beads

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What a Great Week!

I love it when my week ends with receiving swap goodies in the mail!
I received my Mini Coin Swap from Terrie……
I was going to crop Trooper’s nose out, but I thought it was cute!  He is head of quality control around here….the quilt passed 🙂  LOVE this little quilt!  Tiny “coins” of pretty printed fabrics make up the stacks of coins and the quilting on the border with varigated thread is incredible.
Below is the coin quilt mini that I sent to Terrie,  She received it so I can blog about it now.
“Scattered Paint Chips”
Then I got my first African Flower crochet block, from the African Flower Swap on Raverly……
….and with it was sent some recipe cards, a stitch marker and gorgeous purple ribbon.  I didn’t think it was my month to receive the crochet blocks yet, so I was very surprised!
Can you tell how addicted to these swaps I have become?
I also sent off some quilts this week, and can only show you sneak peeks until my partners receive them.
This one above is for the Anything Goes Mini Swap on flickr.
And the one below is for the Black and White + One Color, Not Square Mini
I was also very excited this week when I was featured on Delphi Glass’ facebook page because of this necklace…..
I submitted this necklace for a competition they are having called Ring of Fire, and they featured it on the page!! I was over the moon!  Please go and vote for me on their site 🙂  Just click on the “Ring of Fire” tab at the top right of their home page screen and it will take you to the voting page……I’d really appreciate it!
Have a great weekend!  
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And the WInner is……..

Congrats to Amy (During Quiet Time Blog) for winning the Island Birds Journal and the Copper Pendant in yesterday’s giveaway!  The winner was chosen by random number generator, and the lucky number was 6 for the 6th post.
Amy, email me your address please 🙂
Thank you all for participating and for all your kind comments!  I will be doing more giveaways now that I got the first one under my belt, so stay tuned!
Here is a picture of the entire journal cover for those of you who weren’t so lucky this time….
Also wanted to show you two new pieces that I put up on Etsy.
The first is “Bahama Sunburst”
It is about 19 inches long and is made up of a Jangles pendant and spacer bar, bezeled sea glass, my lampworked beads, silver wire components, sterling silver findings and gun metal chain.
The second one is Owl Love…..
I was so excited the other day when I made that “love” charm.  I embroidered the letters and the heart then sandwiched it in between glass and soldered it closed!  Very pleased with myself to be able to combine two of my passions like that!
This necklace also has a Jangles owl bead, my lampworked bead, gun metal chain, sterling silver findings and silk ribbon.  It is about 22 inches long.
Lorelei had a ribbon tutorial on her blog the other day.  You can find her blog in my list of “blogs you should check out” over on the right.  I had seen this done before and never tried it.  It makes a very comfortable necklace.  I forgot I had the necklace on!  I always wear my pieces for an hour or so to make sure they are comfortable, hang right etc…
Have a great day!
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Bead Soup Party Sneak Peek

Hello!
Hope everyone had a super weekend.  Just a quick post to show a sneak peek of some jewelry components that I sent to my Bead Soup Party partner.
Bead Soup Party is an online party between jewelry artists.  After you sign up you are assigned a partner.  You send your partner a focal/pendant, a toggle and some beads; you are sent the same and you both make a piece of jewelry with your partners goodies.
I don’t want to spoil the surprise for my partner, Janet, but she should be receiving this package by the end of the week at the latest, then I can reveal what I sent her.
The week of June 19th everyone will reveal what they have made with what they were sent.  You can check out the flickr group here to see that.
Lori over at the Pretty Things blog organizes the Bead Soup Party and is a great jewelry artist herself, so check out her blog while you are internet surfing.
I’ll be back in a few days to reveal some more necklaces, and my next post will be my 50th post!!! Hard to believe!  So maybe on my next post there will be a little giveaway to thank you guys that read my blog.
Have a great week!
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Birthday Celebrations!

I went over to Hope Town, a cay a few miles off the mainland of Abaco, to celebrate my good friend Janie’s birthday.  Her birthday is not until next week, but today was a good day for everyone to get together.
This card above is a funny card she got.  Inside it said “Happy Birthday, your margarita will be ready shortly”!!!
I don’t have to go far to find an animal to drag home……..
This little fresh water turtle wasn’t being cared for so he was delivered to me in a bucket.  Poor thing was so hungry that he ate half of my sandwich!!!…..not quite but he ate ALOT.
Look at the beautiful cake….too pretty to cut!!! Made by my other friend Kent, and boy was it ever YUMMY!!!  Carrot cake with cream cheese icing……mmmmmmmm!
I have gotten some work finished this week…….
This is called “Sea Glass Love”.  It is a mixture of bezeled sea glass, my lampworked pieces, bezeled coral, silver chain and sterling silver wire work.
Those swirled wire links I learned to do from the book “Totally Twisted” by Kerry Bogert.
Anyone that does jewelry needs to check out this book and Kerry’s blog.  Very inspirational work!
Have a great weekend!
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Some New T’ings

I have been fiddling around with some new stuff these past few days.  Needed a break for my imagination.
First I had to do some potholders for the Potholder Pass in Flickr, and I had this idea in my head to do the free form letters on them.  This was the outcome, and now I wish I had a set for me!
“Live Love Laugh”
One of my, many, favorite sayings!
I have also been itching to try some new things at the torch.  So I took some time this morning to try out a frog:
I thought it was okay for my first attempt.  Here is his back:
And I had tried a hollow bead a few weeks ago, couldn’t get it to work, but I am not one to let that discourage me, so I tried again:
It is not the perfect bead shape….BUT it is HOLLOW!!  I know some flame working pros are probably thinking “I can’t believe she is posting these ugly beads”, but since I either figure things out in my head or read a book, I am pretty proud of myself.
Also attempted a heart….this needs work:
Not sure what design that is on the front…..just a blob of color!
Thought I’d try a white on white color combo also, which should look cool with some bezeled sea glass pieces:
So, in a nutshell, that is what I did today.  Now they all need to sit in the kiln and be annealed……tomorrow maybe 🙂
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Happy Mother’s Day!!

