Diane Fitzgerald Classes

November 13-15, I had the opportunity to go to Baton Rouge to take some classes with Diane Fitzgerald at the Bead Attic. I stayed with Karen, one of my beady Facebook friends, and she is a super person! In fact, everyone I met was wonderful...I love meeting fellow beady people - they seem to be such a nice bunch!

Friday's class was the Gingko Leaf necklace. I got three leaves finished...an anemic looking one, a normal one, and the crazy super-duper ruffly leaf (which I named the Gingko leaf on crack somewhere along the way). They were all fun to make, but the more ruffly they are, the longer they will take to finish...

Saturday was the Touareg Pendant. It's a project that's in her Shaped Beadwork book, but the version she teaches is different than what's in the book...It was so much fun for the math nerd in me...Geometric shapes always make me happy! I finished a triangle, a square, and a hexagon in class that day...

Sunday was the last day of class, and we made Celtic Trefoil pendants. We started by learning about making Pointed Ovals because the concept behind those is SO helpful to creating a trefoil. I had a blast making pointed ovals and am going to make a chain of them (below is my 1 1/2 link start to the chain). Then, we moved on to the trefoil...I got just over half of the trefoil finished in class, and I finished it last night.

I hope you enjoy them! I think they are going to get Diane back to teach next year (we already told her what classes we wanted...heehee...). If she's there, I will definitely be there, too!! If you ever get to the Baton Rouge area and need a bead shop, check out the Bead Attic - I loved it there!

Medieval Torture Device

Now that I'm playing with polymer clay, I keep finding projecs and things that I want to do with the clay. The latest project I saw was a mokume gane project in the November-December issued of Step by Step Beads.

The project has super step-by-step instructions that make it look like something I could really do without much trouble. The only problem was that the project called for a plastic carpet protector (those mats with the spikes). Well, I live in a house without any carpet, so we don't have one...I don't think people at work would appreciate it if I cut a chunk out of one...And, I'm not going to buy one just for the corner I need to do this project.

Thomas and I looked out for acceptable substitutes while out shopping. We found something that looked like it might work at The Container Store, but it was $9, and I wasn't willing to spend that much.

Last night, while I was playing with clay, I heard Thomas rattling around in the garage. I didn't know what he was doing. Then, he showed up with what looked like a miniature medieval torture device. He had been in the garage drilling holes and creating a substitute "carpet mat" for me to work with. He even put it all together with screws in case I want to take some of the nails out...Looks pretty cool, doesn't it? Now to get creating...

Fun with Focals...Twisted Vines

Heather Powers of Humblebeads fame has had a challenge going on for the past week or so. Last week, she posted a different challenge every day...Each one involved different ways of working with focals in your jewelry.

I tackled Day 1 without too much trouble (Create a Horizontal Focal), Day 3 (Embellish with Jump Rings), and Day 4 (Chain Up Your Focal). Days 2 and 5 have made me think a little more. I don't usually do a lot with ribbon (Day 2) and creating a focal with findings (Day 5) stumped me a little.

But, tonight, I decided to tackle Day 5...I am hoping that this counts as enough of a focal created with findings...I started with a metal ring I got from Michael's (they are getting such cool goodies in!). Then, I got some wire and some really pretty Czech beads I had lying around and started wrapping the ring. I love how the ring turned out...But, I wanted to do something else.

I found a really pretty Humblebead that I thought went well with the loop and wired that into the center of the focal. Then, I had to make a necklace out of it...The necklace below is the end result. I used ribbon again because I just loved how it looked with everything, and a few Lazy Cat Beads on the chain portion.

The necklace will be listed in my new Etsy shop shortly...Check it out!!

Etsy!

Short post tonight...But, I wanted to be sure to get the word out that I have officially opened my Etsy shop! I have an Etsy Mini on my blog now, too - scroll down and you will see it on the left.

I got some items listed tonight and have more to prepare for tomorrow (my camera battery died, so I had to stop for the night...). But, there are a few more rings, some earrings, and a couple more necklaces on the way, for sure (they are in my desk and ready to go!).

