Turquoise Earrings

I love ensembles or sets of jewelry.  If I get a necklace I want earrings and a bracelet to match - usually.  Sometimes it just doesn't happen.

So last week I showed you a great Turqiouse, black, copper and silver bracelet that I made at Beadin' Mon!  Well, to satisfy my ensemble craze, I made earrings to go with it.  I haven't gotten to the pendant yet, but I have a design in the works and hope to have it done soon.  Maybe this weekend I can get it made up.

When making the earrings, I didn't want them to as big as the bracelet was, but I still wanted the same feeling.  I like smaller earrings.  So instead of using the large copper bead, I opted for a smaller copper spacer bead.  This makes the earring smaller but still brings in the copper element that I was looking for.  I then continued to use the same turquoise and black beads as the bracelet, and to finish off the look I added the coil design as the bottom of my earring finding.

 When I shop for my beads I always get a few extra.  I do this so that I have enough in case I loose a few, or if I desire to, I can make coordinating pieces of jewelry.  I do have one more piece to make to finish out my set....the pendant.  I have the beads in my stash, just have to put it together. When I finish it I'll make sure to show you.

Remember to build up your bead stash, you can do this by stopping by the shop, Beadin' Mon on Miller Rd., Flint, MI or shop our online store at www.beadinmon.com.

Have a great evening, and until next time Happy Beadin'

Memorial Day

I have been enjoying my day off of work and the beautiful weather of this weekend that marks the start of summer.  Only a few more days and kids will done with another season of schooling.  Ahh, I remember those days, to be young and carefree.

But, more importantly, I wanted to take a moment and thank all the veterans and service persons, past, present and future, who give us protection and defend our rights to be free.  Thank you all and may God bless you and your families.

Today, I wanted to show you a patriotic bracelet that I made during a class at Beadin' Mon!  This was my first time doing a peyote stitch with a graphic to it, once I got started and learned to read the pattern,  it was actually pretty easy to do.  It's like making tiny tapestries to wear as jewelry.  See my posting on April 9th for directions on how to do even count peyote.

I sometimes catch myself playing with the beads between my fingers, its like a tiny massage for my fingertips.  It reminds of those beaded seat covers for your car seat. :)

I know I have mentioned this before, but taking a class will help you in a number of ways. First you have one on one help (if needed), you can ask as many questions as needed to help you succeed and you learn how to read patterns.  Once you learn to read patterns you may be able to make up your own.  How fun would that be?  I have seen some patterns that are real beauties.

So on that note, I remind you stop by Beadin' Mon! and check our classes or shop our bead selections. And if you can't stop by, feel free to browse our website and online store at www.beadinmon.com.  What will your next pattern be?  Until next time Happy Beadin'

Summer is here again

Ahhh, warm weather and sunshine.  What a lovely day.

Hello again.  It seems as though Summer has returned to us for another year.  The time of season where you can show off your jewelry any time of day because there are no heavy coats to conceal our fabulous sparkles. I love things that sparkle, but every now and then I go for the natural gemstones to change things up for a while.

Today I was thinking of Arizona. You see one of my good friends moved their a few years ago, and I just got to chat with her on the phone for a few moments.  So thinking of her in Arizona and jewelry, I thought I would show you a bracelet that I made (during a class) that seems so Southwest to me.  Its made with Turquoise, copper beads, black beads and silver craft wire. When I think southwest, turquoise just instantly pops into my head. A great color to combine with turquoise is, in this case, black and I decided I  wanted to bring another metal into play, so I picked copper.  I love the earthy tones of copper, it just seems to warm the piece up a bit and I think all these beads work well together.

This bracelet is so easy to make and comfortable to wear.  It wears nicely with jeans and a t-shirt or dressed up for a special occasion.  Don't you just love jewelry like that? And the great thing is I made it.
A few simple instructions of how to make the frame with coil decoration, and then you add your own touch of bead selection in any arrangement you like.  Form it to fit around your wrist and presto change-o you have a southwest inspired bracelet. You too can make a bracelet like this one.  I got all my supplies from Beadin Mon! and I took the class here too.  Stop by today or browse our online shop at www.beadinmon.com to pick your own combination or beads.

Hope you all have a great holiday weekend and until next time Happy Beadin'

Color Choosing

Hi everyone,  I hope you had a great weekend.  Today I wanted to show you a handy little tool that will help you choose color combinations for your projects.  It's the color wheel.  Sorry about the glare in the one spot.  

