Maven Meld Challenge

The deadline for the Maven Meld challenge entries is upon us and, by some miracle, I got mine in on time. You won't want to miss seeing all the stunning entries on the Maven Meld entries page.

I spent a lot of time "perfecting" my design but when I saw how gorgeous the other entries are, I feel like Wile E Coyote with a flock of roadrunner beaders leaving me in the dust! LOL!!! As for my entry, I used a component of Mikki Ferrugiaro's "Crab Chain" design, one of Mikki's focal snap clasp designs and Cynthia Newcomer Daniel's "Russian Snake Chain" tutorial.

Here's the prototype I made up first:

And here's the final design:

Deciding I didn't care for the "chain" part I replaced it with Cynthia Newcomer Daniel's Russian Snake Chain. I loved the look of the first focal snap which was based on Mikki Ferrugiaro's "Vintage" focal snap clasp, but decided it was a little too heavy for this choker and didn't hang quite right, so I replaced it with a variation on her "Victorian" focal snap clasp. This one turned out both lighter and flatter and consequently hung much better.

It's interesting to see how different the two look when made with different beads. I'm reasonably satisfied with the look of the final design, but think I'll make yet another one using pearls like I had in the pink one. It still has plenty of bling, but the pearls give it a somewhat softer look. Now what color should the next one be?

New Beadwork Collections

Life has been happening so much lately that I haven't had time to post, but I did want to let you know about two new ArtFire collections. One features orange beadwork for my orange loving beading buddy, Tanya. It's called "Orange You Beautiful"
Here's a piece from the collection. It's called "Ziangle 2-Hot Chilli" and was created by Dax Designs:

The other is a collection of tawny, beadwoven, wild animal prints called "Beading On The African Veldt" - just because I thought they were so interesting and wanted to share them with you.
Here's a piece from this collection. It's called "Exotic White Tiger Beaded Necklace" and was created by Forbesfarm:

ENJOY!

New Work

I've been working on clasps that don't look like clasps. Mikki Ferrugiaro has designed some focal clasps by beading over snaps and I've taken her snap idea and am running amok with it. ;-D Here is a bracelet I recently finished. In the second picture you can see the snaps. Such a simple idea, but so ingenious - go Mikki!

Bragging Again

My butterfly necklace was included in a new ArtFire collection, "For That Little Black Dress", curated by LHJewelryDesign for Girl's Night Out on ArtFire. It's a collection of handcrafted jewelry to wear with - you got it - that little black dress. ;-D I felt like going dancing when I saw this collection and hope you will too. You can see all the pretties here.

Making a Beaded Bezel for a Drop Cabochon

Have you ever wondered how to make a beaded bezel for a teardrop cabochon? Here is a good video you might want to take a look at. Knowledge of peyote stitch will be helpful but not necessary.