Tiny heart bead

I found the mysterious missing bead pictures!

Three bead pics, as well as the girl's pics, were stuck on the camera. My usual view the folder and download process was hiding them. Aaron tinkered around until he found another default windows program that did the trick. My hero! :)

See...I told you they were tiny! They were magic jumping beads as well. No joke, I dropped every.single.one. I made. That was a frustrating butter fingers sort of day.

Question: Do you think I could enter the black and red bracelet into Art Bead Scene's "Chains of Love" challenge this month? When this bracelet came to life I thought it would fit the theme. But then I got to thinking it's not "chainy" enough. Not to mention these meager little beads might not qualify as art beads. What do you think? I'm thinking NO. Or am I being too literal? I'm a totally literal person....I don't think outside the box and interpret very well. :)

Old idea meets new beads

Ok, so it appears noone particularly cared for the green stretchy netting. LOL! That's ok. I know how pretty it is in person.
I finally finished the 2nd bracelet that incorporates my clay beads.

I'm guessing this will be the one & only. The beads are tiny! I had taken a cool picture of a heart perched on my fingertip, but for some reason it didn't make it to the memory card. (This has happened a couple times lately.)
After straining my eyes to make the teeny beads I got to use the thinnest beading needle EVER to sew them on. The seed beads are already full of stretchy cord, so I used a glorified splinter (aka the needle) to carefully slide through. I must say though....I had forgotten how awesome Nymo thread is. That stuff is tough!

So, there it is. (I think) it's cute and the possibilities are endless. But it just takes too long to make. The little ADD monkeys in my brain nearly slit their wrists waiting for me to finish this one!

p.s...If you didn't already, click the pics. They look better full size. The 2nd pic shows the sparkliness of the silver lined red beads.

Revisiting an old idea

Several years ago (it was 2004...I just checked...time flies!) I sold a handful of beaded stretchy bracelets on ebay. At that time I was seed beading and I was very fond of the netted patterns. I had made myself a couple netted bracelets with closures, but I wanted a casual, tighter, stretchy one! So I sat down with my favorite seed beading book, a pencil & paper, and worked out how to adapt my favorite pattern into a continuous stretchy bracelet.

I tried several color combos which resulted in the ebay items. But my ADD kicked in and I never made any more. Until a couple weeks ago! I wanted to do something creative, but I didn't have the "umph" to move my grumpy ass to the Happy Room. So I decided to revisit the old bracelet idea. I can sit on the couch, under a blanket, and bead a little at a time. :) I made this pretty green one first:

I don't know the exact color name of those green seed beads...but they are luscious. They always make me think of a forest. More specifically the lush, rich, fern abundant forests we used to hike in Washington. God I miss it there!

ANYWAY...that bracelet was fun so I made another. And I managed to incorporate some tiny little clay beads with it. Score! :) It's not quite finished yet. But I hope to be sharing pics of it soon.

Bday gift that wasn't

I did not get Mom's bday gift started soon enough. I need more than 2 days to make a jewelry gift. I'm slooooow.
Anyway, I had an idea for some dangly earrings but they did not materialize as pretty as they were in my head. (which is usually the case with me I'm afraid) My metal work needs a lot of work. And the shape is just not....right.

They are still nice dangly earrings, but I don't look at them and think, "Ooohhhh...Mom HAS to have those!" Here are 2 more shots:

What's could be improved? (besides my soldering LOL!) Should I have NOT hammered the twisted wire? Maybe the swarovski crystals are too formal for the casual wire? Less glitzy beads perhaps? Maybe I should oxidize?
I think the loop for the center dangle needs to be smaller. Let me know what you think!

The big oval started out as a perfect oval, but I changed it to be longer and top-heavy like it is. I'm just not a good designer. I don't have "the eye". I'm beginning to think artsy fartsy is not my calling in life. I can do the fartsy part with no problem...but I seem to fumble on the artsy part.