I might dig out a couple of bracelets to list, too, but I don't want to go too crazy now, do I?

Another note, as I continue to make more polymer clay beads, I may list some of those, too. I can't seem to make just a few beads when I need them for a project, so some of the spares could show up in Etsy, as well (in the loose beads section).

Hopefully you like what's out there! I have a lot of great material to work with :o)

More Work

I got a lot of really nice mail today...a lot of beads from the Beads of Clay open house on Sunday, and then a few others that I ordered at other times...So, as I was putting things away, I saw some beads and got inspired.

First off tonight is a ring (yes, another ring) that I made tonight...I used a Macarroll button (thanks Lorelei for telling us all about her - she makes great stuff!) and a couple of silver beads. When you look at it from the right angle, it's kinda like a Muppet (or the money you could have saved with Geico) is looking at you...

Next are a pair of earrings I made with beads from SummersStudio. I LOVE her acorn beads! And, when I ordered the acorns, LeAnn also included a couple of round beads. When I was looking at them tonight, I realized that they belong together, and these earrings were the result.

Finally, while I was playing with some wire, I came up with an idea for the leaf charms I got from LeAnn. These are the CUTEST little beads ever...I don't know what makes them so precious (I want to say "ahhhhh" every time I see them)...they just ARE!

Anyway, I was playing with some wire and the blue beads and then remembered my Elaine Ray beads, checked them out, and saw these that are brown AND blue - PERFECT! I am so upset that I don't have pierced ears because I love these earrings...But, maybe they will go to a nice home?

'Cause that's what else is up in my life...I got my desk and office organized, and now I am working on getting an Etsy shop up and running. I think I have all of the basics set up...Now I just need to list items - that comes this weekend...So, by Nov 2, I should have a shop! Cool, huh?

Hope you are all having a great evening! We are trying to stay dry and hoping that no tornadoes visit us as the front moves through...It's supposed to be super rainy all night and tomorrow (after a rainy day today...)...There is no in-between here...Super dry or super wet - you choose...

Ring-a-Ding-Ding

After reading Lorelei's button ring tutorial today, I knew what I had to do...Stop at Michael's on the way home and do some shopping! As often as I am at Michael's, I hadn't seen the ring blanks, so I wanted to get some and see what I could come up with. And, when I got home, the fun commenced! I ended up making 7 rings, and it was a blast! One of my favorite parts was figuring out a way to use 1-holed beads to make rings without the wire popping off :o)

Check out the new goodies I made:

(Round Rabbit bead with silver spacers on top)

(Whirled Peas bead on top of Round Rabbit bead)

(Summers Studio hydrangea button and seed beads)

(Stone Studios bead, seed bead, and silver beads)(Summers Studio daisy button)

(Humblebeads wafer bead and seed bead)
(Round Rabbit bead and silver spacer beads)

An Explosion of Orange...

You know, I don't really have a lot of orange in my closet or bead stash (except for a few beads from SueBeads...), but I've been just been in that mode lately. Maybe because it's actually felt like fall a few times over the past couple of weeks? Tomorrow is supposed to be great - in the 50s tomorrow morning and the low 70s in the afternoon...Can it be? Wow!

So, tonight, after working with my seed beads for a while, I decided to sit down in my office and straighten up a little. Then, somewhere in the back of my mind, I had an idea. This necklace is what happened because of the idea. I used some more of the polymer clay beads I made last weekend, as well as a few beads I got from Cindy Gimbrone in one of her blog giveaways (woo-hoo! free beads!). After adding the chain, I added a little charm dangly and a couple of Swarovskis (who doesn't love a little sparkle?).

I am SO in love with this necklace. I think I might have to make some more beads this weekend...Maybe not orange, black, and white, but using a similar idea...We'll have to see what happens - I also have a seed bead project I am working on, and some Halloween stuff to work on...Maybe I need to adopt LeAnn's scrap paper idea - scribble my ideas on a piece of paper, and when I am ready to start something, I will pull out a piece of paper and see what's next :o)