Finally Friday

I'm skidding in sideways with my Finally Friday post because I literally put it together this morning! The inspiration was the fabulous palette above from Design Seeds.


'Leaving Summer Behind'

These earrings were inspired by the cooler (and much appreciated) weather we've had for the last few days. The onset of cooler weather always makes me think of Autumn, my favorite season.



I took a bit of liberty with the colors in the palette as you can see. I chose the warmer colors of Vintaj Brass rather than the tan tones in the palette. The lovely lampwork beads were from Whitney Street Studio, and I thought they represented most of the other colors in the palette nicely. Perched on top of the Vintaj brass domed washers is a Swarovski emerald bicone to add a bit of brightness.



I have to thank Shannon for hosting this fun challenge every week. Please check out her blog to see what she made, and maybe even play along.

Finally Friday

It's Finally Friday, and the inspiration this week is Sweet Tones from Design Seeds. The colors are definately sweet and they remind me of eating cotton candy at the fair. These earrings are made with cute dotted lampwork beads, which I've had for a long time now and have lost track of the artist. Also included are Czech ruby deep cut beads, two sweet little aqua lampwork spacers from Twinstar, and sterling silver.


'Cotton Candy Summer'




Thanks for stopping by, and be sure to visit Shannons blog for her Finally Friday project. And I know she would be thrilled if you played along. The more, the merrier!

Have a fabulous weekend!

Finally Friday

If you are looking to enter the Art Bead Love Tour giveaway please follow this link. The giveaway ends on June 17th.


Beaded Bright

I really enjoyed this Design Seeds color palette with the warm colors tempered with my favorite color-aqua. So here’s the piece I made. I can’t seem to stop making bracelets! Maybe I need an intervention, but really I love making them.


'Budapest Spice Market'

I named it ‘Budapest Spice Market’. I wish I could say the inspiration came from visiting there, but I’ve only seen blog articles on this beautiful place. The name popped into my head while creating the piece, and so there you have it.

There are a couple lampwork beads from Lyndas Lampwork, and one from Two Sister’s Designs. And I could not help adding that sweet floral polymer clay bead from Too Aquarius, it’s my last one—sniff, sniff. The gorgeous metal clasp and components are from Keirsten Giles, my recent Bead Swap partner. Oh it was difficult to let go of that sweet clasp! Keirsten does magical things with copper! Also included are a couple orange fiber beads from Gritty Bird, and a dark orange and aqua lampwork bead I believe from Quinlan Glass.

Thanks for visiting! Please check out Shannon's blog to see what she created, and to play along.

Finally Friday

If you are coming here to see the reveal for Erin's Challenge of Literature you can find it by clicking on this link.




The Design Seeds inspiration for this week is ‘Urchin Tones’. I was very excited as I had been holding onto a polymer sea urchin connector waiting for just the right time to use it. So I lined up all the beads on my bead mat and they looked amazing. Unfortunately when I started putting the piece together, the polymer connector broke at the hole. I was heartbroken, as this was THE perfect piece for this project. Also, this was the second polymer piece in two weeks that has broken at the hole. Maybe I was too rough on them. But I noticed the urchin was very soft, even though I’ve had it for several months. I don’t know much about polymer clay, but I’m thinking I will stick to only round polymer beads in the future. Here's what it looked like all lined up.



So I switched out the polymer connector with a Vintaj Brass Sand Dollar. I wasn't sure if it would work since I already connected the beads with silver wire. It looks OK as it picks up the browns in the beads beside the Sand Dollar.



Below is the broken connector and the tiny pieces that broke off. I did try and salvage the connector by sanding and gluing those tiny pieces together, but you can see the cracks just a bit. Next I’ll glue the urchin to a piece of metal and see if it can be salvaged. Crossing my fingers…..



This piece includes lampwork beads by Twinstar, a drilled river rock I snatched from the Sisterhood of the Traveling Bead Box, a Vintaj Brass Sand Dollar, sterling clasp, and silver filled wire.





Yes, I do know it's not Friday, but tomorrow is the reveal date for the Andrew's Spring Challenge so I'm doing this one early. Thanks so much for stopping by. Please visit Shannon’s blog tomorrow to see what she made, and to play along next week.

Finally Friday

The inspiration this week is Design Seeds 'Lotus Tints'. Though the inspiration photo includes soft colors, I realized I don't have a lot of pastel beads. So I used beads in the same colors, but a bit brighter.

The Earrings are made with colorful polymer beads from Too Aquarius. I just love these becuse they go with anything. (Remind me that I need to order more. Oh wait, I'm still on my bead diet.) Also included are a couple berry colored vintage beads and two sweet apple green glass beads. I used sterling silver headpins and earwires. I'm using my sterling sparingly, which kills me because I love using it as much as I do Vintaj and copper. While I was making these I was thinking of all things summer. The name 'Lemonade Stand' came to mind, though I'm not sure why. At any rate, the name stuck and so there you have it.


'Lemonade Stand'

This playful bracelet also includes a Too Aquarius polymer bead, along with three lampwork drum beads (one tan and two sky blue) from Twinstar, some wasabi colored cut glass nuggets, berry colored rainbow soocho jade beads, a died lime green howlite bead and Vintaj components. Still thinking about all things summer; ballgames, picnics, and summer vacations (which I need badly), and the fact that everyone seems to be going here and there all summer long, I named this piece 'Elsewhere'


'Elsewhere'

These Finally Friday events are posted at Shannon's blog each Friday. Check it out today and play along with us. Thanks Shannon for hosting these every week!

Finally Friday

Shannon from the For My Sweet Daughter blog is hosting ‘Finally Friday’ with inspiration color pallets from Design Seeds.

This week's inspiration is 'Indulgent Tones' I love the pretty muted colors along with the dark brown, which made me think of a spring nature walk.



I created 'Nature Walk' with rose and gray lampwork beads from Lyndas Bead Dreams, a sweet little bird from Raida at Havanabeads, an enameled flower from the Sisterhood of the Traveling Bead Box, and Vintaj components.



A close up of the beads and the sweet little bird.




Thanks to Shannon for hosting the Finally Friday inspiration. I hope to play along every week, and would love for you to do the same. You can link up with Shannon at her blog.