone will bookmark or subscribe to ABeadADay and enjoy her fun and fascinating posts every day!

PS: There are no pictures of Lisa on her blog, so I thought I'd share pictures of her adorable pups, who you can also read about in: "The Magical Doggie Bead"

Mid-Week Mutterings - Copper Crazy

Got on a copper kick tonight. Needed to order more Antique Copper Meadow beads from Artbeads to finish the necklace I was stringing, so that will sit aside until the order arrives. While I was at it, I also got some Antique Copper Woodland beads, too. The necklace uses hessonite and champagne freshwater pearls I got at the Rings & Things roadshow, sunstone faceted roundells from Lima Beads and tiny copper bead caps, which you can also find at Rings & Things, from my local bead store, Global Beads.

The other necklace features an 'add a bead' neckwire in copper and vintage copper coated steel twisted curb chain from The Beadin' Path, some frosted peach glass beads with textured triangular impressions, twisted copper loops, and copper wire I also picked up at Global Beads and copper beads and headpins from Rings & Things. I'm almost done, some minor tweeks still needed.

The vintage chain is really lovely - a satin finish makes it gleam rather than shine, looks great with the peach beads, and since I have 6 of them left and plenty of chain, they'll probably wind up together in another necklace soon.

And that's all for my midweek mutterings, it's late and I'm worn out. Tomorrow I have a great interview feature for you, so don't miss it: Lisa from A Bead A Day!

Tuesday Tidbits - Put on Your Sunglasses!

This is probably the most "glam" piece I've ever attempted. I was dazzled by some chessboard Swarovski rhinestones i saw on Artbeads and decided to grab them back when they were having a great sale. I'd also previously acquired oval sterling jump rings, amazonite cubes (not in stock) and some non-tarnish silver Artistic wire from them. I bought the aqua Swarovski to go with those amazonite cubes as I had a design idea in mind.

Late last week as I was linking together the amazonite bits to the Swarovski's, I realized I needed sterling chain, so I got that as well, this time using one of their coupons to get a bit of savings - be sure you either sign up for their newsletter or check the coupon specials (there's a link on their hone page) before finalizing your order!

Wave the magic wand (well, really work for days on it) and create version 1.

Not exactly there, though, but I took a picture so you could see the changes. A couple hours later, version 2:

Liking version 2 better, so far. Will put aside for a while before deciding if it's done.

Update!

I just couldn't stop fiddling - made it a 3 layer necklace by adding satin ribbon tie-back. Added advantage that length becomes more adjustable. Pondering embellishment to ribbon...

Speaking of Artbeads - if you're on Twitter, don't forget to do the "Tweet Your Prize" contests! Today's ends at 9 a.m. Pacific but perhaps there will be another one up later this week, so check that link daily!

Monday Miscellany - Re-work Finished, Maybe...

If you read my Saturday post, you might remember I mentioned I was going to do some re-work on this necklace:

Before

Unlike the gunmetal and garnet, I didn't take intermediate pictures, although now I wish I had. The design went through several trial and error phases before I settled on something. Here's what it looks like now.

After

I took over half of the lilac cathedral beads off of the necklace, replaced them with round faceted Czech glass beads, added extra vermeil spacers and glass roundell spacers between them to go around the side and back of the neck. Then I positioned and re-positioned those lilac cathedral beads into various configurations using gold filled eye-pin links and a few clear glass beaded links as well.

This was very tedious work, but I think worth the effort. I've put it out of sight for now and will give it a fresh eye in a day or two before I declare it 'done'. Now I have to go de-list from Artfire since the original no longer exists!

Speaking of ArtFire - I posted on Saturday that I'd listed my lava stone and red ceramic necklace and put the word out on Twitter as well. Then I got busy doing stuff (mostly the necklace above) and didn't visit Twitter or check my email for several hours. I took a peek at Twitter and saw that PandorasBones had left me a tweet saying she'd bought the necklace and forgot to ask for the extender chain option. Call me gobsmacked! I'd never sold something so quickly and that I could attribute directly to mentioning a post on Twitter about! Needless to say, I'm pretty glad I use Twitter.

