LA's Jewelry Box

Found It!!!

2011-08-24T16:13:00.000-07:00

So while in the midst of rushing around like a chicken w/my head cut off, doing all my last minute preps for my vacation, I found the bead stuff I misplaced and was really upset about losing. Now, I guess it's better late than never that I finally get to do my blogging for beaders artbeads.com stuff but still. . . I really wish I had the time, space, energy and motivation to get and stay organized >.<

While on vacation down here in North Carolina I found an adorable, charming little bead store. It was called "A Place to Bead" and they had a wonderful collection of cloisonne and little charms (y'all know how much I love my charm bracelets!). I'm so glad I found this place. I try so hard when I travel to find little hole- in- the- wall places like this to get fun stuff from and this was seriously one of those blink and you miss it sort of deals.

Anyways, I'm happy to say I got some nifty nautical themed beads and charms (this IS the beach after all!) and w/my new work schedule I will be returning to my jewelry and sewing endeavors w/a vengeance, as soon as I get home from the beach!

Tomorrow my mission will be to find a nice little fabric/quilting store to get some fun fabrics at!

Design Classes

2011-07-29T11:50:00.001-07:00

I'm happy to announce that I've enrolled in several fashion design classes at my local community college starting in September :D very excited stay tuned to see what crazy antics ensue!!!

Backordered

2011-07-22T17:38:00.001-07:00

So I'm happy to announce that a bunch of components to the spring artbeads.com upcycling challenge that I had on backorder FINALLY came in! I can FINALLY finish my upcycling project!!!

EDIT

or not. . . my box that I kept all my upcycling stuff in has gone missing :/ I'm very frustrated. . . I'm afraid it might've gotten thrown out b/c of my mom "straightening" things up and not knowing what's what. . . I'll keep looking but idk what's gonna happen -___-

Too Long/ Luck of the Irish Keychain

2011-06-17T03:16:00.000-07:00

gah. . . it's been too long. . . I really need to update this more. Please, believe me, my silence doesn't mean I'm not creating. I am, I just can't post anything >.<

I am a member on deviantart.com and like facebook, DA also has groups. One of the groups that I've gotten involved w/recently is called ArtCrossing. I'm having a blast w/it. Basically you make a profile then you get assigned a profile. You make a gift based on the profile you've received and mail it to that person. It's like a chain letter but w/gifts.

I've been having a lot of fun w/it. It's a lot easier to create when you're doing it for a specific person and you don't have the pressure of giving them their money's worth. The only problem is, the addresses I've been given have been wrong :/ so my packages keep being returned to me. I can't post pics of the gifts I've made til the recipient receives them which is really annoying and it's driving me crazy b/c I'm really super proud of some of the stuff I've been doing of late and I really feel that w/everything going on in my personal life that it's been therapeutic to my creative juices.

I've gotten into making funky key chains like this one:

I love the visual dynamic that clusters create while at the same time being so elegant and intricate and hey, lets be honest, there's no "right" way or "wrong" way to create these clusters so you can really do w/e you want w/them.

In this case, 4 mm olivine czech druk beads frolick gayly amongst a series of cascading shamrocks (removed from a series of very unfortunate St. Patty's Day souvenirs) highlighting the playful and friendly nature that us Irish tend to have.

This keychain is a great way to accentuate your car or house keys w/o adding the bulk that lanyards tend to have and the lovely tinkling noise that the beads make clacking against each other is sure to remind you of the giggles of the wee folk frolicking out amongst the heather.

The Products:

4mm czech glass druk beads

in olivine were provided

to me by artbeads.com free of charge.

I am part of their blogging project

and have not been paid for my use or

opinion of the above product(s).

Bubbles in the Frog Pond

2011-02-22T17:54:00.000-08:00

I've really been getting into cascading and cluster jewelry. I really like clusters of bright colours but not over the top. I like functional as well as fashionable and this adorable little copper frog's been sitting in my box for months now.

I need to stop ordering druk beads too, I keep ordering them to use and keep getting them w/my art beads projects and I've completely and utterly failed at keeping track of what colours I have and what colours I need!

Anyways, this little guy's hung on an 18-inch copper chain surrounded by 4 and 6mm c zech glass druk beads in rosaline, smoke topaz, topaz, light amethyst, dark green, olivine, and light yellow. I kept getting the chain twisted lol, I must've rearranged those druk beads a dozen times. It's a great time killer sitting at the pool at 6 AM on a Saturday morning XD

The bead products:

4 & 6mm czech glass druk beads

in rosaline, smoke topaz, topaz, light amethyst,

dark green, olivine, and light yellow were provided

to me by artbeads.com free of charge.

I am part of their blogging project

and have not been paid for my use or

opinion of the above product(s).

Cameo Ring

2011-02-22T17:45:00.000-08:00

okay, so I don't normally make rings but I wanted to do something different. There wasn't a whole lot of rocket science involved in this one, just a 13 x 18mm resin cameo, some E6000 epoxy, and a silver plated brass ring setting . The setting's adjustable but I had some issues making it any bigger than a 9 or smaller than a 7 but it's pretty, it's simple, and it's understated and elegant :)

Apologies for My Long Absence

2011-02-09T17:23:00.000-08:00

My apologies for being absent and neglecting my blog. I've been creating, I just haven't been online much. I work three jobs and in addition to that I've been dealing w/a lot of family drama (unexpected deaths and the dissolution of my parents marriage among other things), but I'm not dead.

