Friday, June 29, 2012

Cats and Crystals

The theme for week 6 of Fusion Bead's Weekly Challenge was pet inspired jewelry or jewelry made for a beloved pet to wear.  I love my pets too much to dress them up human like, so the only option open to me was to make something for myself.  

I adore cats, love crystals, and lately I've been feeling the need for jewelry that leans more towards the casual, so I combined vintage and contemporary Swarovski crystal and sterling silver with some super cute vintage beads and a cat themed HomeStudio pendant to make this very red necklace.

Most people may not consider jewelry that's been made with crystals, especially of the vintage sort, to be casual, but when compared to something like this, it is.


I skipped making hair accessories for week 7 because I was just too busy doing other wonderful beady and crafty things.  But, I did take the time to organize my tools.

Yes, that's a tea cup in the background and yes, I do consider caffeine to be a very important and valuable design tool. 

I'll be skipping over weeks 9, 10, & 11 in order to make some spectacular film inspired jewelry that will probably take me back into the elaborate and a little too over the top for the grocery store category.

Friday, June 22, 2012

Ugly Beadwork Is No Fun

Although there is a certain amount of grim satisfaction in it, deliberately creating ugly bead work, even if it is for a book, is just not much in the way of fun.

Anyway...I took a break from the latest bit of hideousness that I've been working on for Margie's book to make something quick, easy, and lovely for Week 5 of Fusion Beads Weekly Challenge.  I made these "Mere Mandalas" earrings a few weeks ago, before I was hit by a series of back to back migraines that had me completely drained of energy for a while.  Stupid migraines.


Hopefully I'll finish the necklace using a HomeStudio pendant, that I started for Week 6 over the weekend and will have pictures of it sometime next week.

In the meantime, happy beading and happy weekend!