March Monthly Find at Sundancegems

Green jewelry of a different kind for St. Patrick's day.

Every month Ruby Lane lets its shop owners feature one item as a 'Monthly Find', and a randomly selected list of such items is sent out in an email to all its registered shoppers.


This is my monthly find for March ...

The lush rain forest green and earthy brown African Green Opal flat squares and coin, are all connected with corrugated Copper beads to create this bracelet. At the toggle hangs a green Rutilated Quartz bead and a Copper bead charm. The matching earrings are made with the African Opal squares.

This set is currently for sale in Sundancegems, ask me about it. 

Check out the monthly finds from all other Ruby Lane shop owners as well, you never know what you might see, and like and want!

Metallite Beads - check it out!

I used a gift certificate I received for Christmas to Artbeads.com to buy nothing but Metallite beads. What is Metallite you ask? It is a new product made in Korea by ZambaPro and offered for sale by Artbeads.com. With silver prices climbing higher every day, I thought this could be worth checking out.

As I shopped for these beads, what struck me most was the wide selection that was available. There were animal beads, floral beads, alphabet beads, spacer beads and beads in a variety of geometric shapes. Each bead was intricately marked and looked very nice. I made my selection and waited patiently for my white bubble envelope with its little purple packet.

I was pleasantly surprised when I received my beads. The beads were well designed and eye-catching. Very lightweight, after all they are made of plastic. Each bead is created by pouring acrylic plastic into a mold, then electroplating the plastic bead with a metal finish. These Metallite beads sold at Artbeads.com are subject to an extra plating process to produce a high quality product with increased durability. Light weight and light on the pocketbook too, you got to love that.

Because of their light weight, they were great for earrings. If you like large chunky earrings, you could use the metallized beads and still feel no weight on your ears. Look at the two pairs I made. I think they turned out beautiful. They are currently for sale in my Ruby Lane shop, Sundancegems.

Kyanite Raindrop Earrings

                                                                      

Lapis Lazuli and Lemon Quartz Sunshine Earrings

The findings used for these earrings are not of Metallite, only the beads. You can read more about the earrings at Sundancegems.

I think they are also great for long necklaces. We all know how metal beads can add tremendous weight to long necklaces. So I tried one, take a look! The gemstones added some weight to the pieces of jewelry made from Metallite to give it a nice substantial feel. Without the gemstones the pieces would have been too light and feel too much like costume jewelry.

Long Sponge Coral Necklace and Earrings

Metallite provided a nice change from the expensive metal bead and Artbeads.com has now introduced a new line of Metallite beads in gold. (Note to self: get some).

If you are looking for inexpensive gold and silver colored metal substitutes for your jewelry designs, also try out their line of gold plated pewter beads and silver/rhodium plated pewter beads. Besides their beauty and variety, these beads are made in the USA and lead-free!

Disclosure: I am not being paid by Artbeads.com for my endorsement of any of the products reviewed in my blog postings.

I have arrived! It is official!

Back in November I submitted an entry to the 'Inspired by Art' challenge conducted by Stringing Magazine. The necklace was originally made in response to the September challenge by Art Bead Scene based on a painting by Wassily Kandinsky. Kandinsky was a Russian-born artist, one of the first creators of pure abstraction in modern painting and is regarded as one of the originators of abstract painting.

Collection of Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute, Museum of Art, Utica, NY 56.42

http://www.mwpai.org/museum-of-art/

But as I could not figure out 'Flickr' in time to meet the deadline it was not officially entered. Then came along the Stringing Magazine challenge and since I had a piece that was 'Inspired by Art' I decided to enter my necklace.

In January I received an email from Stringing Magazine telling me that my entry was selected as the Editors' Choice winner! Wow! How about that! I was honored, thrilled and excited to say the least and then I waited patiently for the issue to be published.  Yesterday, I received my Spring 2010 issue of the Stringing Magazine and there was my necklace on page 9!

The focal piece of my necklace is a lampwork bead made by Mona at Monaslampwork. I chose Mona's bead because it contained pretty much the same colors used in the artwork by Kandinsky. To capture the splashes of color on the canvas, I used Mandarin Jasper rondelles, red Jasper rounds, black Onyx rings, Lapis Lazuli coins, faceted drops of Imperial Jasper, branches of black Coral and tiny Mookaite Jasper rounds. The clasp is a round black Onyx toggle.

Congratulations go out to Joy Masters (1st Place), and also to Angela Glascock and Alyce Shepardson, who tied for 2nd place.

If you would like to take part in similar challenges, the next one by Stringing Magazine is titled 'Night and Day' and the deadline for entries is March 1, 2010. So get your entries to them, I have already sent in mine.
Happy Valentine's Day everyone, Enjoy your day!

It is time to party! Bead Soup Party, that is!!

It's Party Time!

Hi there partygoers, welcome!

I hope you are having fun.

Most of you have already seen the soup ingredients that I received from Mary McGraw, but here they are again. 

I started with some freshwater pearls in the right shade of green.  Added my soup party mix ingredients one by one, stirring well, add some red agate, sip some red wine, let it simmer. More stirring, more simmering, more sipping and some stepping back and some sitting down, and look what I made with it. I love it! I hope you do too! You can click on the pictures to see the details!

 

Thank you, Mary for such a beautiful and challenging collection of beads. I hope you had as much fun with the beads I sent you as I had with these. 

Thank you, Lori for all the hard work in organizing the Bead Soup Party, you did a great job in rallying all of us, pairing us all up, keeping us informed, and encouraging us. I  hope we do it again soon!

Enjoy the party! Enjoy the day! I will be at work most of the day, but will join you all again this evening.

Thank you for dropping in.

I send you all warm wishes from chilly Florida.

Regina

Click here to see a list of the rest of the partygoers!