Takin' Care of (Unfinished) Business

I've probably mentioned this before, but I have a bad habit of pulling lots of beads and findings together for projects and then letting them languish (often for many months) while I move onto other projects.  While I accept that this will likely never change, I have been making a concerted effort to start tackling many of my neglected projects this month.  I thought I'd share a couple of them with you to wind up this week! 

I shouldn't give myself too big of a pat on the back for these since the driving factor towards getting going on these was possibly needing some of the squirreled away bead for a couple of my designs in for this month's Honey Do List!  Suddenly I found myself with a big mound of pink and purple beads all over the place and I was determined to power through a whole bunch of projects.  You'll have to wait to see most of what I've been making, but I thought I'd share the finished product for a couple of my long suffering unfinished projects to tide you over!

First up is a little number with one of Andrew Thornton's porcelain pendants in the starring role!  I bought the pendant in one of Andrew's destash events (one of the rare times I've been quick enough to nab something I really wanted!)  Near the same time that the pendant arrived, I also received the bronzed wisteria flower beads and light purple rondelles in the mail from Lima Beads.  Realizing how great the colors were together, I tucked those glass beads into the bag with the pendant... and then they got pushed aside.  In the end, I'm glad I didn't try to tackle this necklace any sooner because I wouldn't have had the dark purple sari silk or the bronzed purple English cut Czech glass yet.  I was originally thinking I'd use some luster purple peanut beads at the back of the necklace, but I ended up deciding that the ribbon gave a better balance.  You can sometimes find Andrew's pendants in his Allegory Gallery web store.

Next I move over to the pink end of the spectrum with a necklace featuring some Humblebeads!  The poppy pendant was Heather Powers' gift to the participants on last year's Bead Cruise.  (This one may have been my friend Kathleen's as we did some trading from our goody bags!  I'm excited to tell you that the other one that ended up in my hot little hands will be appearing in the summer issue of Jewelry Stringing!!!)  Anyway, after months of patient waiting, this little lovely finally made it into a finished piece of jewelry paired with some fun faceted pyrite nuggets, some rosy pink Czech glass, and a couple of Heather's polymer clay beads that complemented the focal.  With this one, I literally had everything except the chain, beading wire, and the seed beads I used as tiny spacers sitting the bag ready to go.  I have no idea what the road block was for me to just get it done.

So there you have it... two of my newest creations that should be going to Unearthed Arts next week.  Now I can finally put all my pink and purple beads properly away and figure out what hues I'll tackle next... maybe oranges!