Using Up the Stash #12 - St. Patrick's Day Bracelet

Sorry I was too tired to post Tuesday. I did get a start Monday night on today's bracelet, but for some reason wrapping the cathedral glass beads onto the knot links gave me a ton of trouble and I didn't finish until today.

In honor of St. Patrick's Day, I wanted to make something green. While going through my stash I came upon these Celtic looking "Infinity Knot" connectors from the Blue Moon Royal Boheme collection and decided to pair them with green cathedral cut glass beads.

I wasn't totally happy with the look after I'd wired the beads to the knot connectors, so I pondered a bit and decided to add some chain. I put jump rings through the loops on each side of each knot and "strung" them through the rings rather than attaching them to give the chain a bit more movement.

Here's a long view

This view shows better how it looks on the wrist

Happy St. Patrick's Day, all!

Using Up the Stash #8 - Alexandrite Bottle Pendant Bracelet?

With absolutely no clue what to do with the faceted diamond shaped Alexandrite colored bottle pendant from the Rings & Things blog partner goodies, I just started adding wrapped loop beads and dangles in various shades of purple.

All of the items but the bottle have been in my stash for various amounts of time. Those silver filigree ovals have been sitting around for ages. The faceted ovals, and one of the dangles, came from a mixed sizes/shapes batch of Czech glass I got in Redondo Beach. The faceted oval that looks orange has more of the copper-y coating on it than the others, so it doesn't show the purple very well. I'm of two minds about swapping it out for something else. The faceted round bead is from The Beadin' Path's bead of the month club. Right now this is bracelet length, but I might keep going for necklace length, perhaps using some sterling chain.

Please join me tomorrow for Wandering Around the Beadosphere!



FTC compliance notice of material connection: The alexandrite colored bottle pendant, as noted above, was provided to me for free, to be used for design purposes, or for a statement of my honest opinion of them, by Rings & Things.

Using Up the Stash #5 with Bonus Rings & Things Goodies

Several things to share before I get to my project for today. First, with the crash of the VAIO I have lost access to a bunch of software and notes and other stuff I desperately need to get to, one of which is all my photo editing stuff. I've downloaded Picassa to this computer so I can do some very basic manipulation, but I miss my PaintShop Pro!

Secondly, yesterday was my 500th post! Snuck right past me - only noticed it tonight when I was on my dashboard to create tonight's post.

Finally, I need to update something from yesterday's post about my blog partner goodies from Rings & Things. In it I mentioned that some of the shell pearls I received were a bit banged up. I want to say for the record that nothing I've ever purchased from Rings & Things has ever gotten here the least bit damaged. They do a fabulous job of carefully packing every piece (and they throw in some yummy candy, too). I just felt that it was important to give a completely objective report of what I received - your experience as a customer of Rings & Things should be just as exemplary as mine have been.

OK, on to tonight's jewelry project - it's a combination of using up the stash and partner goodies - I picked out some of the lighter, pastel peach-ish 10mm shell pearls - they're not quite gold, not quite peach - I'm really not sure what to call them! Since there weren't enough to do a necklace, I made a bracelet from them with 4mm CRYSTALLIZED™ Swarovski Elements bicones in a vivid fuchsia color (that's looking a lot more purple than pink in the light from my Ott lamp than they looked as I was using them), some bright lime green rice pearls and gold plated TierraCast pewter beadcaps.

I chose the vivid colors as a fun contrast - what do you think?

Thanks for stopping by!



FTC notice of material connections: the items in this post from Rings&Things were provided as a promotional gift as part of the Blog Partner Program for review or design purposes.

Using Up the Stash #4

I have a lot of older beads in the stash that I bought from Michael's when I was first starting out. Nothing against Michael's, it's got a lot of fun stuff and tons of basics, plus if you're into mixed media it's a handy supplier of so many different media.

However, as I got more into making jewelry and then decided I wanted to try and sell my pieces, I found that I needed better better quality and better priced supplies. That's when I started shopping from places like Artbeads, Rings & Things, and other online suppliers you will find on my blogroll to the right of the post.