I own two color wheels.  And each is helpful in its own way.  I like to use these when I am stumped on what colors to put together. And sometimes I come up with color combinations I never really thought about before.  Makes planing a project interesting and keeps me from getting into a rut.

The one on the left is the one I use all the time with my graphic arts work.  I like this one because it shows me many different options of color combinations.  Even on the back is loaded with information.  I got this one at a store that sells art supplies.

The one on the right is one that was provided through a magazine.  Here you photo copied the page, cut out and pined together to create one helpful little gadget.  This color wheel is not as in depth as the first but it contains helpful info too.  First you pick out your main color along the outside, and the windows in the wheel reveal what the harmonious color, contrasting color and what gemstones that match your selected color.

If you don't own one of these wheels, you can always ask for help at Beadin' Mon! Asking for advice has it's perks too.  The bonus to asking is a person is that they can advise you on color trends that are popular at that particular moment in time.  And remember, if you can't make it to the store, you can always browse our online shop at beadinmon.com.  Hope you have an excellent day and until next time, Happy Beadin'

Another Experiment and Idea

Hi everyone.  Today I wanted to show you a pin that I designed.

Okay, you know I like to try new things and maybe work up some new ideas.  Today, I wanted to show you another one of my designs.  It's simple and it turned out cute.

There are so many elements to play with out there.  I picked up the beads and the Faith bead from Beadin' Mon!  I think the Faith Bead was original supposed to be part of a watch band, or something of that sort.  But, being that I like to experiment I decided to make it a pin.  But the question was - How?

So here it is.   I decided to made the dangles first, remember I had lots of practice making fringe pieces on "Mumbo Jumbo" so now I can easily wire wrap my fringe tops.  And I used wire to attach the fringe pieces and create my very own pin mechanism.   I am very happy with the way it turned out.

So don't be afraid to experiment and have fun and Play with your beads.   So the next time you stop by Beadin' Mon! make sure to look around, there are lots of goodies to buy and play with.  If you can't stop by the shop, visit our online store at www.beadinmon.com. Shopping 24/7 - how fun is that?

Well, I hope I inspired you and until next time. Happy Beadin'

Mother's Day Gift

Hi, I hope everyone had a great Mother's Day weekend.  It was a beautiful sunny day.  Holidays. special events, and even "just because" are always great times to make a special handcrafted piece of jewelry for someone you love.

Unfortunately, my Mom pasted many years ago. But my Dad remarried to a wonderful lady.  Almost every special occasion I make something for her. She likes more of the classic looking jewelry, like pearls.  So, this year I decided to try something new, knotting. A classic twist to a modern bracelet.  It turns out this is very easy to do and kind of relaxing, except when I put too many knots on.  Oops.  Oh well, we all make a boo boo sometimes.  Luckily I was able to pick the knot out.  Ya!

The knot serves a couple different purposes.  First it evenly spaces out the beads.  Secondly it also acts as a stopper (for lack of another word). Like, if you were to catch you bracelet or necklace on something and it were to break- with a knotted bracelet you may only loose one or two beads, as opposed to no knots then you would lose a good portion of the strand.  That would be a bummer, especially if they were expensive stones.

This is a bracelet using the knotting technique.  It's almost to the end, just putting on the clasps.

The hardest thing for me to figure out is what size thread that I needed to use.  I got the wrong size (too small), as you can see I have four strings on my bracelet (your only suppose to have two).  Oops - oh well.  I just doubled up and it seemed to work out okay. I guess this bracelet will be extra strong. :)

I believe the beads in my photo are Landscape Jasper, Golden Shadow and Copper Swarovski crystals to add a little sparkle.  Stop by the shop to pick up your supplies or shop our online store at www.beadinmon.com.  Check out a class or two, looks like we have few knotting type classes on the calendar, such as the "Knotted Sterling" class on May 31st at 5:00pm.

Again, I hope you all had a great Mother's Day, and until next time, Happy Beadin'

Easy Necklace

Today, I thought I would show you an easy way to make your own simple necklace. No fancy techniques to know and a great way to start making your own jewelry designs.

All you have to do is have a pretty focal object like a bead or pendant, a piece of suede cording the length of your choosing and these nifty clasp ends.  I don't remember is the actual Lobster Claw Clasp was part of the end or if you had to purchase it separately.

I don't have a pair of clasps that open at the moment to show you.  But here is what you do -  simply slide your bead or focal object on the cording.  Then attach one of the clasp units to one end of the cording by simply placing the clasp over the end of the cord. Take a pair of chain nose pliers and simply squeeze tightly to attach.  Repeat the other end of Cording with the other part of the Clasp.  Viola, you know have a very easy and simple necklace.

