Bead Soup Blog Party

It's here! Finally the 8th Bead Soup Blog Party!  Weeks ago, we signed up and were paired with our partners by Lori Anderson of Pretty Things.  My great partner is Katrina Taylor of Is the Babysitter here yet? blog.  This is the great soup she sent me:

There was a Natural stone focal bead, Czech glass beads and pearls, Swarovski butterfly, copper and brass components (clasp, beads and chain) and amethyst chips. And this is the adorable packaging it came in. Isn't it great?

I love it all, but I've been really challenged. There is so many great colors in this soup and I couldn't figure out what all to put with the focal and how to use the BIG hole copper beads.  Also, I didn't just want to string the focal. As I kept looking at it, I kept seeing FLAMES!  But I have to admit, I love flames. I used to have flame stripes on my truck until the stripes just became so worn looking and cracked/peeling that we had to take them off this last year.  So I seem to be drawn to flames/fire. LOL I knew then that I wanted to create a bail or encase the focal with metal and I wanted it to look as though it was surrounded by flames. So I set to work finding flame pictures I liked and then trying to draw them off to be cut out of copper. I went through about 5-6 different designs, drawing, cutting out, redrawing until I came up with this one that would work with the metal and focal.  But my challenge then was how to create the bail out of the same piece to hang the focal. And then what to hang it with, since now the focal is REALLY heavy! After finally figuring out how to do all that, I realized I wanted to flame paint/patina my metal, too, so it would look even more like flames. That was so much fun. I've just started doing some flame painting and was happy with my results. Here's a pic of the the front of the focal.

But now my challenge was how to create the rest of the necklace. I didn't want to add too much to it and take away from the focal, so I started creating bead links with the crystals and amethyst chips Katrina sent me. But I wanted to carry that flame look through, so as I wrapped the beads I hammered the ends of the copper wire and then folded it down around the beads, hoping to get a flame look to the links.  Then after taking a class on enameling, I got out my copper washers and practiced my enameling in some colors that I thought would complement the colors of the beads and the focal. I also wanted to enhance the great copper clasp that Katrina had flame painted  for me so I wire wrapped some of the crystals and beads to the clasp and simply wire-wrapped the ring for the clasp to attach to.  I'm happy with all my components, but not sure if I'm happy with the end result. I was going to use leather to hang the focal, but decided it wouldn't be strong enough to hold the weight of the stone and metal together. So I hammered another piece of heavy wire, textured it, punched the holes and flame patina'd it to slide through the flame bail on the top of the pendant. I like it, but the pendant keeps sliding around, so I may have to redo it or perhaps wire some copper wire around the hanging wire in between the 2 flames to hold it still. But I'm not sure it all looks right together. I'm hoping it grows on me, but if not, I'll try to redesign the necklace. I was running out of time to do anything more with it now, as I was gone for 10 days at the end of March, first of April and then I've had non-stop company since then till Sunday the 27th.  Plus I've developed a problem with my left hand/thumb joint. Not sure if I've just hurt/sprained the join or I'm developing some arthritis in it, but it makes it difficult to hold anything ( I picked up a glass a week or two ago and dropped it and broke it because of not being able to hold it) and it is difficult to wire-wrap anything. I hope you like the finished necklace.

Next, I wanted to make a multi-strand bracelet with more of the crystals, amethyst chips, large triangular gold and copper beads and some dark brown dagger beads. I was going to wire wrap some of the crystals, amethyst chips and other beads to hang from the gold chain, but again all the wire wrapping for the dangles on the chain piece that Katrina sent me has been a little difficult. So I think I'll leave them off for the time and see how I like it with the simplicity of just the chain with the beaded strands on either side of it. It uses the gold clasp Katrina sent me.

Finally, I loved these BIG hole copper beads, but they kept stumping me on how to use them. I couldn't just string them as the hole was too big, I couldn't find/didn't want to use bead caps on each end of them, so I finally came up with the idea of knotting some leather in between each of the four of the big, copper beads Katrina sent me. Then I wire-wrapped it to the copper clasp Katrina sent me. I haven't cut the leather on the one end yet as I'm not sure I like the clasp with it, but couldn't figure out how I might want to close it otherwise, so I may end up redoing the clasp/closure later, too. It also might look great as a necklace with a little adjusting and some other beads. Just not sure yet.

