Fire Agate and Vintage African Focal

Earlier this year I received a wonderful gift of some vintage African beads and components from a woman who lived in Africa for a decade or so. One of the amazing things I received (I blogged about the other pieces here)is this leaf - formed from brass and stamped with a lovely, simple design. I knew it would make an awesome focal but I also knew it had to be paired with the right beads and the right components. I used some 10 gauge brass wire to form the bail - hammered, of course...................
.........and while at Caravan Beads earlier this year found these fire agate beads -some big colorful roundels and some smaller rounds that I knew would work wonderfully with the brass. As links I used some brass washers (nice thick ones - heavier than what you find normally - these were a great find for me from my favorite closeout store here in Maine - Mardens) that I sawed using my jewelers saw. (Beading Daily had a great how-to article that made me want to pick up the saw and work with it again......if you have any hesitation or fears about sawing I highly recommend reading the article)

While I had the heavy gauge wire out to make the bail, I made two swirl components to add a bit more interest to the front of the necklace - also formed and hammered...........

I am really pleased with how the necklace came together..............but I can't show you yet......it's going to be PUBLISHED!!!!!!

Lets Talk Embellishment

Talk about bling........it never ceases to amaze me how creative people are......in all sorts of different ways! Check out the beaded auto in this video - ya gotta wonder how long it took!

Another (just like the other) beachy-summery-sparkly necklace

A simple summer necklace using some black ice fishing line, sparkly aqua AB crystals, Karen Hill Tribe silver beads (some rounds, some tubes, some squares), hand knotted along with some gorgeous coin pearls, some mother of pearl rice shaped beads..... and joined with a simple nautical themed sterling silver toggle clasp with a large heart shaped mother of pearl shell focal

Swarovski, silver and pearls, oh my!

A light summery silver necklace with a little of everything in it.......some freshwater pearl buttons, some of those fabulous pearl coins, Swarovski crystal in two different shapes and three different sizes, some seed beads and a myriad of sterling silver beads - tiny Karen Hill Tribe rounds, liquid silver, daisy spacers, bali-inspired starfish..........
a REALLY fabulous sterling silver sun shaped toggle clasp (I mean, what would the beach be with no sun?!).... and a big beautiful Swarovski crystal starfish. Three strands of varying lengths captured in sterling silver cones on each end - perfect for any time of day or night.

Turquoise nuggets and red brass wire

I was playing in my "stash" today and pulled out some of the turquoise nuggets I got from Turquoise Magpie - they are a very beautiful shade of blue with some wonderful browns and greens all through them. I wrapped the turquoise with some 20 gauge red brass wire and connected them with some handwrapped coils. In the stash I had a nugget shaped almost like a heart so I added that as a dangle I wrapped and coiled on one side. Here is the finished bracelet - destined for Vicki "the Reiki Goddess".