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!

Mid-Week Mutterings

This is going to be really brief - I'm very tired this evening. Thought I'd share a new necklace I made over the weekend. It has faceted carnelian rounds, gold filled beads, CRYSTALLIZED™ Swarovski Elements in topaz helix and red magma bicones, and orange-gold freshwater pearls:

The beads are not graduated in size, that's just the angle of the picture making it seem so. I really like this color combination, it's going to look very nice with dark brown or even as a contrast with other winter colors like dark teal, navy blue or purple.

Got a nifty little package of items from Rings & Things today - will take some pictures and share more soon.

Until tomorrow -

Friday Pick - Just A Tish

Normally for my Friday Picks (when I do them), I feature selections of beads from suppliers, but today I'm going to kick off a new feature where my Friday Pick is an artisan. In the future I'll feature the glass, stone and ceramic artists whose beads have caught my eye and been incorporated in my designs. For the premier pick, I've chosen Just A Tish, whose work I greatly admire and am proud to own.

Tish is a true friend of beaders and jewelry artists - she's so supportive and eager to share her knowledge, trials and tribulations and promote others, too. She's often given me ideas that encourage me to try something new, take a chance, be a bit less straight-laced about designs.

Tish has had her designs published numerous times in Bead Trends and has done jewelry for fashion shows and gallery shows. She also has her work at Gifts With A Heart, in Raleigh, North Carolina and other stores, including one here in California (Sherman Oaks). I need to find out what store so I can stop in when I'm down in Southern California!

Back in October, I was the *very* lucky winner of drawing at Just A Tish's Facebook fan page. Do click that link and be a fan of hers, if you're not already - she's had great offers and giveaways there.

The prize I received was a gorgeous heat treated agate pendant that Just A Tish had made. It is adorned with garnet, citrine, crystal and sterling charms. I've been looking for just the right beads to make a necklace to hang it on and the other day at Lima Beads I found these gorgeous 6mm faceted carnelian rounds which looked like a good match and turned out to be perfect. I've put some sterling silver saucer spacers from Artbeads in the mix, too.

So, Tish, I hope you know how special you are and how much of an inspiration you are to me! Thank you for the encouragement you give and the beauty you create. Here's my new favorite necklace:

See her work for sale at Just A Tish's online store, check out what's new on her blog, and at Facebook (check out the photo albums, too!). And, if you're on Twitter she's @JustATish.

See you tomorrow for the Supplier Sales Saturday feature!