I've been busy. I've got a facebook page now LA Felice Pesce Designs and my own website, as well as my own etsy page, I've got some listings but nothing's sold yet :( I'm working on getting my projects in order and updated. I'm also teaching jewelry classes w/a group of middle schoolers which is pretty cool.

Stay tuned, I promise there's more stuff coming soon. Feel free to check out the above links where you can see some of what I have yet to post here.

Summer Fun: Catch of the Day

2010-07-12T17:15:00.000-07:00

Eesh it's been a while. . . I've been so busy w/work that the majourity of my projects got put on hold but I'm getting them done. I've got some pretty exciting news too. A friend of mine, having seen the necklace that this post is about, commissioned me to do a similar piece for his mother!!! Another friend of mine wants me to do some jewelry for him too but he hasn't decided what he wants yet lol.

Now, lets get down to business, this was my artbeads.com summer themed project. We had to create a piece that was symbolic of "Summer Fun" to us. Well, for me, summer was always a beach vacation, swim team, picnics at the lake. My summers always revolved around water and being in the water, so I tried to keep that in mind when figuring out this design.

I knew I wanted a nautical design, and I knew I wanted it to be somewhat classical/vintage in appearance- dated but timeless, simple and elegant. Originally I was going to do something similar to my Poseidon design but I just wasn't feeling such a heavy design for such dainty beads and charms so I ended up going in a whole 'nother direction completely.

I started by making long sections of chain w/my 4mm glass druk beads in light amethyst, smoke topaz, rosaline, dark green, and light sapphire. I love my czech glass beads, and I especially love the druk beads, however, I wish I had gotten them in a bigger size, maybe 6 or 8mm b/c as pretty as the colours are, I found that these beads are so small, unless you string a bunch of them together, the colour pales and it's very hard to distinguish one from another, they tend to wash out on their own.

After I had created these long double chains (pictured above), I used several 3" long lengths of bright silver chain to create the full length of the necklace and connected them to the ship's wheel pendant which is by Jollee's Jewel's (available at Michael's). To the bottom of the large pendant I attached the antique pewter anchor and sail boat charms (Captain Ahab, anyone?).

I still felt like the necklace needed something. After all, there's more to the beach then sailboats and ships wheels. One of my favourite activities, even now as a grown up, is getting up w/the morning low tide to hunt for shells. I mean, it's nearly impossible to go to the beach and NOT find any sea shells- even at the lake I find all sorts of snail shells and other fresh water mollusks and lets face it, sometimes sea shells are just too tempting to walk away from!!!

And that temptation proved too great, I just had to include those sea shells in this summer themed piece. I finished the piece w/two large TierraCast Antique Silver spindle shell charms and two small TierraCast Antique Silver spindle shell charms. I attached them in such a way that they drape down the wearer's chest w/o getting in the way or catching on anything.

The finished product is roughly 22" from clasp to pendant and, while not exactly something that a tween or teen would wear is a lovely and elegant piece that can be dressed up or dressed down and definitely celebrates the calm, peace, and tranquility of the beach, as well as the romanticism associated w/a life at sea and exotic places.

Stay tuned for the accompanying charm bracelet as well :D

The bead products:

4 mm czech glass druk beads

in light amethyst, smoke topaz,

rosaline, dark green, and light sapphire,

antique pewter sailboat and anchor

charms, and the TierraCast antique silver

spindle shell charms were provided

to me by artbeads.com free of charge.

I am part of their blogging project

and have not been paid for my use or

opinion of the above product(s).

Gone Fishing: Fathers Day Keychains

2010-06-20T11:45:00.001-07:00

Okay, it's been way too long. I've been so busy w/the new job that I've had to put my beading on hold (stupid priorities!!!)

I'm still around though and I have plenty of stuff waiting to be posted.

Consider this a prelude to my summer bead project for the Artbeads.com design project. I had seen these two projects in the artbeads.com learning center and I had been wanting to get into resin jewelry for a while so I saw my opportunity.

The keychain on the left is my take on Rather Be Fishing while the keychain on the right is based off Catch of the Day .

This project was a combination of traditional beading, resin casting, and a process called "upcycling" which is where you take an object(s) and recycle them into something new. In this case, I upcycled fishing hooks, bait worms, lead weights, and a rooster tail fishing lure.

I also upcycled some old jump rings off some broken keychains that were slated for the trash.

The frames I used are Antique Copper-Plated Pewter Large Rectangle Pendant and the Antique Silver-Plated Pewter Grande Rectangle Link. Also from artbeads.com I got the bass fish charm and fishing boat charm as well as the ICE resin I used to seal the items into the frames.

For the resin casting I made sure to follow the instructions that came w/the resin and for the overall design, I tended to refer more to the pictures on the projects respective pages rather than the actual projects themselves.

Once I actually got down and dirty and started to put my keychains together, I found other than the resin I wasn't doing anything I hadn't done previously and I also found that surprisingly, a lot of fishing lures are put together in much the same way as jewelry. I found it kind of funny that I was recognizing certain stringing and wire wrapping methods on my dad's lures that I myself have used on my beading projects before!!!