Dawno's Weekly Wanderings Around the Beadosphere

I'll start off with some of my favorite bead/jewelry/crafts blog posts of the week and wrap up with other sites of interest (I hope!) for you to visit and hope you'll consider adding to your RSS readers or bookmarks.

• JustATish had been rather busy, so her blog was quiet for a while, but she's come blazin' back this week - Father's Day ideas, Rings & Things challenge catch-up - silverplated serpentine chain, gold plated serpentine chain, Russ Troll (that guy gets around!) and this month's challenge where we each get to pick our own assortment to review (haven't even started looking yet, gotta get to it!)
• Lisa at A Bead A Day shared a lovely green stone she identified as Russian Jade, a "harmonious diversity" of glass hearts, some blue beads she's taking out of older pieces and re-purposing, a bead that looks just like her darling pooches, and you won't believe this gorgeous bracelet was made in 3 minutes! (the story behind it is a blast to read).
• Margot Potter shared her "Blogging for Artbeads" featured product Chagall Pendant and the design she created for it. She chose one of the Russian painted onyx pendant focals, like I did, but the necklace she designed - wow! I'll be making my final design for the focal I got one of these days, and I must say Margot's idea has given me some inspiration.
• I couldn't help but salivate over Humblebead's Bead & Button Show booty
• WillowWalker's experimentation with gold decals that she fuses into her glass pendants looks like a success to me! (I'm glad she's blogging again too - was quiet for a month!)
  
• Check out the colors in this Nikon Sniper picture! If I'm ever at a loss for ideas, his blog always has a lot of inspiration.
• Shoozles makes a really good point. Let her know you appreciate it, if you do.
• Melanie at Earthenwood Studios is going copper crazy with her Rings & Things challenge (and that Russ Troll is right in the middle of it - hope he avoids getting dapped!)
• More photographic inspiration (from England) on NiftyKnits - and earlier in the week she featured some beautiful work from a couple of very talented designers, too.
  

There is one other post from last week at A Bead A Day that I didn't mention above - it's her Friday Featured Designer post. The designer, Molly, has a lovely banner and does a great job with her Etsy store and photographs of her lovely vintage button (and other media) creations.

Then I visited Whimsy House's blog. I wish three things:

1. she'd post more - I like her friendly 'voice' and she's got a fascinating niche
   
2. she'd change from white text on black background, which is very hard to read, at least for me
   
3. she'd not center all her text which is also difficult to read.

Maybe nobody has mentioned it to her so she didn't know? How often do we visit blogs that might have promise but not go back and establish a rapport for any of the above reasons or others? I'm guilty as charged, but working on it.

That brings me to wish #4 but it's for myself - I wish that if you ever have constructive criticism to give me, that you will. I want my blog to be a place you'll keep visiting. If I'm doing something that might prevent that, let me know!

Apparently there's quite an overlap in the tech world and the crafts world - I guess I knew that some techie folk liked papercrafts (my husband helped me realize how many techies are into Origami), and I knew there were a number into Steampunk, but I really didn't know the extent of it.

Take Maker Faire, for example. Since it was the weekend right after Bay Con, I didn't go, but you can see from the Maker links at the 2009 website, where the two interests intersect.

Speaking of Makers at this year's faire, one of the crafters linked above (link: "two") was Absolutely Small who is a new friend of mine on Twitter. Get over to her site and get in the know about Chickenpants!

Another intersection of tech and geek and craft (and so much more) is BoingBoing, where many arts and handcrafts are often featured, like the Trekkie Meerkats or Steampunk jewelry.

Also, this week Wired magazine featured an article about Geek Art: Needlework Brings Together Programmers, Crafters and shows some beautiful embroidery and quilting with a techie slant.

