This one is for Vicki

My dear friend Vicki is my partner in crime at the bead shows & functions. While we were at the last bead convention, I spotted these lampwork beads that were labeled as ophans and being sold very cheap. Vicki & I make things for each other - there is no telling when one of us might present the other with a beaded piece we have made (usually in the locker room at the gym where we work out together). Anyway, I told her if she would pick out & buy the beads, I would make her another necklace. You see, she wears the necklace I made for her birthday almost nonstop - a girl has to have some variety, don't you know?

This was a very fun piece to do. When we bought the beads, they were shiny, however both of us prefer a matte finish, so I used Etch-all on the beads. It changed the color quite drastically. While the beads had been more of a green, the areas that were green were now a navy blue. The background became more of an ochre color. When I went to my stash to choose beads for the necklace, the woods, ceramics and nuts spoke most to me.

Vicki had a rough week this week and I was really glad to be able to give her this necklace yesterday evening to at least end her week on a much brighter note. Everyone should have a friend like Vicki - I'm really lucky.

Bracelets

Vicki & I didn't get to take the tennis bracelet class that Colette taught, but we were able to get the directions for it, which are really simple. The directions were for a single strand, but after doing several singles, we figured out how to do double strand. The nice thing is this work up very quickly, so it is easy to make lots of them & they make great gifts. They look good worn in multiples on the wrist, too. I made most of these, with the lime green & hematite ones made by Vicki for me.

The next image is bracelets Vicki made for me - the top two were for my birthday and the bottom one was a new design that she found online and made for both of us.

The cubes and chain bracelet was an image I saw online and figured out how to do it by looking at the image. I'm sure I didn't so it exactly as the one I saw, but I do like how it turned out. I have the beads and the new chains at Michaels in the Bead Landing Meadow Grove collection will be perfect for this design.

Cool Spirals

While at the Texas Beaders Retreat, I was inspired by the bracelets Colette was doing with a marvelous combination of freeform with open spirals. I used lampwork beads in this teal green bracelet.

I also reworked two of the first freeform peyote pieces I did, a black bracelet and a purple necklace with this style.

It's been a while since I've taken the time to update my blog. I know I always have good intentions of doing so, but given free time, it seems as if there are always so many other things to do. Many times it comes down to the choice of creating or blogging. Creating always seems to win out. The good thing is when I do get around to blogging about what I've created, it looks like I have been very productive. Of course you must remember that these are done over several months.

The first piece is the necklace I made for my dear friend, Vicki, for her birthday which was in January. It is a freeform peyote with lampwork beads from my two favorite sources, Back Room Beads and Debbie Givens.

Vicki and I had the opportunity to attend the 10th annual Texas Beaders Retreat in January in Temple, Texas. While there I finished the black freeform necklace for myself, as I wear lots of black at work. This piece has both semi precious and lampwork beads.