Erin's Butterfly

2010-04-07T20:41:00.000-07:00

This is a necklace I put together as a gift for a friend's bday. I wanted to give her something that was pretty and elegant w/just a touch of gothic to it.

I love cascades so I tried to create a simple cascade to focus on the central butterfly. On one side, I placed a skeleton key charm, a red glass wire-wrapped bicone, and a monogram "E" on the left side of the butterfly since we read left to right.

On the right side of the butterfly, I placed an "L" charm, another red wire-wrapped bicone, and a fleur-di-lys. I also placed a silver and red-enamel flower blossom farther up on the chain. Originally, I had hung it on the clasp but found it to be too heavy and rather annoying against the back of my neck (I always give my pieces a test run before ever giving them to anyone).

There's not a whole lot on this necklace as far as "beading" is concerned but working w/chains and metal involved a whole 'nother skill set and can be quite frustrating.

It doesn't help that I'm so beyond guilty of being a perfectionist. I take the charms and beads off the chain and re-attach it til it hangs just the way I want it to lol and it can get to be rather time consuming.

For such a simple necklace, I spent most of an afternoon putting it together before I was satisfied with it.

I gave it to my friend yesterday for her bday. I was a few days late but she was gone on her actual bday and I didn't see her in classes before yesterday. But even being late, she still absolutely loved it and was amazed that anyone would take the time to actually make something special, specifically for her.

Saturn's Rings: Wire Wrapped Pendant

2010-04-07T20:32:00.000-07:00

So I've been playing w/wire wrapping a bit lately and this has been my most complicated design so far. I definitely bit off more then I could chew, overestimating my skills but I like how it came out.

This pendant consists of an imperfect rectangular onyx framed by 20 and 22 gauge silver-plated copper wire and garnet-coloured glass beads. The bead that dangles is wrapped separately and attached w/an "o" ring for free movement. I was thinking of stringing this on a black ribbon but we'll see.

Springtime Dewdrops: Beauty of Spring Project

2010-03-23T19:19:00.000-07:00

Yes, it's been a while since I've posted anything. I apologize profusely. I've been so busy w/school and preparing for my senior art exhibition, I've had to put my personal projects on hold. Ugh, priorities, priorities, sometimes they suck lol. But having been on spring break all last week, I had ample time to catch up on some of my personal projects. This being the most important one. The theme for this piece was the "Beauty of Spring". It was our March project for the artbeads.com project bloggers.

For my part, I selected the Large Copper Butterfly pendant as my focal piece. Nothing says

"Spring" to me like butterflies and butterflies are always a personal favourite of mine.

I also chose accent pieces that were antiqued-copper plated charms. Keeping in mind what I associate with spring, I chose a bumble bee, a sunflower, a watering can (spring always means planting the garden for my dad and me). I also chose a flip flop, to which my roommate and I had a debate of spring vs. summer over. I chose it for spring because spring is synonymous with cute strappy shoes and easter dresses to me. In addition to the flip flop, I also chose a cut out star and a flower outline charm.

Originally I had wanted the charms to dangle below the butterfly pendant, as in a "Y" chain but I didn't realize the back of the butterfly was more of a tube, like for a slider necklace, then a bail so I had to come up with a different solution for my planned cascade effect. I ended up using a length of antique copper-plated cable chain that I cut up into sections consisting of 7 links each. Between each link, I placed a swarovski crystal in the new XILION cut. I used the 4mm XILION bicone fushia and indian red and the 5mm XILION cut bicone in erinite (green).

Another challenge I faced was stringing the butterfly. The tube on the back of the pendant was too narrow to slip the chain links thru but I was worried that just stringing it on wire wouldn't proved the necessary support so I ended up stringing a piece of wire with some 2.5 mm swarovski crystals I had that were a lovely orange colour and threaded the crystals thru the tube. They just barely fit but on the upside, while you can't see them, they also prevent the pendant from excessive twisting and spinning.

After I had connected the butterfly to the primary chain, I then went back and cut the remaining length of chain into sections of 3 links. I used alternating swarovski crystals in the center of the chains to join them, then connected them to the links on the primary chain. I tried to used opposite colours from the ones on the primary chain. Again, they were XILION cut, however the ones I used on the cascading chains are 5mm as opposed to 4. The colours I used on the cascading chain links were lilac, fire opal, and indicolite (blue).

After I had added the cascading lengths of chain, I still felt like the necklace needed something else and I still had quite a few swarovski crystals hanging out in my craft box so I set out to make use of them. I again ended up trying to use opposite colours from the ones on the links on the primary chain.

The final step in the creation of this piece was the addition of an antique copper toggle clasp . I thought it was a nicer, more fun and flirty touch then your average run-of-the-mill lobster claw clasp.

The finished product is about 18-inches in length and sits comfortably just above the bosom. Despite the copious amounts of metal on this piece, it's surprisingly light weight and makes a lovely rustling, tinkling noise when one moves.

The bead products:

Large Copper Butterfly pendant,

anitque copper plated charms, swarovski

XILION bicone crystals in 4 & 5mm, antique

copper-plated cable chain, all copper findings,

and the copper line-etched toggle clasp were provided

to me by artbeads.com free of charge.

I am part of their blogging project

and have not been paid for my use or

opinion of the above product(s).