I believe the suede cording may come in a variety of colors and thicknesses, so lots to choose from to create your own style.

Left side is sitting on it side so you can see where you just
squeeze the two metal legs together over the suede cord.

I got my cording, clasp and ends from Beadin' Mon! You can even get some one of kind local artisan focal beads here too.  Beadin' Mon! has lots of lovely things to be creative with.  Until next time, Happy Beadin'

My Chain Station Review

So I showed you a photo of me wearing my finished Mumbo Jumbo last week.  I mentioned in an earlier blog about using the Chain Station, which proved to be helpful in this project.  Out of curiosity, I decided to attach a few of the fringe elements without using the Chain Station, just so I could compare.

Here are my thoughts.  It really did help for the most part.  First it kept your chain tight so you could easily add more than one fringe element to the chain link.  Secondly, it kept the chain straight so you cold see where you wanted to add your particular fringe element. I was able to easily see and distribute my color more evenly, no clumps of silver or blue.  And thirdly, it brought my work up closer to my face so you could see better and I wasn't so hunched over.  No hunchback here. :)

So then I tried a few fringe elements without the Chain station.  Doing it this way I found that on certain chain links it was easier to close jump rings nice and tight.  My chain had big links that were connected with a tiny link.  To evenly space my fringe pieces I wanted to place one fringe element on the tiny links too.  These were much easier for me to get to and keep a hold of with my finger.  I felt I sometimes had to hold my hands in an ackward position when using the station to close a jump ring on these linkst.  But, after closing each jump ring I then had to re-lay out the bracelet so I could add another element.  Well, that took a ton of time, more than I wanted to spend.

So, in the future, I will for sure be using the Chain Station.  Its benefits far out weight the negatives.  I hope you give it a try if you haven't already.

Heres the finished bracelet. I decided to leave the extra chain on the end, so it became adjustable. To add interest I added one fringe element  to the end of the chain.  That way the end looks pretty too.

To assist in making your fringe style bracelets, get your chain station at Beadin' Mon! located on Miller Rd in Flint, MI.  As usual, if you are unable to stop by the shop, feel free to check out our class schedule and our online store at www.beadinmon.com.

Happy Beadin' everyone.

I did it - Mumbo Jumbo is Finished!

As you know I have been saying I will finish "Mumbo Jumbo".  I did it - It is all finished.  And might it add it looks great.  Here is my finished bracelet.  Hope you like it.  I also tracked how long it took me to finish it, start to finish.  Here is the tally - a whole 4 hours.  That includes the wire wrapping of the fringe elements and the attaching of them to the chain.  Turned out to be a beauty.

Have a great weekend and happy Beadin' everyone. :)

Creative on the Fly

Knowing, or at least having all the supplies on hand, makes it easy to improvise in a moment.  As a mentioned earlier in my blogs, I had taken a class on how to wrap a simple ring. So having the wire from that project made it easy for me to be creative on the fly.

Whenever I visit Beadin' Mon! I always check out to see what special and unique beads are in stock.  This is a bead that I picked up one day.  I loved the way the blue and silver interacted.  My problem came when I wanted to put it on a certain necklace that I have.  I thought it would look gorgeous.  Here's the problem; The hole in the bead was way too small for the necklace to go through. I was sad.

But I remembered my extra wire that I had from my ring class and decided to see if I could fix something up.  

The solution: Make a wire bail that would fit the necklace.  Okay, at first I thought "What a mess, it looks awful!"  But the more I looked at it, the more I liked the free form of the wire.  I must admit, I do need to clean up the end a bit, but other than that I decided to keep this bail.

Remember all those little skills, and supplies that you pick up will one day help come in handy, like making an adjustment to something like my bead.  So in the end, I was happy I got to wear my new gorgeous bead and I got to play with wire a bit in the process too.  You never know when you'll want to be spontaneous in beadin'  

Well, I hope you liked my little spontaneous wire bail and I also hope it inspires you to be creative on the fly.  Remember to check out all the local artist beads that are featured at the store, there are also some really cool ones.  It's so hard to chose, I just want to bring them all home. But, luckily for you I already have a few in my stash that I need to use. Stop by the shop or browse our online store at www.beadinmon.com

Have a great day and until next time, happy beadin'.  

I think I'll go work on Mumbo Jumbo for awhile.  I haven't forgotten. :)