'Cause I'm a sucker for a challenge

Still working on those bracelets for the boys...and I've got my beads for the Znetshows June challenge...but why not a few more, right?

June challenge inspiration photo (I'd love to credit the photo if anyone knows where it came from, it wasn't credited on Pinterest)

The beads I received from Znetshows that Bee picked using the beach photo above for inspiration.

Don't forget to check out Bee Kuhlman's blog Mixed Mayhem Studios to see what I picked out using this photo.

This challenge is to be paired with another beader from the Znetshows.com design team; choose from a list of  hundreds of their beautiful beads seven items to be sent to our partner: one stone, one glass pearl, one sea glass, one crystal, one base metal, and two of our own choice; and then create beach themed pieces with what we are sent, and post on our blogs by July 6th.

And then...yesterday I was asked by a friend if I could create a circlet by June 21st for a Midsummer event she's participating in.

an unfinished braided bracelet using the red Tiaria Chinese crystal rondelles from Znetshows.com 

I'd already been working on more of those braided bracelets, only with a double strand of wire, which I believe is called a Celtic braid, which I sent her photos of, and she loved. Here are some ideas of what kind of circlet she needs. As soon as she asked, ideas were running through my mind, but I looked it up anyway, just to be sure I was on the right track...and that I wasn't getting myself in over my head. And I thought maybe I could do both as a combined challenge with my Znetshows design challenge. I asked for her color preferences and sent her a photo of my beads, and she agreed that the blues were good. It was so awesome and exciting, and I couldn't get to sleep till after 4 AM.

Then I saw early this morning that the winner of the last challenge on the facebook group Bead Soup Cafe had posted her challenge and photo for the 8th Non-blogger, blogger challenge (which of course I promptly signed up for today).

You'll never guess the theme.

Seriously, you won't believe it

OMG-Renaissance!!! 

Awesome!! Due July 14th

The boys want bracelets

Monday I was at my Mother's for Memorial day, we'd decided on a cookout, even though it was rainy all day, it came out OK though. After everyone had eaten, I'd cleaned up and done the dishes while everyone moved to the living room to chat and catch up. I started getting kinda bored (and as my brother get's older, he gets louder, lol) so I moved to the dining room and pulled out my bag of sea glass from Znetshows.com. First, my brother's daughter started watching me wrap some wire around a tusk, then quietly asked if they were going to be earrings...she collects earrings like my sister's daughter collects shoes, the more the better.

Then the boys followed.

All three started going through the beads, picking them up, turning them around between their fingers, holding them up to the light. Asking how I did it, where'd I learn to make jewelry, how did I know what to do with the beads and the wire. Josh and Danny were facinated by the viking knit anklet I was working on. I had no idea they'd be so interested, their parents had to pry them away when they were ready to go...but not before they picked out the beads they liked and asked for their own jewelry. I tried to talk them out of bracelets, but they want viking knit bracelets with pendants...but not Kadyn he's been tramatized by a too small wire bracelet, so he just wants a plain one with only the small blue starfish button bead.

In other developments, I forgot that I'd finished an anklet with some of the beads that I got recently from Bill at Znetshows.com. I think it slipped my mind because it didn't really work out so well...then I attempted another that still didn't work out so well...and then another...I was on a roll, I guess I wasn't meant to do anklets this season apparently. Here are those:

The Anklet FAILS

This was actually the first piece I made, it fits, it's comfy, but it's so fuzzy you can't see the blue crystal beads very well, and the bottle shard twits till it comes out of the knotted loop.

The viking knit I made for BSBP7, but it didn't work...and neither do those dangles, wayyy too long, they touch the floor when I put it on, lol. I think their new mini conch shell beads would work though, I'll have to let you know when I order some.

 I think this one needs jump rings or something between the links, because it keeps twisting on me when I try to add wire wrapped sea glass, and it ends up laying the wrong way. And, I can't seem to figure out how to add them to the double link chain without it kinking up on me.

