My Bead Table Blog Hop Reveal Time

Welcome to the My Bead Table Blog Hop!

The last blog hop hosted by Lisa Lodge was so much fun, I decided to join in again for this My Bead Table Blog Hop!  Lisa sent each participant a randomly selected bag of beads and elements, and the challenge was to blend these with beads currently on our bead table. Since I had recently been working on some pieces to submit to a publication, all of my tools and a wide variety of beads were already covering my workspace. Perfect timing!

These are the beads that Lisa sent me for the challenge:

Decorative wooden beads, lucite flowers and leaves, some gorgeous turquoise teardrops, sparkling yellow raspberries, and so many little treasures. 

And here's what I made~

I'm partial to blue, so this was the first piece I made using this fabulous turquoise teardrop as a focal with some of the other turquoise blue beads Lisa included the mix. I used some of my silver chain, wire and a toggle I had as well as a few of my own seed beads and turquoise nuggets to finish the piece.

The second is a bracelet featuring some delicate and fun lucite flowers, and a variety of lovely glass beads in varied shades of yellow and blue. The focal is a handmade lampwork bead by Michelle Veizaga of Sun Door Beads which magically went perfect with this mixture.  It was just meant to be.  Again, I used some silver chain and silver findings I had on hand with a few of my own seed beads etc. to fill in complete this piece.

The bead mix Lisa sent also had several of these round bright orange beads that look good enough to eat.  I thought they went well with the decorative wooden beads that were also included, so I wired them up with copper and put them together using some beading cord and copper chain, and made a pair of earrings to match.

I hope you'll check out all of the creations made by the other My Bead Table Blog Hop participants:

My Bead Table Blog Hop

Your Host: Lisa Lodge
 

Molly Alexander, Beautifully Broken Me

Audrey Belanger, Dreams of an Absolution

Ginger Bishop, lilmummy likes...

Tanya Boden, Fusion Muse

(You are Here) Lisa Boucher, Lisa’s Clay Happenings

Michelle Buettner, Mishel Designs

Eleanor Burian-Mohr, The Charmed Life

Mikala Coates, Maybe Just Perhaps

Marlene Cupo, Amazing Designs

Kathleen Douglas, Washoe Kat's

Mary Anne Klinglesmith Flesch, Hand Crafted Serenity

Mary Govaars, MLH Jewelry Designs

Tanya Goodwin, A Work in Progress

Mary Hicks, Falling Into the Sky

Tina Holden, Polymer Clay Bytes!

Shelly Joyce, Au jour le jour

Carolyn Lawson, Carolyn's Creations

Kathy Lindemer, Bay Moon Design

Susan Lloyd, Designs by Susan

Cynthia Machata, Antiquity Travelers

Kashmira Patel, Sadafule .. always in bloom!

Inge von Roos, Inge's Blog

Kristen Stevens, My Bead Journey

Sonya Stille, Dreamin' of Beads

Christine Stonefield, Sweet Girl Design

Toltec Jewels, Jewel School Friends

Norma Turvey, Moonlit Fantaseas

Sandra Wollberg, City of Brass Stories

Thank you Lisa for hosting another great hop, and for such a varied and beautiful mix to work with!

October Happenings at Clayworks

Happy Anniversary to Kelsey and Sam who just celebrated their 2nd anniversary on October 2nd!

  We have such great memories of the event. It took place in the mountains of Plymouth NH, and the rain took a break that day just for us.

  It couldn't have been more perfect.

Since they had a fall wedding, Kelsey thought it would be fun to make some acorn earrings as gifts for her bride's maids that would match the color of their gowns.  One day when Kelsey was over for a visit, we took a drive into town and checked out the local bead store.  We were pleasantly surprised to find they had the exact perfect chartreuse glass beads that were just the right size for a nice acorn.  Then we took a walk in the woods behind our house, and found a treasure trove of acorns that we could use for the acorn tops.  Voila - Sweet little acorn earrings all set to go, on little cards that Kelsey made on the computer. The wedding party loved them and they're fun to wear anytime!  Crafting these together with Kelsey was the most special part to me and something I'll always remember.

Since I had an abundance of acorns leftover from the project, one day I had the bright idea of trying to use some of them for a jewelry piece.  I threaded a headpin through some gold vintage filigree bead caps and glued them to the acorn tops, then made a loop with the wire for stringing.  To make them more durable, I brushed on a few coats of Mod Podge sealer and they were ready to go!  Combining the acorns with some turquoise discs, some of my Clayworksnh stoneware beads, and little baby acorns made from beads and Hawaiian puka shells, I wired them up on some antique copper chain, and was really pleased with this fun little fall bracelet!

I submitted it to Bead Trends and am excited to say they published it in their October 2012 issue!

It's found in the Mixed Media section.  Thanks again to Bead Trends for choosing one of my pieces for your beautiful publication!

Other October Happenings:  I'm excited to be a part of the newly launched Artisan Whimsy site which features everything you can imagine about beading and bead artists and members of the Creative Bead Chat Facebook page. 

 A site for bead makers and jewelry designers of all mediums to share their work, useful tips of the trades, giveaways, and much, much more.