Via a tweet from Dave (@Rings_Things), I wandered over to Flapper Girl, where she showcases this wonderful Vintage 50s Bead Kit.

Artbeads "Tweet your Prize" Twitter promotion is going strong - there's a new contest through Tuesday synched up with their Express Yourself sale.

The Beadin' Path has finally opened for business in their new space - here are a couple "work in progress" pictures Heather posted - from the floor and the next day - wow, the colors! I wish it were possible for me to visit in person (and probably break the bank on vintage beads).

SoftFlexGirl Sara posted about Beading Wire Diameters - extremely helpful! Thanks, Sara!

I got a Lima Beads newsletter the other day informing me of the creation of a new community section: The Garden

This week, we launched an exciting section on our web site. It's called The Garden, and it's a community section dedicated to meeting new beaders, sharing ideas, asking questions, and more.
...

Get started by seeing who's online, creating a profile for yourself, checking out groups to join, or browsing the beader directory.

Ok, I think that's plenty to keep busy with for today - see you tomorrow, I hope - I'll be showing a re-make I've been working on this weekend, if you visit.

A Slow Starting and Lazy Saturday

Started off waking up a bit late, was a cloudy morning, I'm exhausted from last week, and the DH planned a movie (Ghost Town - lovely movie, funny and romantic) and pizza lunch, so it's 2:30 now and probably won't get much done creatively today.

I do have my Patti Stoll Starry Night Sunflower beads sitting out, the ones with the bright yellow sunflowers and swirly sky of blue and white above them. I cannot for the life of me decide what to do. I want to use the two small beads as earrings and the larger one as a pendant. Other than that I'm stumped.

Maybe Russ Troll will inspire me? Yes, my Russ Troll bead showed up the other day. Here he is examining my photo studio and being examined by the cats. Lying down and "playing possum" was probably the right thing to do with my fierce felines.

(Pudding at left, Jello at right)

I am got a bit of photography done today and listed this necklace that includes brown lava stone beads from Rings & Things that I've named Hale-a-ka-la is Dreaming. I've had this out at both shows this year, gotten lots of compliments, but no sale yet. Not sure why, but I'm going to put it out on the web, maybe it'll find a home.

Update, Saturday Night: Wow! The power of Twitter - this piece is now sold!

I'm also going to re-work this one, showed it at BayCon and got some positive reaction, but there's something about it that's just not doing it for me yet:

Do come back tomorrow for the weekly round up: Dawno's Wanderings Around the Beadosphere!

Update! Update! Update!
Russ Nobbs shares the Russ Troll Story!
(promoted from comments)

Russ Nobbs said...

Wonderful pictures of your cats with my ceramic likeness. Literally made me laugh out loud!
Those "russ troll" beads are one of the best and funniest things we've ever done. They've created laughter amongst beaders all around the globe.


Exactly why the the design came about is shrouded in mystery. *we can't remember* Some years ago, Michelle, who now heads our problem resolution and quality control sections, asked her dad to do a caricature of me. No one remembers exactly what for. Just for fun? to use in the catalog? To throw darts at? Whatever..... He did a cute one. I do remember using it in a catalog as a coloring contest. I still have some of the better entries. An airbrush artist even sent in a T shirt with the design airbrushed on it. It happened to arrive while I was in the hospital trying to survive an allergic reaction to sulfa drugs. The wonderful shirt went a long way towards restoring my health and sanity.

I think the hands are behind my back just because it's hard to sketch hands if they aren't doing anything. Maybe I should be fondling some beads?

A few years ago, Kim and a couple of the buyers got together with another strange bead icon, the guy who has the ceramic beads made down in Peru. They thought up what was supposed to be a surprise for me - a hand painted ceramic version of the Russ "troll."

