Tuesday Tidbit - Aventurine Leaf Necklace

Last evening I dropped my Bead Trends March 2010 piece into the FedEx pickup box for overnight delivery. I didn't mean to put it off to the last minute, but I somehow let things slip last week and had to scramble today so it would be there in time. The April 2010 Bead Trends submission deadline and the Stringing challenge are all coming up in just a couple weeks, so I need to plan ahead better for them. To say nothing of having just over a month left to finish preparations for LosCon in LA next month.

Well, rather than dwelling on my little failings and recent foibles, let's move on to something positive! As the seemingly never ending chore of organizing my workspace continues, I occasionally stop cleaning or sorting or organizing and make something with the beads I've uncovered. Case in point, this aventurine necklace.

I pulled out a box full of beads left over from an earlier project and rather than sort through them as I was planning on, I got an idea. I grabbed this carved leaf I bought from Etsy seller Beadaholique, which I had actually managed to put in the right place to find easily (a box labeled "green stone"), and strung it with some carved floral aventurine beads from Baubles and Beads in Berkeley (say that three times fast!). Then, from the box I picked out the nearly white pale, and lovely celadon green, aventurine rounds to string into a necklace.

Normally I use metal caps and spacers in my work. This time I liked the simplicity of using just the stones.

Although I think I'd typically put this aside for Spring, the idea of a falling leaf (which I think the pendant looks like) green or not, makes me think of Autumn. Besides, here in California a lot of the trees stay green all year round, and not just the typical evergreens. I've got a couple Fall outfits I think I'll try this with and see how it looks.

See you tomorrow for some mutterings about another "last minute idea for something to wear to work" jewelry creation.

Monday Miscellany - The Beadin' Path's Glass "River Rock" Design Partner Necklace

Heather De Simone of The Beadin' Path recently asked some bead-jewelry designer/bloggers if they'd be interested in being design partners. I was honored to be asked and thrilled with the opportunity it would give me to be able to feature some of The Beadin' Path's exclusive and unique offerings for jewelry design on a regular basis.

So, it wasn't very long ago that I received a package with their large glass "River Rock" nuggets in topaz and citrus colors.

I don't do a lot of work in what I've seen described variously as primitive, natural or tribal styles. My personal likes tend toward the vintage, favoring Victorian, Edwardian, even Renaissance looks.

That said, when I got the nuggets immediately I knew they would look great combined with a strand of amber chips, some lava rock and a number of India glass round beads in a light AB finished amber color that I've had in my stash forever, it seems. I felt that I should only use a few of the large River Rocks because they're definitely substantial in size, presence in the piece and weight. The India glass beads and lava stone are very light weight, fortunately, and I didn't use any metallic beads, caps or spacers, either. I still haven't added a clasp - need to find something suitable and don't even know where to begin!

The strand with the River Rocks is strung on .38" 49 strand Beadalon satin gold because the River Rocks are rather heavy. The practically weightless amber chips are strung on .33" 19 strand Beadalon satin gold. When finished it will be about 18 - 20" total length.

The nuggets I got had some powdery grit on them, so I rinsed them before I used them. There were also a few with more than one drill path through them, in other words, one which dead-ends and one that goes through. They're are definitely rough hewn inside and out.

All in all, while they aren't the kind of thing I'd have thought to buy, I was surprised with how much I liked what I came up with. I look forward to making another necklace using the citrus colored 'rocks'.

That's it for today - see you tomorrow for Tuesday Tidbits: Dawno shows you her clean(er) workspace.

Monday Miscellany - Day 1 of 3: Not Quite There Yet Necklaces

During my sorting of various beads and chains and other stuff, I chanced to see some gunmetal chain and some little twisted leafy gunmetal links. I put them aside with a thought to making something with them. Then I got to sorting some glass bicones which had come in a strand of blues and blue-gray and a pale gray. Hmm.

