Beauty of Spring Necklace

Artbeads declared February and March as their months of ‘The Beauty of Spring‘ for their blogger community. I was asked to design my jewelry or creation with my own individual interpretation of Spring and here is the necklace I created. Leaves always make me think of spring because that is the time that they appear, signalling that summer is on it's way. I found these gorgeous copper plated ivy leaves by searching "leaves" on Artbeads. They inspired me to design this necklace. I received three leaves and each of them is unique and beautiful for a one-of-a-kind piece of jewelry. The other two leaves will be finished as earrings to match the necklace.



The small round copper "beads" in the spiral twist neck piece are actually 3mm copper Swarovski crystal faux pearls. I've been working with their pearls for a year now and I absolutely love them for their beautiful sheen, consistent size and colour. I believe that they give my jewelry a "step up" in elegance.



The necklace also features Opaque-Lustered Turquoise Toho seed beads. They were chosen for their colour and the consistency of size. The central core of the spiral is size 11/0 Triangle Toho beads. I like to work with triangle beads where I will need to pass a thread through many times. They also add interesting texture to the piece. These quality are my favourites to work with.

All of the supplies in this necklace were given to me by Artbeads.com in return for a review of the product.

Back to Beading!!

This is the piece I've been working on for quite a while. The fancy oval was what initially inspired me. I've been stalled for a while because I haven't been happy with the starts for the neckpiece. At least four times I've started and ripped it out. I'm still not sure about the one shown here. Looks like it's still going to be a while in progress.

Sophie's Puppies

A few posts back I mentioned that my little female dog Sophie would be having puppies. They were born on February 26th and here is a photo of them at 10 days old.



The white and black one is a male and weighs in at 9 5/8 oz. The black one with white toes is a female and weighs 8 oz. She started out the tiniest at 3 1/4 oz. The all black is a female and is gaining fastest. She weighs 11 3/8 oz. It's really fun having puppies in the house though my male dog - Willie has been banished by Sophie and isn't allowed anywhere near the room the pups are in.

New Earrings

Worked on these as I watched Canada win the gold medal for hockey and then the closing ceremonies afterwards. (Just don't ask me how many hours!) Goodness knows I'd have been biting my nails during the hockey game if I hadn't been beading!

These beads are called "amethyst" but they look more raspberry to me.


Turquoise and silver always look good to me.


The green of the fire polished beads is very interesting...there is some red in them too. I like the way they look with the metallic AB seed beads.


Not black...hematite. I love the shine of these beads.


All of these earrings are for sale in my Etsy shop.