Treasures by Louise

October's Halcraft Pretty Palettes inspiration was full of color. I joined in the monthly challenge issued by Erin Prais-Hintz on the Halcraft Blog. I was attracted to the paintings by Erin Fitzhugh Gregory, as our palette inspiration to use Halcraft's Bead Gallery beads from Michaels.    I had some of the beads pictured, & similar beads from Bead Gallery in my stash. I also pulled out a porcelain pendant that I had picked up a year ago. I love finding beads in my stash that I purchased "just in case". Edit: This fun pendant is designed by Jennifer Heynen and was purchased at Michaels. (Thanks Erin for info.)  The bright colors called for a color-blocked arrangement, and I started with the earrings,  stringing dog-bone coral beads with turquoise (howlite) rondelles, adding a dark blue ceramic round on a headpin dangle.   Earrings: Coral, turquoise, and dark blue ceramic Pretty Palettes October Color-block Necklace Detail: Birdhouse Focal

My necklace from Jeannie K. Dukic was a chain of beautiful semi-precious jade and faceted czech glass crystals. A long wire wrapped chain by Jeannie Dukic, jade and Czech crystals Coordinating Bracelet   Earrings to match I had a moment of hesitation as I cut into the beautiful chain of wire wrapped jade and crystals. The delicacy of the chain was not to be matched...at least by me. But I had a vision, so I went ahead. At first I planned to remove the crystals and go all "natural", I wanted to add a complementary color and some variety of shapes to the chain. The lovely chain became a lariat, as I decided to keep the ring part of the toggle, and I spliced in wire wrapped sections of red agate and sections of rust-tone Czech disc beads with the crystals. The crystals became a contrasting texture to the stones and disc beads. The decision on the focal came later, after auditioning a number of artisan beads I recently ordered. Auditioning some porcelain foca

Jewelry Treasures by Louise is the new name. It's time to decide to do a fall craft show. There's no question really, it's at a great time of the year, and I need the practice. I joined last year, and it was a little slow, because it was a new venue and not strongly promoted. This year should be better as everyone learns the ropes! Hopefully it will also generate more traffic to my Etsy store. So I will be busy creating new designs and preparing my displays in the coming weeks...In preparation, I've decided to order official business cards, and wanted my blog to reflect the name I will be using going forward. Meanwhile here are some things I have been playing with, putting some new designs in [PicMonkey] collages. I love how these pictures came out: Chandelier Earrings in crystals and glass pearls   Bohemian Feather Necklace and Earrings The Bohemian Feather Necklace and Earrings has been claimed already and I will be making more of this style.