Fish are Friends :: Blog Hop

Isn't that the best name for a hop? Bobbie of Beadsong Jewelry came up with that one. Although in my house fish is food! We eat a lot of fish, so this one made me giggle. 

Our host, Karen Williams of Skunk Hill Studio, has written a wonderful tutorial (you can find it on Etsy) to create these little Fancy Fish, as she calls them. I saw them over on her blog and commented on just how cute these little guys are, and next thing you know I’m on her design team! 

She sent just a couple of us the pattern to give it a try as ‘testers’ of her tutorial. She also sent a few of us a bead package in colors she wanted us to use with the fish. I made one in green and one in blue. And if you look closely at the blue fish you’ll see that I alternated between a sparkling blue and a matte blue. I really like the stripe effect on this guy. I used dark colors on the tips of the fins to accentuate them, and I think that it really brings out the pattern of the fins.

Overall, these two little guys beaded up quickly. I did each one in an afternoon start to finish. It took me a couple of tries to understand RAW (right angle weave) in a circle, but if you know this stitch the tutorial is very straight forward and easy to follow. Karen also offers lots of alternatives to the pattern, the number of fins, just how fancy you want to make them or even adding side fins. I kind of liked mine just like they are ... cute and playful. I’ve decided to send my fish off to two little girls who are just about to become big sisters. It is always nice to receive a big sister gift when a new arrival comes into the family. Just to remember how special each and every one of our children are to us. So these two fish are heading off to Singapore.

Black & White :: Challenge

Sally Russick over at The Studio Sublime has yet another challenge for us. She asked us to create jewelry using only black and white. I love a good challenge, who doesn't? But I also really love black and white together. A very classic look. These will likely be staples in my jewelry box.

We've been 'off the grid' quite literally for a few weeks now. We like to get up to our lake cabin in the Adirondacks when the weather heats up in July. No connection whatsoever, so please understand my slight delay in getting around to all the other hoppers. I did bring my beadwork with me so I could work on some of the challenges I signed up for weeks ago. 

So for Sally's, I started with some ribbon I picked up at Mokuba quite a while back. I loved it and knew I'd eventually find just the right piece for it. It is a thin black embroidered ribbon with small glass pearls running down the middle. I used it as the center of a bracelet and added twin beads to the sides to create a pretty picot edging to it. It doesn't usually happen this way for me, but this piece turned out exactly as I had envisioned it in my head! Normally I just let my patterns flow with a mind of their own, but this one seemed to let me be in charge for once.

Speaking of, this second one did not turn out at all as I thought it might. But that's ok because I like the end result so much better than what I started with! This one has a simple peyote down the center and then I did a stringing weave that has a braided effect. I finished with double fabric buttons. It has such a nice feel around the wrist. 

Check out all the other designs either back over at Sally's blog, or the links below:

ZnetShows Summer Challenge :: Partner Pick

ZnetShows has a new twist on a bead soup swap. We were sent a catalog to peruse and pick out 5 items for our partner. Then ZnetShows sent our items off to our partner. My partner, Sandi James, sent me a gorgeous soup to play with, and it was full of green - my favorite color! I tried to include the links to all the beads I used below just in case you want to do a little shopping on your own.

In my soup was some small pebble sea glass in a sea foam green color. I absolutely love these! I paired it up with some light green fabric. Now here is a great idea. Christine over at One Kiss Creations happened upon a furniture store getting rid of the sample books from last season (aka, free). And those books are full of great fabric swatches to use for beading. She let me sift through and pull out some samples to try. This is my first piece using one of them. I did a little bead embroidery along the edges, and then ran large chain along the sides so I could add sea glass dangles to a very Beach Boho piece. 

As a second piece I did a necklace I call Spring Equinox with it's yin-yang colors of light and dark ... dormant and rebirth. I used one of the beautiful green sardonyx stones and did a freeform peyote around it using that same light-dark theme. The green and white beads are a pretty candy jade faceted bead. I finished it with one of the leaf connectors from the soup. This one could be worn all sorts of ways!

The next piece is a simple double helix pattern using various tones of greens and some lovely opaque green Chinese crystals from the soup. The smaller green rounds are a light jade. 

I love the flower petal pattern in this next bracelet. I picked it up years ago and haven't had a chance to try it out. It actually beads up very quickly as a RAW (right angle weave) with large beads. The pearls have a faint green tinge to them, which is just gorgeous. I wanted to bring that out a bit and added a button closure in a soft green. This one feels very luxurious on!

Ok, one last pair of earrings. I LOVE these crystal twist beads that I paired with more Chinese crystal. It is a simple pair, but would be lovely for a summer night out. I have more, but ran out of time to keep beading. So, I'm sure I'll be back with more ideas using these pretty lemony yellow crystals.

For the final surprise, ZnetShows is doing a giveaway .... so head over to their blog and get your name in! They've got some amazing beads, and rumor has it that they pulled out a little of all our soups for the give away!