Blogging for Beads with Artbeads

These three items are the latest I've received from Artbeads in return for blogging a product review.

The pearls are 4-4.5mm Pink Rice pearls and the colour is absolutely gorgeous. It's a lovely pastel/baby pink and they have a very smooth almost satiny finish. As far as them being "rice" pearls, to me, they are almost "potato" pearls as they are fuller and rounder than I expect rice pearls to be. I have plans to use these in a necklace that I think would make a lovely gift for a young lady to wear to her graduation.

The three small sterling silver heart charms are lovely. They are small and dainty and would make a beautiful addition to a charm bracelet, necklace or earrings. I'm very pleased with them and look forward to including them in a piece of jewelry soon.

The sterling hammered 3D heart hook and eye clasp is a bit of a disappointment to me. I'm not happy with how the hook fits into the heart because it will hang asymetrically. I'm going to have to be inventive coming up with a piece of jewelry that I think it will suit. That said, the stamping, shape and size of the clasp are fine.

Any of these three items would be perfect to include in a piece of jewelry suitable for Valentine's Day! I'm thinking...have a heart! What about you?

EBW Ocean Challenge

This necklace is my entry into the Etsy BeadWeavers' Ocean theme challenge. I happy to say that I've finally had enough time (as well as inspiration) to participate in the challenge this time!

The colours I used are reminiscent of the colours of a stormy ocean, here where I live on the West coast of British Columbia, Canada. The ocean is my muse in most things, most days and my favourite time to view it is when there is a good storm blowing. The necklace sparkles as the ocean would when the wind whips it and sun glances off. The three circular pieces are meant to represent the ever changing tidal pools which teem with life.

It was fun to create and I'm working on a variation on the theme in gold, with pearls. Watch for it!

It's available for sale in my Etsy shop.

Necklace for Keely

My granddaughter Keely sent me this pendant and asked for a necklace for it. I had four false starts before I decided on this design. I think it complements the pendant nicely. It measures 36 inches end to end and the closure is (guess what?) a Swarovski crystal 10mm square button. I beaded the bail to match the closure. Just hoping it's not too much 'bling' for her! The 'sparkle' is my favourite part!

$1000 Sweepstakes!!

How would you like to have $1000 to spend at Artbeads? You can by going to the graphic link in the right hand side bar and entering to WIN!! Go for it...and GOOD LUCK!

New Pearl Necklace

It's finished! I'd made this necklace before but this time I used fresh water rice pearls instead of button pearls and I love the look of them. The last one sold quickly and I'm hoping this one will do the same. One of the differences is that instead of the gold toggle fastener, this one has a square Swarovski crystal button.



I'm also enamoured of the 24K gold plated delica beads. I need to order more!

A New Year Begins

I was surprised when I realized that it's been such a long time since my last post. The holidays were a bit of a busy time for me and probably one of the best things about them was the time I was able to spend with my granddaughter. She stayed with me for five days. We took a ferry trip to a slightly larger city than the one where I live. Our purpose was to do some shopping. When looking around in a great yarn shop, she spied a pair of fingerless gloves and asked me if she could learn to knit them. That was a pretty exciting request from my point of view, so we bought wool and got her started. She's doing quite well for a beginner though the project isn't happening as fast as I think she'd like it to. Hopefully I can keep her moving forward on it.

I haven't been doing a lot of beading but I do have a few projects in progress. Here's my proof:



I did finish one smaller project...a necklace. And I finished it again with the Swarovski square button. I think this has become my new favourite closure. The hex beads I used in this spiral necklace sparkle quite beautifully. I have an order for this necklace in greens.