Three Months In One Of Some Color Fun

From top left to bottom right:  March, April, May

 March Color of the Month:  Aqua:
Fusion Beads chose "Aqua" to be the Pantone Spring 2015 color for March and this is one of my favorite Swarovski crystal colors to work with.  In fact, I have more shades of aqua colored beads in my stash than any other color, including violets and purples.
 

I used 4mm aqua rondelles, aqua opal daggers, and sterling silver rounds for the simple and elegant bracelet.

April Color of the Month:  Custard:
On it's own Lt. Topaz, the Swarovski equivalent of Pantone's "Custard," is a lovely, golden yellow color, but it looks absolutely horrible on me and that made it a hard color to work with.  Instead of struggling to make something that I wouldn't like or want to wear, I decided to use 6mm crystal Lt. Topaz butterflies as an accent and pair them with "Woodbine" (from Patone's Top 10 Men's Colors for Spring 2015) in the form of olivine and tan swirled 8mm fire polished rondelles.    

May Color of the Month:  Lucite Green:
What a fun color to work with!  The enamel flower charms remind me of a small mint green Formica and aluminum table my Grandmother had in her kitchen, and the chrysolite opal crystals of the shimmering sheer curtains she had throughout her house.     

 

30 Day Bead Challenge-Part 3

Days 6 & 9:  A Hollywood inspired piece and a lovely long necklace:
Mary Pickford is one of my favorite silent screen stars.  She co-founded a major motion picture studio, made a staggering number of films (approximately 230), and she loved fine jewelry.  One of her favorite pieces was a stunning 40" long pearl and diamond sautoir that she reportedly wore as an "every day" piece of jewelry.  It was also part of the jewelry she wore when she married Douglas Fairbanks.  You can see a photo of her wearing it on her honeymoon with him here.

Pearls and diamonds are the epitome of luxury, style, and sophistication, but they just don't have much appeal for me so I used her necklace as the springboard that lead to this: 

 This is more my style.  Amethyst Swarovski crystals, Preciosa crystal rondelles, sliders, Czech glass daggers, and seed beads.

Close up shot.

Days 10 & 11:  Skipping these.

Day 12:  Bicones!

I decided to make a broken 3 strand vintage Japanese pearl necklace into the closest version of a classic pearl and diamond necklace as I'm ever going to get.

 Ruby Swarovski crystals, powder rose Swarovski pearls with vintage Japanese pearls and clasp.

Day 13:  Make a jewelry design with a color of metal you have used before:  I'm skipping this one since there isn't a metal color that I haven't already used.

Day 14:  Find a bead that has been in your stash forever and use it in a fabulous new design:  That's exactly what I have been doing all along!   

I'll be skipping over the third week of the challenge so that I can work on Day 20's theme of celebrating Mother Nature and it's going to involve this little box here.

 

30 Day Bead Challenge 2015-Part 2

Day 4.  Favorite Swarovski crystal or effect:
All Swarovski crystals all my favorites!  Bead mixes are lovely to look at, and I defintely squirrel them away in my stash, but I prefer order and patterns over random bead placement so they are hard for me to work with.  But, that being said, I decided for at least one day to embrace randomness.

Wisteria crystal mix from Beyond Beadery.

Purple Haze crystal mix from Fusion Beads.  Unfortunately, this mix has been discontinued.

 

Day 5:  Skipping this one.

Day 6:  A Hollywood inspired piece.  Working on it!  

Day 7:  Go wild for wire!  I've been playing around with Viking Knit;  whether or not I have something worth showing remains to be seen.

Day 8:  Give your beading space a make-over:  Are they kidding?  I'm right in the middle of some challenges!  My beading space is, and will be a disaster, for quite a while.

 

 

When Pantone Gives You Marsala

I was a regular contributor to Margie Deeb's Color Reports and I've really missed them, so I decided that this year I'll be beading along with Fusion Beads as they feature one of Pantone's Spring/Summer 2015 colors each month. 

January Color of the Month:  Marsala:
What can I say about this dull, brownish, slightly orange, muddy burgundy color that hasn't already been said?  This has to be the least popular Pantone Color of the Year, let alone one that is suppose to be a color for spring and summer. 

At first I decided to completely ignore this uninspiring color and wait until February, but I'm proud to say that I gave it some more thought and decided to improve upon my designing skills by using a color that has very little appeal for me just to see if I could do it.  I'm happy to say that I created an incredibly beautiful and elegant bracelet that I love wearing! 

Burgundy Swarovski crystals, garnet & vermeil beads, lampwork rondelles.

February Color of the Month:  Strawberry Ice:

This fresh, warm, delicious peachy-pink color is much easier to work with!

Indian Pink Swarovski crystals and vintage pressed glass.

 

 

Coming soon-March Color of the Month-Aquamarine!

 

 

30 Day Bead Challenge-The First 3 Days

March is National Craft Month and that means Fusion Beads is hosting their annual 30 Day Bead Challenge.  It's never too late to start!  For a copy of the PDF calender click here.

Family, work, and a nasty back injury has kept me away from beading, and just about every other creative activity I enjoy, for far too long.  I'm super excited to be getting back into my Creative Life and I'm looking forward to the challenge of creating something new almost everyday.

1.  Eye catching earrings:

Made with leftover beads, chain, and findings from other projects.  Now my husband knows why I hang onto so many little bits and pieces.  I really do use them "someday."

2.  Favorite seed bead mix:

An all muted, neutral palette is an unusual choice for me, but this Delica mix is an interesting combination of amber and gray, with just a touch of olive.  The chain was an impulse buy from a local craft store.  It's sparkly and it was on sale!  How could I resist? 

