Treasures by Louise

Coordinating Jewelry for an outfit For a recent commission, I was asked to create a necklace and earrings inspired by a dress, to be worn for a friend's wedding in October. Inspiration for Jewelry The dress is as pictured, and I wanted to find "just that special bead" to compliment the pattern on the dress. I was fortunate that our Bead Guild's twice yearly bead show was happening in early October. I found the focal bead, accent beads and spacers at Small and Beautiful Beads, one of my favorite vendors. There's always a crowd at her booth, which is full of lovely colored beads as well as finished jewelry to inspire. The recipient received many compliments on her jewelry and enjoyed the beautiful wedding last month. Congratulations to Bride and Groom!

Lizard Earrings On our trip last summer to Arizona, we traveled north from Phoenix, and stopped at a park along the highway. I'm always carrying my camera and looking for the little details. I caught sight of a little lizard sheltering in the shade. It took a few tries, and I got a nice picture of this cutie!  This little lizard had found some meager shade under a fence rail. He looked like napping and keeping cool was his first priority.   Lizard seen at a park on the highway north of Phoenix, Az. ~110 deg. F.  I was quick enough to photograph a few more lizards during the week: Lizard with lichen, Arizona Colorful collared lizard on a nature trail, Arizona Inspired by the wildlife, I created some lizard earrings. The brass lizards and the lever back ear wires are from B'Sue Boutiques, and the Fire Agate beads are from Michaels. The bead caps are by Vintaj. I'm keeping these for my personal collection! Lizard Earrings with Fire Aga...

After a hiatus, I'm back to creating. I've been a caregiver for a little while. After Mom's illness and her passing, I tried to cope by keeping busy. I'm taking some time to regroup. Now I'm starting to create, making earrings; because I need to start somewhere. Earrings June 2017 Teardrop lightweight earrings Right: Snowflake Obsidian and silver plate hearts; Left: Teal cathedral beads and tiny compasses on silver plate mounts. I'm cleaning, sorting and organizing, too. This vintage quilt is a keeper, freshly washed: Crown of Thorns, vintage quilt in my collection. Thanks for stopping by my blog; hopefully I'll be blogging more regularly! :)

For the original Bead Soup Blog Party post go here This has been both fun and challenging to be a participant. I do hope that this Blog Party will continue in some form. I now realize how much monumental effort our hostess Lori Anderson has put into this and all the past blog hops. I only came to understand how much time she and her team put into this after trying to hop to the nearly 500 posts myself. Thank you for stopping by. I'm still hopping, so if I haven't visited your blog yet, I hope to soon. I want to visit, read and comment. I appreciate all your comments, so if you stop by please leave a quick note. Now, a few more pictures that missed the deadline: Stone Butterfly with copper headpins on waxed linen cord For this necklace, I tried a number of new to me techniques: The copper headpin bead dangles of different lengths, the asymmetrical arrangement of the beads on each side of the focal, and knotting on the orange waxed linen. I'm not sure that I...

Hello! If you're looking for the Grow Your Blog Party post, click here . I plan to sign up for the 8th Bead Soup Blog Party. These are not my beads, but I wouldn't mind winning them!  This is my first time so I'm a bit nervous about the whole swapping thing. Most of my beads are nice, nothing special, and mostly commercial. So I decided to go shopping (online) at Kristi Bowman Designs, http://www.etsy.com/shop/KristiBowmanDesign and at Lima Beads: http://www.limabeads.com/ . It was a case of when you don't know who you're shopping for, buy what you'd like to receive. But in this case, I wanted 'em for myself too! Guess what: one for me, one for you... My calendar is marked for February 9th. It's sure to be fun, I hope I get to particpate.

Welcome New Visitors ! Thank you for stopping by to visit! Here I talk about making jewelry and my beading passion, or perhaps that is my shopping for beads obsession. ;) scroll down for the link   I work for a craft store, so most of my bead collection is commercial beads and supplies, but I am finding so much to tempt me with true handcrafted beads, both lampwork glass and polymer clay. I just ordered some special polymer clay beads for a bead soup party that I plan on joining, and I have a few ceramic beads from ceramic artists, so I have made the first steps. I work for a craft store, so most of my bead collection is commercial beads and supplies, but I am finding so much to tempt me with true handcrafted beads, both lampwork glass and polymer clay. {I recently bought some special polymer clay beads on Etsy for a bead soup party that I plan on joining, and I have a few ceramic beads from ceramic artists, so I have made the first steps!} But, I also have a fabric st...

Yay! I just found out I am the winner of the earrings I posted about last Thursday. I  want to share a link to Dillman's Diversions, the Etsy store of the artist who makes the beads: Check out this beautiful Lime green & Black bracelet (http://www.etsy.com/listing/153530210/lampwork-bead-bracelet-in-lime-green-and?ref=shop_home_active) Follow the link above to see this bracelet and the whole store! I hope to finish Amy's Green and Grey necklace in the next two days,... so check back Friday to see the finished project.