Wire Wrapped Glass Beads II

2010-03-11T10:46:00.000-08:00

I've been seeing a lot of wire-wrapped jewelry lately and I really like it. It ranges from sexy and elegant to fun and funky to just plain weird, lol. Seeing so much of it, it got me curious and I decided I wanted to try it myself so I did. I had these amber-coloured glass beads left over from a project and I figured they'd be something good and cheap to practice on. I made a set of five using 24-gauge brass wire since it's so malleable. After getting a bit of practice under my belt w/the brass wire, I moved to the thicker, sturdier 20-gauge silver wire and I'm quite pleased w/how it came out. I love how amber looks paired w/silver and even though these beads are glass, they're still gorgeous wrapped in silver.

I'll more then likely end up using these but if anyone's interested, I can easily make some more than I'd be willing to sell.

Wire Wrapped Glass Beads

2010-03-11T10:41:00.000-08:00

I've been seeing a lot of wire-wrapped jewelry lately and I really like it. It ranges from sexy and elegant to fun and funky to just plain weird, lol. Seeing so much of it, it got me curious and I decided I wanted to try it myself so I did. I had these amber-coloured glass beads left over from a project and I figured they'd be something good and cheap to practice on. I made a set of five using 24-gauge brass wire since it's so malleable. My only complaint working w/the brass wire is that it's so thin. I had to twist it back over itself two or three times to get it sturdy enough to cage the beads but I like how it came out and it was a relatively quick process.

I haven't decided if I'm going to use these or try to sell them though so I'll keep y'all posted.

Still Alive

2010-03-01T12:32:00.000-08:00

Hey All~

I'm still alive. I know I've been rather inactive lately but it's midterms and I've had to do so much in relation to my school work that I've had to temporarily put my personal projects on hold. Don't worry, it doesn't mean I'm not creating. I actually just got my next beading assignment from artbeads.com, it'll probably just have to wait til this weekend :(

I'm not entirely inactive though. I've got a couple new pieces sitting here on my desk, waiting to be photographed, I just haven't gotten around to it. My camera eats batteries like I eat chocolate lol, and just haven't had a chance to get to the store and get some more batteries.

Have no fear though, more is coming soon. I'm also working on coraling, I found some lovely beaded pieces on DeviantArt that featured coraling and the designer has been most gracious as to supply me w/a tutorial of sorts so cross your fingers and wish me luck. It's a huge step in a different direction from what I normally do but I'm looking forward to it, especially some dangly earrings

I've also got my hands on some old glass chandelier drops that I scavenged out of a consignment shop that I want to try my hand at wire wrapping so stay tuned. Lots of fun and experimentations ( (and possibly some frustrations, as I try to teach myself some new techniques) are coming your way.

Key to My Heart Necklace

2010-02-08T11:31:00.000-08:00

Just in time for Valentine's Day. I personally love this holiday, whether I'm in a relationship or not. I just love that there's a day to love people- friends, family, significant others, and I love wearing red, it's probably one of my favourite colours. I have to say though, that this is the first time, since I started beading 6 years ago that I've made any jewelry for Valentine's Day.

This was my first necklace made out of individual links, not strands. I took six red swirl heart

beads that I got from artbeads.com and created wire wrapped loops on the top and bottom of the beads, then I took some heart-shaped silver spacer beads by Blue Moon and repeated the process, creating wire-wrapped loops on both ends of the spacer beads.

There's 16 of them in total. I then used a jump ring to connect the silver spacer beads and the red heart beads, creating two separate lengths of chain. I spaced the red hearts every third bead, being careful to keep the bottoms of each heart pointing down towards where I intended to hang the pendants.

After I had created my two separate lengths of chain, I then used another jump ring to hang the key and the heart. To that jump ring, I attached a second which

I connected the two separate chains to to create the body of the necklace.

The two pendants I have used are:

* Poetiques Love Note (heart) by Blue Moon beads and

* Lost & Found Skeleton Key pendant

Almost done, I then attached another jump ring to the other end of both chains, to which I attached a heart-shaped antique silver toggle clasp, by Jewelry Essentials, pictured at right.

All in all, it's a fairly simple design. The most time consuming part, was all the wiring wrapping I had to do but the end effect is quite cute and very flirty and I certainly can't wait to wear it for Valentine's Day.

The bead product, red swirl

heart beads was provided to me by

artbeads.com free of charge.

I am part of their blogging project

and have not been paid for my use or

opinion of the above product(s).

The Balancing Act Charm Bracelet

2010-01-31T18:05:00.000-08:00

Nothing like being snowed in by yourself for two days to really get the creative juices flowing. I was going through my bead boxes (yes, that's plural), yesterday, looking for something to do and I came across this little packet of charms my mom had probably given me as a stocking stuffer at some obscure point in time and I figured I'd try to do something with them.

This bracelet is two strands, one is simply a length of silver chain. The second strand is made of 2.5mm swarovski crystal bicones in silver AB finish and air blue opal, also an AB finish, 8mm czech fire polished glass beads in cobalt blue AB finish, as well as 8mm czech fire polished glass druk in aquamarine AB finish. I added the three Libra-themed sterling silver charms to the center of the bracelet, spacing them w/the blue opal swarovski crystals and the central one, the star burst, is also set w/a silver-finished swarovski crystal.

I finished the bracelet w/an antique silver "picture frame" toggle clasp that's inlaid with little white swarovski crystals.

