Winner!

First of all, I want to thank you all for your comments! The decision was unanimous to keep vs recycle. And so, as promised this one is going home with those of you that wanted to throw your name into the hat .... and the winner is Sharla over at the BeadedTail!

Do click on the link and check out Sharla's site. She is doing a series of beautiful bracelets and her latest is a gorgeous purple one! Last week she did one in luscious browns in honor of her beautiful girl Sadie, her sweet dog who crossed the rainbow bridge a few weeks ago.

I had one taker for the pink shell earrings who reconfirmed how much she like these earrings. At the time of the reveal for the Sequintastic Blog Hop she said that she "realllllly reeaaally realllly lub lub lub those earrings!"  So Kashmira, they are yours! I know how to find you, and will be sending them your way.

Nina Design Necklace: Give Away

You've seen this necklace now a few times. I made this one with my Nina Design soup. 

So here's the thing; several people were sent the exact same components. We all did our own design. And when Nina asked their readers which design people preferred they chose Bay Moon hands down. I admit it is truly gorgeous how they used that aqua silk and pale blue beads.

The vote wasn't even close. Continuum Designs got one vote, and A Jewelry Crush and your's truly got zero. So now I'm going to ask you all a simple question: keep or recycle?

Leave me a comment and let me know. If I keep it, then I will give it away to those of you who leave me a comment who want to win this necklace. But there is a twist. If the majority of you vote to recycle (come on people be honest for the integrity of the poll), then there will be an alternate give away. See the item behind door #2. I'll post a verdict/ winner on Saturday. So until then ... let me know what you think.

Freedom Fridays: Southwestern Zen

I have been on a serious boho kick lately, and when I saw this stone blue deer skin leather cord from Nina Designs I was thrilled! I could not wait to pair it up with a pretty natural stone and a touch of silver. Nothing says boho quite like a little Southwestern twist.

I started with an African opal stone, which matched perfectly with the leather cord. I added a silver wire wrap down over the top of the stone and then threaded a carved bone disc above to complete a unique pendant.

Next I threaded a tube bail with the leather cord and attached the pendant. I used a silver wire wrap at the ends of leather for a nice finishing touch. I can not tell you how much I love this leather. It is incredibly soft and easy to work with, but strong as well. I've worked with suede quite a bit, and while I love the look of suede it has a tendency to break. I can't count how many times the suede has snapped on me in the middle of a project --- insert swear word. But this leather can withstand my pulling and twisting.

As a finishing touch, I added a hand hammered toggle and pulled it to the front because I didn't want to hide it in the back. The result is a simple leather cord necklace with a style all its own. A friend saw my final design and called it Southwestern Zen. I think that is what I'll have to call this design.

The materials above were provided as part of the Nina Designs blogging program. The author of this blog has not received any payment from above-mentioned company. The post above represents only personal opinion of the blog author. 

Thursday Favorites: Pearls & Silk

Today I am co-hosting a favorite blog hop of mine: Katherine's Corner weekly blog hop. You might notice that each Thursday I write about one of my favorite things. No surprise that it usually is jewelry, or a favorite component (read on and you'll see this week it is pearls and silk). Or perhaps you've noticed that I have the button on the right sidebar. That's because I try to join this hop each week as I really enjoy linking up and meeting lots of new bloggy friends. This week, I asked if she'd let me co-host. She is so sweet; she said yes. 

First I'm going to give you my Thursday favorite of the week, and then I'm going to give you a few rules for the hop. Not too many --- just a few. So read on, link up and join the hop this week!






Pearls have always been a favorite for me and a must have element in my on-going beading stash. This past summer I decided to play around with a slightly different look and bought a few top drilled black freshwater pearls. I created a hand hammered silver connector that I glued into the bead itself. I've been looking for just the right piece to add this pendant. So when I got my stash from Nina Designs I knew I had to pair up the black pearl with this pretty aqua silk cord. 

For those of you who have been following my Nina series this week (and last week), this is my second necklace design. For this piece, I decided to pair up the aqua silk with the black pearl which I think has a nice play of color. But to counterbalance the dark pearl, I added a string of off white - almost pink fresh water pearls. This gave the necklace a bit more weight as the ribbon is quite light. To finish the necklace I added a few pieces of silver; including another hand hammered silver connector, which matches the main focal on the pendant, and a couple of hill tribe silver spacer beads. 

I realized when I was done that the black pearl did not pull down quite enough on the ribbon, so I went back and added a cluster of the off white pearls. I like how these final pearls add a bit more focus and prominence to the pendant. In the end the asymmetrical design did hang nicely, and the silk added a twist of boho elegance to a classic string of pearls.

