Turquoise 5

Not a very original title, but I guess that has never been my "forte". I wanted to see how many bracelets I could make with one strand of Turquoise. I used all copper beads etc... with the turquoise. Some have more and some have less. They look quite nice separately but just for fun I had to see what they would look like all together.

Not bad eh? {that is "Canadian" BTW} lol. I love the richness of antiqued copper and mixed with turquoise it just looks that much better.

Tomorrow is back to school here in Calgary, first time ever that it is in August as far as I remember, it usually always starts the first weekday after labour day. I am not too disappointed though, the kids have been fighting too much lately so I am looking forward to the peace and quiet. I have one going into grade 4 and the other is starting Kindergarten. Two down...Two to go :)

Have a great day!!

Marie

Going for Chunky!

I am really finding wire wrapping relaxing. I have been doing it while watching the kids play outside or sitting with them while they watch a movie on a rainy day. It does not take much effort or too many materials and I can do it almost anywhere. The top bracelet is made with large Camel Jasper nuggets and the Carnelian nuggets. I used bronze 20G wire and a copper toggle. It is actually quite nice to wear. Not rough like you might expect.

This one is made with Red Jasper and Grass Jasper. I used the same bronze 20G wire and copper toggle. They look really fun and fell very rich because of the weight. They are not that heavy, it is just a noticable weight and the feeling of something significant adorning ones wrist.

I hope you come again soon

Marie

Here are the Beads!!

Nothing too fabulously crazy there, but with a little practice I could get good at it. I love green and so that was the first colours I had to pick. I also got some aqua, pink, purple and some kind of red. The first bead I made is in the first picture. It is the green one with the orange in it. I only used green glass, one colour. She was showing me that the minerals in the glass can be affected by either too much oxygen or too much propane. I really like the way it turned out.

This picture is me experimenting. I really liked making the disc beads. The way the glass would just layer on top of itself, or mixing the different colours together.

I was learning and practising gravity swirling and dots as well, you can see a little of that with these. I purposely left one drooping so I could use i as a pendant.

These last ones are the focal beads I made. They are not perfect but not bad for a first time. I liked adding the fritt, it was interesting how it just melted in. I think my favorite of these is the squarish one with the ivory in it.

I have no had time to make anything with them yet. Too busy trying to get stuff ready for some shows that will be coming up starting in September. I imagine I won't have much time during the week to make stuff once the shows start. I just hope I have enough variety to keep everyones interest.

And yes the glasses were very sexy ;)

Marie

"Bavin Glass Cabin" and ME!

Now when I say Cabin, I literally mean cabin! What a fun and cute little place it was. I thought I would post up photos of my awesome lampwork glass experience. My daughter took these pictures of me working. Then the batteries died before she could get a cool pic of any of the beads.
Now if the camera adds 20lbs I look better than I thought. lol. I am working hard at losing a few pounds right now and these pictures don't make me feel too bad about myself. Gotta love the sexy glasses. I put my hair up since I did not want to set it on fire. I loved learning all the techniques, the beginner ones at least. Now I see how much work it really is to create these beauties.

I was looking into how much everything costs to start doing this at home and I can see why some artists charge so much for their beads. In Canadian dollars it would be at least $3000 with a small basic kiln. WOW! I can not imagine putting out that kind of money. I did find a place in Calgary that teaches classes, so I might go and do a little more of that for fun and just keep getting more of Sue's gorgeous beads. It seems to be a worthwhile investment to purchase from her instead of setting up my own shop. lol.That is Becky in the picture, she was my instructor the day before. So you are actually seeing pictures of me on my Birthday!! I was so glad to be able to go and do this instead of being at the cabin with people. I loved being there and being able to relax and not have to think about anything other than what I was doing.

I still have to take pics of the beads themselves, so keep checking back and I will be posting them soon.

Thanks for coming

Marie

Bookmarks and coming home!!!

By now most of you know that I have started making bookmarks. They are selling so well, that I ordered a huge amount so that I could stock up for Christmas. I have a feeling that is going to be my best seller.

These are some of the new ones I have made. The top one is Antiqued Brass with an Angel from Vintaj. It also has a Chinese lampwork bead. The second is silver plated and is strung with a short length of chain with wire wrapped burgundy pearls. They really look terrific hanging on the outside of a book.

This last one is copper and is also strung from a short piece of chain. I wire wrapped three sizes and two shades of Aventurine beads as well as some fun copper beads.

We are back tomorrow and I will be able to come see if you guys have left me any comments on my scheduled posts. I am just afraid what my hotmail is going to look like. On average I get about 30 e-mails a day.

Thanks for stopping by.

Marie

We are back and Glad of it!!

These earrings are made with Sea Sediment Jasper, and Vintaj findings. I love the pale milky look of this particular Jasper mixed with the brass. Just thought I should add a little eye candy to this post, since I don't have too many good things to talk about today.
I have a scheduled post that will go up right away and this one will be up shortly after. I had to come on and say that I have delete all my facebook stuff. I was tired of my family undermining each other on facebook and so my fan page also went with it unfortunately. I honestly don't think that I will ever go on holidays again. Too many things went wrong and made it extremely un-enjoyable. I am gad to be home and with my husband, he is being really wonderful right now and I can not imagine loving him more.

