Found Treasure ... Wonderful Blogs and Bloggers

For awhile now I've been a follower and reader of KJ's marvelous blog; KJs Beadacious Beads  at http://kjsbeadaciousbeads.blogspot.com/ .   I tend to follow many blogs but I do have my favorites,  KJ's blog is among those. 

On one of her recent posts KJ explored the problem of small bead storage, those tiny little seed beads that, when spilled, tend to go everywhere and  days or even weeks later we tend to find them lodged in nooks or crannies and sometimes just laying out brazenly in plain sight, right smack dab in the middle of the floor.  I find KJ's solution a great one as I have tried many different containers myself and have found many inferior, either their lids do not stay on (which ends up in those annoying spills) or they are too hard to open, or it is hard to see just what is inside of them. 

Photo above ... Though I have something remotely similar to KJ's solution mine are not individual, they all screw together with only one lid that goes onto the top container, a real pain when I want the beads in the center jar. KJ's containers each have their own lids, a real bonus.  Now I need to go out looking for them, they are made by Darice and Sears (in some locations) carry them.  I look forward to getting rid of this unit above (which is designed for pill storage) and get some with individual lids.

Hallelujah ... Another Project Completed !

Not long ago I lamented that I had purchased some foil glass pendants which did not meet my standard of perfection and was trying to figure out what could be done with them. 

I received a number of good suggestions one of which came from  Moonlitfantaseas   who recommended that I make a seed beaded bezel  to go around it and conceal the flaw.  So I beaded a bezel AND a bail for the pendant (yes I could have just used the hole that was a part of the glass pendant but I tend to make more work for myself than is necessary. LOL).  All this was done with tiny little 11/0 Delica beads and minuet 15/0's ( I was cross-eyed for 2 days afterwards).
Since I can't seem to leave well enough alone I then embellished the bezel with firepolished Czech glass beads and an assortment of lovely freshwater pearls.  

The swirls of copper and silver foils embedded within the glass pendant reminded me of   galaxies or a cosmic nebula so I named it "Pearl Nebula".  If you think of a better title please feel free to leave it in a comment and I will certainly consider changing the name.

Next I beaded a rope necklace using crystal seed beads with a copper lining to match the tiny beads that were used to construct the bezel with.

The Herringbone beading pattern consists of over 550 size 8/0 seed beads in copper lined crystal and Straw Gold with an aurora borealis finish.   Naturally I didn't have any end caps or cones that would fit this rope and when I tried making my own seed beaded end caps it made the rope so thick at the end that it would not fit through the beaded bail of the pendant.  OH BOTHER !  Fortunately I found these pretty antique brass flower end caps at Ornementea, they fit perfectly and look so feminine.

The end flower end caps are topped with solid copper beads that match the copper in the seed beads nicely, to this I've added my handcrafted extender chain constructed with Swarovski adorned wire links and 10 mm jumprings.  At the ends I've added my own handmade hook and eye clasp.

I think it came together well.  In this photo I had to pull most of the rope necklace back in order for the pendant to rest on the flocked display bust.

A Princess Bracelet or a Bracelet fit for a Princess ?

My latest creation was inspired by my 9 year old granddaughter who asked me to make a "Princess Bracelet". I thought all my bracelets were fit for a princess, so I asked her what she thought a princess bracelet should be. Her response; "Lots of pearls and gold !". Simple answer.

So I went through my personal supplies and found a hank of creamy white pearl seed beads (glass of course and made in the Czech Republic but the closest things to tiny real seed pearls that I had on hand). In my seed bead collection I found a tube of gold Charlotte beads #14, teeny little things, and with their silver lining they really sparkle. To this I added Czech glass 3 mm round beads in a white Opal finish, and some luscious Czech firepolished glass beads in a deep ruby or garnet red just for a splash of elegant color...but not too much color, must let the pearls and the gold stand proud. A search through my button collection found a package of gold tone buttons that I purchased years ago but never used. True the button isn't real gold, it isn't even metal, it's plastic but it has a lovely design to it and was made in Italy...that could explain why I liked them so much.

Photos above and below...I can't seem to get the color calibrated on my camera. The top photo was taken with the camera set on Auto, while the bottom photo was shot set on the portrait setting. The background color of both should have been a lovely pale sky blue. But as you can see the top photo looks like a blue gray and the bottoms leans toward turquoise blue. (Oh and the very 1st photo was on a mossy green background, just in case you're wondering.)

So what do you think...is this a Princess Bracelet or not ? And yes it is in my Etsy shop for the astronomical price of $12...oh am I going to get rich or what? LOL