This one isn't exactly a failure, it just didn't end up long enough to be an anklet. I didn't cut enough wire to make the clasp at the end of the wire and still have enough length for an ankle, but it works as a bangle bracelet.

I think if I can redo the knot in the first one, it's salvageable. The middle two are going to be do overs, the last one I'll just keep playing around with. 

All of the beads in these pieces came from Znetshows.com. The sea glass I've highlighted before, but the last one is made using 3mm glass pearls, which they have tons of, in several sizes and colors at great prices.

Oh, yeah!!...and I've been asked if I'd like to participate in the Znetshows June challenge. We're being partnered for this one, and instead of choosing from our own stash, we were given a file from which to choose beads from their stock to be sent to our partners, and a pinterest board of photos to inspire us. I chose this photo as my inspiration for choosing beads for my partner Bee Kuhlman of Mixed Mayhem Studios, and she chose this one. So. Much. Fun!!! Stay tuned for details.

New additions to the Sea glass collection

I need to update my tools, you can see the tool marks on my swirls :(

but since I made them for me, I guess I won't return them, lol

Sea glass tusk stud earrings

The studs are at an upward angle on purpose. I tried a straight out 90 degree stud, curved ear wire, french style ear wire, and straight slanting down stud, and this slightly upward angle was the only way to keep the top heavy cultured sea glass tusk from leaning forward at a steep angle. 

Each earring is wrapped in one solid four inch piece of 20 gauge copper colored art wire, which includes the ear wire stud. 

I'm going to do a few in sterling silver as soon as I replace my stash of 22 gauge, 20 gauge is just a bit big. And these tusks come in different lengths and shapes and some have holes that run along the longer side of the tusk, so that the flatter side would be in the front, making it possible to play with the wire placement.

right side view/left front view

Crocheted cuff bracelet

It's weird, but I like it. you might recognize the technique, I used to do this with wire wrapped rings and 34 guage wire. I thought the white crochet thread was much more nautical looking with the sea glass starfish buttons and sea glass bottle ring. If I could read or write a crochet pattern I'd share this. I'm working on another with an orange sea glass bottle ring with the same blue glass rice pearls in this bracelet. The reason I didn't share this on Monday is because of all the strings...it was done...except for the strings sticking out all over. I love to crochet, but I hate tucking in the strings, it's stupid, I know. 

It closes with tiny little buttons on the back. I'm going to have to get more of these rings, i have sooo many ideas...seriously, there are endless possibilities with these beautiful beads.

Znetshows.com 30 Challenge

Back in April I was working on my main BSBP7 piece and decided I wanted to take it apart and start new, and use some links that I had made a few months ago to go with links I was making specifically for the piece. They were in a box my sister had given me to keep and carry my finished pieces...an old matchbox car box my nephew never used. I went looking for the box and over the course of two days went from bewilderment to complete insanity. I called everyone who might have seen it. Then made an album on Facebook (which I then shared ALL over facebook) of the pieces that were in the box. I was heart broken. I seriously believed someone had come into my apartment and stolen just my finished pieces of jewelry. I shared the album on the Bead soup cafe group page and Bill Zhang of Znetshows.com, among a few others, offered to send me beads to help me rebuild my collection. I told them I was ok in beads, just really upset at losing my collection, I received the beads a few days later anyway, and I think two or three days later I found my collection...under a chair I recall looking under at least twice. Weird. I felt terrible though, so I offered to pay for them, and he suggested a challenge instead:

Five designs in thirty days.

A reminder of what Bill Zhang of Znetshows.com sent me to work with.

This one was supposed to have all kinds of dangles off the bottom of the bottle top ring, the blue shell and some shards, but when I did that, it just wasn't what I was picturing, so I took it all off and decided to see what it would look like wrapped in shells...I like it. There's so many things you can do with these glass bottle rings. The spiral cord is dyed nylon cord in a spiral knot and wire wrapped in 24 gauge steel wire.