As it happened, when the picture of the prototype bead came in most of the people who were in on the plot were out of town. So they asked me to "approve" the sample for production. After I stopped laughing, I said "Yeh! Sure! Why not?" It took a few months and now we finally have them "in stock" available for sale to anyone. Even our competitors are allowed to buy them for their dart boards or to hang from their cell phones.

There's talk of making a few more styles.... one with the worn out denim cap I like, one with my glasses propped tackily on top of my head, one with our logo on the shirt, one with a huge strand of chevrons, that sort of thing. Then we'll put it out there that it's cool to collect the whole set.

I hope this one inspires you!!!!

Friday Guest Post - The Beadin' Path's Heather & Her Phenominal Stash of Vintage Lucite!

The wonderful Heather DeSimone whose Twitter bio says: "Mama. Wife. Bead Store Owner. Lover of vintage and Lucite Maven." Has given me permission to reprint one of her blog posts from The Beadin' Path blog "What's In Store with Heather" in place of an original piece of my own today, as I am still a little too blue to be creative.

One of these days (maybe when she's not wiped out from moving her entire store!) I will see if I can wrangle her into being the subject of a Thursday interview post. Until then, I offer you a post from last summer she wrote that simply fascinated me. It's an inside peek into the bead store owner's world and a simply wonderful tale! It's the story of how they acquired their huge supply (over 40,000 lbs!) of vintage Lucite as well as information about its provenance and how it has been used.

Learn Where We Got Our Vintage Lucite Beads
by Heather DeSimone
Friday, 18 July 2008

Want to know where our vintage Lucite beads all came from? One of the most frequently asked questions when a shopper enters our store or shops with us online is "Where did you get all of those fabulous vintage Lucite beads?"

It could be because when one walks into our store at The Beadin' Path, they're greeted with a 18 foot wall full of it. It's colorized from left to right and spans almost the entire back wall of one room in our store. We try to merchandise our entire store & our website in color blocks so that each room or page is a virtual palette of beads. I think those who ask, expect a quick or secret answer. However, there's a much longer & more interesting story to how we acquired over 40,000 lbs of vintage Lucite.

We were approached 2 years ago in the early Summer by the manager of a plastics company in Rhode Island via. email. (You've got to love that world-wide-web). They did a search for vintage Lucite & saw on www.BeadinPath.com that we stocked and LOVED vintage Lucite beads. They were looking for a buyer to come and clean out a couple of rooms in their very large warehouse. We get approached all the time by exporters, manufacturers or companies that are liquidating jewelry components. Yet this contact really intrigued us. You see this company had not manufactured beads or jewelry components since the late 1970's and early 1980's. They simply had a 10,000 + square foot room stocked floor to ceiling with these pesky beads and hoops and cabochons that were just in their way.

Currently the company (Plastic Development) is one of the leaders in the industry for manufacturing earring cards & other plastic-based merchandising for jewelry and accessories. When you order these from many well-known companies that distribute them, chances are they're made by these folks in R.I. Because they had the need to expand their business and move some of their less physically-able employees to the first floor space, currently housing all of 'those beads,' they needed them moved out and moved out fast.

My mother Jan & I decided it would be worth a trek down I-95 South to at least check this stock out. And if it was a wash, we'd head on over to Providence Place & do some shopping (they have an H&M and a Restoration Hardware there!). Well we never made it to the mall! When we met with the manager of the company we learned more about vintage Lucite than we had ever known before. He had worked at the same company for over 30 years and was there when they had actually made these great beads & parts.

They had been commissioned by well-known companies such as Avon, Coro, and Trifari to custom-create colors and shapes for their seasonal lines of jewelry. The quality of these 'plastic' beads was just unmatched. (Yes, I too used to be a 'plastic-bead-snob'!) He explained to us a little about the process where the beads are actually made in a relief process or 'carved' from a rod or cane of Lucite. They were not press-molded like many plastics that show seams and are lighter-weight. So, when they had overstock, slightly off-color beads from the special order, or simply orders that were not picked up, they stashed them in 'the bead room.'