So on to better things. I was creating like crazy while I was out there. I made a whole bunch of bracelets and earrings as well as a turquoise necklace. I am waiting for my batteries to re-charge and then I will be taking pictures later this evening. The best part of this trip, was getting to go on the day before my Birthday to this cute little cabin called "Bavin Glass Cabin". I learned how to make lampwork glass beads. Let me tell you, I have a whole new outlook on this particular art. "Sue you Rock!" It was incredibly fun and maybe even a little addicting. I absolutely loved it. On my Birthday I went back and rented the torch for 3 hours and made a whole bunch of beads. I will be taking pictures of those and posting some. I also want to make some pieces of jewelry and post those too. I am not great at the whole bead making thing but some turned out pretty cool.

I can't wait to show you all I did.
Have a great day!

Marie

Copper Pearls

This yummy necklace is one of the most gorgeous things I have ever made. In my eyes anyways. I love these copper pearls and wrapped with the brass wire from Vintaj, well you see it for yourself. I wore it to the "beach" by our house and right away I got a ton of compliments on it. I think if I was willing to sell it I could have. I am just not sure if I want to...yet.

Enjoy the rest of the summer

Marie

Happy Birthday to Me!!!

Yes that's right, it is my Birthday. I am not shy about my age, I am 34 today. I feel like I have lived a decent life so far and look forward to doing a whole lot more living this year. I have accomplished quite a few of the things I hoped to accomplish. I am married, I have 4 beautiful children, I own my own home {or part of it} I have my own business and my life long goal to be published is going to finally come true in October. I need to make new goals now. Give me some suggestions...
True Love... Lampwork beads. I can not get enough of them and when I have a bigger budget I will be getting a whole lot more. {hear that Sue?} lol. These are not anywhere near the quality of Sue's Beads, they are just some cheapies that I got from a seller in Florida. That does not mar the prettiness of the beads however and I get to enjoy them even more since I can afford to buy more.

I mixed Lampwork with copper, pink marble, Red Aventurine and Australian Jade on the first bracelet. The second has the pink Marble again, light purple and dark green pearls as well as some little black glass beads mixed with silver base metal and a different shade of those lampwork beads.

I hope you all enjoy my birthday... ;)

Marie

Faux "Garnets" by Sue Beads

I had Sue from Sue Beads make me these lovely "garnet" beads. I wanted these so I could try to make something for the January publication of Bead Trends for the Birthstone section. I made 3 sets of earrings and here are two of the sets. If you read between the lines you may have already figured out why there is no third set posted up.


This first pair has genuine garnets at the top and bottom as well as these pewter bead caps. They are hung from sterling silver hooks.
I went all out for the second pair. I used Platinum ear wires and I wire wrapped the little fresh water pearls onto Platinum ball head pins. I added another pearl at the top of the dangle and the bead caps are silver plated.

I hope you come back again soon.

Marie

Holidays!!!

So today we leave on holidays. This is the first holiday we have taken in about 4 years. It should be interesting, the grand-parents are taking us and most of the family will be coming and going for the better part of a week. In the meantime I am setting up automatic posts and if everything goes as planned you will have something to look at about every 2 to 3 days.

Today I am posting a wire wrapped necklace that I made a week or so ago. I mixed quite a few different kinds of beads and put them in a somewhat random pattern that I think turned out quite well. I can tell you for sure that there is 2 kinds of fresh water pearls, pink marble, ruby quartz, blue crazy lace agate and I think Aventurine. I love the mix of colours in this one, it was not my usual mix which is nice, since I like to challenge myself now and again.

Enjoy your week and I will reply to any posts I get after I get back August 18th.

Hugs

Marie

Perfect Earrings

I don't need to tell you how much I love Vintaj products. They have a little something to them that is just wonderful. These pieces are no exception. The texture and swirl and old time feel, make these gorgeous pieces classics. I added some wire wrapped burgundy pearls to the swirled pieces and put them on an earhook. They are so elegant and classy, I would wear them everywhere!

Marie

"Linked"

I wanted to see if I would get the same effect trying different colours in similar earrings. I did the first in all pink and the second with 2 pink and 1 green. I love these links and have sold everything I have made using them, As soon as I run out though that will be it I think. Time to move on to something else.

Result: I prefer one colour to a mixed colour set. The pink are just so much softer and delicate. The pink and green is still fine but there just seems to be something missing. I love dyed pearls, having such a variety of colours to choose from is wonderful. I will have a great many new "pearl" earrings to show you in the coming weeks as I get ready for my fall shows. I am already booked for the first two weekends in November with the possibility of the other two as well.

I will be making a massive amount of inventory right now to compensate for the lack of time I will have once the shows start.

I am sure many of you know what I am speaking of

Have a great day!!

Marie

Watch This!!

I wanted to try making a watch, just to see if it would be something I would want to wear myself. These are my kind of watches. Stretch bracelet, stays a little loose on the wrist, I can pretty much guarantee that I won't get a rash that way. Metal Allergies suck!! You miss out on a lot of fun jewelry.

I used double holed metal links and ice flake Quartz. Not too complicated, Magic Stretch in two rows held together by the double links.

I think I may try a few more of these.

Marie