Using Up the Stash #3

In another Michael's close-out last year or so, I saw several Blue Moon lampwork bead sets and thought they were adorable, so I grabbed them. I think the smaller matte, facet patterned glass beads were in them too, but I really can't recall. I used the greener ones in yesterday's necklace and the bluer ones in this, along with blue opal CRYSTALLIZED™ Swarovski Elements bicones, sterling bead caps and sterling beads.

This piece makes me think of a lagoon by a tropical island for some reason. Not that I've ever been...maybe some day! Meanwhile I can wear this and dream of palm trees and white sand beaches. If you click the picture you can view it in more detail.

More UUtS stuff to come - so please visit again!

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 #3 - Quick and Fun Bracelet + Bonus Giveaway

Only 38 days until Valentine's Day!

I liked what Tish did with leather cord and her Rings & Things blog partner lampwork beads so much that I decided to make a bracelet along the same lines. I used memory wire (the link takes you to a gold-tone wire, I used silver-tone, purchased at Michael's) and rubber tubing instead of leather, but the same Rings & Things lampwork beads and two small black glass beads to keep the headpins from slipping through the rather large holes.

I was only able to get one half of the wire through the tubing at a time, so the tubing is in two pieces - maybe you'll have better luck. I also trimmed off just enough tubing at the ends to expose about 3/4" to make loops to hang the dangles from. You should file the exposed ends smooth before making the loops, because memory wire is sharp after cutting and can scratch your wrist.

This is a quick and easy way to make a fun bracelet. It only requires knowledge of making a simple loop on a headpin for the dangles. The only tools you need are scissors to cut the tubing, round nose pliers to make the loops, and flush cutters for the memory wire.

Be sure to use a heavy duty memory wire cutter, because you'll ruin your regular wire cutters otherwise.

If you're worried about it coming off, you can add a small piece of chain with a spring ring clasp attached to one of the looped memory wire ends and a jump ring to the other for a safety chain.

I'll give away this bracelet to a random commenter who comments "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!



FTC compliance notice of material connection: The lampwork heart beads, as noted above, were provided to me for free, to be used for design purposes, or for a statement of my honest opinion of them, by Rings & Things.

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.

Vintage Glass & Gold Beading Chain Necklace, Plus Another Last Minute Creation

Last night I was looking over the rest of The Beadin' Path vintage glass (pictured above) - there was still a strand of light blue opaque glass and the bag of faceted light blue iridescent finish beads (far right), a strand of yellow & white glass disks (second from left), and a strand of red fluted roundels in the same shape and size as the amber colored ones I'd used the other day (in the center).

Since I had a good amount of those amber glass fluted roundels, I thought I'd see what I could come up with using them with the red ones. As I was staring at them trying to think of what I might design, I remembered I'd bought a set of lovely lampwork autumn leaves and matching spacer beads from Mermaid Glass and thought those would look lovely with the red and gold.

First I strung them on beading wire, but then I thought it would be interesting to try using some gold filled beading chain I had. The spacers are gold vermeil daisies. The round bit that finished the end that the lobster claw clasp is on is a Scrimp cable-end from Beadalon. The necklace is 18" long.

I'm very fond of this necklace and look forward to showing it off.

Speaking of showing off...this morning I had some extra time before work, so I decided to make a bracelet to complement the copper and green glass necklace lanyard I had picked out to wear. Took about 30 - 35 minutes because I used wrapped loops. I am thinking about adding some Swarovski to it - I've got some huge bicones (10 or 12 mm) I picked up at Global Beads - I forgot to ask the color, they have an AB finish and are a orange-y tone, perhaps the color is "sun" but I'm not sure. The fancy antiqued interlocking arcs copper beads and bright, smooth copper spheres (no longer listed) are from Lima Beads and the chain is from Michael's. I've had the clasp in my stash for some time and don't recall where I got it.

I seem to get some pretty good ideas when I'm trying to figure out what to wear to work.

Do come back tomorrow for a great list of sales and bargains tomorrow!