3.  Gemstones:

I think this combination of Peruvian blue opals, carved crystal quartz, Cathedral cut fire polish, vermeil, and vintage Swarovski crystals is causal enough for working at a dance studio!

Close Encounters of the 6th Purple Kind

I know.  I know.  Long time, no post.  But in my defense I have been beading, beading, beading away.

Just a few days into Fusion Beads 30 day challenge my beading muse began bombarding me with ideas for jewelry that I'll be submitting for publication. I've had to say goodbye to the challenge in favor of developing ideas, writing tutorials, and taking pictures.  It's been a long time since I had anything published, and I'm looking forward to getting myself back into it.  

In the meantime I thought I would share with you a deliciously purple necklace I made using a Caldera triangle from Kate McKinnon's book Contemporary Geometric Beadwork.  It's the first in a series of necklaces that represents each of the 7 basic chakras. 

In other non-bead related news I just finished a 30 Day Belly Dance Challenge and I'm currently participating in a 21 day meditation challenge.  The harder of the two has definitely been the meditating.  I can commit to dancing anytime, but sitting still and training my mind to be quiet for as little as 10 minutes is taking some monumental effort, and in some ways is more exhausting and rewarding then dancing.

Also, starting in April I'll be doing a 28 day yoga challenge with fellow beadiac Jennifer Chaslow VanBenschoten.  Please join us if you can!   

National Craft (and Bead) Month

To celebrate National Craft Month the folks over at Fusion Beads are hosting a 30 Day Bead Challenge, and to get things started the first challenge is to make a pair of earrings. 

I was feeling a bit ambitious so I made two pairs using my new favorite Swarovski crystal color, Astral Pink.  Sorry the photos don't do this rich, exotic color the justice is deserves.  Trust me;  these earrings are amazing.

This pair is based on Fusion Beads "Maple Sugar Earrings:"

And this second pair is accented with Fuchsia crystals:

Tomorrow's challenge is to string up something simple, and for that I made a bracelet to match, as well as a quick and easy necklace to complete the set:

It's going to be an exciting month!

I've Been A Busy Beading Bee

Surprise!  I'm actually back to blogging.  Where have I been?  No where.  I've been here and beading like a crazy little bee.  But, what I've been working on are projects for Margie Deeb's latest book and sneak peeks are not allowed.

I can, however, show you these:  This first bracelet, "Miss Daisy" is what I made for Week 1 of Fusion Bead's Weekly Challenges. 

Next up we have Week 2:  Use a Crystal Mix in a Piece of Jewelry.  I paired their "Watermelon" mix with one of my favorite Swarovski crystal pearl shapes, the twisted petal, in peach to make this bracelet and earrings.  By the way, those earrings are a variation on a pair that I created for the Spring 2012 issue of Stringing magazine.  

The Bead Challenge Goes On

I'm still hard at work on some gallery pieces for Margie's Deeb upcoming design book but I still took some time out for the Fusion Bead 30 Day Bead Challenge. 

Day 5.  Incorporate Chain Into a Jewelry Design:   I did and the two designs I came up with were so good that I decided to keep them under wraps as future Stringing magazine submissions.  Wish me luck!

Day 6.  Create Your Own Palette:  This is something I do all the time.  Two of my favorites methods are coloring and playing with paint chip samples. 

 

Day 7.  Use a Different Metal in Your Jewelry:  I'm not a metal purist; if I like it I'll use it, so I skipped this one.

As for Days 8-11, they'll have to wait until next month.  

In other news, I joined A Grain of Sand's bead hoarder's club, the 12 month plan, and received the first box last week.  I'll post some thoughts and pictures later on in the week. 

30 Day Bead Challenge

To kick off National Craft Month in their own way Fusion Beads decided to have a 30 Day Bead Challenge and I decided to take part in it.  I'm right in the middle of 3 different projects for publication so my participation will be limited, but here's what I've done so far.

Day 1.  Make earrings.  And I did...two quick and easy pairs.  The triangle tops are made with Miyuki Delica blend #986, which is one of my all time favorites because it's made of varying shades of purples, greens, and golds.  I see a matching bracelet and necklace in the kind of near future for these.  I made my version of Fusion Beads "Poseidon" earrings, which calls for 8 mm Swarovski crystal bicones, in fuchsia and gold because that's pretty much all I had on hand at the time. 

Day 2.  Use Up Some Bead Leftovers:  This was a toughie.  I don't actually have bead leftovers.  Now, don't hate me because I'm organized, but I do really and truly but everything away after I'm finished with a project.  No leftover bead soup for me.  So I cheated and dived into my drawer of cane class beads and made myself this lovely bracelet.  

 

Day 3.  Learn a New Beading Technique:  Like I said, I do have some due dates to consider so this is going to have to wait until next month when I have more time.  I'd love to play with that new crystal clay I've been hearing so much about.

Day 4.  Organize Your Bead Area:  So I did.  And here are the before and after pictures to prove it.  Of course there's no guarantee that it will stay cleaned up for more than a day or two.

Day 5.  Incorporate Chain Into a Jewelry Design:  Maybe next month.  

Name That Crystal

What started out as a search for 15'0 Charlottes (aka True Cuts) lead to Suzanne Cooper naming a Swarovski crystal after me:

SaraBeth Summer Super Sparkle Shine Shimmer Surprise

I see this as violet with Titan as the custom over coating.

BTW, Crystal Titan is my new favorite Swarovski crystal color. A few weeks ago I bought some from Fusion Beads and I love it, love it, love it! I also bought some Purple Haze bicones, but was a bit disappointed in the color.

But, I digress. Back to naming new crystal colors. My name for Suzanne's crystal is:

Suzanne's Sultry Succulent Seductive Shimmer Glimmer