Exciting Newbies

I love last night's yield from the studio. Joe was off at a basketball game, and I had the house to myself, and a lot of time to work as we ate dinner early.  I was in the zone. It was one of those nights where the beads were speaking volumes and I listened to what they had to say. Each of these pieces is unique and interesting.

The bracelet above is so sweet. The pewter bee/flower clasp from Green Girl studios acts as the main focal. I added Elaine Ray ceramic bead cones, with some Indonesian glass beads in very muted spring colors. At first, I made it too big and had to cut down the beading wire about an inch. Now it's perfect at about 7.75".

The necklace was fun and simple to put together. You can't see it very well in this photo but the Eri Pottery pendant is double -sided, and has a groove around the outside, perfect for cording.  I took a piece of crepe cording from Ornamentea, and pulled it through a large holed ceramic round from Keith O'Connor, leaving a loop. I cut a section of hemp cording, folded it in half, thread one end through the silk cording loop. Wrapped the cording around the groove in the pendant and at the bottom, formed a larks head knot, and then tied a very tight overhand knot so that the hemp cording will not slip off the groove. Added a few beaded dangles, and trimmed the hemp. I pushed that ceramic round down tight against the top of the pendant. Formed a simple knot in the crepe cording.  SIMPLE!

This necklace above I started a few nights ago but had the stitched heart from Elaine Ray up on one side and that house connector on the opposite side, with chain hanging between the two. The heart kept flipping over. I set the whole thing aside and thought about it a few days. Last night I revisited it, and used the heart as the front focal, and balanced the two sides with some other ceramic beads.  I love the 3 different types of chain in this piece.

And finally this Amber and green bracelet was inspired by one of Magdalena Ruiz's lampwork focals which I just got in the mail finally this week. I ordered a boat load so you'll see them cropping up in my work from time to time.  I hand-knotted some faceted turquoise rounds , and some indonesian ivory-color glass beads  and used some findings from Vintaj Brass Co. Love how it turned out, and this is one of my most favorite color palettes to work with.