FTC compliance disclosure notice of material connections: All items referenced in this post, with the exception of the red and gold vintage glass beads provided by The Beadin' Path, were personally purchased.

I Think My New Beads Came via Time Machine

Do you have different favorite colors? I have several.

Green is just my favorite color in general. Don't wear it much, not the best color on me except for some shades: dark rich greens, aqua and teal. But straight out green is my favorite color.

Purple - dark royal purple - is my favorite color to wear. I always get compliments on something when I wear purple - and not even always that I look good in it.

Pink is my next favorite color to wear. Seems to flatter my complexion well enough, and I can find things in pink. Another plus is I can wear it year 'round - purple is more limiting in those ways.

Periwinkle is my favorite color word. Ever since I got my first box of Crayola 64 colors and saw it on a crayon. I also look pretty good in periwinkle so I wear it when I can find things in that color.

Looking through my bead stash it seems that I have many more green and purple beads/stones than other colors. Pink is a close third, then clear, then browns and ambers. I also wear a lot of browns and ambers in the fall and winter along with gray and black.

You might wonder why I wandered down that particular train-of-thought track. It's because I ordered some darling glass beads on Friday and they're already here (cue spooky music)! Talk about fast delivery - were mailed USPS on Saturday from Michigan according to the label. Frankly, I can't figure out how that's possible, unless there's a time machine involved somehow.

These beads from Bellebeads (who are having a cool contest on Etsy thru April 31st, so go now!) were featured on Smu-Topia's Ocean Themed Friday and as soon as I saw them I bought them. Thank you Bellebeads!

My new adorable, hand crafted artisan lampwork glass beads, Periwinkle Tide. Set included 3 Starfish, about 25mm across, 2 corals, about 15mm high, and 6 matching spacers, which would be hard to find in a good color match elsewhere. Do click on the picture to see larger image and enjoy the little details - not just of the beads, but the extras on the strand, too - lovely little faux-pearl beads!

I've got some new stuff that will be ready to photograph and share soon, hope you'll be back!

More Sorting Beads than Beading Accomplished this Weekend

As I mentioned, I did go out looking for briolettes, didn't find what I wanted, but I still didn't come home empty handed, picked up some copper and antique gold colored spacers and bead caps, and a few new beads (lovely peridot green ones) at Global Beads yesterday.

Spent a great deal of time yesterday and today organizing and cleaning my work space and various bead storage bins - I can only go so long with it all splayed out around me - eventually I don't have room to walk around if I don't. Last night and this morning I played around some olive colored glass beads using inexpensive silver colored wire wrapped loops, but I didn't like how it was turning out, so disassembled it. I like the idea I had, so I'll give it another try.

Tonight I decided that I need to make more earrings, so I got started with these glass bead earrings from some beads out of a glass bead mix batch (not attached to earwires yet):

...and began work on this lanyard necklace tentatively named "Chateau Picard" - may add a vintage year, will have to do some fact checking - because the citron colored glass made me think of champagne. I think it's not just the lighting of the photograph that makes some of the faceted roundels look a bit darker than the others, so tomorrow when I have some daylight I'm going to sort the roundels and make sure I'm using just one shade.

Sometimes I Think I Should Just Stick to What I Know

I have this urge to make a necklace using wrapped wire loops. I am practicing. I am wasting a lot of wire. I think I need to take a class.

I have also been visiting various lampwork glass artisan sites. Somebody hide my credit card - I could do it a lot of damage, the ones I've visited have such lovely beads. One in particular, Air and Earth Designs, by the artist, Kandice Seeber, has me especially ga-ga. The flowers she adds on top of the beads are fabulous - to say nothing of the colors.

Made a necklace lanyard tonight, though, so I did finish something - the wire wrapped loop necklace will probably take several years at the pace I'm going.

I used faceted glass cubes in clear and light blue with an iridescent finish, tiny silver seamless round beads, faceted blue glass bicones and teensy tiny dark blue iridescent seed beads. I think I will name it "Resistance is Futile".

Still haven't heard from the LosCon folk. I hope that doesn't mean anything except they're very busy with Real Life stuff and haven't had time to get back to me.