I hope you like all my creations with my soup.  And I completely forgot to make any earrings to match anything, but I'm thinking I may want to enamel some more washers and attach some of the crystal or amethyst chips to them for earrings if they aren't too heavy. :)
For the rest of the participants in the Bead Soup Blog Party visit Lori Anderson's blog Pretty Things. There were over 400 participants who all got amazing partners and soups to create with. They all will inspire you.
If you're looking for any of my jewelry pieces or my Stained Glass, Mosaics or Fused Glass kreationz for your Home and Garden, check out with my shop, KayzKreationz.  Thanks.  And please be sure to leave me a comment to let me know what you think of my pieces.

My Bead Soup party Partner and my Soup reveal

I'm finally getting a chance to post about my great partner for the Bead Soup blog party.  Her name is Katrina Taylor from 'Is the Babysitter here Yet?' blog.

She's a veterinarian from Pennsylvania, which is cool, since we do Wildlife management on our small Texas ranch.  She loves metal work which is great, because I love metal, especially copper and she created this great flame-painted copper clasp for my soup. But she hasn't been able to work as much as she likes because her work area is in a cold area of her house and the winter there has been exceedingly cold. But she put together a great soup for me.  Isn't this great?  (And she kindly left out any BLUE, since I told her I'm not a fan of blue.)  It contains a Natural stone focal bead, Czech glass beads and pearls, Swarovski butterfly, copper and brass components (clasp, beads and chain) and amethyst chips.  I love it all.  Now the challenge is what to do with it all to do it justice. (As usual I forgot my before pic, but Katrina had a great picture of the soup she sent me so she let me use it to show you this great soup.)

And here's the soup I sent her.  I wanted to send her a Texas themed soup, so I cut out the state of Texas with my saw, flame painted it (it turned out a great red, which I felt was very appropriate as we're always HOT here in Texas, LOL)  and riveted it to a textured brass background. I enclosed some lava beads, some hand created copper double-balled headpins, some Picture Jasper beads, some of what I call my Texas Tornado copper wire beads, a small brass clasp and a hand created Texas Yoke toggle clasp that I hammered and also flame painted, plus some teal leather.  I wrapped it all up in this Orange bandana, since we were/use a lot of bandana's in Texas. My thought was she could use some or all of the bandana in her creations, but she told me her son loved the bandana and confiscated it and she may not be able to get it back to use. LOL  So for all of you wondering what the theme was to my soup that I posted on facebook, here it is: TEXAS!  :)

Be sure to come back on May 3rd for the reveal of what I made with my soup. And for more of my jewelry kreationz or my Stained Glass, Mosaics and Fused Glass kreationz for your Home and Garden, check out my shop, KayzKreationz.

Beautiful Leather Jewelry book Review

Here's another great book from Kalmbach books. This one comes to us from Melissa Cable, called, Beautiful Leather Jewelry, timeless techniques for today's trends. Melissa is a mixed media artist who love to develope new designs and techniques with traditional and non-traditional materials from metal, leather, wood, clay and found objects. Since I, too, love leather and metal this book really called to me, putting leather, metal and other components together in great jewelry pieces.
She starts off with the Basics for Leatherworking using her 'key' to how leather works and how you can use it in your projects. The first section covers the different types of leather besides cow leather. Things like Snakeskin, Fish leathers (which I've been hearing more and more about and what to try as soon as I can find some) and even Ostrich leather. Melissa also covers the different types of tanning, dyeing and grades of leather besides how to purchase it and even recycle it.
The next section covers the different tools to use as well as equivalents you may already have at home to use on your leather. This includes things like stamps, corrugators and even mallets/hammers to use to texture/shape your leather. Next is a section on hardware to use to finish your leather or decorate it and then finishing it to make clasps/closures for your pieces. There's even a part on Special Effects for your leather like dyes, paints, and sealants for your leather pieces.
Then she moves into Making Leather jewelry starting with Technique Tutorials and then the Jewelry projects. I really like cuff bracelet, so the tutorials on cuffs really intrigued me. The Mesa Pendant was interesting to me, too, since I love texture and the stacked pieces were cool.  2 of my favorite projects were the Four Seasons collar since I also really like collars and the textured leather discs and metal discs together combined 2 of my favorite mediums.

