Toni's Bracelet ( A work in progress)

Okay, here is the progress that I have made on Toni's bracelet to date. It's about half way done, I think. So far I've been stitching with a little bit of right angle weave and a little peyote also. Enjoy!

Toni's Bracelet

Here is the beginnings of a free form bracelet that I have been commissioned to make for a wedding. The bracelet will also be embellished with an assortment of glass and plastic flowers. So far I have just begun with the seed beads and the free form bead weaving. I will post more photos as the project goes.

Debi's Bracelet

I made a bracelet similar to this one back in October of 2007 for myself called Purple Haze. Then in December I went to my Grandpa T's 80th birthday party in Arizona and all of my aunts just loved it and now I have been asked to make them each one. I ended up giving the one I had to my Aunt Mari and this next one I made for my Aunt Debi. She had told me that she wanted one just like the one I gave to Mari, but I hate making the same thing twice. Also I've made a few improvements that I like better on this one. One of the main changes is the color scheme. The Purple Haze bracelet consisted of purple, brown, and copper and this one has purple, grey, blue and silver instead. While I liked the original color scheme I just wanted to try these colors out and see if they worked just as well. Which I think they do. The clasp is different also. I used a slider clasp and wove the beads around the hasp. In the long run I think this type of clasp will help in the strength and longevity of the bracelet. The bead work pattern is also just a little bit different from the original.

I do have to say that both bracelets are equally beautiful and they both sparkle and shine with the many different types of finishes and cuts of the beads. I have two more bracelets to make for my aunts. I will be posting them in the future as I finish them. I think the next one I will make with a green and blue color scheme.

Beaded Earrings

Wow, I can't believe that it has been over a month since I have posted anything new on here. All I can say is that I caught the flu and felt a little burnt out after that. Needless to say here is a pair of earrings that I recently made using red coral and delica seed beads. It's not anything fancy, but they did turn out pretty nice. I also made a pair with black onyx and gold delicas and one with white freshwater pearls and blue denim delicas. Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of them. I will be posting more soon. I have a few projects that I need to get finished within the next month so until then enjoy!

Fire & Ice

Fire and Ice, that just sounds so cool, doesn't it. Luckily the day I finished the piece we had a little bit of fresh snow fall, so I was able to take some pictures in the snow. Thank you, Toni for the suggestion of fire and ice, the photos turned out great.

I made this necklace a few days ago for one of the guys that works upstairs from me. His wife loves amber and, as he told me, she really likes handmade original gifts. So here it is. The amber cab is the focal piece in this necklace and it almost didn't get here in time as it was on back order. Had I known this to begin with I would have ordered another size or something. It arrived just in time though and I was able to set it and bead around it just in the nick of time. I used delica seed beads to start with and switched to smaller silver seed beads at the end. On the outside of the cab I then used amber drop beads around the base of it.

As for the backing I decided to use the peyote stitch to bead back of the cab also. I started with the dark amber beads and ended in the center with the lighter yellow delicas. This gave the piece a nice finished look to it.

The necklace itself I beaded on my thinnest beading wire. I decided to use the thinnest wire for two reasons; one amber doesn't weigh a whole lot and two the holes in the beads were very narrow. For the necklace part I used an assortment of amber beads, delica seed beads, and round sterling silver spacer beads. I decided to make the necklace with a two strands of beads for aesthetic purposes. For the two strands I used a sterling silver slider clasp that allowed for two strands.

Amber Project

Here's a little sneak peak of the project I am currently working on. I love amber so it should be fun to see what I come up with.

Winter Pearls

This is my latest completed peice. I really enjoyed making this jewelry set because it was something that I have wanted to try for a while now. I like to think of the necklace and earrings as old school Native meets new shool Native beadwork. Aaaih!

Anyways, I had been brainstorming about the necklace for a while now and I finally got the chance to try it out. The necklace is completely done with the peyote stitch. I love the tubular peyote stitch, but I have noticed in order to make a quaility necklace that will uphold to years and years of wearing one must do one thing. Do the tubular stitch around a piece of rope or jewelry wire in order for the tube to keep its shape and also as a way to put a clasp on it. I chose to use run of the mill beading wire, which worked out quite well.

I started the necklace out with the pearl section. After completing the pearl section I ran my beading wire through it and continued to bead with the delicas around the wire. The pearls are a beautiful gray with hints of purple and blue-green in them. I accordingly chose delicas that went well with the pearls.
After making the necklace I decided that it really did need some earrings to go along with it, so I made the earrings below. They were made with the flat peyote stitch. Of course they needed a few pearls dangling from them to finish them off.
All in all I am really happy with the necklace and earrings. I was really tempted to keep them for myself this time, but I had already decided to give them to a friend as a birthday gift. I did test them out all last week before I gave them away. I have a feeling that I will be making one for myself in the near future, seeing as I really did enjoy wearing them.