Happy Mother’s Day to all the wonderful mothers out there!!!
My mom told me not to buy her anything for mother’s day, but she knows I don’t listen all that well, or she should know that!!  I got her a gift certificate to one of the local plant stores, and then I made her these……
So I listened halfway………guess I gave gotten better since my teenage years!
She loves to cook, so I thought these potholders would be perfect.  She is also more of a traditional quilter (okay she’s VERY traditional) and she would never make these curvy pieced potholders for herself.  They are made from Bahama Hand Prints fabrics.
As well as trying to finish orders I have been trying to build up some jewelry stock and get some components together for several jewelry swaps I am involved in.  One of them is Bead Soup Party (the button is over to the right of this page).  In this party I send a focal, a special clasp and an assortment of coordinating beads to another jewelry artist, I get the same in return and we both make something from that mix, adding our own special touches.
Here are some of the pieces I am considering for some of my swaps…….
I will of course add some of my flame worked beads to that mix as well, and maybe a copper & silver, riveted pendant…..i don’t know….too many ideas in my head!
The sea glass to the right of the picture, which I have not done anything with yet, I am trying to decide what to do with it.  When i was going thru my sea glass these ended up on the table together and I just loved the combo.  Here is a closer look……
Love these together, but cannot decide how to combine them.
Anyone have any ideas?
One of my other swaps for the summer is a Pincushion Swap and my pincushion was used for the swap tab!! I was honored and so excited!
You can sign up for this swap until the end of May, just click on the link on the right of my blog.  Or just follow the swap and see all the cool pincushions that are created!  It starts in June and runs thru the summer.  As you can see my swap addiction is worse than ever….I need help!
Have a great Mother’s Day!
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Etsy & Swirls!!!! I finally did it!

I finally did it!!!!
Several months ago I created an etsy account, with the intention of opening an etsy store, as another way to market and sell my work.  After opening the account I just kept putting off actually posting goodies to the store and making the store public.
Right now I only have 2 items there….for several reasons……
1. Every picture has to be re-sized and that for some reason is taking me FOREVER!!!
2. I have quite a bit of jewelry to post, which I need to sell, but I want to keep it all……..not sure what to do about that problem.
So stay tuned and keep checking out my etsy store, and I WILL get new stuff in there.
Another accomplishment I made this week was making a swirl on a glass bead!!!
I was over the moon!   Just because I made a few doesn’t mean I am a pro at them now either……gotta find that *perfect* part of the flame for every, single one and sometimes I mess that up.
It’s pieces of jewelry like the above photo that I can’t let go of.
I stamped “Keep Calm” on the front.  There is also a row of silver chain, czech beads, a blue glass bead of mine, a hanging fuchsia crystal and a silver toggle on the rest of the bracelet.
The inside of the bracelet says “and carry on”.
That is one of my favorite sayings, (“keep calm and carry on”) and I have to remind my self of this often…like when I am trying to put delicate swirls on glass beads!
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flower beads

Just thought I do a quick post about my new flower beads.
These are three of the best ones…..some were just complete disasters.
Not easy to find that part of the flame where you can work with the molten glass without everything turning into *mush*.
Also, had an idea for a pendant using my glass beads, discs and a silver pendant that I also made.
Well, that’s all for now……..itching to get back behind that torch!
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Easter Earrings

Happy Easter everyone!!
A few weeks back I ordered some of Jangles new beads called the “Woodland Collection”.
Ever since I got then I have been trying to figure out what to do with them.  They are sooooo amazingly cute that it has to be the perfect project.
So I was looking at the whole set today, trying to figure out what to do and the little lilac birds were just screaming “EASTER” to me, and I paired them with some white and yellow feathered glass beads I had made.
I have more ideas for the rest of the beads just need to wrap my head around the assembly part of it.
Go and check out the Jangles website and Jennifer’s blog.  She is one amazing ceramic and jewelry artist.
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A Beading Journey

For about two years now I have been “playing” with flame working.
It is something I had wanted to do for YEARS.  I got a kit for Christmas one year and was terrified to start the torch. Finally got the opportunity to go to Florida and take a class, then my husband announces that the Miami Boat Show is the same weekend.
We do dog rescue and traveling together can be complicated, so I told him if he wanted to go to the boat show he would have to go and take my flame working class, and come back and show me how to do it!
Being the wonderful husband that he is….he did it 🙂
Since then I haven’t played with it consistently until the last few months when I have gotten more involved in doing jewelry.  One thing I have realized is that mistakes make me better in flame working and it is all practice, practice, practice!!  Seems like those lessons could apply to a lot of things in life.
These pink, black and white ones are some of my faves.
I love doing dots and making feathers.
A lot of what I have learned (besides for what my husband taught me)  has come from reading books and watching dvds, but I sure could use a REAL class sometime soon to do some fancy stuff.
The disks have given me a run for my money, but I love the look of them so much that I keep trying.
I have been putting together some pendants which I will post in a few days…..need to take more pictures.
Here is a container full of a few days of playing.  Some are total disasters, and some are pretty good.  I hang onto the disasters so I can see my mistakes and my improvement.
My head is also filling with ideas for jewelry and adding some of these to mini art quilts.
The possibilities are endless 🙂