The next one is the Laurel Necklace, because I really love nature and loved the shape, look and texture of the leather leaves in this necklace.
Finally at the end is a section on Beads and More Jewelry from leather. I especially liked the Rolled Leather Column Beads with the rivet decoration in them. I can see myself using these a lot in my jewelry projects. If using leather is something you've wanted to learn more about in your projects, check out Kalmbach books for Melissa Cable's book, Beautiful Leather Jewelry.
Here is a Leather/Metal bracelet I made for my Patina challenge I was in that was inspired by my reading Melissa's book. It uses Leather, metal, rivets, chain, patina and cogs/gears in it.

If you're interested in my 'Find Your Way to My Heart' bracelet or any of my other jewelry check out my shop, KayzKreationz. There you will also find my Stained Glass, Mosaics and Fused Glass 'kreationz' for your Home and Garden.

Patina Challenge Blog Hop

I had my post all ready to go, had the pictures uploaded and then had to go out of town. No problem, I was taking my iPad with me so I could polish it up some before posting.  Unfortunately, I can't seem to edit my blog posts on my iPad without deleting something.  I've tried a couple of times and it always happens. So lesson learned, just don't edit with an iPad. :)  Anyway, thanks for bearing with me and here goes:

Recently Kathy at BayMoonDesign issued a challenge. She was picking 10 people to send a Vintaj compass piece to. We were to patina it any way we wanted and then make something with it.  I haven't been happy with any of my patina efforts so far, but thought maybe this would help me figure out what to do and how to patina something I was happy with, so I signed up.  I got my wonderful compass piece, started to work on it and then had to put it up to go out of town for a business conference.  Well I THOUGH I had put it up, but my Manx cat, Lata decided he could get to it anyway. And when I came home from the conference, the compass was nowhere to be found. (It still is MIA, despite having turned half the house upside down. I'm sure one of these days it will turn up. LOL) Anyway, I e-mailed Kathy and asked if I could buy one somewhere so I could still participate.  She graciously mailed me another one.  This one I made sure was with me all the time so Lata couldn't get to it. I forgot to take a pic before I started the sanding, but in this picture I've sanded the point in the center, the direction letters, the edge and the little arrows (?) all around the outside ring.

I pretty much knew what I wanted to do with it, so now to get to work using my patina's.  I used some Ranger Alcohol Inks in the Weathered Copper which was greens/blues.  But after I got it done, I really wanted a little more color so added just a dab of Cinnabar so it would have a little of the red to blend with the red leather I was using.  I painted, sanded, painted some more, then used some Bronze Gilder's paste on it and finally sealed everything with a Ranger sealer. I think I'm finally happy with one of my patina projects.

I then took some brass and silver cogs and washers I had and patina'd them. I knew I wanted a 'steampunk' look to this bracelet(although I've never done Steampunk, so this is my first attempt at that also).  After I had the brass washers done I decided I didn't like the look of the silver cogs on the brass washers, because they just faded into the background, so I turned them over and hammered them instead.  Then I got busy punching holes in the leather. I had intended to texture the leather, but forgot. I HATE punching holes in leather because I don't have a hole punch strong enough to go through the leather. So I had to use a thick darning needle to try to start the hole and then my hole punch to finish out the hole.  This was very difficult, but I finally got all the holes punched.  However, after finally getting the little clips on the back of the compass pushed through 2 of the holes, they broke off while trying to bend them back over to hold the compass. So now what to do? I really didn't want to wire it to the leather, but Karla (from Texas Pepper Jams) and I had just gotten to play with our torches a week or two ago and had made some balled copper headpins. I punched 2 holes on the inside ring of the compass on the E/W sides, then took the balled headpins which added another little pop of red to the piece, pushed them through and twisted/spiraled them together on the back side. Viola!  My compass was now attached.

