Lunar Eclipse

I finished a new necklace this week. The main component is the gorgeous stone donut hanging from a butterfly bail.

The rope is a filled net with twisted herringbone on the ends:

The bail is removable, so I can wear the rope alone:

The round jet crystals sparkle lots more than you can see in this photo:

I hope to have the tutorial for this necklace available soon. My To-Do List keeps getting longer and longer, but the kids go back to school the day after tomorrow, so hopefully, I'll have more time to check things off! :)

Curves & Cages Necklace Tutorial Available

I spent two days straight (about 24 hours total of work) writing the tutorial for my latest necklace series (Tropical Sunset, Blue Lagoon, Sedona, and Jungle Fever). I finally finished it and it is now available on my website and in my Etsy shop. Happy beading!

Celtic Rope Bracelet Pattern Available

The pattern for this Celtic Rope Bracelet is now available for sale on my website: http://beadingbutterfly.com/CelticRopeBracelet.aspx

Happy beading!

Celtic Rope Watch

Sideways peyote stitched watch band in Delicas. Celtic knot pattern is mine. Because the wearer-to-be of this watch has metal allergies, I had to figure out a way to attach the watch face to the band without messing up the continuity of the pattern. I think it worked pretty well. ;)

One of the triangles on the watch face attachment has a snap closure so that the battery can be changed if necessary.

Many many many many hours of work went into this watch! Click the photo for a larger view. :)

Russian Leaf Earrings

I just finished making a pair of Russian Leaf Earrings in another colorway... these are a birthday present for my MIL.

UFO Finished

This asymetrical spiral rope necklace is 17" long and has a Cellini spiral pendant. The antique copper spiral clasp was so pretty I wanted to show it off!

Better Photos

This was taken before I put the final "belt loops" on, but it's hard to tell here.
I really like the way the clasp is attached. The spacers are used as stop beads.
I first saw this pattern ages ago on June Huber's website www.junipercreekdesigns.com and finally made one for myself. Used the light box to get better photos.
This ring is embellished right angle weave over a plastic o-ring. Not sure what I'll do with it yet.

Retreat... and some UFO's finally finished!

I just got back from a 4 day bead retreat in the mountains. A friend hosted it at her home and there were 13 of us there (packed like sardines... but happy ones). I got these earrings from a friend, who made them by hand using poly clay. She has an etsy site and more pictures on flickr.

This bracelet was originally designed by June Huber and I finished it this weekend. I am making our hostess another one with a volcano Swarovski rivoli button and blue pearls.
This bracelet is from the latest Beadwork Magazine, called Forever in Blue Jeans. I couldn't find the buckle finding used in the magazine, so I used a charm I found.
This herringbone spiral rope is woven in white-gold plated Delicas I got from ArtBeads. The clasp is platinum plated. I hope to sell it to a customer soon... and then make another one for me!
I have a couple of other things started... a bracelet in bright orange, lime, and blue as well as a RAW covered o-ring that needs more embellishing. I hope to finish more things soon!

Rose Garden Bracelet Pattern Available

The pattern for my Rose Garden Bracelet is now available. The 1 page pdf includes 2 graphs - one for each colorway. One color combo is red/black; the other is pink/cream. Knowledge of peyote stitch required. It is available here: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=27206724

Tourmaline Redux

Added crystals along the edges of my Tourmaline Crystal Bangle.

Retreat Goodies

I just got back from a 4 day bead retreat in Fairy Stone Park Virginia. What a great time! 14 women, beads galore, and lots and lots of fun!

This bracelet gave me fits. The pattern came from here, but as I do not remember much of my high school French, I had a hard time figuring out how to make it work. I had to start over twice and I ended up not doing it exactly the way the instructions said to, but it worked. I have some other ideas about making it work better, so I'm going to try another one soon. This one is made with Tourmaline AB2X Swarovski crystals and Delicas. I am going to be adding 3mm crystals along both outside edges (Crystal Brandy color).

This "dainty wire woven bracelet" comes from a pattern by Gen Smith. It was lots of fun. A friend made one in 24 gauge instead of the 20 gauge I used and it was very pretty as well. The wire is Parawire and the crystals are Swarovski.

This St. Petersburg lariat is 54" long from tip to tip (49" plus a 2.5" fringe on each end) and has approximately 350 Czech firepolished beads, pressed glass drops, and Swarovski drops, along with a tube and a half of seed beads.

This cuff is made with approximately 300 Czech 4mm firepolished beads in green iris. There is a core of size 8/o seed beads which makes the bracelet take it's curved shape. If I make another (I want to, this time with crystals) I will make sure to use the appropriate color of Fireline, because too much of it shows.

Herringbone Snake Necklace,

I made this a while ago. The cover is removable, as is the pendant, which is not finished yet... that'll have to wait until my Elemental embroidery project is finished. The different bead sizes make the twist.

Anemone Necklace

As usual, my pictures leave much to be desired.  I scanned this necklace and then adjusted the color a little bit in Photoshop, but...oh well.  One day, I'll get a nice digital camera with a tripod and a light box.  In the meantime, this will have to do.

Glass pearls bezeled with seed beads and connected with diagonal peyote stitch.  Toho cylinder beads in green and purple combined with green seed beads in two shades.

Pattern from Beadwork Magazine, December 2007, by Miwako Nara.  Could have used one more diagram, but by the time I had it done, I finally figured it out, LOL!