Just a quick post to let you know that I am teaching two classes this Saturday the 14th. The morning class is my Ritzy Rivoli Earrings.
These earrings are great fun and work up pretty quickly. This pattern would also make a great pendant for a necklace. It’s a good intermediate project. Class starts at 10:30. The supply list is available at the Bead Angels website. Give Yvonne a call on Thursday to let her know that you are coming. 317-259-7677. That way I know how many sets of instructions to bring.
Saturday afternoon I am teaching an Oglala Butterfly Lace Bracelet. This is a fun variant on netting that makes a wonderfully dimensional and airy bracelet. 
This is a good intermediate project too. This class starts at 1:30. It should be a fun day. The store offers a discount on supplies purchased on the day of your class. And, as always, you are welcome to bring materials from home. (But you know you won’t be able to resist the allure of the beads once you get there…)
Come join me for either or both of the classes. It will be a fun day. These are my last classes for the month since I am busy prepping for the Stutz show on the 27th and 28th of April.
While I was ordering supplies for my kits for the workshop, I decided to order myself a little treat. I purchased two tubes of the new Preciosa Twin Beads. I wasn’t quite sure what I was going to do with them, but I figured since I was having so much fun playing with the Tila beads, I might as well give them a shot. So, yesterday afternoon after teaching I decided to take them out for a spin. Here’s what I have done so far. 
This bracelet was sort of a mutant peyote hybrid stitch. I like how it looks. It has a sort of masculine vibe to it. I don’t know if that’s the colors or the texture of the stitch, either way, I think it works. My tension is a little wonky, but it is definitely worth experimenting further. 
These little flower motifs are super easy. I decided to take them one step further and see if I could link them as I went…
Success. I don’t totally love this color combo, but I think this is also an experiment worth pursuing. Now I just need to order some more of these little beads.
I thought you might enjoy a few behind the scenes peeks at the kit making that went on last week. 
These are the sparkly bits from the Big Bling Mandala kits. It was so much fun seeing these combos actually made up into earrings. I don’t think there was a dud in the bunch. 
Here are all the baggies of metal bits from the Mandala kits. This kit had a lot of parts. 
Little baggies of Tilas all lined up and ready to go. I was surprised that everyone finished their bracelets in class. It’s rare that I teach something that actually gets done during class time. It was fun to see these combos get worked up too.
There is something satisfying about kit assembly. I don’t have to do it that often, which is good since I usually order more stuff than I need. I haven’t quite mastered ordering just what I need.
Just a few last notes on the bead challenge. I finally had a good day to take some last pictures. 
Here is a little experiment from my trip to Florida. My friend Kathie made some awesome little hops flower earrings using the long Magatamas. I haven’t had a chance to take the class from Kathie, so I decided to experiment for myself. They are close, but not quite as cute as hers.
These are the pear rivoli earrings that Kathie taught at the Bead Society Spring Workshop. Since I was busy teaching, I couldn’t take her class, but I did buy a kit. They were super fun to put together, and I made my own ear wires!
Perhaps I should have named this post Kathie is awesome. This is the bracelet that Kathie taught at the March meeting for the bead society. It is Wampanoag stitch. Since I wasn’t in town for the meeting I had Kim pick up a kit for me. This is counting as my learn a new bead weaving stitch challenge. I definitely hadn’t done this before. I am not sure if I will ever do it again, but it was interesting. It is not totally finished yet. I still need to add the clasp. My tension was a bit too tight, so the bracelet is rather stiff. But it was still fun to do.
And the final tally. In the month of March, I made 59 pairs of earrings! I can’t believe it. I keep scouring the house to see if I forgot about a pair to make it an even 60, but so far, I don’t think I have missed any. Even so, I am pretty pleased with what I have accomplished. Now it’s on to show prep. I have a big show at the end of this month, and I need to make something other than earrings…
Just a quick post to let you know that I will be teaching this lovely necklace 
at Bead Angels this Thursday the 5th from 11:30 -2. I will also be teaching it Saturday the 14th from 10:30-1. Check out the Bead Angels website for a supply list.
The challenge for day 30 was to make something with ribbon or cord. This was a bit of a challenge for me, especially since I was busy getting ready for the weekend workshop finishing kits and instructions. After I made my earrings, I realized that I had actually already done this challenge earlier in the month. I made two yarn bangles using some scrap yarn and two plastic rings that were used to hang scarves that I bought at Target. 
These were super easy to make. I made them both in one evening watching t.v. Each one took about 8 yards of worsted weight cotton yarn. Basically you make a larks head knot around the ring at the end of the yarn, leaving a 6 inch tail. Work half hitches all around the bracelet. When you get to the end, thread up the tails on to a tapestry needle and tuck them under the thread loops. Piece of cake. Since they are cotton I imagine that they will get grungy eventually. Since the cores are plastic, I think I can probably wash them, but who knows. Maybe I will be tired of orange by then. If so, I can snip off the yarn and try again with turquoise or lime green. Now I just need to find a stash of cheap bangles…
But back to the earrings. I have been eyeing these earrings in Sherri Haab’s Beaded Macrame Jewelry book for eons. It was good to have an excuse to finally make them. 
These worked up pretty quickly. I already have supplies for another pair all laid out and ready to go.
As for the catching up, I finally got some pictures taken of the stragglers.
These are my earrings for the Mixed Metals day. I realize they are not actually metal, but they are metallic. 