I had originally intended to rivet the cogs/washers to the leather, but realized I didn't have any rivets large enough for the holes in the washers, so stumped again.  I found 2 beads I thought would go well with the piece, took another 2 of my balled headpins, put them through the beads, through the cogs and washers and twisted/spiraled them on the backside, making sure all the wire and ends were smooth enough to not rub the skin when I wear the bracelet.

Then I attached a little silver heart I had to the bottom of the leather piece because I wanted to name this piece "Find your way to my Heart" (because of the compass) And finally I decided to make it a double chain bracelet, so punched 4 more holes in the leather, made my own jump rings our of some Annealed Steel wire I had, attached the 4 pieces of chain, made a clasp out of the same Steel wire and Viola!

"Find your way to my Heart"

Hope you like it.

Be sure to visit all the other participants of the blog hop below or going to Kathy's BayMoonDesigns blog. (Hopefully the links will work, but the way things have been going for me, they may not. LOL)   Thanks for bearing with me and stopping by.

Looking for more of my jewelry or Stained Glass, Mosaics or Fused Glass pieces, check out my shop, KayzKreationz.

Hostess:  Kathy Lindemer,  BayMoonDesign 

Jennifer LaVite, Dry Gulch Beads and Jewelry
Karla Morgan, Texas Pepper Jams

Carolyn Lawson, Carolyn's Creations

Shai Williams, Shaiha's Ramblings

Jessica Murray, Whimsical Monkey
Tammie Everly, TTE Designs
Kay Thomerson, KayzKreationz Blog (you are here)

Claire Fabian, Saraccino
Christie Searle Murrow,  Charis Designs



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.

Blu Mudd Design Team Reveal

Voting is open for the Blu Mudd Design Challenge, Vote HERE Now!
A few weeks back, Moriah Betterly of Blu Mudd issued a challenge on her facebook page. She makes wonderful ceramic pendants. She was willing to send those that wanted to play one of her pendants. In exchange we had to design a necklace with it.  I love her pendants, so I signed up immediately.  As usual, life has gotten in the way. But I think I finally got it finished the way I want and like it.  These are the pendants she sent out.  Aren't they great? 

I simply asked for something in reds/burgundy, NOT blues. LOL  And as usual, I forgot to take a picture of the one I received before I started.
I knew I wanted to make my own bale from wire. So I took some 16 gauge copper wire, cut it, filed it, hammered the ends and the center, punched a hole and Voila!  I had a bale for my lovely pendant.  I also knew I wanted it to be really rustic. It just seemed to fit the shape, design and color.  So I went through my leather strips, went to Hobby Lobby to get some more colors that I envisioned and set to town making links.  This turned into WAY more work than I anticipated. I cut each strip of leather, tied each strip into knots, punched 2 holes in each strip (used my metal punch as I didn't have any leather punches or needles that would go through the leather).  Now, how do I attach each leather link?  I had to hand wrap/create copper links in every single hole in each leather link.  I figured I would need 6 leather links on each side of the necklace. So I cut out 12 leather links, punched 24 holes, wire-wrapped 24 wire links and Guess What!  I only needed 3 leather links on each side because I also wanted to make some copper wire tornado beads for in between each leather link.  Talk about tired hands from all that leather and wire work. And now I have double the links I needed. Don't worry, they're being used. It's just not done yet.  Now my dilemma was, how do I attach all the leather links to the bale?  Out come the leather and the metal punch again. So, I've got 2 small pieces of leather cut and punched. They run through my copper jump ring and I start wire-wrapping AGAIN! (Oh, and by the way, I also hand made ALL the copper jump rings as I didn't have any available. And I had to make the copper links to run through my copper tornado beads to be able to attach them in between the leather links. Are we seeing a picture here?)  I also hand crafted my clasp. It's a simple Figure 8 and S hook clasp as I didn't want to take away from the rest of the necklace and the Ceramic pendant.  The reveal goes up tonight and the voting starts tomorrow on Blu Mudd Facebook page.  So what do you think of my Rustic Leather Garden necklace?  Did I do the pendant justice?  Don't forget to go vote.  I may be keeping this one for myself. 

