They just keep coming!

After the darn learning experience which resulted in the gratifying 'Disco Lemonade' necklace, I've gotten very enthusiastic about the dodecahedron beaded bead! It's a LOT easier to make when using beads that have a hole through the center, as opposed to through the top like the teardrops. Far easier to keep track of where you are in the beadwork, how many stitches are left, etc.

Usually when I get all enthusiastic about a beading idea, I make perhaps two more of a similar type, then end up making some other piece in my queue of ideas. But after that first bead, I immediately started the next, this time substituting roundish 4mm orange/pink faceted glass in place of the teardrops, with orange, pink and lavender embellishment beads, stringing the finished bead onto a simpler necklace of lemon-drop glass beads. I still used a core bead. Feeling fantastical, I named it 'Citrus Lips'.

Then I began to stray farther from the pre-designed pattern, fortifying and accenting the many holes in the beaded bead, eliminating the need for a core bead, and strategically using colours to play up the shape of the bead. The first one was in glossy and matte black, accented with hot pink.

The second time I made this type of bead, I used transparent faceted orange glass, accented by clear citron yellow to open up the feel of the bead. I call this my 'Hot Citrus' bead, and it reminds me of all that CSI: Miami I used to watch--the overall quality of the show may be questionable, but it was undeniably one of the top three most beautiful shows on television.

In the third bead, entitled 'Hot Raspberry', I used sparkly black beads and the same hot pink as in the first bead, eliminating the matte black and resulting in a mostly-pink bead with hints of black peeking out.

I left the glass behind for some shiny hematite rounds in the latest iteration of this design. Hematite looks a bit like black silver, or iron cleaned up and decked out for the prom, so I paired it with matte black and shiny silver accenting the holes. It makes me think of supervillains in their ominous but oh-so-cool supersuits which must ALWAYS have something glowing. The finished bead looks like black, but the hematite bridges the gap between the shiny silver and the dark black, giving it a hint of sophistication.

My vacation visit to Beads Amore

A few months ago at my local bead shop, I saw a necklace made from hazy aqua crystals paired with the most intriguing glass pearls. At first glance, they appear to be the classic ' tahitan black', but upon closer inspection, multiple hues come out to play, depending on the beads with which the pearls are paired. In this necklace, the crystals brought out a faint aqua cast, with hints of green and purple. I was delighted, and determined to myself to get some of those beads. Unfortunately, the beader who made the necklace told me that the shop where she bought the pearls no longer carries them.
But a few weeks later as I vacationed in Indianapolis, I went to the shop  Beads Amore there, and what should I find but those very pearls! I immediately bought a pair, and, upon getting home,  made simple earrings with my few remaining 'pacific opal' colored crystals and the pearls.

I've seen my share of independent shops, but must say that Beads Amore is the most stylish bead store I've ever visited.

I also bought some hot red oval  glass beads, incorporating them into minimalist earrings just as I'd planned, but with the unexpected addition of small black crystals. Black Ice and Red Fire, I call these earrings.

I couldn't resist getting this intriguing focal bead made of hypersthene, a chatoyant stone almost like a sable-brown labradorite, and pairing it with some mother-of-pearl coins I had in my stash at home.

Bead & Button Show Day 2 Part B

When it got near 4 pm, I got into the neverending line which mercifully moved quickly. Then I was in the show floor!
Trying hard to manage my bubbling excitement (I'm here, I'm finally here, look at all the BEADS EVERYWHERE!!!) I followed my plan to start at the FIRST of the show's 12 rows, instead of the last like I've always done before. Distracted by the line of booths along the facing wall, I stopped at Christi Anderson's Elemental Adornments booth to admire her staggeringly detailed silver clay birdhouses (her impossibly blue-eyed son seemed to remember me from last year--maybe he loved my necklace too) and at Andrea Guarino-Slemmons' booth, where I always want to buy several of her signature beads, each one costing as much as my plane ticket. But a simple black feather bead on her table caught my eye.

At only $15, it was well within my price range, and it felt special, as if I had an important design that needed this feather to be complete. Being a good girl, I didn't buy it right away, but following my plan for the show, wrote it down on my list of possible things to buy (I bought it the next night) while chatting with her a bit. She's very personable.
Barbara Becker Simon of the glass-fish fame, remembered me as well, asked where my necklace had gone and when I told her it had sold, exclaimed ruefully "You didn't tell me it was for sale!" Maybe I should think up some graceful way of letting more people know upfront that my pieces are for sale.
Despite rarely using cabochons, I succumbed to the temptation of some magical-looking 'dewdrop' clear dichroic cabs from Karen Nan. I'd purchased a dreamy large piece several weeks prior at Beads on Parade, the shop where I teach, and used that as a justification for buying these. "I'll put them together in a bead embroidery piece" I told myself.

Being dichroic of course, the photo doesn't nearly capture their beauty.
And at last, after loving chalcedony from afar, I bought my very own half-strand of irresistibly hot pink briolettes! Even though strands of chalcedony can be found on many a bead show table, historically, the price has always been too high for my cheapskate side, and I could never make a colour selection, but these bright fuschia ones hit a high note in my designer's brain somewhere--I just knew this was the right thing to buy.

One of the things that made me do a double-take in the Bead Dreams exhibition was Robert Jennik's clever new design--glass nails! He had done a set of what looked exactly like metallic dark silver nails, bent in various contortions, but in glass! At the Knot Just Beads booth, he explained the thrill of making little things generally perceived as worthless (nails), and elevating their desireability simply by changing the material from which they were made, from metal to glass. I could not resist picking up a clear one.

After the show floor closed, I took a few photos of my newest acquisitions back in the comfort of my hotel room.

More to come later!

Shimmerstones as published in Step by Step Wire Jewelry!

The other day while paging through Step by Step Wire Jewelry, what did I see but my very own shimmerstones, published in the Cool Stuff department! I had sent them in for consideration a few months ago, but didn't know the issue had gone to print. When you're waiting for months, you tend to feel like you're always going to be waiting 'just a few more weeks' until it hits the stands! SO EXCITING!