"Excuse me, have you seen my mind? I seem to have lost it somewhere along the way."

Before I go into anecdote-mode, thought I'd share my latest attempt at making something with the technique Katie Hacker teaches at the Beadalon site, using loops of beading wire to space the beads instead of crimps, and then attaching dangly things on the loops. I made the end-caps out of some large hole beads and crimp-beads glued into the holes to secure the strands - I'm kind of proud at how those turned out. I'd started out thinking I'd just use the red beads with some pewter butterfly and flower charms added as dangles, but then decided to add one more strand with more pewter butterflies and red bead dangles. Maybe I went overboard just a bit, but I like it.

I had "one of those days" today - lots of things just seemed harder to do than usual because I just couldn't focus. For example, have you ever truly believed you've made something, know you haven't sold it, and yet can't find it anywhere? I would have sworn I made a bracelet to match a tiger eye and turquoise nugget necklace. There's the necklace, there's the earrings...where's the bracelet?

Now I'm not so sure that I didn't just imagine having made it - after all, it was way back in October (imagine me rolling my eyes here). I know my memory isn't as sharp as it used to be, but typically it's forgetting where I left something real, not a false memory of having it in the first place. Oh well, guess I'll just have to make one. Once I'm finished, I'm sure the one I thought I'd made will turn up someplace obvious.

Then, as I was changing my calendar to May, I realized that Memorial Day weekend was a week earlier than I'd thought...oops! Yep, the mind is definitely going soft on me. I have a lot to do to get ready for Bay Con, and one less week to do it in.

I'm still playing around with the brown lava stones I got from Rings & Things - here's the latest (unfinished) piece with red coral, red ceramic beads in the necklace, and a lava stone, branch coral, red India glass bead, and brass wire pendant. A few more round stones at the top and a clasp and I'm done :

(Please click picture to enlarge if you'd like to see more detail)

Right at the top of the square where the hole had been drilled there was a very large pit. I wasn't really happy with how that looked and was wondering how to fill it in or cover it up. I eventually took a stone that I had put aside because it was lopsided from the way some of the cuts were along the axis of the holes in the stone (they looked like trenches instead of craters), and took a file to it and gathered the filings. I put a blob of Aleen's glue in the hole and covered it with the filings. Covered it right up - and darn near invisibly, if you ask me.

There have been a couple more posts about lava stone designs around the beadosphere - I really like what Melanie at Earthenwork Studios did with the lava stones and a beautiful "Openwork Escutcheons" piece.

Two others I've seen and not mentioned here before, are:

Margot Potter's wire wrapped earrings

Cindy Gimbrone "The Lampwork Diva" provides some product details and asks "Hmmm what sort of designs would you use these light weight beads for? Do they inspire you to create something "hot?"

I'll leave you to ponder that question (and if you have an answer - please visit Cindy's blog and leave her a comment).

Using Carved Beads to Add Texture and Interest

I found some beautiful carved turquoise beads at Global Beads the other day, and was musing on what I wanted to make with them. I remembered some carved jet beads I had and the design started to come together.

I used some tiny turquoise beads I also found at Global Beads, and freshwater cultured 'rice' pearls along with the carved beads and some 14k/20 gold filled rondelles to create this 28" lanyard necklace. It is very light, so it would also work well as an eyeglass leash.

I like the striking contrast of the jet beads to the pearls and turquoise and think that it will look lovely with black and gray outfits paired with a turquoise blouse or sweater (I have several of those and I tend to make things I'd wear).

(This post brought to you via the magic of technology which allowed me to compose and post date so my blog wouldn't be completely dark during my conference week.)

New Stuff on Etsy - Finally! And a Last Minute Lanyard for the Trip

I finally put up a number of new pieces, you'd recognize them as I've blogged about them recently. A few new bargain lanyards are in the mix.