After some research and much number crunching [we] decided to bring a group of helpers down to Rhode Island the following week with 2 20' UHaul trucks. Wow! We had no idea what we had gotten ourselves into. We worked a 12 hour day with 10 people we brought down as well as many of the warehouse workers who chipped in to help us.

Sure there were lots of us 'bead girls', but our group also included many big burly guys, all bagging, packing boxes, stacking boxes, wrapping and loading palettes. We finally got the 2 trucks loaded to the ceilings. But we had only packed up about 1/3 of the stock! There was still a whole room of beads & parts: it almost looked as if we hadn't even been there.

A week or so later, Jen our store manager came to me and told me that her Uncle was a licensed trucker and could drive a big old, not sure what they're technically called, 'semi' type truck. And her dynamo of a mother Sue, who also worked for us was inspired to ride down there with him and get the semi loaded up if we could get down there in the days before & get the rest of the warehouse packed up. We were so overwhelmed by the first trip that (and I can't even believe this now) we had been contemplating just leaving the rest of the stock down there and having a rubbish company come & remove it. It was costly to move beads! So with Sue's encouragement, we made another trip down to RI and packed & boxed & stacked our little hearts out once again. Sue & her brother drove the 'semi' down a day later & filled it from front to back!

…and that's how it all happened. That's how we acquired over 40,000 lbs of vintage Lucite beads & parts. Surprisingly, two years later we have sold almost half of the stock. When we first brought it home to Maine, I made the comment that I would be that little old lady at 80 years old with a barn full of rotting boxes full of beautiful beads. I guess I was wrong… nah, I'll be that old lady who dies with the most beads yet.

For the last couple of years, a really fun gal named Danielle has been purchasing lots of our vintage Lucite stock for her very funky & successful line of jewelry. She has a great business and sells her wares mostly over in Europe (smart chic, considering the plight of the US Dollar right now). Anyway, this lady knows her plastics. She was teaching me a thing or two about our very own stock. And as we'd discuss the differences between Lucite and other vintage plastics, she kept using the term 'Best New England Warehouse of Vintage BeadsPlastics' to describe where our beads had been made.

I kept thinking "What is she talking about?" but I didn't say anything because I was afraid that maybe she'd misheard something that I said or maybe I'd misheard her. After all: the company we purchased the beads from was called Plastic Development in Warwick, Rhode Island. And Norm, the man who sold them to me had worked for that company for the last 45 years and knew his stuff. He told us all about making the beads himself back in the 70's and 80's. So for the first couple of conversations I didn't say anything to Danielle.

Finally, when I KNEW that I had heard her say very clearly "…and the beads that came from Best Plastics in Providence…" I interrupted. "What a sec, WHAT are you talking about? You keep dropping this name and I thought I was hearing things. I've never heard this name before. As far as I know, these Lucite beads were made by Plastic Development in Warwick, not Providence." There's always this veiled mystery that many vendors like to perpetuate. She was buying a lot of beads from us and I didn't want her to think I had anything to hide about where they were from and where we got them. Danielle's answer was "Geez, I don't know. I thought YOU told me about Best Plastics." I said "I'd never heard the name until you mentioned it." And we moved on.

Fast forward a few more weeks. I was at one of our favorite job lot warehouses where I had not been for over 2 years! And evidently I've missed out in the last 2 years too because we didn't find a whole lot. Between being pregnant and having a newborn, it's hard to travel a few hours each way, dig through dirty boxes that are 15 feet in the air, etc etc to do your buying. So we've been doing a lot of buying via our manufacturers overseas lately, because I can simply send an email from home and viola! Beads!