Closeup of the focal and bale

Closeup of the Copper wire tornado beads and leather links

 

But if you're looking for more of my Unique, Eclectic Beaded Wire-wrapped jewelry, check out my shop, KayzKreationz.  I also hand craft Stained Glass, Mosaics and Fused Glass Kreationz for your Home and Garden. I'm sure you'll find something you can't live without. LOL

Art Jewelry Elements May Component of the Month Reveal

Every month, Art Jewelry Elements does a Component challenge and giveaway.  One of their talented contributors makes up a number of components, people comment to signup and then they pick from among the commenters a number of people that will receive one of the components and design something with it, along with their AJE Team.  This is actually the second time I've been chosen as one of the participants. This time around the component was from SueBeads blog.  I love her beads and discs.  Check out her Etsy shop, Sue Beads. As usual, I was so excited when I got my package, I forgot to take a picture of my Ruffled Disc. Now most of you know, I don't do blue. Just not my thing. But she asked us to let her pick the disc for us and not ask for a specific color or disc.  So, when I got my disc, guess which one it was? LOL  Yep, all blue.  But I immediately knew what I wanted to do with it. (Well, kind of, because it was either going to be a brooch/pin or bracelet) But the bracelet won out.  I'd won a slider bracelet using the Cousins new slider bracelet finding recently and really liked it. One problem, I can't find their slider bracelets anywhere around where I am and didn't have time to order one. But Hobby Lobby had something close.  So now I needed to decide on colors to add. I decided to basically stay with the main colors on the color wheel, i.e. reds, blues, yellows, greens. So I got out a piece of copper/brass metal I had, textured it and a piece of green leather/suede I had.  I had just read about using my Big Kick to texture leather and wanted to try this, so I ran it through my Big Kick and it turned out great. Although you probably can't see the texture here in the picture, you can see it well in person, close up.  I made my 4 stamens for the flowers, using copper wire, punched holes in the metal and the leather, ran the 4 lengths of wire through all three pieces. Then I wrapped the longer piece of wire from one of the stamens around the other 3 to wire them all together, curled the shortest piece of wire to keep it from coming out and proceeded to wrap the other 3 pieces of wire around the band of the bracelet.  I was going to do curly-q's with the wire but decided against it.  I finally got my measurement for the leather, cut it and glued the clasp on to it.  It's not quite like I first envisioned, but I think I like the way it turned out.  Thanks so much Art Jewelry Elements for sponsoring this giveaway and reveal. And thanks SueBeads for the wonderful component and picking me to be one of the challengers.  At long last here's my bracelet with my SueBeads Ruffle Disc.  Tell me how you think I did.

 

 Here's the list of the AJE Team participants and the guest bloggers/participants. Be sure to check out what everyone did with their disc.

Guest Bloggers 

Lorelei Eurto   http://www.lorelei1141.blogspot.com/

Birgitta Lejonklou   http://lejonklou.blogspot.com/

Heidi Post   http://www.expostfactojewelry.blogspot.com/

Lola Surwillo   http://beadlolabead.blogspot.com/

Kay Thomerson   http://kayzkreationz.blogspot.com/ (you are here)

 

AJE Team

Jennifer Cameron  http://glassaddictions.com/

Jenny Davies-Reazor   http://www.jdaviesreazor.com/blog

Susan Kennedy   http://www.suebeads.blogspot.com/

Linda Landig   http://www.lindasbeadblog.com/

Melissa Meman    http://melissameman.blogspot.com/

Rebekah Payne   http://www.treewingsstudio.com/

Kristen Stevens    http://kristen-beadjourney.blogspot.com/

Jo Tinley     http://daisychaindesignsjewellery.blogspot.com/

Francesa Watson    http://francescawatson.com/

Lesley Watt    http://thegossipinggoddess.blogspot.com/

Looking for other Jewelry, Stained Glass, Mosaics or Fused Glass Kreationz for your Home or Garden?  Check out my shop, KayzKreationz.

