Bead Hoader's Blog Hop

Sadly, I have to confess my jewelry is not completed for the blog hop. Time has gotten away from me taking care of my Mother.  She has been in the ER seven times since the end of March with extended stays resulting from five of the visits and the last trip was this morning.  You would think that I would have had time to bead while at the hospital but I just couldn't concentrate.  Once life it back to some what normal (what ever that is anymore!) I will post my creations.

Please take the time to look at everyone else's creations.  There are 159 beautiful artists showing off what they had in their treasures stashes.  I am so jealous of their beads.  I wish I could sneak in and check out their hidden collections!!!

Please click on Lori's name  to check out her blog and the links to everyone else. Lori Anderson

ZnetShows Summer Design Challenge

Hello Everyone!  It is time for the ZnetShows Summer Design Challenge.  I feel very honored to be asked again by Hope to design for their company.  This time the twist is that Hope partnered us up with another designer and they chose our beads for us from a huge selection that Bill picked out.  My partner is Donetta Farrington, a talented jewelry designer and creator from Portland, Oregon.  We emailed each other a couple of times before selecting the beads.  I found out that she used to live in Dover, DE (I live 45 min. from there.) and I have an Uncle who lives near her.  Our global world keeps getting smaller and smaller.  Please click on Donetta's name and visit her blog site.  She created some fantastic pieces of jewelry from the kit I chose for her.

Now without futher ado,  this is the kit Donetta chose for me:

Stone -- Jasper Marquis

Sea glass--  23 mm aqua rings

Pearl-- 3mm white pearls

Metal-- antiqued silver leaf chain

Crystal- Mint julep mix

Extras-  gemstone triangle beads

 and seafoam green sea glass pebbles

Oh my goodness, she did a fantastic job picking out for me.  I love the colors and got so excited to start designing.  I knew immediately that I wanted to incorporate a spiral stitch using the crystals, pearls and pebbles, but Donetta threw me for a loop with the aqua rings. I kept looking at them trying to imagine them with the seafoam pebbles and the crystals.  I fiddled with the some more then it dawned on me I had the perfect crystals from ZnetShows last challenge and hmmm the metal leaves then hmmm a pair of earrings were born.

The jasper marquis called to me and said "I want to be a bracelet."  I figured that if stones were going to talk to me I had better answer so the bracelet was formed, but it seemed to be missing something.  After taking it apart five times I realized that they needed the crystals and leaf charms from the leaf chain so I started taking apart the chain and wrapping the crystals.  I just love the bracelet and can't wait to show it off.

Finally, I finished my first idea-- the spiral necklace using the crystals, pearls ,and  pebbles.From my stash, I found mother-of-pearl chips, seafoam sea glass nuggets, and the perfect seafoam green seed beads.

A closeup of the spiral

The finished necklace

Special thanks to Bill and Hope for giving me this opportunity to design again for them.  Their web site is awesome and their products are fantastic with very excellent prices.  Please visit ZnetShows, Inc. you will not be disappointed!  Be sure to visit their blog ZnetShows.blogspot.com to see all the participants in this challenge.