Boundless!

Andrew Thornton's word of the week is BOUNDLESS. 

To me boundless means unending, without boundaries and without limits. 

It reminded me of this unending necklace of cultured freshwater Pearls that I had made some time ago. These pearls were of a unique shape - little cylinders - and I thought they would give a new meaning to the traditional string of pearls.

Boundless Pearls

Andrew invites you to create a piece of jewelry, a work of art, or take a photograph that best captures what this word 'boundless' means to you.

Giveaways Galore!

Here are some great giveaways happening this weekend, so take some time to visit these blogs for some fabulous prizes.

First stop, say Hi to Andrew, back from Tucson and giving away some of his famous family's newly unveiled beads. These goodies are from Green Girl Studios, and my favorites are the peacock toggle and the little elephant charm. What a wonderful collection!

Picture courtesy of Andrew Thornton

Second stop, say Hi to Carol, she is giving away one of her gorgeous signature bracelets. I have not quite got the hang of making these wire beads, so to win such a bracelet would be awesome.

Picture courtesy of Carol Bradley

Third stop, say Hi to Julie, who is eagerly awaiting the arrival of spring and giving away this unique and charming bracelet, made using the flattened bowl of a vintage silver spoon.

Happy weekend everyone, I get three days off! Bankers, what can I say! But I got to get working on my taxes, so it will not be much of a holiday.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I hope everyone has had or is having a great day today!

Last week I posted about my entry to the Happy Mango Beads Valentine's Day contest 'Bead My Valentine".

Today the winners were announced...

And the best in show award goes to none other than Dawn Marie Douchette for her intricate and romantic necklace. So beautiful, so delicate. Congratulations, Dawn! Now I can say, I knew her before she got famous!

I, too won in the gemstone category for my ' A dozen Roses for my Sweetheart' bracelet. So exciting, I am thrilled, I won a $25 gift certificate to Happy Mango Beads!

You can see all the winning entries in the different categories, and all the entries are posted on FaceBook by Happy Mango Beads, they even have all the entries in a cool video.

Be(ad) My Valentine! - My Entry

Not too long ago I posted about the Be My Valentine contest being sponsored by Happy Mango Beads.

Today I would like to show you the piece I entered...

I call it a dozen red roses for my sweetheart!

What do you think? 

What do you get for your sweetheart on Valentine's Day? 

My Soup Partner Suzette

If you are a regular bead blogger you certainly know about Lori Anderson's Bead Soup Swap Party! Today I want to introduce you to my Bead Soup Swap Partner. I will be sharing my Bead Soup with Suzette Bentley of Ellie's Bijoux.

Suzette's has been designing jewelry for a few years and in 2010 embarked on her website and blog. 

Take a look at the beads and findings I received from her for my Bead Soup Challenge. Gorgeous! Thank you, Suzette for being so thoughtful as to include jump rings and headpins as well. Love the selection, I got all sorts of ideas stirring in my head... Love the diamond shaped attic windows.

I have also picked out a few of my favorites from Suzette's collection of jewelry. Take a look...

I love the colors on the polymer clay pendant and the coordinating beads on the chain. The Vintaj butterfly completes it well.

I love what she has done with chain and faceted pearls. ingenious, very chic!

Looking forward to seeing what Suzette makes with the beads I sent her...

Happy Weekend, look at what I won!

Photograph coutesy of Birgitta

I wake up this Saturday morning, get the coffee brewing and sit down to check my blog... and I have news from Sweden, that I won! Yes, Birgitta picked my name as the lucky winner of nine of her colorful ceramic goodies... Thank you, Birgitta!

Birgitta's artistic talents caught my eye when she was picked as the Designer of the Week in the January Challenge sponsored by Art Bead Scene . Her entry, her bracelet ... filled with good vibrations!

Read about Birgitta's ceramics and colorful jewelry creations in her blog and check out her Boho Chic Etsy shop.

Lori's Wonderful Giveaway!

I am sure by now you have heard about Lori's wonderful giveaway! 

She is giving away the one thing you really need to make such great earrings!

An ImpressArt Letter Stamp Set from P.J. Tool & Supply.

Mixed-up Love Earrings by Lori

If you are like me and had a very busy weekend and are now sitting down to catch up, then you better hurry on over to Lori's blog - Pretty Things, and follow her instructions to get your name in the hat to win this wonderful letter stamp set. While you are at it, check out the other cool things that P.J. Tool & Supply have to offer us jewelry designers. I will certainly visit them soon.

I THANK YOU!

A hundred followers and growing... I am humbled and honored that you all choose to spend some of your time with me. I thank you for your visits and I cherish your comments. You have introduced me to a whole new world of gorgeous beads and creative beading and more wonderful people! I must also thank our generous bead suppliers, who make it all so affordable and keep it interesting and add to the fun that is beading.

I am also coming up on my hundredth post!
I am going to borrow a page from Malin's book and have a 100 Bead Giveaway soon.
Be on the watch for it, I am now in the process of getting it all together and I am finding beads that I had forgotton I had. Fun for me!

My heartfelt thanks to you all.
Have a great weekend!
Talk to you soon!

Lorelei's Fusionbead.com Blog Challenge... Ta da!

Back on December 22nd, Lorelei announced a Fusionbead.com Blog Challenge and I joined in because the beads and findings she suggested were not the ones I regularly use and tweeked my interest. I ordered my beads the very same day from both Fusionbeads.com and Beadaholique and inspite of the early order, some items have still not arrived, so I made do with the beads I received. I guess it was all of us responding to the challenge that depleted their stocks, and I think that's a good thing!

