Coral before and after...

Someone gave me this. 

I wish I knew who to thank for these awesome red coral beads. 

I fixed the broken necklace and used a few strands for some fun experimentation. 

I made this beauty using the elastic I use for stretch bracelets. 

I just slip it on over my head. It's easy on and easy off. My mom will like that. I think I will make more elastic necklaces. 

These are two stackable bracelets that I made also adding turquoise and German silver cube like beads. 

Another shot

I'd say this was a successful refashion. I'd like to return the fixed necklace to its owner but can't seem to remember who gave it to me! 

It's so pretty! Needs to find its way home. I'll keep asking. 

I love a good refashion!

With or Without Pearls--A Refashioned Necklace

Before I had made this necklace into a double wrap length with these beautiful pearls. 

But when I went to refashion it, I took out the pearls and made it simpler. 

Which do you prefer?? 

Wholesale Order -- A Request for Sturdy Young Girl Earrings with Style

Oh boy! Here's an order where I was trusted to use my design powers to come up with earrings for young girls. This was challenging because I don't know exactly what young girls wear but very fun and flattering that she trusted I could deliver. Off I went. Pinterest and imdb.com looking at all the young stars of today to see what "the young kids are doing these days."

To keep cost low, I ordered silver fill earrings. To keep with the sturdy theme,  I ordered lever backed earrings instead of hooks. Hooks could slip out when jumping on say, a trampoline.  Not sure why this activity popped into my head but we go with it. 

Next I set my sights on color. Who doesn't like pink and blue. After a lot of playing around, here are the pairs I came up with. 

I hope they sell out in the first week!

Here is the rest of the order. So much stuff I couldn't get it to all fit in the photo :)

Stephanie Drapeau

Are you a fan of the beautiful Stephanie Drapeau??  http://www.stephaniedrapeau.com

I had an opportunity to gift this hot new actress my original tear shaped agate necklace through The Artisan Group. Check out her tweeting about our gift bag!

There's more! She just tweeted us all thank you's!!

Teacher Appreciation Week

I made stretch bracelet stacks for each of my sons' teachers this year. Gotta appreciate those that better my boys!!!!

Tis a gift to be simple...

We sang this song in chorus at my elementary school. Then, Yo Yo Ma played it on the cello at the Obama swearing in. So random that I remember this from 4th grade. Anyway....

A friend of mine graduated from high school recently so I wanted to make a present. I heard she liked blue so....

I wire wraped a blue Quartz with small faceted aquamarines on either side. There were many trial and errors with laboratories, pearls, silver beads etc but in the end, I settled on the dark blue and pale blue theme. I could have left it simple but I couldn't resist a little sassify-ing. I also felt like this was something she could get anywhere. 

I played around with embellishments. 

I thought about cutting the chain and adding a few gemstones on both sides. I thought about adding more briolettes. Then I found my kyanite stash. Perfect color match. 

The final product......

Pretty, original, and unique. Just like the recipient herself :). Congrats on graduating!

Thoughts? Should I have left the embellishments off? Let me know :)

How to insert line breaks in your Instagram bio

Holy cow this had been bothering me for ever! I hated how my Instagram bio had the words running together.

I tried to manually insert spaces but could not force a line break. 

A quick search on Google, (what did we do before Google????) and this link here:

http://www.lifeinlimbo.org/2014/08/27/instagram-tips-how-to-add-line-breaks-and-spaces-to-your-captions-and-bio/

And look 😁😁😁 I did it!

I did what the link said and started a fb post with the text from my bio. I then inserted line breaks in that space, copied and pasted back into the instagram bio. Tada!!!!!!

Pleased as punch. Now if there was a life style hack for parenting...

Today's Necklace--decisions, decisions

I need to make ten of the same necklace for a future press gifting event. I was playing around with some ideas and took these pic along the way. I wanted to use these pale blue jade beads I got at the San Diego bead faire. When I was adding the chain components, it looked very simple and sweet. 

I wanted the piece to have an edgier feel so I decided to add some pyrite in gunmetal to the other side. 

I could have left this just like a chain but I wanted to see what a pendant would look like. 

Hmmmmmm pearl? That always looks classic and elegant. But not too edgy. Pyrite??

I decided to go with the cool shaped pyrite bead stacked with a silver spacer and a silver toned pyrite. The finished necklace looks like this. Would you be happy to receive this as a gift? 

Easy DIY Teapot Necklace--no skills required.

Today, I wanted to post a necklace I "made" over the weekend.  I put "made" in quotes because really, what I did was walk into the craft store in search of a storage container, meandered onto the beading section, saw an impossibly cute package of tea themed charms and bought them.

I suppose this would look terrific on a charm bracelet or something more complicated but all I did was buy a16 inch sterling silver chain. The simplest one.

That was it. I put the teapot on the chain and viola. The perfect necklace for me. Why? Because I drink a lot of tea. I love tea. Its my go to drink. There's a cute tea cup in this package. That may be necklace number two.

Perhaps next time you  are at the craft store you will walk over to the beading section, find a charm/pendant you like and put it on a simple chain. I saw some adorable Alice in Wonderland ones, I saw Acorns for Wendy lovers from Peter Pan, I saw hearts, turtles, fish, dragons, and so much more! 