Legal Stuff

The bead product, 8mm Czech

fire polished glass bead in cobalt blue

AB finish was provided to me by

artbeads.com free of charge.

I am part of their blogging project

and have not been paid for my use or

opinion of the above product(s).

I Wear My Heart. . . Cell Phone Charm

2010-01-31T17:38:00.001-08:00

Just in time for Valentines day. This design is really simple. I'd had these cell phone charm things sitting in my craft box for a while and well, w/all the fun new beads I've been getting from artbeads.com, I needed to get rid of them, make some space, so I decided to make some cell phone charms. Unfortunately, my cell phone doesn't have anywhere that I could hang these from so I'm offering them up for sale.

For this design, I hung an antiqued silver heart charm w/a filigree pattern on it from the jump ring on the cell phone charm form then to create a cascade effect, for I do so love my danglies, I hung a length of silver chain from the jump ring so it would dangle below the heart.

To the length of chain I added 3 different sets of beads that included 3 glass beads of a funky geometric shape, alternating b/t a nice dark red and pink. On the red beads, I added a lighter red biconal, and to the pink bead, I added a 6mm czech fire polished glass bead in garnet w/an AB finish from artbeads.com.

This cell phone charm is available is for sale, $15 USD. If you're interested, you can contact me at MAlleNrOhSLVR@aol.com

Legal Stuff

The bead product, 6mm Czech Fire Polished

glass garnet beads were provided to

me by artbeads.com free of charge.

I am part of their blogging project

and have not been paid for my use or opinion of

the above products.

Seven Seas Cell Phone Charm

2010-01-31T17:21:00.000-08:00

This design is really simple. I'd had these cell phone charm things sitting in my craft box for a while and well, w/all the fun new beads I've been getting from artbeads.com, I needed to get rid of them, make some space, so I decided to make some cell phone charms. Unfortunately, my cell phone doesn't have anywhere that I could hang these from so I'm offering them up for sale.

This charm was a fairly simple matter. I took a skull charm I had, which is made by Charm Gallery and is available at Michaels Arts and Crafts, attached it to the jump ring on the cell phone charm and then hung several varying lengths of chain from it. The longest is about 2 1/2 inches.

At the bottom of each chain, I hung a different coloured bead that I had done a wire wrapped loop on. The three beads included are an 8mm glass druk bead in aquamarine, an 8 mm Czech glass fire polished bead in cobalt and another in emerald, all three beads are an AB finish.

This cell phone charm is available is for sale, $15 USD. If you're interested, you can contact me at MAlleNrOhSLVR@aol.com

Legal Stuff

The bead products, 8mm Czech Fire Polished

glass cobalt beads, 8mm Czech Fire Polished

emerald AB finish beads were provided to

me by artbeads.com free of charge.

I am part of their blogging project

and have not been paid for my use or opinion of

the above products.

Poseidon: King of the Seas

2010-01-16T20:49:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone, sorry it's been a while, been busy back at school, haven't had a chance to churn stuff out like I was over Christmas. It's a holiday weekend though (MLK day is on Monday), so school work's not so pressing that I couldn't take a break and focus on my artbeads.com work so yeah, I've spent the last 2 days working on this beauty.

I LOVE sea horses. Though, to be fair, I love most ocean/water related stuff, but sea horses are a particular favourite and I've had this little guy sitting in my pendant box for well over 2 years now, just waiting for the right time to use him and it finally presented itself.

I believe the sea horse pendant is from the Lost & Found collection by Blue Moon beads but don't quote me on that. I've had him so long, I'm not even sure he's available out of the collection any more. However, the chain I used, available in a length of 54 inches is also from the Lost & Found collection.

As is my want though, I generally tend to mix and match different brands, collections, even materials. The "pearls" I used are 6mm glass round beads w/a pearl finish from the Manor House collection. They are available in a lovely variety of pastel colours.

For this project, I chose an eggshell/tannish colour to offset the 6mm Czech Fire Polished glass beads in cobalt blue provided by artbeads.com then to compliment the lovely AB finish of the 8mm Czech Fire Polished glass beads in emerald I chose a pastel purple/blue colour, trying to play up the ocean theme.

I really liked the deep rich colours of the fire polished beads, they were so vibrant, despite being darker colours. Blue's always a favourite colour of mine to work with and green, well, green's just my favourite colour period. When I ordered the AB finish beads, I wasn't sure what to expect. I didn't even know what "AB Finish"meant, but I'm really quite pleased with the multi-faceted appearance of the emerald-coloured beads. The way they sparkle is slightly reminiscent of Swarovski crystal.

I broke up the "pearls" into clusters of seven using 6 and 8mm silver plated brass beads by Bead Gallery.

I used the beads provided by artbeads.com as centerpieces, capping the cobalt blue beads with the 6mm silver flared star bead cap, also from artbeads.com. I loved the star caps, they were very dainty and delicate and added a nice elegance to this piece. The only downside I had to them was they were a little hard to handle, I kept dropping them!!! They just slid right between my fingers!!! They were a little tricky to string too, if I didn't string them as a cluster w/the bead, they would get tangled in the wire. A minor annoyance but they are pretty against that dark blue bead.