Anyway, I was talking to Anthony who has been in business in the Rhode Island area for many, many years and his business was handed down to him from his Father-In-Law so he knows the industry. I mentioned Best Plastics and asked him if he'd heard of it. He said "Yeah, that's that warehouse you bought out!" I nearly fell on the floor. I said "But that company was called Plastic Development…" And now you're about to hear a thing of fables… bead myths from years past.

Best Plastics had been manufacturing beads for years, right across the street from Anthony's warehouse in Rhode Island. In the early 1980's, Best decided to shift their focus to manufacturing pressed plastic earring cards and other merchandisers. You know the type: when you go into WalMart and you see tacky earrings on a rounder, they're hanging on these grey plastic earring cards with a patch of velvet on them that read "Fashion New England Warehouse of Vintage Beads Earrings."

No matter what part of the world you're in, when you see these, they're probably made by Plastic Development in Rhode Island. Anyway, when they decided to shift their focus, they moved their company from a warehouse in Providence to a warehouse in Warwick and you guessed it, changed their name to Plastic Development. Anthony said "you know, they offered me that lot of beads and I just had too much plastic." We purchased over 40,000 lbs so I can only imagine how many thousands of pounds they had offered him.

So, thanks to Danielle, I learned the real name of our beads' manufacturer. And thanks to Anthony, we have thousands and thousands of pounds of Lucite beads to sell. These are the things that intrigue me still after all these years in this business: the lore of the beads. The history. Sometimes you hear these things from vendors and you think "They must have made that up to get me to buy this strand of beads, but it's cool." But the great thing about buying anything vintage, is that it has history. And the most mundane story can seem so riveting when it's told in the context of something you love. Like beads.

Post and pictures courtesy of, and with permission from, The Beadin' Path - Learn Where We Got Our Vintage Lucite Beads (11 June 2009)

One final thing - last Friday I wrote about "Follow Friday" for bead/jewelry artist bloggers - here's the link. I didn't get any comments last week, but perhaps if I remind you, you'll have some ideas this week?

No Thursday Feature This Week - Saying Goodbye to a Beloved Pet

Yogurt, 1991 (?) - 2009

Yogurt came to our home, when we lived down in Bakersfield, back in 1992 and hung around outside (my husband put food out for him, so that may have been why). He had a collar, so we thought he'd eventually go home. But he just kept hanging around and nobody seemed to be looking for him.

So we posted an ad in the "found cat" section of the local paper for quite a while and let him into the house while we waited, and introduced him to the two other cats we already had (Oatmeal and Pumpkin). No calls. Eventually we adopted him, named him Yogurt and trained him to be an indoor cat - something he didn't really appreciate but eventually became resigned to.

He got out a time or two in Bakersfield before we had him neutered, but was content to be inside after that. - except for one night here in Silicon Valley a couple years back, when he was out almost all night. The DH didn't sleep a wink, wandered around the neighborhood calling for him, looking behind bushes. Finally, so tired he had to try to get some rest, he went out front one more time and there was Yogurt in the front yard. He looked like he got into a small tussle with another cat, but was otherwise fine.

Yogurt was always a very talkative cat. You could get him to vocalize pretty easily and we'd have long 'conversations' with him. He loved to sit at the back door and chat with the birds that landed out back. I'm sure he'd have loved to have them for dinner, too. He was a patient, kind cat as well in these last years, who'd come sit on your lap and let you scratch him as long as you wanted, purring up a storm the whole time.

Last week all the cats went in for shots and check-ups and the vet was worried about how much weight Yogurt had lost. He had been a bit sick that week but otherwise seemed ok. Unfortunately, when the blood work came back yesterday, the diagnosis was total kidney failure. While we could possibly have kept him going for a while, he'd be in a lot of pain because it appeared he'd also suffered some nerve damage - which hadn't been a problem, it seems, before the vet visit, but he was definitely having trouble now with his back legs and tail - he's fallen over a couple times in the last day. So the decision to let him go was made.

