Clay and Lampwork Blog Hop



Recently Lisa Lodge of Pine Ridge Treasures sent out the call for another blog hop.  This one is a Clay and/or Lampwork Blog Hop.  We signed up and received either a Clay or Lampwork set of beads to work with.  I received some wonderful Lampwork beads from Bastille Bleu.  Again, I forgot to take a picture of the beads before starting, but later in the pictures I'll pinpoint the 3 wonderful beads I received.  I knew I wanted to do something that would either be a multi-strand necklace or have the appearance of multi-strands.  And as I played around with the beads, I didn't like the looks of the small blue bead in between the 2 larger lovely flower beads.  So I decided they should be the focal for the lower strand of the necklace.  But I wasn't sure I had enough beads to make 2 or 3 full strands.  So I started playing around with one main strand, done with 2 strands of beading wire and then splitting right at the center to use the 2 larger beads as the focal and the smaller blue bead above it in a shorter strand to make it appear to be 2 strands.  The more I played with it, the more I liked it.  I had just received all the glass pearls and faceted beads I'd won from ZNETshows and their last challenge I was in.  It was great, since I'm not much of a blue person and don't usually have much blue in my stash.  There was some wonderful blue beads along with the greens, clear, yellow faceted glass beads that matched the colors that were in the larger lampwork flower beads along with some white glass pearls. I also bought some pink round and faceted round glass/shell beads to bring out the pinks.  I wanted this to be a very 'blingy' necklace to make the Lampwork flower beads shine.  Then I had to make sure 2 strands of beading wire would fit through all the beads I was using.  And finally I had to figure out how to finish off the strands.  I had this lovely Silver colored leaf toggle bar clasp that came in my winnings from ZNET and thought it would go well with the 'flower' beads.  But I couldn't get the crimp beads to take both strands of wire up through around the jump ring and back down through the crimps.  It was too much. So I had to divide the 2 strands on the one main strand and crimp them both to a jump ring.  Then I made another strand to make the necklace appear as 3 strands in the center and had to crimp them to another jump ring and attach the 2 jump rings to the leaf toggle bar clasp.  It was a little more difficult than I had imagined, but I finally got them all crimped and attached.  I love the way they turned out.  And of course I had to have earrings to match.  So I hope you enjoy what I made with my lampwork beads.  In the first picture the 2 larger flower lampwork beads and the small blue lampwork bead in the short strand just above are the three beads I received.  Let me know what you think.


Lampwork Beads



Lampwork Beads Necklace



Lampwork Beads earrings



Lampwork Beads Necklace 2

Then, because I got done so quick with this set, I asked for another set and got these gorgeous lampwork beads fromStudioJuls along with the small pink/orange seed beads. And as usual, forgot the pictures, but if you look close at my bracelet, they're the large round lampwork beads.  There's 4 of them in this bracelet.  I paired them with some great Jasper I had, some gold glass pearls from ZNETshows, the small pink/orange seed beads and some small black seed beads I had.  This was my first go at a memory wire bracelet and I knew I wanted it to be 3 strands.  It took me 3 times of stringing, removing and restringing the beads to get enough on the memory wire.  I had laid them all out and thought I had enough, but NOT!  LOL.  But I think it turned out great for my first Memory Wire bracelet.  Hope you enjoy it.

 And if you're looking for more of my Beaded or Wire-wrapped jewelry or Stained Glass, Mosaics or Fused Glass Kreationz for your home or garden, check out KayzKreationz.
Also, be sure to check out what everyone else made with their Clay or Lampwork sets. 

Your hostess:  Lisa Lodge, A Grateful Artist

 

Mary Govaars, MLH Jewelry Designs

Melissa Trudinger, Bead Recipes

Kathy Zeigler Lindemer, Bay Moon Design

Laurie Vyselaar, Lefthand Jewelry

Annette Rivers, MamaOwl's Mess

Karin King, The Sparkle Things Blog

Shaiha Williams,   Shaiha's Ramblings

Mimi Gardner, Baubles, Beads and Other Curiosities

Dee Alcalde, Agape Creations Jewelry

Kay Thomerson, Kayz Kreationz

Karla Morgan, Texas Pepper Jams

Lori Jean Poppe, Lorillijean Creative Corner

Eleanor Burian Moore, The Charmed Life

Leah Mifflin Tees, My Beady Little Eyes

Terri Wlaschin, Dances in Fog

Sharyl McMillian-Nelson, Sharyl's Jewelry

Jo-Ann Woolverton, It's a Beadiful Creation

Veralynne Malone, Designed by Vera

Linda Aspenson Bergstrom, TBD

Toltec  Jewels, Jewel School Friends

Judy Turner, Silver Rains

Gloria Allen, Gloria Allen Designs

Kathleen Douglas, Washoe Kat's

Connie Tipton, TBD

Christie Searle Murrow, Charis Designs Jewelry

Andrea Glick-Zenith, ZenithJade Creations

Michele Dotson, Star Jewels

Chris Eisenberg, Wanderware

Jennifer Clifford, TBD

Kathleen Breeding, 99 Bottles of Beads on the Wall

Molly Alexander, Beautifully Broken Me

Loretta, Loretta's Boutique

Carolyn Lawson, Carolyns Creations

Shirley Moore, Beads and Bread

Bonnie Coursolle, Jasper's Gems

Alice Craddick, Alice's Beads and Baubles
If the links don't work, check out A Grateful Artist for the master list.  Thanks.

CBC 2000 Giveaway

Recently a group I'm in on Facebook, the Creative Bead Chat held a giveaway for reaching 2000 likes.  There were about 40 different artists that donated prizes.  All you had to do was comment on the prize/prizes you liked and say how you would use the prize.  For example, would you wear it, give it away or create something awesome with it and if creating, what would you create with it.  There were some great prizes.  And Lo and Behold, I won a fabulous pair of earrings from Alicia Marinache.  Alicia hails from Burlington, ON Canada.  She loves working with silver and copper and semi-precious stones, bringing inspirations from nature into her art.  These are Etched Brass squares that have been patina'd and sealed, with glass lampwork beads attached to Sterling Silver findings.  Aren't these great?  They're even prettier in person.  It was so great of Alicia to donate these, along with all the other artists that donated wonderful prizes.  Alicia has a shop on Artfire, called All Pretty Things.  Why don't you jump over there after seeing what else I won and what the others won and who donated the prizes.

Also, because there was a small snafu with one of the other prizes that I though I had won, Melinda Orr generously offered to send me a prize package from her designs/stash. I love Melinda's work.  She has some of her designs HERE and more here in ORRTEC shop.  Melinda loves working with Metals and texturing and patina'ing them, plus leather.  Anyway, Melinda kindly sent me this great package with one of her new designs.  It's a piece of leather, wire-wrapped focal and copper wire.  I know what I want to do with it, just haven't gotten a chance to put it all together yet.  Plus I need a rivet/snap setting tool for the snap/clasp on the leather.

 

Be sure to check out all the other great artists and shops that won or donated prizes.  And if you really like making jewelry and networking with other artists, be sure to check out the Creative Bead Chat group.
To see some of my Wire-wrapped, Beaded Jewelry, Stained Glass, Mosaics or Fused Glass Kreationz for your home and garden, be sure to check out KayzKreationz.