This is the current state of the necklace. I'm definitely going to do more work on it, but have been rather busy and haven't gotten back to it yet. I'm debating whether to add a bright contrast color or maybe make it multi-strand. Stay tuned.

Tomorrow I'll show you version one and version two of the next "Not Quite There Yet Necklace".

Tuesday Tidbits - Sometimes It's the Beads, Sometimes It Isn't

Often I'll let a design come to me by starting off just playing around with different beads and findings to come up with the idea for a necklace or bracelet. This time I started out looking at the silver links, then pairing them up with some chain, then looking at a few of the piles of beads lying about (yeah, I'm still trying to get the workspace organized) and that's how I ended up with the necklace below.

The larger beads are Czech fire polished beads in crystal/aquamarine with a metallic AB coating on one side, from Rings & Things. Also from Rings & Things are the small opaque turquoise glass disk beads being used as spacers. I have had the opaque turquoise Swarovski bicones in my stash for ages, not sure where they're from anymore. The smaller purple beads are a light amethyst/copper roundelle from The Beadin' Path. The chain, tiny antiqued silver flower bead caps, and the silver Art Nouveau style links are from Accessories Susan.

I think this one is done, although I never know when I'll look at it and decide that it's time to fiddle some more. The biggest problem I have with this, and most of my designs, is coming up with a name for it. I suppose one will eventually come to me, but so far, nothing.

When I first started making my lanyards I would look up the names of cities that I felt somehow fit the look or the stones I was using. After a while, and especially when I started branching out to other types of jewelry, I stopped. I also gave some pieces names from Star Trek - characters, things, places from the shows or movies. Lately I've named very few pieces and stuck more to descriptions. I hope I'll eventually settle on something that satisfies me.

Pretty soon I'm going to have to start working on tags and things for the convention I'll be selling at in November. It would be great if I had a good idea of what to name things as I'm doing that. Wish me luck!

Hope to see you back tomorrow - I like how the piece I'll share turned out, hope you do to!

Friday Pick is On Hiatus!

I have such a backlog of great beads to work with, and ideas with them that I need to turn into jewelry, that I'd better focus on the stuff I already have and not get distracted by more shiny stuff. Which I'll certainly be (and probably buy) if I put together a Friday Pick.

So instead, here's something I've just started with copper beads and chrysocolla from The Beadin' Path.

I just need to think about what else it needs before I'm satisfied that it's done. I usually start things pretty simple and then start adding stuff, this one definitely seems to be going that direction.

There's the slight possibility of something dangling from the flower at the bottom of the large focal, but I have an idea I'm going to experiment with first. Whether it works out or not, you'll find out about it here!

Speaking of lots of shiny stuff, today my August beads of the month from The Beadin' Path arrived, a lovely selection of glass beads crafted to look like sea glass (some of which are BeadClub specials and not in the catalog) another bag full of Lucite beads (now I can finish the necklace I featured last Friday) plus more yellow and orange Lucite flowers to finish up the necklace I shared on Wednesday). Obviously, I have plenty to work with, so I need to get to it.

See you, I hope, tomorrow!

P.S. - I challenged myself, on Twitter, to list something every night until I run out of things to list. Here's the pair of earrings I listed last night on Art Fire:

Dawno

Buy Handmade

My Birthday Just Keeps Happening!

Two of my dearest friends recently emailed me to be on the lookout for a package with my birthday present. It arrived today with these lovely beads in them! All in shades of pink, because whenever I've hung out with them, at conventions or whatever, I've just about always worn one of my collection of pink polo shirts every day. Pink is a good color on me - something I didn't realize when I was younger and "hated" pink. Live and learn!

I can't wait to figure out what these are meant to be and share pictures! I think I see two different designs in that assortment.

No review or interview today, but I hope to get back on track soon. Meanwhile I'm going to have a lovely new Lucite necklace to share soon, so keep checking back!