To spice up the long chain that's supporting the sea horse, I created wire wrapped links of alternating 8mm emerald beads and 6mm cobalt beads which I strung from one side of the chain to the other below the two beaded strands to create the illusion of a fourth strand. To create the wire wrapped links, I used beadalon 20-gauge silver wire, available at most craft stores. I made sure to maintain a drape to the wire wrapped beads, when the necklace is worn, they fall just above the link that holds the sea horse pendant.

Legal Stuff:

The bead products, 6mm Czech Fire Polished

glass cobalt beads, 8mm Czech Fire Polished

emerald AB finish beads, and 6mm flared star

bead caps were provided to me by artbeads.com

free of charge. I am part of their blogging project

and have not been paid for my use or opinion of

the above products.

Merry Christmas, Everyone!

2009-12-26T17:46:00.001-08:00

I know it's a bit late but I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas. It was rather icky and rainy here but I'm glad we didn't get the freezing rain and snow they had originally called for. My Christmas was pretty good, if a bit long.

I stayed up til 2:30 Christmas morning finishing up some of my xmas gifts and was woken up by my brother at 7 AM to open presents. Needless to say I was a little grumpy and I woke up not feeling too great (still don't feel very good). I got some nice stuff- a really pretty green sweater, some new games for my wii, my favourite gift was a brand new sewing machine. I haven't had a chance to play with it yet but hopefully in the next few days once all the Christmas stuff dies down.

I finally managed to get my car out today and got to drive into town. It felt good to get away from the family for a little bit. I took a trip down to the local bead shop and to my delight, their doing their end-of-the-year clearance sale and I got some real pretty tubes of seed beads, as well as some Swarovski crystal beads, all of it on sale for 50% off. I'll hopefully resume the projects I currently have on hold.

I also went to Michaels today. I needed more silver chain for one of my projects and while I was there, there happened to be a grandma and her granddaughter shopping the beads. The granddaughter had just learned to make jewelry so grandma wanted to get her the right stuff to keep it up and they had no idea what they were doing or looking for. I ended up in a conversation with them, an impromptu lesson, showing them how the different tools worked, how to make a loop, ear wires, the different between the different gauged wires and threads, and what not. After I had spent a good 20 mins helping them, another lady came up to me and was like "you seem to know what you're doing, could you help me too?" so I ended up repeating the whole process!!!

It was pretty cool having people turn to me for crafting help today, now I need to make some business cards to give people so they can contact me when they need help instead of writing my info down on a scrap of paper so they can contact me in the future.

I can't believe how quickly it seems things are taking off for me. Maybe I can pick up some extra money offering lessons or whatnot. I've taught myself a lot of what I know and I love to teach others new things too. I'm hoping to teach myself Peyote stitching this year. I have a lovely pattern that a Bead Society lady gave for a flower broach that uses peyote stitch but I've never been able to quite get it right :( so maybe this will be the year, riding on the tide of good fortune I've had of late.

My grandmother's coming down tomorrow, supposed to stay for a few days. She's a seamstress by trade so I'm hoping she can show me a few tricks while she's here because I have an idea that's sort of nagging at me in the back of my head for a bead-trimmed throw blanket. I want to give it a try, even if it doesn't have any real practical use, it just seems like a pretty idea so I'm hoping she can teach me some embroidery stitches to make use of.

I hope everyone has a good and safe upcoming New Year's Celebration, weather permitting you get to celebrate at all!!!

Ahoy, Matey! Charm Bracelet

2009-12-23T20:45:00.000-08:00

Yes, I'm a rather busy bee this time of year. Christmas is only 2 days away and having been out of a job for 9 months now, I'm making use of the stuff that's been sitting in my craft box to make unique, one-of-a-kind gifts for those closest to me.

I'm quite fond of nautical themed stuff but I prefer more old fashioned, antique nautical stuff, like compass roses and whatnot, so this is a little more modern and contemporary then what I would normally do, but hey, it's for my mom, so the aesthetic is a little different.

My materials all came from Michaels Arts & Crafts on this one:

The chain is by Jewelry Essentials: http://www.michaels.com/art/online/displayProductPage?productNum=bd0544

The 8mm biconal beads I've used are by Bead Gallery: http://www.michaels.com/art/online/displayProductPage?productNum=bd0839&channelid=

and the charms are by Charm Gallery: http://www.michaels.com/art/online/displayProductPage?productNum=bd0856&channelid=

MATERIALS

7 (seven) nautical themed charms by Charm Gallery.

4 (four) dark blue 8mm biconals

2 (two) light blue 8mm biconals

2 (two) light green 8 mm biconals

silver head pins

silver chains

silver clasp findings

I started by cutting a length of chain to about 5 1/2 inches, roughly. I needed the chain to be a little shorter then the actual wrist, otherwise when I add the clasps, it'll be too big. Once I cut the chain to a size of my liking, I took an "O" ring and attached it to one end, using this to secure a lobster claw clasp to the length of chain. I repeated this process on the other end, securing an "O" ring to act as the connector to the lobster claw clasp.

Once I had the clasp findings secured, I then held the chain up, allowing gravity to pull it so that the exact middle link of the chain hung down. To this, I attached the first of my charms, in this case, the pirate ship charm.

I tend to work instinctively, very rarely ever drawing or planning out my designs but if you want to, you can.

After I had attached the central charm, I took my 6 remaining charms and organized them so that the nautical theme was interspersed among the beachy themes.

