Thursday, July 28, 2011

Yet Another Travel Piece

I've posted this on my Facebook page but still like to get all my work here on the blog. It's more of the two hole faux turquoise spacers interspersed with coral colored glass beads. The design is very simple but the color combo is what makes it special. I really love that combo!





This is probably it for posts until I get home - my son has arrived and we will be hanging out this afternoon and tomorrow I go visit a friend in Durham, NC. We *may* do some bead shopping. Saturday I have a very early flight home. If I don't just totally collapse and nap the day away, I might be back with a few more tidbits. Have a great Friday and weekend!


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Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Another Travel Piece

Hi again from my hotel room in Fayvetteville, NC! I finished off another piece and thought I'd share it here, although it was posted to my Facebook page earlier.

It's the two hole faux turquoise with coral glass beads. Simple, but the color mix is the key element. I love the combo.


I'm working on a couple other things, but ran out of beading wire - amazing how fast a 30' spool will go - I'm so used to the 100' ones I didn't think to buy two!

See you again soon!



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Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Travel Beading

I'm in Fayetteville, NC until the end of the week. Arrived late on the 23rd and went out yesterday to A.C. Moore and Michael's (There's a JoAnne's nearby, too, might check that out today) to grab some beading stuff. For long visits I have a really full check-in bag and don't want to add more weight (and pay overages on top of bag fees) to my suitcase, so I don't bring beading supplies. So once in town I'm usually Google-ing for local bead/crafts stores.

I picked up some faux turquoise, carved bone beads, shell heishis and miscellaneous findings/tools and this cool BeadBuddy Design Save 'n Go. I will need to get a small duffel or backpack to haul stuff home in. Next time I'll pack an empty one to bring along!

I've posted some of my travel beading on Facebook and Google+ but here they are (plus one that's exclusive to this blog!) for those of you who don't follow me elsewhere. ( I'm Dawno on Google+ if you'd like to add me to a circle. If you want to follow me on Google + and need a G+ invite, I have some - just email me).

Ok, travel bead design #1, Faux turquoise and shell heshi necklace. I'm doing a make and take at Renovation, World Science Fiction convention and this was a trial-run idea. (Please excuse the wrinkly background, photographed these on the hotel bed)



This will get some re-work at home when I have my round-nose pliers to re-do the eye & headpins on the pendant. It was low-cost, fast to make and looks pretty good on.

Design #2 - this is the blog only exclusive - two hole faux turquoise spacerbars with faux turquoise roundells and carved bone beads. Didn't find the right clasp for it at either store, so if I don't find it at another shop while I'm here, I'll finish it at home. The carving on the bone looks like little flowers.




Design #3 - I found some interesting looped metal beads and got an idea to use them with a three hole spacer bar by beading in-between the outside beads with the loops turned inward (instead of hanging some dangles off them on the outside) to anchor the middle strand. I used metal daisy spacers and shell heishis between the loops. Another one that will be finished at home if I don't see the right clasp here somewhere.



Design #4 - the last of the designs - the spacer bars came in packs with a set of 2 or 3 hole spacers and the package with the bars for the above design also came with some rhinestone 2-hole bars. I wandered around looking for what I wanted to pair up with them and found some big (about 1/2" diameter) glass pearls. I'm not sure about the placement of the different colors - so it may change a little before I add the clasp.



These were all a lot of fun to make and it's cool how limiting oneself to what's on hand and trying to use the same supplies for different looks work out. I've got more of the faux turquoise spacers left, enough for another bracelet, so I'll probably fiddle around with that today.

I'm enjoying my time here - cool thunderstorm yesterday that really brought down the temperature, which has been in the upper 90s. It's hot again today, though there's a chance of another thunderstorm later on.

'Til next time!




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Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Gunmetal and Greys Bracelet

Had a lovely weekend with my daughter. Been busy since then, too. Next week I leave for North Carolina to welcome my son back from his deployment in Afghanistan so I'll probably be rather quiet here.

As I mentioned in my last post I was working on a new bracelet and it's all finished (finally!) I used Swarovski Crystal Silver Night and Jet with Swarovski Mystic Black pearls on a double link chain and finished it with a magnetic clasp.




Now I'm pondering what to make next - I think I need to do something with bright tones since I've been doing so much with gunmetal and greys.

'Til next time!

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Thursday, July 14, 2011

Freshwater Peacock Pearls and Silver Squareknot Chain

Today has been pretty busy already. I'm "nesting" I guess, got up at 7:30, read email and watched the end of a Babylon 5 movie I downloaded from Amazon as I got myself awake. Fixed breakfast for Glenn and me, did some overdue housework and laundry, got my daughter's room a bit more ready for her visit here tonight.

There's still more to do in there later - when she's not here it's my "photo studio" so I had to fold up my light box and put away all the accoutrements. My daughter is visiting because she, Glenn and I are going to go see the last Harry Potter movie together tomorrow morning...even have our Gryffindor scarves!

As a reward for my hard work I decided to take a break and post my latest work in progress. So far it's just the chain and pearls. Not sure if I should try to do more.




There are about 8 more inches of chain behind the display for a total of 17", so I think it may have to be a bit longer. This piece was quite time consuming as I needed to assemble the links into a chain then add all the pearl dangles, which each have to be assembled with headpins and then looped.

The pearls were ordered a long time ago from FireMountain and many of them had double drill holes, so adding to the tedium was sorting through the bin for good ones. I do love the colors, though. It's hard to tell in the picture, but they range from a blue-grey to silvery lavender and are slightly iridescent.

I'm now working on some commissions for friends I worked with who raided my lanyard stock before my last day, as well as a gunmetal and Swarovski pearls & crystals bracelet. I'll be ready to show that to you soon, so do come back!


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Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Gunmetal and Montana Blue Three Strand Necklace




Now that I have plenty of time to design, experiment and blog about my ideas again, here's a new piece I'm working on. Using beads from The Beadin' Path bead club set sent in January - I think of this year - I've created a multi-strand necklace with two types of bulk gunmetal chain, headpins and jumprings from Rings & Things and two other types of chain from my local Michael's. On the first strand are Montana blue drops, the second strand has luster glass in the same shade. I left the last strand plain as it has an interesting texture of it's own. The drops are attached with gunmetal jumprings. I guess the only question I have is should I keep the third strand? I think so, but I'm wavering.

I'm building up my inventory for the 69th World Science Fiction Convention to be held in Reno August 17 thru 21. This is the first WorldCon that I'll attend as a dealer and I'm both excited and nervous.

'Til next time!


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