That said, I still shop there quite often. Sometimes because it's close and I need something quick, and sometimes because they have some cool, fun and different stuff to choose from I haven't seen online. I also head there when I'm traveling out of town and just want something to keep me occupied at the hotel in the evenings.

The bracelet I made for today's UUtS project is from a strand of circle shell beads (donuts?) from Bead Gallery, iridescent champagne glass beads sorted out from a Blue Moon bead mix, gold freshwater pearls and gold seed beads. It's in the 'Orbit' design family, like the lanyard I shared earlier in the series.

I keep meaning to make earrings with those circle/donut beads - they're really perfect for that. I hope I have a couple left over!

I noticed that Tish talked about grabbing from her bead stash to get inspired to make a gorgeous necklace recently - how about you? Any recent work you've done with beads you've had lying around forever and finally realized what they were waiting to become?

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Happy Valentine's Day

The Last Valentine's Day Idea (#18) - Glass Bead Charm Bracelet

Only 16 Days Left Until Valentine's Day!

For the last Valentine's Day idea project I was basically inspired by a left over length of copper chain. It was just the right size for a bracelet, so I pulled out some copper bead caps, a copper heart toggle and grabbed my box of pink glass beads. I'd completely forgotten about some small pink hearts and the last of the Rings & Things blog partner lampwork heart beads which I'd put in the same box. I wrapped the hearts and other pink glass beads with antiqued copper wires and the fancy copper caps, and used some lovely iridescent coated dark pink matte beads for accents.

And that's it for the Valentine's day idea posts! Thanks for following along, it was a lot of fun and I have 18 great Valentine's gift suggestions to list and display at shows.

Also, today and tomorrow are the last days to enter to win the cute Valentine's Day bracelet, all it takes to be entered is a comment! Say "Enter me in the bracelet giveaway" on any post this month. If you're on Twitter and RT any of my tweets this month you'll get another entry. If you're a fan or become a fan of Dawno's on Facebook and leave a comment on any post there with "Enter me in the bracelet giveaway", you get another entry - so there's a total of 3 entries you can make towards the giveaway.

Random drawing will be held on Sunday - and if selected, you'll get the bracelet in plenty of time for Valentine's Day!



FTC compliance notice of material connection: The lampwork heart bead, as noted above, was provided to me for free, to be used for design and/or review purposes by Rings & Things.

Valentine's Day Idea #16 - Carnelian and Copper

I decided that for today's Valentine's Day idea, I'd show a bracelet I made quite some time ago. I'd gone back (way, way and deeply back) into my comfort zone with a vintage/romantic style, and made a bracelet with ornate copper bead caps, gold Swarovski pearls, Crystal Copper Swarovski 6mm bicones and large faceted carnelian beads. The bead caps are Tierra Cast copper plated pewter.

I think this would go nicely with the necklace I posted about in December, if you don't mind mixing metals (the necklace uses gold).

I've posted this and other Valentine's Day idea pieces on my Artfire shop, and sale priced them through Valentine's Day. If you'd like to have something I've posted recently for yourself, you can check there. More will go up throughout the week. Do you think it's tacky to maybe do a list of all the pieces and their shop links?

Also, only four days left to enter to win the cute Valentine's Day bracelet, all it takes to be entered is a comment! Say "Enter me in the bracelet giveaway" on any post between now and the end of the month. If you're on Twitter and RT any of my tweets this month you'll get another entry. If you're a fan or become a fan of Dawno's on Facebook and leave a comment on any post there with "Enter me in the bracelet giveaway", you get another entry - so there's a total of 3 entries you can make towards the giveaway.

Random drawing will be held on January 31st - and if selected, you'll get the bracelet in plenty of time for Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day Idea #13 - Rhodonite Heart Bracelet

24 Days until Valentine's Day!

Tonight I really only had time for another relatively fast and simple design. One of my favorite colors is pink - didn't use to be, but later in life I discovered that it's a good color for me. Because of this, I have a lot of pink beads, especially Rhodonite. So, for this one I used Rhodonite beads and a Rhodonite heart pendant with silver beads and a silver heart toggle on medium Premium Satin Silver SoftFlex.

You can find the Rhodonite heart pendant and heart toggle at ABeadStore.com. The silver roundel beads and round beads are from Artbeads. The other Rhodonite beads were purchased at my local bead store, Global Beads.