I then took the remaining charms and spaced them out every 4 (four) chain links from the center chain, keeping in mind that I planned on attaching 8mm biconals to the links between the charms, to add a bit of colour.

Now, once you have your central charm, you should have 3 charms hung on either side of it, making a total of 7 (seven) charms, however you can add as many as you like. I generally like a nice odd number, it makes planning a piece a lot easier, but to each their own.

After I have connected my 6 (six) remaining charms, I then turn my focus to the biconals I intend to attach to add a splash of colour. The strand I selected had a nice nautical appearance to it, being blue and green. Having 3 (three) different colours to choose from, I decided to use all three, taking 2 (two) biconals of both the light blue and green, and 4 (four) of the dark blue biconals.

I threaded the biconal beads onto silver headpins, also by Jewelry Essentials and proceeded to create a wrapped loop (visit http://www.firemountaingems.com/beading_howtos/beading_projects.asp?docid=652t for a lovely tutorial + how to video). I then too my "O" rings and used them to attach the biconals to the chain.

Remember, I had earlier spaced my charms 4(four) links apart, that leaves 3(three) links between each charm in which to place my biconal beads.

Having 3(three) links between my charms, I can perfectly center my biconal beads and effective eliminate the guesswork by placing the biconals on the 2nd link between each chain, leaving 1(one) link between the charm and the bead on both sides.

After attaching the biconal beads between each charm, I then go in, and applying the same rule of thirds, apply a 2nd set of the dark blue beads 2(two) links up from the last of the charms on both ends of the chain, thus adding my final touches as well as keeping a single link between the charm, the bead, and the clasp on both ends of the chain.

And thus we have our nautical themed charm bracelet however, once again, you do not necessarily have to do it as a nautical themed bracelet, you can do any colour beads that you want, any charms that you want.

The important thing is to be creative and have fun. Again, I like odd numbers, I use them in pretty much every design I devise but to each their own. You can add as many or as few charms as you want, same with the beads. You don't even need to use the biconal beads. I chose them because I liked their geometric shape and how they looked between the charms.

SKILL LEVEL: easy to moderate, requires basic skills with needle nose pliers as well as the ability to create a loop. I rate it in-between because creating a wrapped loop can be tricky and requires a bit of trial and error.

TOTAL TIME: approx. 1 hour (60 mins)- 2 hours (120 mins) depending on skill level and experience.

UPDATE, 12/25/2009

Well, it's xmas morning and I'm happy to report that I gave my mom her bracelet today and she absolutely loved it. She didn't know I made it and was absolutely flabbergasted (love that word!) when I told her that it was a one-of-a-kind original. She was like "you made this!?" and I was like "yes I did, while you were asleep on the couch the other night" and she was like "it's so pretty!!!" I absolutely love that sense of satisfaction from giving someone a gift that I know they can't/won't find in stores.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone. I hope you all have a safe holiday!!!

A Victorian Aesthetic

2009-12-22T17:27:00.000-08:00

As you'll soon learn, there's several things recurring in my work:

1. I'm influenced by history

2. I love anything that looks antiquated and

3. I have an unhealthy obsession with pocket watches, gears, and cogs

well, 2 of my 3 obsessions come together beautifully in this long Victorian-inspired necklace made using 4mm fire polished topaz round beads from Artbeads.com and pieces from the Madame Delphine collection available at Michaels Arts & Crafts.

Now, for those of you who don't know, a fairly good sized snow storm hit the east coast this past weekend and dropped a good 2 1/2 feet of snow on my parents house and we lost power all weekend. As a result, I didn't have access to my sewing machine so I couldn't work on Christmas gifts but I had this project that I'd set aside, waiting for my beads from Artbeads.com to arrive and since they did, a few days before the storm, it was the perfect opportunity to try something I've been wanting to attempt for a while- working with chains.

I love big pendants, I love multiple strands, and I love anything that looks like it's been through many hands over the years. I find the story behind an object to be just as important as the object itself (I'm addicted to Antiques Roadshow) and thus this necklace is a culmination of everything I look for in pretty much any jewelry I make for personal wear.

So, yeah, this necklace is made with the Madame Delphine chains which can be found here: http://www.michaels.com/art/online/displayProductPage?productNum=bd0872 and the pendant, also by Madame Delphine is available here: http://www.michaels.com/art/online/displayProductPage?productNum=bd0867

I like a consistency in the colour between my chains and my findings, so I also made use of the Madame Delphine Oxidized Brass findings: http://www.michaels.com/art/online/displayProductPage?productNum=bd0869

To compliment the fiery orange of the stones set in the pendant, I used amber-coloured glass round beads, also by Madame Delphine: http://www.michaels.com/art/online/displayProductPage?productNum=bd0866 and 4mm fire-polished topaz round beads from Artbeads.com: http://www.artbeads.com/druk-mtopab4.html

Now that I've introduced you to the material, I'll tell you how I made this. You'll need a pair of wire cutters and needle nose pliers as far as tools are concerned. I used 2 strands of both the Rolo Oxidized Brass chain (the skinny one), as well as the amber-coloured glass beads. You'll also need a length of beadalon wire.

First, I started by deciding how long I wanted this necklace to be. I like long strands and I wanted this to hang long, so I measured out about 35 inches of the skinny brass chain, cutting off the excess with my wire cutters. I then attached both ends to "O" rings, using my needle nose pliers and my fingers. Then on one end, I added a lobster claw clasp and on the other, I added a 2nd "O" ring.

