Welcome to my very first PINE RIDGE TREASURES GEMSTONE AND METAL BLOG HOP!!!
Anyone who know me at all knows I am CRAZY over gemstones!  So I was pretty stoked to get in this wonderful Blog Hop By Lisa Lodge! When I got my beautiful Red Adventurine

 I was even more EXCITED!!!  Love the color and shape and feel of all the pretty stones Lisa sent me!
I wanted to do something a little different that I personally don't do much of.
I wanted to do a bib of sorts.  Since I don't do them often [read never] I worked and reworked and reworked again the same basic design. This is the original design, a little closer to the bib than the other 2 you will see but not very wearable.  Still have to refine my loop and o ring assembly skills! I used most of the Red Aventurine  that I got and some of the bronzy metal beads [mostly out of the picture near the back].  I then added the filigree from my stash and the crystals from my stash.

This one is the second design . It flows better and wears much better but is to me a little bland! So I fiddled with it and played with it and left it on it's own!  LOL  Then I sat down and finished it.

 This is the final design!  I really like it!  It is much more what I was thinking and it seems to flow really well!!! It is a little vintage and a touch bohemian.  The filigree pieces make it very feminine.

I hope you have enjoyed my journey with this necklace!  It was a lot of fun and i learned some new techniques and found I need to learn more!!!  Have a Blessed Day!

Welcome to My Country Blog Hop, hosted by Nan Smith.  It is a great idea!  This is my first year in this wonderful hop and don't you know it...I am seriously late!!! Life just up and slapped me in the face!!! LOL  The good news is that I am still standing!!!

I live in the United States, In the State of Indiana.  I live in the Northern/North Western part of the state.  We are about 50 miles from Lake Michigan.

In my part of the state we have a saying...If you don't like the weather, wait 15 minutes , it will change!!! Our close proximity to the Great Lake makes our weather odd and quirky and just plain strange!  We have fabulous scenery whether it is Winter with the ice sparkling on the trees or in the summer with the heat shimmering on the pavements.

These pictures are of some of the  big storms we have had this month.  This June is one of the wettest on record.

I could go on and on about the weather in our area, how everything is tied to it.  We live in a very rural and farm filled area and the weather rules!!!

If it is too cold for too long and too wet, the crops suffer and it just ripples out from there, if it is too dry for too long the same thing happens.  So weather is a pretty big deal around here.




But wrapped in and around and through all of the what if's of the weather is the Amazing Beauty and the wonderful Majesty of all the weather in all of it's moods.  this mood is well...moody and got kind of threatening.

Then peeking around the edges of the bad mood is the blue sky and the sunshine of a better mood and a brighter day!!!

Life emulates the weather, with our capricious moods and our pouts and tantrums, our hot headed temper and icy  implacability.    And just like the weather, we sprout sunshine in our smiles and our optimism and our heartfelt happiness

.

The Necklace I made is a representation of all of the moods and complexities of weather and life's emotions. This necklace contains a really beautiful and moody hand crafted lampwork bead [I am unsure of the artist], and some stormy grey and white and bruised metallic finish crystals that metamorphose into to a rainbow of sky and flower colors that mirror happiness and optimism.  I really hope you love it.  Sorry to be so late.  Have a Blessed day!!!

Well I am a little stumped!!!  I have my pictures and they are good ones and I can't get my phone to back them up so that I can upload them here..  So until I can get them uploaded I am going to post them on Bead Soup Cafe so you can see the necklace.  I will get this together eventually I promise.

Well I did finally figure it out, got them uploaded here and proceeded to lose 2 of them.  Luckily, this one is the most important. the left side [in the picture] is moody and grey and not very optimistic, but from that comes all of the brilliance of a rainbow!  The clouds are still there but the color really pops because of them.  This is the whole meaning of optimism, your rainbow in spite of and along of the clouds!!!  Thanks for being here and part of my rainbow!!! Have a Blessed Day!!!