P.S. - and now a brief word from our sponsor:

Dawno

Buy Handmade

More Vintage Lucite Designs

As I mentioned yesterday, I'll be doing some designs with The Beadin' Path's Vintage Lucite beads as a part of their "Design Partner" program and blogging about them over the next few days.

This morning I started on the second 'set' of beads that I'd sorted the package into, I've got 4 sets in all that I'm going to design with from the beads supplied. This second group is the teal moonglow and opaque turquoise Lucite beads.

My goal was to use all the beads on each strand and show all the pieces you can make for a very reasonable investment. For example, the necklace, bracelet and earrings below all came from just three strands of beads. Even though I show just one each of the earrings in the picture below, you can do two pairs, I was just in a hurry to get this post up so I only did one of each. I'll provide a materials list at the end of the post.

For the necklace, I used the light teal twist tubes, turquoise colored Lucite 5mm rounds and dark teal moonglow 12mm rounds. My spacer beads are tiny silver rope spacers and 3mm silver rounds. The bead caps are Bali silver and those all came from my stash. The necklace is 22" long.

I had only two light teal tube beads left when I finished the necklace but quite a few of the small turquoise colored rounds, so I took the remaining light teal tube beads and 4 of the dark teal beads and set them aside for earrings.

With the 11 dark teal beads left over and 11 of the turquoise colored beads, I made a stretchy bracelet. If you have a larger wrist than I do and need to use more of the dark teal beads, you won't be able to make two pairs of earrings unless maybe one pair is all turquoise colored beads. Then I made two pairs of earrings from the beads I'd set aside, using up the last of the beads in the 3 strands.

I used a fine gauge (I think it's 26 gauge, but I seem to have lost the tag) Artistic Wire in non-tarnish silver for the hoop earrings and made headpins of the same wire for the dangle earrings, and hung them on sterling silver ear-wires. The great thing about Lucite is even the big beads are quite light weight, so they're wonderful for earrings.

I was wondering what the set might look like using other colors, so I used my photo editor to change the color of the larger beads (if you click on the color names below, you can see the actual beads at The Beadin' Path site):

Bright Apple Green Purple Orange

and also to make the set all one color (unfortunately I didn't find dark teal twisted tubes or 5mm rounds at The Beadin' Path, but you could try with other beads or another color)

or swap the colors around...

With these adjusted pictures, if you click them to see them enlarged, they won't be the greatest representation of how they'd look with the actual beads, which are much prettier. But to get an idea of what a design would approximately look like, without having to actually have the beads in those colors, I think this works pretty well. Sort of a 'try before you buy' experiment. By the way, Paint Shop Pro isn't as difficult to use, in my opinion, as PhotoShop, nor as expensive.

Materials List:

Vintage Lucite Dark Teal Moonglow Rounds 12 mm (20pc)

Vintage Lucite Light Teal Moonglow Twist Tubes 8x9mm (20pc)

Vintage Lucite Opaque Turquoise 5mm Rounds (60pc)

That's $14 dollars worth of beads plus the cost for whatever metal beads, spacers, bead caps and findings you might want to use. You'd get a shorter necklace, but still a very nice one, if you didn't use any metal beads at all.

Come back Monday to see what I do with another set of Vintage Lucite from The Beadin' Path.

Friday Pick - The Beadin' Path Vintage Lucite Blogger Package

The other day I received a message from the lovely Heather DeSimone of The Beadin' Path asking me if I would like to "play" with some vintage Lucite beads and blog about them. Not only was I honored to be asked, but thrilled by the opportunity!

Yesterday, when I got home from work, there was a package waiting for me with a fabulous selection of Lucite beads in blues, grays, turquoise, and sea greens. I immediately had an idea for a three strand necklace using the sea greens and light gray ones.

Now, this is still an unfinished work in progress - I'll be fiddling with the design more over the weekend, plus working with the other sets, but here's the first pass.

I'm kind of thinking I'd rather have the inside strand on the outside, so I've ordered more of the light gray to make the strand long enough (plus a couple other strands that caught my eye).