These are the earrings I made while I should have been making a hair accessory. I think that this pattern would make a fabulous bracelet. I think that’s what I will be working on next.
As I mentioned before, the challenge for day 28 was to make a piece inspired by an animal. I found my missing parts and managed to put the missing parts with the recently finished parts resulting in this.
A Peacocky pair of Big Bling Mandala Earrings. I still have two kits left from Saturday’s workshop, so there may be a few more of these appearing in different colors. Frankly these could work for the day 29 challenge too, but in the interest of sticking to my earring a day plan, I made these.
Sparkly Swarovskis are always date worthy. I don’t have much yellow in my wardrobe, but I am sure I can find something to go with them. For good measure, I whipped up a few more pairs of earrings Thursday evening. I have a little box of beads that I take with me when I do shows and such. It is filled with little handfuls of this and that, and is great for making earrings. It’s lots of fun to dig through the box and see what combos I can come up with. It’s about time to add some new beads to the box. 
I love red transparent glass. There is something mesmerizing about it.
Orange and pink together always feel festive. 
I have had these yellow pyramids for forever. They are a bit challenging to work with when stringing. But I think they work here. Purple and yellow are always a surprising combination.
I am guessing that these “coral” discs are actually dyed howlite or something like that. But I always like the color combo of coral and turquoise.
Last but not least are these wood and turquoise earrings. I like the earthy feel of these earrings. I found the wood beads at Michael’s on clearance several years ago. I bought all that they had left and they have come in handy many times.
The challenge for day 27 was to make a hair accessory. That didn’t happen, although I have made several hair accessories in the past year. For me, they don’t seem to sell very well. Perhaps I will whip up a pair of button bobby pins tomorrow.
Even though I didn’t make a hair doo dad, I did make earrings, two pairs in fact. 
These were an experiment to see if I could duplicate a Tila bracelet I saw on vacation. They are kind of cute, but not exactly what I was going for, so I tried again with different beads. 
I am really pleased with how these turned out. I swapped the 11′s for 15′s and the 8 for one of the 1.5mm cubes. It makes a much nicer circle. I will definitely be playing around with this some more.
The challenge for day 28 was to make a piece inspired by an animal. That didn’t really happen either. I worked on bezelling some tiny rivolis for a pair of earrings that are sort of peacocky. But now I can’t find the tops of the earrings… oops. They have to be here somewhere. Instead I will show you a photo of the super cool beaded photo holder I got a few weeks ago to add to my beaded animal collection. 
I am nuts over these African wire and bead animals. I have started a bit of a collection. So far I have a blow fish, a fabulous hot pink rooster, a tiny elephant, a snake, and this little chameleon. I keep an eye out for these things when I travel and when I am out and about. They are harder to find that they once were. If you know of any places to look, I am all ears.
I also made another variation of the Tila earrings from the day before, but I have neglected to snap a picture of them. I will get on that tomorrow if there is enough sun when I return from teaching. Here is a cute kitten to distract you. 
The challenge for day 25 was to learn a new bead weaving stitch. This is a pretty big challenge for me since I have tried most of the stitches out there in all of the configurations:flat, circular, tubular. I knew I had a bead kit coming from the Bead Society meeting that I was missing. The project is a bracelet in Wampanog stitch. I definitely haven’t tried that. So I will probably get to that Saturday evening if I can see straight after teaching all day. And I am extra inspired to try it since my student today brought her nearly finished bracelet and it was cooler than I expected. But I did make a pair of earrings. I decided to go with tubular right angle weave since I hadn’t done it in a while. 
I really like how these turned out. Can you tell I’m kind of obsessed with the hot color of the season? I just bought some orangy-salmony nail polish yesterday. And I have been plotting a long undulating crocheted rope in shades of orange. I just need time to string it up.
I am still anxiously awaiting my last order of supplies so that I can finish up the kits for Saturday’s workshop. I also still have to type up and illustrate my instructions for the morning class. I’m starting to feel a bit crazy…
Here’s a lizard for good measure.
The challenge for day 26 was to clean your jewelry. I was on a plane, so that didn’t happen. But most of my jewelry is beaded anyway, and not particularly easy to clean. I did get a pair of earrings done though. 
I found these shells while wandering the beach. The holes were already there and nearly perfectly placed. I added a few freshwater pearls. They are a great souvenir of a fun trip. I always look for shells with holes and almost never find two that are close enough in size to make a pair. I am feeling pretty lucky. Apparently it is highly toxic and ill advised to drill your own shells.
Things are getting a bit loosey-goosey now. It was a real challenge to keep up with this plan while on vacation. The challenge for the 23rd was to make a hand made finding. I didn’t bring the right supplies or equipment to do this while in Florida. But I have made many many findings in the past. I will probably whip up a pair of hand made earwires before the month is out for the sake of completion. I am itching to pick up that relatively new book on making findings that Lark put out last summer. Perhaps that will be my reward for finishing this challenge… 
Here’s a pretty Ibis to distract you from my lack of findings. I did spend some time finding shells on the beach…
The challenge for the 24th was to incorporate a textile into a jewelry design. This challenge was right up my alley. I love textiles and am always looking for ways to sneak them into my jewelry. Since I was still on vacation I decided to go the easy route and make some Ultrasuede feather earrings. I mixed them with a few Vintaj leafy findings. 
I am quite pleased with how these turned out. I am actually wearing a hot pink pair right now. I feel rather hip! I hope to make a few more pairs of these before my show at the end of April.