He was the last of the 'elder' cats, we lost Pumpkin first and then Oatmeal not that long after. We became the people of two 'grandkitties' not that long ago, when my son joined the Army and moved to the East coast. We love them dearly, but we have a lot of great memories with Yogurt and he leaves us with a huge empty place in our hearts.

Mid-Week Mutterings - Monthly Beadin' Path Bead Club Beads Arrived!

Another great selection from The Beadin' Path this month - a large green foil bead, olivine luster nugget glass, green heishi rondells, purple foil beads and vintage rough cut crystal bicones from ca. 30s! I am really looking forward to using all of these:

Right now I'm working on a new piece that I'm not going to tell you much about yet except to say amazonite cubes (which no longer seem to be in stock at Artbeads), Swarovski sew-on checkerboard rhinestones, sterling silver oval links. It will be kind of a departure in design for me, but so far I'm pretty excited about how it's turning out and anxious to get it finished. Hope I'll be able to share on Friday.

Sorry the mutterings were so brief today - conference has kept me busy and I'm going to bed early, not much time left over to write.

Tuesday Tidbits - Mixing Czech Glass and Semi-precious Stone

Ever wish you had the kind of financing that let you buy the highest quality semi-precious or precious stones in any quantity? Me, too. And unless I win a really big lotto jackpot, I don't think it's going to ever be a reality. But, I do think that sometimes a judicious mix of stones plus matching Czech glass beads works very well. You can have a lush look at a fraction of the price.

Here's a piece I started on what seems like ages ago, when I bought a spool of beautiful gunmetal chain from Rings & Things (scroll down to read about the garnet piece, it's in the second half of the post). I'd started out working on making components with garnet on black SoftFlex, crimping and adding them to the chain.

When I finished fiddling around with the garnet pieces, I decided to make it a 3-strand necklace but didn't have enough variety of actual garnet. So I got out the garnet-colored Czech faceted glass beads and went to town. All the smooth, round beads are garnets, the faceted ones are Czech glass. Here's what I thought was the finished piece:

But something bothered me about the composition. I decided to fiddle with it this weekend. Shorten here, move there - I think it's starting to look better...

...but still not happy. The garnets at the top of the outer chain - they've gotta go. I have a number of online friends and acquaintances who are writers and they all say of first drafts "sometimes you have to kill your darlings" - meaning that during editing, things will get cut out of the final draft. This apparently is true of making jewelry. I fiddled quite a bit on those garnet bits, but they aren't going to work out. Must be strong and say "bye-bye".

Where is my chain? Dug around in the still not completely unpacked BayCon bin and found it. Have hooked the tail end to the jumpring, the rest is still on the spool until I get the spacing right - links are not open on this chain, measure twice, cut once. And, to let you know that all of this is not without it's little foibles, one of the two jump rings, used to attach the 3 strands to the back piece of the necklace, went "sproing" and has completely disappeared *and* I can't find anymore just like it. Took one I was using for the clasp to replace. Will have to re-work clasp now.

Hooking on a link made from garnet glass bead and two TierraCast bead caps that match the one in the pendant. That part I'm connecting the bead to is the only part of the original third chain that will be re-used.

Link on left is in, positioned where I want, excess chain clipped off. Now for the other side.

Ok, done. Well, except for the clasp. I have to do that part, but I won't bore you with the details. New "final" piece. Will sleep on it, stare at it again later. Decide if it's really done. Who knows, could be a version 4 coming up...

Monday Miscellany - The Day Job, New Necklace

Today through Wednesday I'll be attending a conference in San Francisco, related to the day job, so I won't have much time to make anything or share much here. Since it's relatively close to home, I won't be staying at the conference hotel and that means getting up early each morning to get ready and drive up to the city. Because I'm not a morning person, it'll be a challenge. I'll still try to get something posted, but apologies in advance if it's not up to my usual output.

I've been working for a few days on a triple strand necklace with rhodonite beads and pendant. I had to re-work it several times (thank goodness for Scrimps!) but I'm pretty happy with the final piece.

