mom's bday gift -- garden necklace

i posted the pattern 2 posts ago. the instruction calls for repeating the squirrly triangle pattern all the way to the end (clasps). but dixie from work said that, as originally designed, this necklace tends to twist around the neck. she suggested that i leave the back part as just a simple, straight string of beads. she said this would prevent the necklace from twisting. i also made a simple bracelet.

anyway, today (the 18th) is my mom's bday so i rushed to finish these. i'll have to write her an IOU note for a pair of earrings.

wine charms

these were gifted to the heysteks


and these were gifted to joe.
he picked the charms himself.

the beginning of a necklace

can you see where i'm going with this?

dixie at work (the lady who taught me, charlyn, and others some basic beading) makes a lot of these and i always thought they were pretty. i found the pattern online and i decided to make one for my mom's bday in a few weeks.

the birthstone for february is amethyst (those violet crystals) and i really like the mauvey pearls. other than than, i'm not completely sold on the color combination. i'm thinking of maybe changing the cream seed beads into something that blends in with the colors, as opposed to contrasting/complementing. maybe light pink or violet.

there's definitely a learning curve with this project. at first, i thought i was weaving them too loosely. so i tugged on the string a lot more. now, it feels kinda stiff, like i did it too tightly. maybe now's a good time to start over.

i've only done 2-3 inches but it took me an hour. oooh, how my back will hurt by the end of this.

blue and light amethyst

these were made for a birthday present.

blue (and red veins, but mostly blue) beads are alternated with light amethyst rondelles and tiny swarovski pearls. the three big crystals in the middle are swarovski "cosmic" beads in light amethyst.

i'm pretty happy with how these turned out. if i were to change one thing, though, i might go with a bigger contrast in color. instead of a the light purple accents, maybe i might try a really deep/bright purple. or red.

or i dunno, maybe this way is better.
more experimentation!!!

barrettes v2

these were gifted to my hair-accesories-fiend friend, dayni.

same technique that was used on the facebook bobby pins: 26 gauge wire, wrapped around the hair clip between beads .

used a different kind of barrettes -- these are the ones that lock. undecorated ones can be found at any craft store.

top one was randomly decorated with glass beads in browns, golds, and beiges.

the second one was better planned -- 8mm czech fire polished beads with different colored freshwater pearls.

facebook creativity -- barrettes!

alas, i was able to fulfill the facebook creativity thing that was circulated earlier in the year...

the idea was that you had to make something handmade for at least 5 of your facebook friends... and this had to be done by the end of the year. i mailed out the last ones yesterday. so done!

unfortunately, i forgot to take a picture of the first 5 pairs i gave out (to jen h., dayni, lisa, amy, and carolyn), but here's a picture of the last 3 i made.

really easy to make. just used brown bobby pins and brown 26-gauge jewelry wire. and i already have tonsa tonsa beads, so it's just a matter of picking the right size... they couldn't be too big. and those small, gray freshwater pearls in the bottom set is prolly as small as one would want to use for this project.

basically, just cut about a 12in length of wire. fold it in 1:2 ratio and wrap it a few times in the LOOP end of the bobby pin to secure it. then to the shorter end, add beads that span the entire bobby pin. the longer end is then used to wrap over-and-under each bead.

kinda hard to describe it here... but if interested in learning, i can easily show you next time i see you. or if you received a pair from me, i'm sure you can easily figure it out by looking at how the wires wrap around the beads. really easy project.

and if you're a lil' iffy about the functionality of these hair pins, don't fret. the wire wrapping around the pin actually lends extra grippiness.

Blue Zebra Earrings

Yay, I finally made something again! Even though I am supposed to be studying for my pharmacy law midterm, I decided to make a pair of earrings for my roommate's bday instead. Ta da!