So the "picks" from The Beadin' Path for the necklace above are

Vintage Lucite Muted Grey Moonglow Side Drilled Round Buttons 12mm (20 pc)
Vintage Lucite Matte Atlantic Green Blue Marbled 8mm Rounds (30pc)
Vintage Lucite Light Matte Marbled Atlantic Blue Oval 10x18mm (12 pc)
Swarovski Article 5301 4mm Bicone Beads Montana (72pc/pkg) (I'm not sure the color I used is Montana, it might be Caribbean or a Sapphire...)

The rest of the necklace materials came from my stash: silver Bali bead caps, 3mm silver round beads, 4mm silver mini-bead caps, your choice 49 strand beading wire - I used a rather thick gauge .61mm, and large link rolo chain - Beadalon silver plated Quick-Links in the picture above, but any silver chain would probably work fine.

Check back for more vintage Lucite design ideas with the Beadin' Path goodies this weekend!

Mid-Week Mutterings - Beadalon CZ-Gem Dropz Necklace

I had the opportunity a while back to make the acquaintance of a Beadalon rep and mentioned how interesting I thought their CZ-Gem Dropz were but that my local stores didn't carry them. He kindly offered to send me some samples, and today I'm thrilled to talk about a necklace I just finished using them.

I received purple two hole 4mm Dropz, round and square shapes, the specially sized light-weight jump rings made for working with the drops by Beadalon, and decided to match them up with the last bits of sterling granulated diamond curb-chain I've used in other jewelry, purchased from Artbeads. The focal is a checkerboard amethyst from Fire Mountain Gems on a thin gauge sterling headpin from Artbeads.

I love the rich, deep purple of these CZ-Gem Dropz. They have two holes drilled front to back for the jump rings to go through, then you can attach them to what ever findings you choose - I was looking for something that, to my eye, suited the delicate look and size and the curb chain kind of jumped out at me.

I had some challenges with a couple of the drops, cracked one trying to get a jump ring in. The majority of them worked perfectly though. I found the Beadalon light weight jump rings very easy to work and they closed up very well, the cuts were flush and clean.

The Dropz I received are cut so the bottom half is faceted to a point, so I think they're going to scratch a bit as a necklace, so these probably do work best in earrings, but we'll see.

I was a bit disappointed with the checkerboard cut amethyst from Fire Mountain - these are currently listed at over $40 a set (you get three - and the price does go down to $36 with Fire Mountain's assortable savings if you've purchased 14 other items) and the holes were poorly drilled - my finest gauge head pin would not go all the way through two of them and I wouldn't like to risk trying to use a reamer to enlarge the hole.

I ended up using one of the smaller pair of the set because that's the only one I could get the head pin through. The stone itself is a nice purple and the checkerboard facets are lovely. The stones have some pretty significant visible flaws inside, too, which kind of spoils the look if held up to the light. I think it will be ok against clothing.

See you tomorrow!

Monday Miscellany - Two New Necklaces

Two necklaces I'm working on - not sure if they're quite finished yet but here's where I am so far.

The first one started as an assortment of beads I found at JoAnn's fabrics - tiger's eye, gold coated faceted rounds, clear citrine colored faceted rounds and a few other miscellaneous beads. I got out some oxidized brass filigree and chain from Accessories Susan and started piecing this together with some other beads in my stash and a gold coin pearl. Excuse the terrible photography in both of these pictures - it's late evening as I write this, and I'm snapping the pictures at my desk.

The next one uses charoite and sunstone with a twisted and oxidized wire chain. I love how the sunstone picks up some of the shading in the charoite yet gives contrast overall. I'm pretty happy with this design as-is but I'm still slightly pondering possibilities.

And that's all for today - come back for some tid-bits tomorrow!

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

Update! July 15th: the product order came in today and I made the necklace:

I really like this, even if I say so myself! (click picture to enlarge)

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

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!

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 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!

"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!