A Few New (and old) Designs

Currently, I have an abundance of square copper wire that I bought to use for wire wrapping the cabochons that I had been making. The first photo is of a pair of earrings I made with a few lampworked beads I bought at a bead show in June. This wasn't the design I had envisioned for the beads but it was how they ended up. Always the way, I start off with good intentions and they never work out...lol. Though I am happy with the end result. I think those will be listed in my Etsy shop by the end of the week.


This is one of the cabochons I made and the design will include (once I'm finished) a chain linked to the two loops at the top. I've been on the hunt for some steel wool to get rid of some of my tool marks which aren't too bad considering how frustrated I was getting with this piece. The chain will be chainmaille and not ready made chain, I just haven't decided on which weave I'd like to use since I want to keep it simple since the pendant is the focal point. Plus, I have to look in my stash and see if I have enough rings to make a chain for it.


This is supposed to be the Golden Gate Bridge and since I had to hand-draw out the graph for it I think it came out pretty good. I thought I had shared this previously but when I was going through all my photos I realized I hadn't even taken one of it, it was done a few months back. This one was woven in peyote stitch using black and orange seed beads, size 11. If I had that beading software then I would insert a real photo and do one. One day I hope to do that as well as do one of the Tyne Bridge in Newcastle, England where my husband is from. That would be a cool series to do actually....beaded bracelets of bridges all around the world. Or a series of landmarks from major cities around the world.


This last bracelet was another of those projects that started out as one idea then got ripped apart and ended up as this. I seem to have quite a few of those lately. I had been wanting to play with those lucite flowers for ages and finally found some that I liked over on Etsy. The initial design was using the green seed beads (size 8) which I had bought ages ago at a bead shop here in Las Vegas which, sadly, is no longer open. It was called Lov-R-Beads and they had a fantastic assortment of seed beads. My first attempt was with a peyote weave band and then I was going to add the flowers. It did NOT work at all. So, after ripping it apart I decided on a tubular herringbone weave which wasn't as stiff as I wanted it so after putting the flowers on it still wasn't "right". Then it hit me, I had some 16 gauge craft wire which I inserted through the tube and added a few big spacers at the ends, made a few loops and added a clasp. Much better than the first attempt but still not exactly how I would have liked it. There are still a fair amount of the flowers left over and I have a few cool ideas for earrings with them so keep your eyes peeled as I'm hoping to get those done soon and get them listed somewhere.