What an incredibly inexpensive way to make custom gifts for your friends!

I feel guilty posting this as a DIY.  But maybe someone will make a necklace seeing this post and have that "AHA that's so easy I could totally do that" moment :)

Happy snowy Monday.

Follow me for more fun and easy ideas or just pretty pictures of beads!

Beauties at the Bead Store

Today, I went to get 14 gauge wire to make some rings. I like these stack rings to make and give as gifts and I thought I'd buy the materials and prep everything and save the soldering for when I go visit open studio time at Silver Works at Glen Echo Park. 

While I was there, I visited with the beads in the case. Amazing. 

Check out these chrome diopside I didn't buy. 

These were stunning. As were these bessonite (a type garnet) 

The case. It has such fancy things, makes me want to drool. 

But wait. They had some other cool things today. 

I didn't get these either....

Rough green garnets. Big and chunky. I thought about 24 gauge gold wire or oxidized black wire...but I put them back. 

These caught my eye too. 

More green garnet, smooth and tubular. Could be macrame, crochet? 

These carnelian were cute 

But not exactly what I was looking for. Though looking at the photo now, I kinda want. 

These pearls I photographed because they are dark and baroque. Always good to have but again, I refrained. 

And finally, they had these lovely round faceted iolites. Not something I had seen before. They look black here but they are a pretty blue. 

A lovely trip to the bead store. 

Accent beads in Rockville. Such a happy place. 

David Yurman, I Love You.

David Yurman is one of my favorite jewelry designers. I love the chains, the stones, the rings... One day I saw a quadruple strand moss aquamarine necklace in a Yurman catalog and fell in love. But me, being sort of smallish, probably couldn't wear all THAT.  So off I went, on a quest to recreate. I wish I had the original picture. I will keep looking

Regardless, here is my David Yurman inspired triple strand necklace. And a selfie to boot :) 

Looks great with my usual, very casual style :) (so says me, taker of selfie and maker of jewels....)

Tourmaline Disks Go From Sloppy to Sassy

This refashion is, in my opinion, a drastic change and vast improvement. Early on, while I was trying the silk knot thing, I had (and still have) a hard time deciding on the string size. Sometimes the string won't fit when doubled on a needle. Sometimes the knots are too small and go right through the beads. In this case, I had to use a thin thread but the beads just wouldn't stay put on the necklace. I even double knotted which was not as aesthetically pleasing.

I made it long enough so I wouldn't need to use a clasp and because it was silk, it was very light and easy to wear. But the darn beads kept moving and sliding on the silk string because the knots were too small. That was a bit infuriating, even though it was my fault for the string size choice...big sigh. 

But then, after a while of thinking about it, mulling it over, turning it around in my hand, viola. 

A bracelet. These beads were meant to be close and next to each other. Not knotted separately on a string... For now ;) 

Citrine and Rock Crystal Necklace Gets A Focal Pebdant

A few years ago, I went to what I thought was a gem show but was really a mineral and rock show. Refusing to go home empty handed, I bought a few Druzy sparkling geode slices. I didn't know what to do with them and as my wire skills improved, I was able to add a stone at the center to make it more exciting.

I also had this very plain, wear with anything, rock crystal and citrine necklace on a gold chain. 

They were both within the same color scheme, and then the aha moment. Here is what it was:

And what it became 

Close up 

The Three Stages of Green Tourmaline Tubes

Sometimes I have a strand of beads and I know what I want to make right away. Other times, like in this case, it takes three tries.

First, I tried silk knots with a moss aquamarine pendant.

No. I didn't love it. 

Then I went from silver to gold and created a longer and wire wrapped piece. 

Still, no no no. 

I finally settled on a triple strand bracelet. Yes? 

An Elephant's Journey

Ametrine. I just found out this is a combination of amethyst and citrine--thus the purple/lavendar color to yellow.

This strand was so pretty with the purple and yellow ombré and I had this new ultra strong, no needle needed beading string to try. 

As the eye catching detail, I added this silver elephant. I have a thing for elephants. They bring good luck. I have a collection of them. It's better if the trunks are raised upward but regardless, elephants, in my mind, bring luck.

Sadly, the way I strung this necklace, the elephant  always showed its butt. No good. I needed to add a jump ring to make it lie flat like I forced it to do for this pic. So, knowing a this necklace had an ill positioned pendant, the editing began. 

First? The gemstones. The necklace was shortened to a bracelet. 

I like to mix green with purple. It's a thing I do. Not sure why. The bead that is on the silver circle is green, tho this photo is particularly dark.

What happened then, to the sweet, lucky elephant that kept showing its backside?

It jumped onto a crocheted necklace that I had just been working on, that was in need of a focal pendant.

A friend stopped by, saw the necklace and the elephant and took it home. She, apparently likes elephants too. :) 

The Fascinating Thing About Silver Circles

Blue faceted agate beads that almost look like marbles caught my eye at a gem show. I thought they'd make a cool necklace wire wrapped with silver and some silver pearls to go with the grey hues in the blue. I came home and created this:

I thought it was quite pretty but no bites. 

I added a few silver circles and wham! Sold at the next show.