Now for the Blog Hop Rules:

BTW: Creating with Ribbon

On my table this week are the remains of the package that I received from Nina Designs. You can see the full loot here, but this week I'm focused to a few necklace designs.

I'm starting off this week's necklace series with a pretty pendant that I wire wrapped in a variety of Swarovski beads: bicones, a couple of squat bicones and a cube. I have lots of these pink beads in my stash as my oldest daughter has always favored the color pink. So I regularly pull them out when I'm creating a piece for her.

I also used a beautiful magenta silk ribbon (from Nina Designs) to connect the necklace and to kick up the color of the piece. As a final accent I used a pretty swirl toggle, a handmade gold chain I created with a few more pink Swarovski beads and a few spacers from Nina Designs. I had my daughter try it on when I was done, and it looked so pretty on her. Now if only I could get her to wear a dress!

The materials above were provided as part of the Nina Designs blogging program. The author of this blog has not received any payment from above-mentioned company. The post above represents only personal opinion of the blog author. 

Freedom Friday: Dangle Earrings

Today is the second in a series of designs I'm showing of the pieces I'm creating with Nina Design materials. 

I love these bronze bubble links from Nina. I thought about including multiple stones from each of the loops, but these bubble links really need to stand on their own.

I decided to hang a setting from the bottom loop to accentuate the design. I paired them with a small square majapahit spacer, also from Nina, two wave brush gold discs and multiple gold chain. I love the wave discs; their shape reminds me of potato chips! I gave the discs an extra twist to show off the flare in their waves. 

I used a double wire loop (tutorial on double wire loop here) with a fine gauge gold fill wire (26g GF) which gives me a lot of flexibility to wrap the wire. Lastly, I used a kidney wire for the setting as I wanted to give some length to this design. 

I don't normally use only metal for my settings as I am forever looking to add beads to almost anything and everything I make. But I like how these look with all the various types of gold sheen.

The materials above were provided as part of the Nina Designs blogging program. The author of this blog has not received any payment from above-mentioned company. The post above represents only personal opinion of the blog author. 

Thursday Favorites: Carnelian

Today's post is one of several featuring Nina Designs. These gorgeous earwires and matching onion shaped findings are part of a goody bag I received from Nina's team. I added carnelian rounds and brass spacers to this design.

Carnelian is one of my favorite stones. It has such a deep, rich honey color. But even more interesting is that it is one of the oldest stones found in antiquity. It has been set into crowns, swords, jewelry and architecture for thousands of years. I must admit that Taj Mahal is by far (for me) the most intriguing uses of carnelian, and it is what I used as my inspiration for this pair of earrings. 

Carnelian is used as inlay (right) for the motif of the Taj Mahal. The pattern uses flowers, which are considered a representation of paradise and symbolize the kingdom of Allah. The Taj Mahal was built by the Shah Jahan as a tomb for his wife, Mumtaz Mahal, who died in child birth with their 14th child. The Taj Mahal is her eternal resting spot and Shah Jahan wanted it to be her paradise on earth.

The inlay technique is called 'parchin kari' which is similar to the Italian technique know as 'pietre dure.' First the pattern is drawn directly on the marble walls using a red dye, called henna in India. These patterns are then chiseled out, and finally precious stones are inserted and fitted into the marble sockets. Various stones were used such as lapis lazuli, garnet, agate and carnelian. The color of the gemstone was important as it provided depth and shading to the flower motifs. The parchin kari at the Taj Mahal is considered one of the finest quality examples of the era.

The materials above were provided as part of the Nina Designs blogging program. The author of this blog has not received any payment from above-mentioned company. The post above represents only personal opinion of the blog author. 

BTW: Nina Designs

I don't think I could be more excited to tell you that I received a goody bag in the mail from Nina Designs. Several weeks ago I sent a note inquiring about becoming a blog partner.  I heard in the beginning of August that they were sending me items to create with, and when they arrived I literally gasped. They were more beautiful then I imagined! The findings are gorgeous, silk and sari fabric, and the blue leather is so amazingly soft. I just couldn't wait to get started.

I've been itching to get back to my studio and start working with these pieces. I have been traveling for weeks, and this past weekend was the first time I've been home in my own studio in over a month. 

I'm going to do a series over the next couple of weeks to talk a bit about each design -- starting Thursday. So, swing back by my blog to see my first earring design.

The materials above were provided as part of the Nina Designs blogging program. The author of this blog has not received any payment from above-mentioned company. The post above represents only personal opinion of the blog author.