Steampunk Emporium Book Review and Giveaway

Contest is closed.  The winner is (taking into account, several repeat comments)

True Random Number Generator Min: Max: Result: 10Powered by RANDOM.ORG

Kim Redden who said:

I have always loved trinkets and gadgets, adore buttons of all sizes and shapes, and all types of watches and clocks. The little gimmicky do-dads on things just make me buy them. To be able to put these items together in jewelry creations just blows me away. With some guidance and ideas some truly fantastical pieces could be created! Your give-away is an inspiration! Thank you!

Kim, I'll be contacting you for your address to get you your book. Congrats everyone.

 

Back in December I was contacted by Interweave/F+W Media, On Sale Now about 3 books I was wanting to review.  Nicole Miller and then Tommy Semosh e-mailed me and sent me the book Steampunk Emporium by Jema "Emilly Ladybird' Hewitt.  Miss Emilly Ladybird, Adventuress, is Jema's steampunk alter ego.  She travels the world searching out artifacts for her employers, Dickens and Rivett.  She lives among the rolling hills of Derbyshire in the United Kingdom with her husband.
I've been interested in Steampunk Jewelry for a while, but wasn't quite sure what all it involved and how to make it.  But this book has been very interesting.  The intro on the front cover says "Creating Fantastical Jewelry, Devices and Oddments from Assorted Cogs, Gears and Curios".  Although I'm not really into Science Fiction (which is what I would describe this book as) it was a very interesting read.  Jema Hewitt has written this book as 'Miss Emilly Ladybird'.  You will follow 'Miss Emilly' in her harrowing antics as she records her adventures with intergalactic space pirates, undersea voyagers and Jurassic explorers.  As she encounters each of these, she will make jewelry to dazzle you from 'keys, devices, jewels, etc.' all given to her or found by her on her travels.  She uses a wide variety of gems, cogs, lace, suede, polymer clay, resin, bezels, etc. to design wonderful Steampunk jewelry.  There is sure to be something in here to catch your eye.  Two of my favorites are "Clockwork Princess's Chatelaine" and the "Cog Button Choker", both very unique pieces.  In the back she has an appendix of "Useful Items and Practical Methodology" where she describes different jewelry techniques, how to take a watch apart, how to use/make polymer clay, tools, findings, etc.  If you really love Steampunk or are just wanting to get into Steampunk Jewelry, you'll find this book a great read.

Because of a problem with my Post Office (they marked the books as delivered and then put them in a bin where no-one noticed them for about 2 weeks, and without leaving me a notice to come pick them up), F+W Media sent me a second set of books.  So one reader will receive the extra copy of this book as a gift.  Leave a comment her telling me what interests you about Steampunk.  Extra chances for following my blog, 'Liking' my facebook page, KayzKreationzGlassKreationz, or hearting my Etsy shop.  Leave a separate comment for each one. Giveaway will end Friday, Feb. 22nd at midnight.

It is available for purchase here at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or North Light.

(The book above was provided by F+W Media for review. The author of this blog has not received any other payment from above-mentioned company. The post above represents only personal opinion of the blog author.) 

Nina Designs blog partner

A couple of months ago I contacted DeAnna at Nina Designs about being a blog partner of theirs. I had seen another blog I follow mention this and it sounded exciting. They told me they were't accepting partners at that time, but they would keep me in mind. At about the end of December they contacted me about being their blog partner for January. I was so excited. They would send me some of their wonderful products and I was to do a blog post about them. I could make things with them, do a giveaway, whatever I wanted. I just needed to write about it, show pictures and what I would do with their wonderful products. This is what I received. Isn't it great? Doesn't it just get your creative juices flowing?

 

Unfortunately, about the time I received their product, my neighbor decided to shoot and kill my sweet dog, Cheyenne. We don't know why as he has denied doing it. But it left me in a bit of a funk and I just couldn't seem to get anything created or accomplished.

But I've gotten past it a little and have been having all kinds of ideas for their products they sent me. For instance, with the adorable little branch beads, I can totally see a little owl bead/charm peeking out from some acrylic/glass leaf beads.  Now I just have to find some little owls or birds to go with them.  
With these brass leaves I decided they should be a pair of earrings with some little berry beads and glass leaves accentuating them.  And these little teardrop pieces were just calling to me to put a pearl inside each of the three teardrops.  So here's Berries and Leaves Earrings and Teardrops of Pearls Earrings.  What do you think of them?