Don't forget, if you'd like to win a cute Valentine's Day bracelet, all it takes to be entered is a comment! Say "Enter me in the bracelet giveaway" on any post between now and the end of the month. If you're on Twitter and RT any of my tweets this month you'll get another entry. If you're a fan or become a fan of Dawno's on Facebook and leave a comment on any post there with "Enter me in the bracelet giveaway", you get another entry - so there's a total of 3 entries you can make towards the giveaway.

Random drawing will be held on January 31st - and if selected, you'll get the bracelet in plenty of time for Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day Idea #6 - Coral and Bordeaux Bracelet

Today I'm bringing out a bracelet I made a while back but hadn't shared here yet. I think it's a perfect piece for Valentine's Day, though. The pattern uses alternating 6mm CRYSTALLIZED™ Swarovski Elements red coral bicones (can't recall where I got these) and 6mm Bordeaux Swarovski Crystal Pearls from Jewelry Supply.com around complimentary matte and clear glass rivoli's I found at The Bead Store in Redondo Beach last June when I was visiting my family. The spacers are gold vermeil daisies from Artbeads.

I was going for a more modern take on my typical bracelet style, which tends towards a vintage look. I can see wearing this with a red cocktail dress or with something casual. If I can find those saucer beads again I would love to make a necklace in this pattern, but I used up all I had.

I regret to say that I broke down and bought a few new things - I couldn't resist some great heart shaped items from Beaded Impressions - clasps, beads and pendants. I really am getting into the Valentine's Day projects and just couldn't resist.

Don't forget, if you'd like to win a cute Valentine's Day bracelet, all it takes to be entered is a comment! Say "Enter me in the bracelet giveaway" on any post between now and the end of the month. If you're on Twitter and RT any of my tweets this month you'll get another entry. If you're a fan or become a fan of Dawno's on Facebook and leave a comment on any post there with "Enter me in the bracelet giveaway", you get another entry - so there's a total of 3 entries you can make towards the giveaway.

Random drawing will be held on January 31st - and if selected, you'll get the bracelet in plenty of time for Valentine's Day!

Friday Pick - Rings & Things Holiday Lampwork Bracelet

In my last Rings & Things goodie package I received some lampwork holiday beads. Here's the bracelet I'm making using them:

I made the simple chain bracelet with gold plated jumprings, then I put the beads on some ball-tipped gold plated headpins from Beadalon (purchased at Michael's) with small gold a beadcap to keep the headpin from slipping through the fairly large hole in these beads. Because they do have a large hole, you could string these beads on cord or even a serpentine chain if you wanted. I put a wrapped loop at the top and then opened the jumpring to hook the loop on to the chain.

Between the lampwork beads are three sets of Christmas light charms that were part of a "Dress It Up" button set by Jesse James beads (also purchased at Michael's) These charms are of a very soft plastic, feels like rubber, and have a great translucence that gives the impression of a glowing bulb when back-lit.

The Rings & Things lampwork beads on this bracelet come from their Christmas Lampwork Beads selection. These beads are made in China. On the Rings & Things page for each item is a description. I really appreciate the transparency and disclosure from Rings & Things - note what they say about these beads right on the product page:

Glass beads made in China, India, and Indonesia are usually not kiln annealed (a controlled cooling process that improves durability). They are slightly more prone to breakage than glass beads made in Europe and the United States, but are priced accordingly.

The ones shown in the photo above are Red Gingerbread Man, Brown Teddy Bear, and Round Snowman Head. Still to be added to the bracelet is an adorable Penguin. The other two beads I received in my goodie package, a Christmas Tree and a Stocking will probably go on another design.

Still trying to figure out what I want to do with the large wood chain and polyester chain I got. Have an idea for the copper chain that I hope to get too soon and share.

Come back tomorrow for Supplier Sales Saturday - the holiday offers out there are pretty good!


Holly fairy picture in my signature, above, came from The Graphics Fairy

FTC compliance, disclosure of material connection: The lampwork beads reviewed above were provided as a promotional consideration by Rings & Things for design and review purposes as part of their Blog Partner program.