I LOVE the large holes in these square concave pendant beads, you can string all kinds of cords and even ribbons and fabric strips into them, and they're available in large and small. I had orginally came up with this on Earth Day, but then set it aside when I realized my upcycled strips of rayon fabric weren't long enough. I used square knots to hold the beads in place, and that got a little tricky since I started in the middle and worked my way out on each side. I kept getting myself turned around and one side the beads were turned backwards because the cord had to be folded in half and not pulled all the way through bead, but instead the cord through the loop you create. I found if I lay the cord and all the beads face down, and then feed it through the bead from the front, it was easier to keep them all going the right direction. I was going for minimalist art deco, but I also wanted it to be more casual than dress, so I used a natural cotton twine. Then I wire wrapped the ends and made a hook and eye clasp out of 20 gauge copper wire.

This set I did Sunday night, I had sat down to finish another piece, which is still unfinished, while watching Firefly on DVD (why did I never see this show?) So, those are bead caps. Aren't they pretty? I've had them for a while and couldn't find anything I liked them for because if you put them on the ends of beads, you only see the outer edges, I didn't like that. And these marquise spindle pendants are just beautiful in the light, you can't see it as well here, but these have a little bit of a yellow swirl in them too. I made bead links out of the opaque tangerine Tiaria Chinese crystal rondelles, I loooove how bright they are! The pendant moves freely on the middle length of chain. The earwires are my first attempt at this kind of earwire.

I had to add some bead weaving, though I actually should have had several. I abandoned two pieces, one halfway, the other nearly complete (don't ask me, I have no idea). I'll finish them though, and make another post, this one's already late. 

This bracelet is my version of the ombre craze going around right now. It's done in a right angle weave, but I had to add some seed beads to hide the thread, because the 8mm Chinese Crystal rondelle beads were actually a little too big for this stitch, it worked out, though in retro I might have used a like color seed bead with each section, instead of clear all the way through. 

This piece is why I don't have more pieces done...I started it on Earth Day, and just couldn't put it down. I kept adding and subtracting from it. It's made from an upcycled skirt that I loved and wore two or three times before someone said..."Klaudete, you look ridiculous in that skirt." So, I packed it away with other scrap materials and clothes made from fabric that I loved but wouldn't be caught dead in...I think it was in my craft bin for at least 20 years, lol. I just took one small section off and got tons of 'ribbons' from it. this is six strips, tied about eight inches from the end, knoted in a square to flatten and even out the fringe and then braided for the necklace end. I wire wrapped the end of each fringe and added opaque brown, clear tangerine, and silver Chinese crystal rondelles in 4mm and 8mm...and just kept adding; tusks in cherry red, a large shard pendant in cherry red, and a top drilled free form flat sea glass pendant in tangerine. By the time I was done, the fringe section alone was six inches. I wire wrapped the ends of the braided section, and originally only had the 4mm silver tiaria chinese links at the top, making it a twenty inch necklace with a six inch beaded fringe. So then on Sunday night I was just looking at all the finished pieces and, I don't know, I guess I thought it wasn't done...so I added five inches of beaded links and five inches of chain. This crazy thing is 21 inches from clasp to the bottom most bead, doesn't even need the clasp to be honest

Well, that's it so far. I do have two more finished...sort of, so I'll take photos of those tomorrow and post again when I can.

Blog hops and challenges

I've found a new love in the world of jewelry making: blog hops and jewelry making challenges. No surprise really, I've always been more productive under pressure, and I know how counter productive that sounds, but it seems to work for me...

If you'd like to see the results of my latest challenges, stay tuned, I'm revealing what Bill Zhang of Znetshows.com sent me back in April, this Monday, May 13th.

A little reminder of the gorgeous beads Znetshows.com sent:

A little peek I was able to sneak in using Twitter https://twitter.com/KlaudeteKoon/status/326530682245500930/photo/1

I'm also using some of the beads from this challenge for another challenge I'm participating in from the Bead Soup Cafe Group on Facebook, and I'll reveal that on Monday too.

