New Line of Jewelry Available Online!

I just opened up my new jewelry shop on Etsy- Azure Seas. To my surprise, I was featured in a treasury this morning! Not only is that so awesome, I'm just shocked my jewelry wasn't buried, as I'd expected, so someone was able to find it for their treasury! Here's the treasury and some of my new things.

Spring Beading

I seem to have trouble remembering to photograph items before I turn them into jewelry! Thanks to Artbeads, I again have received some awesome spring-y items to try out. I chose a range of flowers, leaves, vines, pastels, and bright spring greens to make a range of pieces well suited to the changing seasons.

This first necklace uses these really cool felt beads. A friend of mine makes really cute needle felted creatures. Similarly (but not nearly as cute!) are these beads. I've modernized the look by combining the natural, fuzzy feel of the beads with clean lines of metal. A string of bright turquoise delicas finishes out the necklace to keep it from getting too big.

Next, I had to get my Swarovski fix! I chose to use a peridot twist pendant combined with simple wire wrapped crystals. I also made a wire wrapped bracelet using amethyst polygon crystal beads, along with some real amethyst faceted rondelles.

I chose a couple of neat leaf components. The first is a leaf pendant from Tierracast. I kept the design simple since the leaf is neat by itself. The other is another lariat (similar idea to what I did for the Valentine beading post). The toggle is a really cool leaf and branch design. I kept that to the front and mixed it with lime chalk turquoise, peridot crystal, and a simple chain dangle from the clasp.

After months of seeing the vine bails for the Swarovski briolettes, I had to give it a try. I went with a large, uber-sparkly crystal AB briolette with the silver vine bail. They're really simple, but pack quite a punch!

Finally, I made a ton of earrings, as usual. I've always wanted to try making earrings with the resin flowers. I did just that, and combined them with a bunch of miscellaneous bead caps and spacer beads I had stashed away. There's a copper and olivine version of the above earrings, some felt earrings to match the necklace, and finally, I tried some glass flower beads.

Right now, Artbeads is having a sale! More details HERE.

Please note that I have received the products free of charge from Artbeads.com and that I am honestly reviewing the products and have not been paid to do so.

Beadweaving Bliss

I've been on quite the beadweaving kick lately. Plus I've been having a bit of fun playing with new techniques. The first is an "orb" pendant I made using a method developed by Gill Slone (B&B). It is made with size 15s, size 11 delicas, and Swarovski crystal bicones.


I also tried to make a beaded ring. It's a little lumpy, and not so round (more triangular-square-ish) but it makes for a neat frame for crystal.


I'm still on a rivoli kick, so I had to make something a little more substantial than just a pendant. I made a whole necklace!

Finally, I decided to give the Cellini spiral a shot since I've been ogling over the technique for a while now. I combined it with some Swarovski crystal (of course!) and here's the result...

Valentine Beading Part 2

As promised, I'm back with some more Valentine's Day inspired jewelry designs!

I've always dreamed of making a lush bracelet full of beautiful cane glass beads. Those pink beads pictured yesterday were staring at me all night, so I put two and two together to make a dangle bracelet! I also made some pseudo matching earrings, although the style is a bit different. A little extra punch is offered by bright hot pink Czech fire polished glass beads.


To feed my bead weaving obsession, I spent several hours creating this next piece. I started by making six beadwoven tubes using pink luster delica beads and red thread. The beaded beads, heart chain (which makes a reappearance!), and Swarovski crystal bicones are all connected with sterling wire wrapping. Notice I've also put the heart toggle clasp in the font to show it off and create the look of a lariat. I might just have to make more of these...


Many thanks go to Artbeads! Right now, they're having a sale on Valentine's day items, so go on over and save 15%!

Interested in purchasing any of the items I've made for these Artbeads reviews? Hop on over to my Etsy shop and send me a conversation!

Please note that I have received the products free of charge from Artbeads.com and that I am honestly reviewing the products and have not been paid to do so.

Valentine Beading

This is the time of year that you can't go anywhere without seeing a heart or some form of romanticism. Find no exception here! Artbeads.com has provided me with some Valentine's day themed items to try out. I was a bit too excited to make jewelry, so I started to make some before realizing that I hadn't photographed the raw supplies. Whoops! I did get a shot of the gorgeous furnace glass beads though!

I'm still on a bit of an earring kick, so here's an array of v-day inspired designs. The top left pair features pretty antique copper heart beads and Swarovski crystal.

The top right pair has Swarovski crystal and the cutest sterling heart chain. I've also made little hearts with square sterling wire.

The bottom right makes use of the same heart chain as well as a dangling assortment of Swarovski crystal in shades of pink and rose. The awesome part of those is the faceted Swarovski heart at the bottom.

The bottom left pair uses the furnace glass beads featured above and Czech fire polished glass beads.

For those less "girlie," I made a more subtle design using black heart beads and twisted glass barrels. The earrings don't exactly match, but I'm not one for making things match perfectly because it's less interesting.

I also made a necklace! The composition of the large red heart bead is a mystery since I obtained it in a bead swap, but it's suited perfectly to this simple necklace. It also has a sterling key charm and more Swarovski crystal!

If you're interested to see what I've made with glass beads and sterling silver components from Artbeads, check out my previous post here. Check back tomorrow and I'll have more designs with the remaining Valentine's day beads.

Please note that I have received the products free of charge from Artbeads.com and that I am honestly reviewing the products and have not been paid to do so.

Sterling Silver and Glass

Once again, Artbeads.com has been wonderful by providing some awesome sterling silver components and glass beads to try. I selected a range of beads and silver components including silver leaf charms, Venetian glass beads, Czech glass bricks, Bali sterling pendants, and sterling silver links. See below what I picked out!

I've been in quite an earring mood lately, so most of the jewelry I have created with these items were made into earrings. The pair on the left was made with very fine sterling silver chain, glass flower beads, and a 4mm Swarovski bicone. The pair on the right was made with Venetian glass beads, sterling silver flower bead caps, and aquamarine Swarovski crystal beads.


These simple earrings make use of Czech glass bricks, brown tone fire polished beads, and copper findings. The beads have a really nice earthy, vintage feel to them.


These sterling and swarovski earrings have really cool links. I've dressed up the copper leaf earrings by adding a large jumpring. The back side of the leaf beads is a copper finish, that really looks neat in sunlight.


I also made several simple necklaces using a sterling silver leaf pendant and crystal, and a really neat Bali sterling silver pendant paired with a gemstone teardrop.


There's your inspiration, now head on over to Artbeads and see what awesome beads and supplies they have! To sweeten the deal, I have a code for 10% off your entire purchase: SCF10P-ARTBEADS-0424 (expires 12/31/09).

If you're interested to see what I've made with Swarovski crystal from Artbeads, check out my previous post.

Please note that I have received the products free of charge from Artbeads.com and that I am honestly reviewing the products and have not been paid to do so.

My Entry Already sold!

I finally entered a piece into the Etsy Beadweaver's (EBW) monthly challenge. I was pretty much obligated to do so since the theme is tropical holiday! I started with grand plans of making beaded orchids but 75% of the way through one orchid it went into the incomplete stash. Heh, that stash is getting a bit too big! Anyway, I listed the Loopy Lie Necklace as my entry and it sold the next day! Visit the Etsy beadweaver's blog starting tomorrow to vote for my necklace! (Or a more deserving piece as you see fit!)



This is my newest resin adventure! Will the real gummy bear please stand up?