New Fall Jewelry

The creative bug has bitten me hard lately with the desire to make fall-inspired jewelry!  I've been busy playing with beads both new and old... and trying to take some breaks to actually put things away and organize so I don't have so many pretties getting lost in the chaos of my studio!

As I'm gearing up for two holiday shows the first full week of December, I thought this would be a good time to share a few of the goodies I've been working on.  I plan on having all of these at my Holiday Open House on Sunday, December 4th (check out the Facebook Event HERE) and, if they are still around, the Minnesota Women's Art Festival on Saturday, December 10th.

Let me start out with some little birdie necklaces that are just dripping with art bead goodness!  I just got a few of the amazing new bird beads from Heather Powers of Humblebeads and couldn't wait to make something with them.  I've always loved Heather's solid color birds, but these are truly swoon-worthy with the rich and colorful designs she's added in using her magical abilities.  Using some design tips that Heather shared, I sat down to play with my new goodies and make some stacked necklaces.  Both necklaces are on long chain with twigs by Diane Hawkey.  The one on the left features a leaf by Tracee Dock of The Classic Bead and the one on the right has an oak leaf made by Michelle McCarthy of Firefly Design Studio.

Next up, let's continue on with the Humblebeads theme.  I whipped up a little pair of owl charms (love these little hoots!!) made by Heather by adding some matte sunset dumortierite, Czech glass, and brass.  The pair on the right features some awesome rusty, crusty polymer clay daggers made by Heather's talented husband Jess Contreras (aka Mr. Humblebeads!)

In the process of trying to get my beads organized and (a little bit more) under control, I found some pairs of little oak leaves made from dyed coconut leaves that I picked up from Allegory Gallery a couple of years ago.  Now I'm wishing that I had grabbed more of them because these earrings turned out so cute!  They are colorful and super light.  I'm so tempted to keep the orange pair, but I'll let them out into the world to find a happy new home!

Thanks for stopping by to check out my newest jewelry designs.  Now I'm going back to my bead table to get back to work creating more designs for my upcoming shows!

Some New Earrings

I've been super busy trying to get a bunch of new designs worked up for my big show in September and I wanted to give you all a bit of a preview of some of the earrings I've been making!  Enjoy the eye candy!

Fun with flame painted copper rings!  Amazonite and Swaroviski crystal on the left, Chalcedony and Swarovski on the right.

Brass painted feathers by me paired with matching Czech glass.

Polymer clay birds by Humblebeads with nest charms that I painted to coordinate.

Variations playing with honeycomb and bee combination.  I've got copper versions in the works!

I've clearly been obsessed with earrings lately... what have you been working on?

A Few New Designs

It feels like I've been a little bit too quiet on my blog recently... a problem when most of your jewelry challenges have reveals at the end of the month!  I've been keeping myself pretty busy making jewelry, but much of it can't be shared just yet.  Not everything I've created has to be kept under a veil of secrecy though... I thought I'd do a quick post with pictures of a few random designs I've created over the past couple of weeks.  Enjoy!

Starfish pedant by Michelle McCarthy of Firefly Design Studio

Fun butterfly set!

New version of a favorite bracelet design using leather cord! 

Turquoise and copper... a favorite combo!

Bombette Beads by Erin Prais-Hintz of Tesori Trovati

I love the way the paint job on this pendant turned out... and all that yummy Czech glass!