I used the Green Luster and the Gold Smoke fire polished glass beads, along with metallic teal/gold iris Japanese seedbeads and Ta Da!

Since I did not get my clasp on time, I decided to make it a long necklace with a double row of brass chain, linked to a double row of the beads. The beads I framed with brass bead caps and added some red velvet quartz rondelles. 

With the red and golden beads and the brass I was going for a regal victorian style. Would you wear this for a stroll in the royal gardens? 

It's long and can be slipped over the head.

So, I would love to hear what do you think?

I am off to work now, I will see you in the evening.

Have a great day blog hopping! 

You can see a list of the other beaders participating in this challenge in Lorelei's blog posting for the day.

Be(ad) My Valentine!

The happy people from Happy Mango Beads have just announced another beading contest (and it is not just for jewelry) for Valentine's Day inspired projects.

The categories that you can enter are...

Loves me like a rock - gemstones

Rose are red, violets are blue - flowers

I heart you! - hearts

Unchained Melody - chains, metal

Love Shack - wood, glass

Love makes the world go 'round - ethnic

Puppy Love - animals

Second Time Around - recycled, re-purposed

Peace & Love Man! - hippie, funky

Love thy Mother (Earth) - natural, organic

yes, there is a category for everyone... but only one entry per person. So get your creative caps on and let's get started, I plan to enter too! All entries must be in to them by midnight February 11, 2011. You will find all the information you need right here.

And the best part of these contests organized by Happy Mango Beads is that they do not require that you be a customer of their wonderful store or that you use beads from their store, but check out the store and I know you will love to shop from their interesting and unique collection of beads.

Get Educated at Beaducation

If you would like to improve your beading skills, learn a new technique, or find out the correct way to perform some beading/jewelry making task, this is the site you need to check out. It is called Beaducation and it is such a treasure trove of information.

You can shop for tools and other supplies...
Along with plenty of free how to videos and written guides...
and plenty of online video classes both free and at very reasonable prices...

And this week Andrew Thornton's Thursday giveaway is a chance to win a class at Beaducation. The lucky beader will take the Sit and Spin Riveted Pendant class by Steven James. Hurry on over to Andrew's blog to enter for a chance to win, the deadline is midnight on Monday January 17th.

They also have two special deals this month on classes on how to make beaded beads... very interesting!

I knew it, I knew it, I knew it....

And nobody really listened. I, now have a scientific study backing up something that I have known all along... Housework is bad for your health.

Raising your blood pressure 

Read the conclusion of a study done by the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine shows that cooking, cleaning and shopping (Do you think shopping for beads would do that? maybe? excitement? joy?) caused the highest increase in blood pressure among adults who also managed a day's paid work.

One very good reason for more beading and less cleaning!

Guess how I spent this Saturday morning? Yes, I vacuumed, I mopped, I did laundry and I did not bead.

The King of Petrified Mud!

Did you know that Jasper was petrified mud? Petrification is the term used when organic material turns to stone. Mud is just an organic soup (I like the way the word soup has been used in 2 of my 3 posting this year, got bead soup in the brain! can't wait!) that turns to stone, a process that takes over 100 years...

I love Jasper!

I love the variety of colors and markings found in Jaspers from different locations around the world. The wide range of colors and markings are caused by different combinations of various elements, such as Iron, Copper, Manganese, etc.

So what better topic to write about than to introduce you to the many lovely Jaspers available to beaders and some of the jewelry I made with these beautiful gemstones.

I start with the King!

Owyhee Jasper

Owyhee Jasper Necklace with Champagne Freshwater Pearls

Owyhee Jasper comes from the privately owned Owyhee Gem Mine in Southern Idaho close to the Oregon border, and obviously derives its name from the Owyhee River. The Jasper looks much like the desert landscape it comes from, and pieces with the 'blue sky' are valued higher than those without. You can see why it is known as the 'King' of Jaspers.

The blue and brown Owyhee Jasper looks great with Copper

Owyhee Jasper Earrings with brass filigree leaves

These earwires are from Shels Jewelry Supplies handmade by Michelle. I love them!

January is National Soup Month!

Did you know that January is National Soup Month?
Did you know that January 22 is National Soup Swap Day?
What do you do on National Soup Swap day? Make soup, of course!
You make a big pot of your favorite soup and you call up some friends. That's what you do! I love soup! Who doesn't? If you want to have a Soup Swap Party, you will find instructions on planning it here.

So how do Beaders celebrate National Soup Month? By throwing a Bead Soup Swap Party, of course!

Hurry on over to Lori Anderson's blog and sign in if you want to join in. This will be my third Bead Soup Party and I am looking forward to it. There are over hundred beaders participating, and the number keeps going up... This promises to be even better than the previous two, judging from the number of beaders signing up. You have till the 24th to get your name in to Lori.

Thank you Lori, for organizing this, and handling the monumental task of pairing us up, emailing us, and all the nitty, gritty details that go into making sure all goes well.

Here are pictures of the jewelry I made from beads sent to me by my previous Bead Soup Partners. It really is challenging to work with beads that I did not choose myself, but the results can be so surprising, so gratifying and beautiful too!

February 2010

My partner was MaryMcGraw and she sent me this stunning ceramic pendant and some of the beads you see in my dragonfly necklace.

June 2010

My bead soup partner was Shannon of Missficklemedia. She sent me the spectacular Jasper focal bead and the wonderful Shibiuchi flower clasp.

Looking forward to seeing you all at the party!

Happy New Year! It's 1/1/11!

Wishing You All a Healthy and Happy New Year!