I put together my wardrobe for the trip and figured out what lanyards I wanted to take and also decided that with one outfit, I'd wear my turquoise nugget and tiger's eye necklace. I paired a number of lanyards with it and wasn't happy with them, so I decided to make a new one specifically as a complimentary piece with that necklace. I had a tiger's eye lanyard that I've never been particularly happy with, so I unstrung it for some small tiger's eye beads and used a set of longish, rounded end barrel turquoise beads with them. Also made a pair of earrings with the nuggets and the last of the Pamada beads.

Well, still have more packing to do and an early morning. Hope you have a great week!

Getting Ready for My Trip

I've done a lot of washing, and between loads completed a couple new lanyards and put the hardware on some others that I'd put aside complete but for their clasps, etc. Got in a short trip to Global Beads this morning, and picked up some new turquoise because I had some ideas and not enough turquoise to make what I was thinking of.

Here's one of the pieces I've made with one of the new turquoise strands, and some tiger's eye beads I've had for ages, it seems. I love how these colors look together - it has a vintage feel to it - and maybe an ancient middle eastern flavor? Not sure why I think "Persia" when I look at it. Used up all of my purchase of that size/color of turquoise with it and *whew* it came in at 28" which is the shortest I find comfortable for a lanyard necklace.

I've 'post dated' as couple posts for next week so the blog won't be 'dark' while I'm gone - so don't stay away! Since I figure I can do one or two more pre-posts tomorrow which will take me through Friday, I'm going to leave this one up for tonight. I've also posted most of my lanyard pictures on my Flickr photostream and decided to send out a Tweet on Twitter to draw attention to it. Might make a habit of doing that, say, once a week or so. Bad idea or not?

Turquoise Nugget Mystery Partially Solved

Last night I was wondering what I'd had in mind when I bought the turquoise nuggets, tonight this is what I decided to do (click for larger view):

The gold spacers are Tierracast Pamada Beads from D&Y - they are really lovely gold plate with even and neat antiquing and finished with a bright shine and no tags or snags or seams on them. It's going to be 17" when I put on the final bits.

I still have plenty of turquoise nuggets left, so I may see how they go with the white howlite nuggets and some silver beads next.

The Mystery of the Turquoise Nuggets

Got these turquoise nuggets in the mail the other day. They're a pretty good size as you can see from the quarter in the picture for scale. I am fairly certain I had an idea in mind when I bought them. I have no idea now what that was. I think I'm going to have to document my order receipt print out from now on with "I'm buying these to make X"

Normally I shrink the image a lot (and you can always click it to see it bigger) but I left this one fairly large (sorry dial up friends and visitors) because I think the veining and bright mineral specks are very interesting. Also because, see that nugget in between 10 o'clock and 11 o'clock to the left of the quarter? On the reverse it's pretty thoroughly veined, but on the side that's visible in the picture it's almost pristine and I'm almost tempted to see if there's something I can do with a setting to feature that side of that nugget as a pendant.

I have some large white howlite nuggets and also some tiger's eye that I'm now considering using in a chunky necklace with the turquoise. Who knows, maybe that was what I was thinking all along?

Tonight's work in progress is a piece using green ceramic beads joined with a hand made wrapped loop chain - it's time consuming, so I doubt I'll finish tonight or even tomorrow night.

This shows the sequence of the pattern I'm using. I'm also thinking about making it a multi-strand, so it might be a couple weeks (next week I'm traveling out of town and won't be beading) before I have the whole thing done.

If you have been to any really special places in or around Orlando, Florida you think I should visit to bead browse, leave a comment!

Vintage Style Turquoise Necklace

I started this last night and finished it this evening. Turquoise was a very popular stone in vintage jewelry and I'm pretty happy with the way this turned out. It's about 20". I will make some earrings to match and maybe a bracelet, too. I am thinking about making the simple drops a bit more ornate or adding more ornate ones in-between the simpler ones.

I decided that the necklace I made last night was too long, so I shortened it to collarbone length and made a bracelet out of the leftover links. It's a very pretty set. Rather delicate because the eyepins are a pretty fine gauge - probably would have been better to use wrapped loops and I will next time.

I'm now pondering what to do next...I may do another rondell pattern lanyard.