Lori Anderson of Pretty Things, and the author of the Bead Soup Blog Party, announced yesterday that she'll have a list of the BSBP7 contest winners soon, so don't forget to have a look at all the gorgeousness from this year's reveals. You can get the blog lists here. But the contest is based on the pieces posted to the Pinterest board here. And let me tell you, there are some absolutely fabulous pieces from this challenge, soooo much inspiration. 

See you on Monday for my Znetshow.com reveal!!!

3rd Reveal of the 7th Bead Soup Blog Party

Oops! this was supposed to be scheduled for posting just before midnight Saturday the 27th, which is like, now...the third reveal begins...lol, happy hopping! :)

It's here! The finale of Lori Anderson's BSBP 7, the last group to reveal will post on their blogs tonight and tomorrow what they've done with the beads they've received from their bead soup partner. Here's a link to Lori's BSBP blog listing all the 3rd reveal blogs.

BSBP 7 3rd reveal

I've only gotten to do a little hopping myself as my internet's been sketchy lately. But if, like me, you're ok with going through the entire list, there's a post for the first reveal direct-to-post links here. 

The second will be coming soon...and the third, when all the posts are in for tonights group...and I'll post those later when Lori has those lists finished, but if you don't mind sorting through the posts the soupers have posted since their BSBP post, you can get the entire list here.

and if you just want to look at pretty pictures of gorgeous jewelry you can ogle the pieces that were posted on the Pinterest BSBP 7 board or the Contest Entries for BSBP 7 board. 

Happy Hopping!!!

Bead Soup Blog Party 7 2nd Reveal

I forgot to announce that the final two reveals for Lori Anderson's Bead Soup Blog Party 7 was postponed for a week each. The first group revealed on March 30th and I forgot to post about that too. Today the second group (myself, my partner Lennis Carrier of Windbent, and another couple hundred beaders) are posting what we did with the beads we swapped with each other.

So here's a reminder of what Lennis sent  me:

The required elements:As per Lori's rules, every soup had to include a clasp that wasn't a simple lobster claw etc., and a focal; these had to be incorporated into one or more of the recipient's design.

My toggle clasp was made by Cheryl Foiles of Get Your Bead On and Lennis made the beautiful polymer clay focal herself.

This is the third evolution of Lennis' focal for me. Initially I wanted a wind chime, but I had no idea just how complicated it is to string chimes. I have two wind chimes that I wanted to recycle since the guy who mows the little bit of lawn I have does so with a weed eater and chopped off the center of both of my favorites...it was the perfect way to showcase both sides of the focal. But alas, all I managed to do was make a mess of the strings, I tip my hat to all those with this amazing talent I so obviously don't posses.
After that I tried some macrame...and that wasn't working either...mostly because I'm not so good at knotting without either pulling too hard or not enough, in this case, not enough. I tied about 9 switch square knots and left it sitting for 8 hours while I went to work, and they'd all come loose on their own :(.
So this is the result of my last minute creative blitz:

That bottom tulip kind of reminds me of a glass of bubbly, lol.

 

These were the coordinating beads Lennis sent, made by Hannah Rosner of Good River Galleries

And this is what I came up with for most of those:

This is a 38 inch belly chain/lariat, one of my specialties I guess you could say. I love the way it sits as a belly chain, but when I wrapped it around my neck it took on an unexpected geometric fit because of the disproportional weight of the lamp work beads with the lightweight brass curb chain.
The little brass floral beads are leftovers from the Znetshows.com challenge I participated in earlier in the year.

This one is my favorite though, it took me four tries to get that chain on there right, I'm not a very good stringer, never been the best at that kind of math. But man was it worth it. This picture hardly does it justice, those two shades of purple were the perfect match for the bulky brass curb chain that I fed over this pre-clasped choker. It has a screw on magnetic clasp, but only one end opens, and it's pretty large screw, amazingly the lamp work beads were the perfect size! It's pretty darn heavy but that clasp holds on tight. The rose lamp work bead in the center is by Sandy Headrick from Kokomo Opalescent Glass.