YAY!!!  I found and reuploaded [is that a word?] the two pictures that I had lost yesterday!  These show all of the beauty of the Moody Hand Crafted Lampwork bead and the burst of color for the rainbow.  There are a couple of wonderful lampwork beauties in here too[the really bright blue tube you can see in the last picture]!  I am so glad I found these!  Have a Blessed Day!

I was Blessed with 2 partners this year!! I was soooo Excited to meet the wonderfully talented Veronica Campos Holstrom.  Veronica sent me a lovely soup that had these great rectangular beads in a green/white/and red/soft blueish collage type pattern on them.  Really cool and i had seen them before!!!  They have a mother of pearl sheen to them as well!!I paired those with the bicone purpley crystals and the pearl beads and then I added the wonderful focal!!1 a Bird House with it's own little birdie!!!  So cute.  I put it on the necklace and looked at it ... looked again...hmmm just not...hmmm... Oh I know!!! I put same color metal filigree behind the house .  That worked I love this. Then I added some crystals to the tassel said that i love it and I was done!!! I have lots more beads from Veronica that I have been working with.  i will post those later....!!! Thank you so much for visiting me!!!  i really had a wonderful time.  Have a Blessed Day!!!

I wanted to say Thank you again the Amazing and Wonderful Lori McDaniel Anderson for all of her incredible work!!! You are my Hero and an inspiration to all of us!!!  Have a Blessed Day!!!

It is Here, It is Here!!! Bead Soup Blog Party Reveal Date 2014!!!

I want to extend my sincerest and Heartfelt Thank yous to LORI MCDANIEL ANDERSON!!!  Her amazing hard work in the face of serious illness and months of recovery is nothing short of Miraculous!!!  I also know that Lori had some much needed help from Lisa Liddy so many thanks to you as well Lisa.  there might be some others that were helping as well, so If I missed you I am truly sorry.  And last but certainly not least is Lori's Amazing and considerate and wonderful Husband and Lori's Sweet and great son!!! Thank you for all you do and just for being you!!!This is my second year of being able to do the BSBP!!!  I am having even more fun this year!!! I have 2 Fabulous partners and will blog about each separately.
This blog is about my Sweet New Friend in Sonora, California.  RAIN HANNAH!  Rain is smart and very very talented. She is also amazingly generous!

 When I got all of the amazing goodies I posted lots of pictures.  With all the issues with pictures today, I am just going to show you completed projects! LOL...I don't want to push my luck!!!  I love love love agates and jaspers and all of those types of stones and Rain gave some really beautiful ones to work with her. [In the blog with the pic etc... are also the names of the designers that made the clasp on this necklace and all of the names of the stones in this as well.  I used a few flat turquoise nuggets and some 6mm jasper rounds, and a few crystals etc... but the bulk of this necklace is all the fun beads that Rain sent.  I really love asymmetric designs and I really wanted to show off that amazing clasp so I used the printed sari silk as a chain on one side and the agates and chalcedony, flat freshwater pearl coins and the filler beads to make a double strand of yummmyness!!! I used the agate focal as a counter balance and added a couple of copper accent charms.  I love how this turned out.

I have a few pieces left to play with including a wonderful focal. so that will be done later.

 I knew when i saw the tile from Rain that I wanted to do what I call an assembled type of necklace.  I had some really nicely textured copper rings that do not open so I used o rings in bronze to link them together.  I usually use several types and colors of metal in this type of necklace.  This is very long and would work great with jeans and a t shirt or that great dress you just bought.  Just below here you will see a really good pic of the tile that Rain sent me!!!  I just love it!!!
 I used a copper leaf clasp and some japer rounds, an embossed key and some speaking tags to add movement and definition to the necklace.  I macrame the lampies that Rain sent in with copper spacers and flat coin pearls. I love the waxed linen cord she sent that was really fun to work with!!!  I used some czech pressed glass leaves, a couple of other charms  a lovely jasper pendant to keep the color and texture flowing from top to bottom!!!  there a couple of more pictures below this one  I had a Blast with this!  Hope you love it!!! Have a Blessed Day!

