Treasures by Louise

First, thanks to Linda Anderson for hosting this #BeadPeepsSwapNHop. Great job done by Linda, and thanks for the angels who worked behind the scenes to help her.  Life happens! My family needs me! It's been a busy few weeks. We've had a few trips to urgent care and one to the ER. Beading helps relive the stress! Thus the reveal is of works in progress . (Please visit again for future updates! ) I recieved a wonderful group of beads from Heather Richter of Desert Jewelry Designs . She sent me some fun and challenging beads and findings. I started out trying some wire wrapping, and stringing. I made a charmy, wirey bracelet that I'm pretty happy with: I love the soft greens and tan, contrasts of stone, glass and pearl. I embellished one of the brass leaves with beads: to be attached to a chain... This will be part of a focal pendant. I have more leaves to play with, and more ideas.  I strung some of the colorful freshwater pearls together. It needs fi...

My package from my swap partner Heather arrived yesterday, and I dropped everything to open up those beads! The beads are awesome and will challenge me. Heather sent some favorites, like some gorgeous turquoise!  There are pieces that will challenge my skills; three really cool cabochons, calling for peyote bezels and bead embroidery. There are some beautiful spring green beads, both glass and serpentine-new jade, and some bright tropical shell beads. Not to mention strands of pearls and natural pearls in a rainbow of colors. These are the makings for several pieces, I will have fun and hope to do them justice. Since now, Heather has recieved her swap beads from me, I will also share a pic of what I sent her: There are two focals, a  porcelain one from Linda Landig on Etsy, and a Dog's Tooth Amethyst cab, with some 6 mm amethyst beads. Super Duo's in a lavendar luster, and two types of stripey seed beads. Fibers from my quilt fabric stash; a strip of purple om...

"Welcome to my Blog" to new visitors. Here is my introduction for the purposes of joining the Swap 'N' Hop. I started by stringing beads after several of my store-bought costume jewelry pieces broke.  I looked at the methods of construction and the stringing materials. I was already a quilter, and had tried many other crafts, so stringing beads was the next step. Here are some early pieces, still some of my favorites:   The style of jewelry I make has changed over the years, from stringing to more mixed media, as I became a Michaels Jewelry instructor and started following blogs of jewelry makers such as Lorelei Eurto. I soon became aware of artisan beads and have started to incorporate more hand crafted beads and to move beyond store-bought findings to working with wire to create my own eyepins and connectors. Technique-wise, I joined a bead guild a couple of years ago, which has expanded my interests, so I am trying out bead-weaving and bead embro...