I still have these lamp work headpins, I attempted to use one in a fourth piece, but I had a bit of a...mishap if you will. Always practice a new technique on something else first ladies...it's salvageable, but only because I realized what was happening before I went too far. I'll update when I figure out how to add them to the viking knit anklet I made.

Now hop on over to Windbent and check out what Lennis has done with this:

Update: Some better photos of the pieces I made for BSBP 7, we've had thunderstorms for over a week now and I didn't get good photos of  anything because of the bad lighting, so when we finally had a sunny day I retook them.

And as some of you may know (because I posted it all over facebook, to my complete embarrassment) that I believed my jewelry collection to be stolen from my apartment. Fourtunately I was wrong. I found the box I keep them in lodged under a chair I never sit in, but not before the very generous Bill Zhang from Znetshows.com sent me a whole new 'soup' to work with so that I could replenish my stock and reopen my Etsy shop. I offered to repay him for his kindness and instead he suggested another challenge...um, yum! The best kind of bead soup! So, I have 30 days (well, 26 now) to complete 5 designs. You'll have to come back here to find out what I come up with for these beauties! I've already started on three ;)

My BSBP7 Partner and 100th post!!!

I'm so relieved I finally got my beads and focal out to Lennis Carrier at Windbent. You can catch up with her  work on Twitter, Flickr, Etsy, and Facebook. Her pictures on her facebook fan page and flicker are awesome, don't miss out!

This is what I sent:

I made a focal!! Actually, I made several, but broke the one I'd intended to send. It was made of the homemade porcelain recipe (the baking soda and cornstarch recipe on Pinterest) and sealed with resin, from which I'd made my 2012 Christmas ornaments; but alas, I'd not painted the backside with the resin before dropping it, and since it's made of baking soda, it shattered accordingly :(

These are (sort of) what they look like unfinished, they don't look it, but they're very, very fragile.

Dropping the only floral shaped focal I'd made was a  good reason to finish and send her this :)

I'd been working on it for a while, not quite sure if it'd work...

...then I had one of those light bulb moments, and I realized I could brick stitch a loop on the back so that she could feed a wire or cord...or anything she liked...to wear as a necklace focal. However!! The center bead is a large hole Czech glass bead and the thread I use is very fine, so she can also string through the center bead too, if she's inclined!!!

These are the beads I ended up with from Kokomo Opalescent Glass Co. I live within walking distance, one of these days I'll work up the courage to take a lesson or two. I'd hoped for more, but there weren't many that matched or would coordinate that were ready to send, so I went with the one's I could get. I love the beads they make, but since it's opalescent glass, it gets rather expensive :(

This is what I'd decided on...then decided it just wasn't complete.

I'd taught myself to do viking knit, and I LOVE it!!! So, I added an unfinished bracelet length piece to her soup, along with a couple cord crimp ends. And, since Lennis told me she was just getting into wire wrapping, I decided I needed to add a spool of my favorite 20 gauge wire. I'd already noticed that she was rather an expert at resin domes so instead of picking out two focal pieces like I'd done with Karla Morgan's soup from last year, I added two clasps, a floral hook and eye, and a bezel box clasp...yes, I still grab every box clasp I come across, in fact, I also have one just like the one I sent, and the last oval one they had too, lol.

And this is what she sent me!!!

Isn't that the coolest polymer focal? Lennis made it herself.

Because it's been so cloudy the last few days, I didn't get the best photo, but there are two more brass loops on the top.

And this is the BACK!! Wow!

The lamp work Lennis sent me was done by Hannah Rosner of Good River Gallery.

 I would use these as hair pins if I hadn't cut off all my hair, lol.

...and this awesome handmade clasp is from Cheryl Foiles of Get Your Bead On

Hannah and Cheryl are also participants in the the BSBP7 too, busy ladies.

And these are leftover feathers my niece insisted I get her last year...kismet

I already have most of it planned out, but we all know the way of plans, lol...and that's what so fun about this swap and blog hop.

Check out all the other participants