 Happy Dream Bead Blog Hop to everybody!!! When I got this bead I was like ...Wow that is really Pretty!!! Whatever am I  going to make with this beautiful bead??? I set it where I could see it and went on my merry way...lol!
Yesterday when I remembered it was this blog hop that was due I started thinking about my dreams.  What were/are they, where am I?  The answers were actually Right There, just waiting for me to ask I guess!

I purposely did not make a beautiful necklace or inspired bracelet.  It would have been easy, the bead is really that beautiful.  I made a dangle of crystal and the bead for my car. I spend a good chunk of my day in my car everyday!!! I Think a lot when I am driving...don't you?

It occurred to me that my dreams what I really really REALLY want is like this dangle...pretty little bits of glass and a beautiful bead.

Good ideas and fun thoughts and a great goal.  There is however no...SPARK...no energy...no movement!!!
Just like these crystal without direct light.  Pretty and fun but no Spark and No Movement!!

My Dreams are very simple.  I want to bead and bead well for the rest of my life.  I want my beads to pay me and my bills [mmmm not so simple]

Then when you turn a corner and the light hits the crystal...BAMMMMM there is your SPARK and YOUR MOVEMENT!!!

So today I turned a corner!!! Toltec Jewels thank you so much for lighting that SPARK with this Dream Bead Blog Hop!!!  

 My dreams are pretty and doable and lots of fun.
And everytime I turn a corner when I drive I will see that sparkle I will feel that SPARK!!!  The movement will be my getting the ball rolling for the on line store I have been talking about [pretty bits of crystal] for more than a year! Get the store open [SPARK and MOVEMENT]!

Pretty bits of glass

 SPARK and MOVEMENT!!!
Hope everybody Feels that Spark! Enjoy the Hop!  Thanks for the visit and let me know what you think!!!  Have a Blessed Day!

 Good Monday Evening to all of you!!!
This last Saturday was the first show of the
year for Artistry Handcrafted Bead Designs!!!

We had a BLAST!!!!, we also had a really good show!
We made some changes to our show set up this
year and i am blogging about it cause we just love the way it looks and we are really excited!!!

We decided that we needed just a bit more color, our base color is black.  Our business card color right now is green and white, with a Celtic design border.
So we decided to add green as our accent color...LOL




I went SHOPPING!!! I found 2 really cool
plaques that I could use on our new to us rack [it is black...lol]  We have a bit of a theme going with our props, I guess.  Mostly they are...wait for it...BLACK!!! LOL

 This 2 tier metal basket is what we put all of our
wrap bracelets in.

We got a couple of those cool books that open and don't have anything in them!  We had a blast with those.

 This is our Statement bracelet rack, it works really well for us.

 

Here is a really good example of how we used the book!  Looks great and in the end is sold well too, we sold 2 bracelets off of this book and one off of the other book.

 We use those Victorian looking ladies heads to
show some of our statement necklaces. The head is sitting on  a wrought iron looking pedestal that we this size and a smaller one.





Here is our Iron Lady, she shows
our more linear necklaces and bracelets.  She gets lots of comments and admiration.

 Here are a couple of the heads together and a hand as well.

 Some of our bracelets

 This is my partner in crime, my daughter Melody!
We work at every show, and we talk to people all the time and do lots of custom while they wait.

 Here is the color we went  with for contrast.  Really love the way it says Spring!!!




On this one you can see the candle holder [sconce] that we set on it's side and used for a bracelet rack.

The one below is a side view of our whole booth!

Bracelet stand and some of our different bracelets.

A different view. 

 I hope you enjoyed all the pictures.  Let me know what you think!!! Have a Blessed Day!