From time to time I make canes out of polymer clay, and have made some pretty interesting beads. However, when I saw these pink and black beads in a store, I just had to buy them and make a bracelet. This piece also contains Swarovski crystals and Swarovski squaredelles, as well as sterling silver beads with pink enamel.
A friend of mine showed me a clunky necklace that had very pretty beads, but was just too big for her. She asked if I could “do something” about it. Ahhh… the open ended “do something”….one of my favorite tasks. Anyway, here are the before and after pictures. I took this one big necklace and made 4 pieces (adding some silver beads and wire along the way). The resulting pieces were perfect for her.
I recently bought some gorgeous Suchow jade beads, and finally got around to making some new pieces. I’m not really sure what Suchow jade really is, but I got the idea (from googling around) that it might not be real jade. Well, whatever it is, it sure is pretty. Reminds me of raspberry ice and limeade…..
Here is the wire wrapped pendant:
These pieces are also in my store
I’ve taken a pretty long hiatus from making jewelry, but am now slowly getting back on track. In the meantime I’ve been spending my free time lampworking, taking classes, and learning new techniques. Last month I took two classes taught by Mary Lockwood at Glass Firenze, located here in Eagle River. One of the classes was on encasing beads, the other was on making floral beads. Both were terrific, but as you can see from the picture, I still have a lot of practicing to do.
I was recently at a special education conference in Anchorage (in my spare time, I’m an occupational therapist in the school system—oh wait—that’s my real job…jewelry is in my spare time…I forgot)
Well, anyway, at this conference I met Casey Wade Bitz who, along with his family, collects beach glass in southeast Alaska. I love beach glass and immediately had to buy a small bag of it. Here is a pendant that I made from one of the pieces.