(click to enlarge for detail)

At first I didn't have the spacer bars in it, but I didn't like the way the lower strand hung with the heavy pendant so I dug out the 3-hole spacer bars and re-strung the whole thing. Then I had to play around with the lengths of each segment to get the right curve in it.

The thing about this work that is quite different (for me) is that it's almost entirely rhodonite stone - no silver spacers or beads which I would normally add. I just wanted the colors, textures and shapes of the stones to be the focus.

Here's the clasp - I've had this for quite some time waiting on just the right piece for it.

Hope you took some time to read the Sunday Wanderings post - don't miss them every week, add yourself to the followers list or subscribe via RSS.

Dawno's Weekly Wanderings Around the Beadosphere

Thank you to NiftyKnits for giving me such a lovely feature post on her blog! And, putting me in an Etsy Treasury, too! In this post she also talks about how we became acquainted.

As always, it's been a week of great beads at A Bead A Day, be sure to scroll down and read the whole week's worth!

Tish told us on Monday that Corporate was in town and she's been quiet since. Hope she gets back to her usual chatty self next week!

Jessica at SmuTopia "spaced out" on Friday. Ok, not really, but she did share some great space/sci fi themed finds on Friday - including the NiftyKnits Trekkie meerkats mentioned above!

Blanche at the Sha-sha Handcrafted Jewelry Blog shows the Canvas On Wood Pendant she chose from Artbeads to review and the lovely necklace she created for it.

The other day I was looking around for Twitter-themed graphics and happened upon the lovely blog of Amanda Davies, "articulations". She has created the most adorable birds she calls "Tweets" which are available in her Etsy store.

I recently bought some lovely vintage buttons from The Beadin' Path to add to a stash I'd started collecting and this post from Design*Sponge about making your own 9-hole buttons is great synchronicity!

Speaking of The Beadin' Path: do I ever love this Betty Paige Necklace (when I was young I thought Paige would be a cool first name. Guess I was reading a lot of 50's books as a kid in the 60's).

How do you get from 'dapping blocks' and Russ Troll beads to 60's era anti-war songs? Follow me, @Rings_Things and @wendytgibson on Twitter! Also, Rings & Things has a new contest for June, write a product review, get entered for a drawing for a $50 gift certificate!

Tammy Powley at The Crafty Princess Diaries talks about Project Ties that Bind, which asks bloggers to spread the word about their raffle "with 100% of the proceeds going towards the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund." I hope you'll help spread the word, too.

Margot Potter's ReclaimU Radio interview was great. Valuable insights, interesting life story, well worth the time.

Dee at Watch Me Create blogs about the inspiration for, and shows the steps used to create, her beautiful African Sunset piece.

Lots of folks last week were getting ready for, going to, and arriving at the Bead & Button show. Wish I could be there, too! Here are some links I rounded up:

• Earthenwood Studios
• Andrew Thornton
• SoftFlex Girl
• Sun Daisy Gems
• Here's What I Think
• For the Love of Beads
• Cristina Leonard Metal Designs
• Right Turn ArtWerks

Well, that's enough of a round up for today. Please remember that I archive these at Dawno's Beadosphere and would love to have you bookmark or follow there. Also, that blog has a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. Which means you are welcome to copy and use those posts, or pieces of them, at your blog non-commercially (and other stuff you can read about if you click the link) if you'd like to spread these links around, I wouldn't mind one bit. It would be especially nice if you'd add a kind word about my blog, too.

Good Morning World!

This is just a quick post to let you know I have nothing to post right now. Maybe later today I'll have a quick update for you. Go read one of the blogs in my blogroll instead - they're all wonderful! And if I don't update later, please don't forget to visit with me tomorrow, there's a great Weekly Wanderings Around the Beadosphere post all ready to go!

Hope you have a lovely Saturday.