I'm making progress, on the green and grey birthday necklace... Ideas are germinating and sprouting! Meanwhile, another giveaway, I'd like to win: these earrings. This lady does some very nice work with lamp work glass beads. Visit Dillman's Dallies to share and comment for your chance to win. Dillman's Dallies

Count me in! I signed up for Lori Anderson's Bead Hoarders Blog Hop. I really NEED to go thru my stash and use up some of those beads. Never mind thinking about picking up a few more beads....I have plenty to work with, now I just need a bit of focus, and to carve out some time. :) Here's the link to the Blog Hop, if you'd like to join in!: Prettythingsblog.com/bead-hoarders-blog-hop-sign-ups-are-open.html

Hi again: As I mentioned, I am working on organizing my craft area, and I happily sorted through my findings and put them in a divided storage container. Then I pulled out some clearance components that are intended to be easy peasy snap together statement pieces. I decided to re-design and re-purpose the pieces and so I took most of them apart. Here is what I started with: The large green beads look heavy, but they are fairly lightweight, so probably acrylic resin. I added some bead strands and considered a few chain options: add in some Australian Jasper, copper beads and chain and mixed metal beads.   I picked some Australian Jasper that toned nicely with the large resin beads , and added in copper metal beads.  The design was begging for some seed beads to balance the large beads, and this seed bead mix seemed made just to tie together the copper and green tones. Check back soon to see what becomes of this collection!

B een thinking for a while that I need to get my bead table organized. But I have to do more than think about it to get it done! There are at least two ways to approach this challenge, that I am considering: 1) Sto p buying beads and work with what I have - this is an "Organic" way to work through the beads, and also a challenge to be creative : not run out to the store to get the 'right' focal, but work with what I have. I have tried this approach at times whe n making quilts, and gotten good resul ts. (Al though, I still have plenty of fabric in my stash.) 2) My alternative approach would be to stop creati ng for several days and do a "su rgical approach" and just sort and purge until I have cleared up my working space. The question is, shou ld the beads be arranged in colorways such as reds, green s, blues, etc. or should I keep all the projects and shopping sprees together ? My usual creative process often begins at the store, picking and choos...

Here is my entry for Lorelei's Blog Hop Challenge: Inspired by the Blue/Teal Resin Sliders from Michaels and my impression that they look so much like water bubbles. I found some beautiful glass beads the same day, and added gold tone beading wire and brass spacers, as well as some Crystazzi bicones and Bead Gallery bicones I had on my beading table. I tried to evoke the feeling of a waterfall and the spray of fine mist at the base of a waterfall.  In my mind's eye I was remembering hiking in Michigan's Upper Peninsula to view the many waterfalls last summer. What fun , and many thanks to Lorelei Eurto for challenging us! Here's the link to Lorelei's Blog Slider Blog Hop Reveal And h ere is the blog list : BeadLolaBead CabeWoman MustardBead.blog-hop-reveal. A Polyme r Penchant Pearl  and Pebble: Challenge reveal Peacock Fairy: challenge bubble Beads for Busy Gals: resin bauble Dawn's Blog Shirley Moore B Street Studios Sally Russick Pamela 7...

I am finally managing to get the most recent necklaces posted to Etsy. This one is perfect for a Summer Day at the Beach. Just looking at it you can imagine Sun and Sand and splashing in the Surf. Sand and Sea Shell Necklace with copper toggle #103 on Etsy

Here are a few items used in the waterfall necklace for Lorelei's slider challenge blog hop: Included are Crystazzi 6mm Light Green Bicone crystals, green seed beads, brass spacers, crimps, jump rings and Beadalon gold plated 4mm crimp covers .

For our blog hop, t his Friday wi ll be the big reveal, but today I'm sharing a bit of photo inspiratio n for my necklace made with the cool acrylic sliders from Michaels. Enjoy! Michigan's upper peninsula has many beautiful waterfalls to inspire artists and crafters

I was promising myself that I wouldn't buy beads for a while, but, I went to a Bead Show this past weekend, and just stopped in with a little to spend, on purpose, to limit myself. The nice people at Bella Venetian Beads provided irresistible temptation. These beads looked good enough to eat, if you know what I mean. There's a problem with the camera/computer interface right now, but I hope to share pics soon. Meanwhile I'm sharing a link, so you can check them out. My favorite are the beads called Aventurina, which have a bit of copper added, and really sparkle. bellavenetianbeads

Here are the starting materials for the Slider Challenge. The Deadline is going to be soon, so creating must begin! Yes, they're very matchy matchy, so I'm going to add some things from my stash. Beads were 50% off at Michaels this week!

I have been working with the Michaels sliders beads for the past month, and am looking forward to teaching the new Elegance classes at my local store! So when I saw a challenge to use some cool resin sliders, I ran right over to the store to pick up these. My first challenge to participate in (if I get chosen!) I admit they were something I in the past weeks hadn't been sure what to do with them; so I chose several others that were more my style. Today I found these interesting sliders and when I looked at the strung beads, I had a brainstorm! I can't wait to get started! Here's a link to the blog that started it al l, so you can check it out. Lorelei's Blog This pic, from Lorelei's blog depicts the same slider that I bought. Now to get started!

On the beginning of February, on a cold afternoon, I can't help but dream of spring... playing on Etsy, I found some beautiful bird beads from Earthbutter beads, and these are my favorite set: What beads or supplies inspire you on a cold afternoon?  

The beads from this Etsy s eller a re beautiful, I love the handcrafted look. EarthButter Studio on Etsy. I visited her blog to learn the story. She employs local women to create the beads, and donates part of the proceeds to local charities. It's worth checking out her blog, for more info: earthbutterstudio.blogspot She has many beautiful bead sets, here is one of my favorites & prices and postag e to the U S are very reasonable.