Next, I took the remaining length of chain I had cut and cut it again, again attaching an "O" ring to both ends of it. To one end of the chain, I attached the amber-coloured glass beads, to the other, I threaded through the "O" ring that also held the lobster claw clasp. I then repeated the process on the other side of the strand to close the necklace. I wanted to stagger the lengths of the different chains used, so this chains markedly shorter then the long skinny chain. However, you can make it as long as you would like, or as short as you would like. For me, the chain's about 30 inches.

After I attached the chain containing the large circular glass beads, I then turned my attention to the pendant. The pendant's a bit heavy, it's actually magnetic and opens, though it doesn't actually contain a watch face (much to my disappointment), but I had to keep it's weight in mind when stringing it, because the chains needed to support it's weight and that's where the larger chain of alternating circles and rectangles came into play.

The length of chain I had itself wasn't long enough to be a complete strand on it's own so I solved this problem by removing an additional rectangular piece to make it an odd-numbered (5) strand, that way the pendant would hang dead center.

However, hanging the pendant comes last, because otherwise it just gets in the way. On both sides of the large chain links, there's two long bars, enabling it to be a double strand. On both sides of thick chain, I attached another length of the skinny chain to the bar on the inside of the circle and ran that up, connecting both ends to the previously mentioned "O" rings that contained the clasp findings.

After connecting the thinner chains, I then went back and using the left over chain lengths and cut them into two 2-inch segments, attaching these via "O" ring to the bars on the outside of the circle links. After attaching them, I then threaded a piece of beadalon wire through the other end of the chain, onto which I then threaded the 4mm topaz beads from Artbeads.com. I tend to count the beads when I'm threading them so you'll find 25 topaz beads on both sides (I ended up using about half the total strand I had purchased).

Once I had threaded the beads, I then attached the remaining length of chain to the ends of the beads, pulling the beadalon thru and securing it with a crimp bead to keep the beads in place. I repeated this process on both sides of chain, again securing the other ends of the chains to the "O" rings on the clasp findings.

Now for the last part, attaching the pendant. The pendant itself hangs in such a way that you can't just thread it on some beadalon wire and call it a day without it hanging sideways and

getting twisted around. To solve this problem, I attached a larger "O" ring to the pendant itself then used the same "O" ring to attach the pendant to the center link in the larger chain, using my needle nose pliers to close the "O" ring.

After I had assembled the necklace, I did have to go back in and straighten out the chains so that they weren't tangled, that was simply a matter of reopening the "O" rings on the clasp findings and rearranging the ends of the chains but it was trivial and if you like your chains tangled, you can leave them that way.

I like my chains to lay flat and even so I took a few extra minutes after I had finished assembling the necklace to straighten it out.

So yeah, there ya go. You have yourself a lovely Victorian inspired, slightly steampunk in appearance necklace of modern design.

Skill Level: Moderate, the beading skills are basic but the skill (and patience) needed to work with the chains takes a little more beading experience.

Total Time: Approx. 4 hours, time will vary though, depending on your experience as well as trial and error. It took me about 4 hours to complete this piece, largely because I was without power and had to work by the light of a head lamp.

Welcome to LA's Jewelry Box

2009-12-22T16:23:00.000-08:00

So I'm kinda new to this whole blogging thing- never attempted it til I had this computer class this past semester at school that required me to keep a blog but yeah, here I am.

Welcome to LA's Jewelry Box. I'm LA. I'm an artist by trade and all around I love working with my hands. My mom got me into beading way back, about 6 years ago. She signed us up for a class at a local bead shop and while my *first* bracelet turned out rather disastrously, being more fitted for an ankle then for a wrist, I kept at it, it was fun and it let me flex my creative muscles much more then just drawing or just taking pictures.

Shortly after that, I got involved with a Bead Society through the same bead shop and while I haven't been active with the Bead Society since I graduated high school and went off to college, I still bead, I still make jewelry, and over the course of the last year or so, I've really grown as an artisan crafter, moving in leaps and bounds.

I love the whole DIY aspect of working with my hands, taking different parts to make a one-of-a-kind whole. I rarely buy jewelry any more because for the most part, it's all stuff I can make. I also like the challenge of figuring a design out.

I've taught myself quite a few tricks through DIY videos, articles in magazines like Ladies Home Journal and Better Homes and Gardens, as well as through deconstructing old jewelry of mine, stuff that's broken and I haven't worn in years and usually if I can take it apart, I can figure out how to put it back together (my dad's pocket watch being a victim of such curiosity).

In addition to making jewelry, I've also gotten into textile crafts, having taught myself some basics this past summer in my quest to have a skull pillow to match my skull blanket, I'm gradually learning, again thru trial and error as well as DIY help videos the art of textile crafts.

I like to think of myself as a jack of all trades, my primary outlet for creativity is my work as a printmaking majour, I use etching plates, linocuts, and lithography in my studio work and have also strayed into the realm of book binding. Ideally I would like to be an illustrator some day but I'm happy so long as I have some sort of creative outlet.

So, yeah, welcome to my blog. I'm not quite sure how these craft blogs work but I'll do my best to keep y'all's interest and foster creativity and unique designs and hope y'all stick with me as I work to figure this out myself :)