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Colors of Fall Artbeads Challenge

As a Design Partner for Artbeads.com, I was presented with a challenge to create a piece using Pantone's fall color palate.   The choices were difficult as there were so many to choose from.  I ended up choosing Kimora Lee Simmons' interpretation of "Chocolate Truffle".   This palate is characterized with plums paired with bitter green and midnight black.  To tie in with the fall theme, I added luxurious copper.

The main component of my piece was hand blown furnace glass beads from Fire Designs in Purple.  These beads were so smooth, uniform and deliciously yummy to work with.  The inside holes vary and the purple stripes are very bold...the perfect bold statement to your piece.  Keeping with Ms. Simmons' interpretation, I added fire polish faceted beads in olivine and matte black.

To add my own interpretation of the color palate, I added copper.  Lots of copper.  I began with copper plated chain, which is a copper plated base metal chain.  I selected the Big, Medium, Small oval link chain for this piece to add texture.  Then, I wired all the beaded components with copper wire, sprinkled copper beads, copper bead caps and Swarovski 5000 crystals in Copper (which have a fabulous, fiery aurora to them)  in with the "charms" and added a couple hand wired copper loops over the chain for more texture.  For the clasp, I used a copper plated toggle and while wiring it to the chain, added a few more olivine fire polished beads.

For the final touch, as you can expect, I took a vintage button from the 1950's and wrapped it with natural brass filigree (so as not to hurt the shank).  This component was added as the focal point in the piece.

This piece will be offered in my shop just in time for the holiday season, so keep updated!

Disclaimer:
As a blogging Design Partner, Artbeads.com has furnished these supplies to me free of charge for my honest review purposes.  I have not been paid or compensated by Artbeads.com in any way, shape or form.

Swimming in Buttons...

So, where did she go, you may be asking.  Well, let me tell you!  November 7th, I went on a supply buying spree for.....Buttons!  I wish I could reveal my sources (sorry!) but this opportunity comes only twice a year.  Since my button supply is getting low, I had to go!

I am literally swimming in buttons (okay, twist my arm!).  I counted over 17,000 buttons that have to be sorted and cleaned in preparation for jewelry making.  Seeing as though Christmas is right around the corner, I may not get to most of them until 2011.  However, I will be doing something different with them this year.  I will be scaling my jewelry down to antique buttons and early vintage buttons only (nothing produced after 1930).  All the rest will be sold in my ButtonAddict shop on Etsy.  There are so many vintage button jewelry pieces being created these days that I need to specialize more.  

Here is a glimpse of what I am swimming in:

Tasty Bakelite!

Antique Metals!

(the bulk of my purchase, by the way)

Yummy Antique and Vintage Glass!

Shell, Vegetable Ivory, Horn, Rubber, Leather!

All antique and early vintage

And, as an added bonus, there was two 2-gallon bags of vintage beads and jewelry parts that no one seemed to want.  Everyone else was there for buttons and thought this was garbage.  So, I snagged it with the hopes that there was something good in the bags.  Turns out, about 1/4 of each bag was vintage glass beads!  Whoo-Hoo!  Right up my alley!  Sure, most of it was vintage plastic from the 60's and 70's, but hey, I can always sell them off!

Vintage Beads - Glass and Plastic

Now you know where I have disappeared to!  I have been sorting everything in the evenings so as not to take too much time from my regular work day.  But as I said before, twist my arm!  I think it is safe to say that I have enough stash to get me through another year of jewelry production!

"Heaven....I'm in Heaven.....when I run my fingers through these lovely buttons!"

New Holiday Treats For Your Coat

I found another use for vintage rhinestone buttons.  Felted wool pointsetta brooches!

Pretty cute, huh?  

For more info on the brooches, visit my shop!

In the mean time, let me know what you think of them :)

Happy Birthday to Me....

Yesterday was my birthday and I actually got some pictures of the event!  I love this camera so much, I find excuses to use it and have others learn how to use it!  Now, mind you, I am coming off a 5 day migraine (ughhhh), so I don't look very well.  I went to the ENT yesterday morning and he added a couple new prescriptions.  I am praying they work!


My Angie-Bunny and her mother, Tina.  Angie calls me "Granny", by the way.  I tried getting her to call me "Me maw" when I got back from the south, but she replied, "But your name is Granny!"  Incidentally, Angie started calling me "Granny" when she was about 2.  At first, I was like... "Gee thanks, kid", but it really grew on me.  No one knows where she came up with that as she calls her other grandmother "Grandma".  

 

 Casi joined in the coloring fun with Angie and Tina.  Note the hockey game in the background.  Yea, we are sick like that :)

And then there's my babies...Tayelor and Jacy.  Taye has a bit of a stomach bug, so she doesn't look real good, either :(

And, of course, Herr Lukas just is not happy until he sticks his nose in there.  Always has to be the center of attention!

Here's the fun part.....Presents!  Mike got me tons of metalworking tools this year.  I have been thinking of taking my jewelry in a new direction...bet you can't guess where it is going!  I'll post pics of the tools I got...

So, it's cake time and Angie's birthday is next.  As the tradition goes, the birthday person makes the first cut and the next birthday person pulls the knife out...

Well, it went all well with me helping Angie pull the knife out...but then she watches me cut the cake in glee saying "Granny, I wanna do that..."

 

To which I, of course, answer "No, Angie.  This knife is big and I don't want you to get hurt."

Well, you can imagine what came next...

Now I did it.  She is mad at Granny.  And to make matters worse, she doesn't give up...(look to the bottom left corner)

Don't worry, Uncle Jacy came to the rescue!

She loves her Uncle Jay!  They settle down to play a video game together :)

Now, remember the colored frosting on the cake?  There is a joke that the woman who makes the cakes uses toxic plutonium icing colors.....

You see why?  Your mouth is stained with the colors!  We all walked around with purple tongues!  I would post a picture of that, but it is far too gross!

Ugghhhhh.  I hate migraines.  Especially on my birthday....