I can't wait to get started on the rest of my ideas for their components.  Nina Designs has so many other great components and pieces. Plus there's this great purple silk and green leather, that I haven't decided how I want to use it yet.  The leaves can be found here, the branches are found here, the teardrops are here. You really need to check out their site to see what you can't live without. LOL
Stay tuned. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks I'll have the rest of my ideas/pieces finished for you to check out. The 2 pair of earrings will be listed in my Etsy shop, KayzKreationz shortly.  To close out, here's my sweet Cheyenne.

(The materials above were provided as part of the Nina Designs blogging program. The author of this blog has not received any payment from above-mentioned company. The post above represents only personal opinion of the blog author.) 

Softflex Knitting Spool review, Beading Contest, Vote for my 'I've Been Framed' piece

Good morning. About a month ago, I was sent a knitting spool from Softflex with the caveat I'd review it and then enter their contest. I've been frantically trying to learn how to use it and then create something with it to enter into their contest. I got it done last night. I'm not sure I'm completely happy with it, but I don't think it's too bad for my first go around with the knitting spool and entering a national contest.
I enjoyed the knitting spool, although I found it rather difficult to use. That is probably because I don't have a lot of strenth in my hands. I kept losing the beading wire when I would first start my piece.  I actually found using copper wire easier to start with than beading wire.  But I needed to use Softflex products for the contest, so I had some Garnet Beading wire and Copper Metallic Beading wire that I was wanting to use for this project and contest. I knew I wanted to knit a frame around some beads. But then I had to figure out what to do with the framed beads.  I finally decided it would be great as a leather cuff. So I kept working on my knitting frames for my jasper beads. I finally got them where I was fairly happy with them. However, I also felt that the directions for finishing off the knitting project lacked a little. I would have liked a little more information and pictures on how to finish the knitted project to get it off the spool, but after re-reading the directions and my copy of Sara's Show Your Colors book, I finally figured out how to finish off the piece to get it off the spool. Now my problem was, how to attach the 'framed' beads to the leather and then how to hook/clasp the cuff.  I just about gave up trying to sew my 'framed' beads to my leather cuff. (I had used my pinking shears to shape the edges of the leather and figured my darning needles would be heavy enough to get through the leather.)  After several attempts I finally had to put work/gardening gloves on to get my needle through the leather to attach the 'framed' beads and the button I used for the clasp.  Attaching the rivet for the leather loop to go through was another problem. I cut with a knife, scissors, poked it and FINALLY got the rivet through the leather so I could hammer it down. After pushing the leather thong through the rivet I knotted it on the back side making a big enough loop to go over the button I sewed on and Viola! I have a leather cuff bracelet with Knitting Spool framed jasper beads.  I also found it useful to number the three prongs on my knitting spool, 1, 2 and 3 so I could keep tabs easier on where I was when wrapping and then trying to get the loops off and over. That wasn't too bad, although it took a little practice to hold the beading wire at the bottom that you're working with and the wire at the top your wrapping while trying to get the loops off to 'knit' the wire.  As I said, though, if you have a lot of strength in your hands, this probably wouldn't be quite as difficult for you as it was for me.  All in all, I really enjoyed working with the spool and will keep on practicing it and trying to come up with new ideas for it.  I just won't be able to work with it for very long periods of time.  I hope you like my "I've Been Framed" bracelet I made with the Knitting Spool.  Please check out Softflex to see when the voting begins and be sure to vote for my bracelet.  Also, if you're wanting to do something really unique with your jewelry, get their book, 'Show Your Colors' and the knitting spool and have a ball.

 

Interview with Etsy Seller mrhanz about his Luxury Leather Goods and Coupon

I recently found this shop on Etsy, mrhanz.  He's from Java Island makes and sells Luxury Leather Goods, wallets, belts, passport holders and more.  They're wonderful. He makes them out of exotic leathers like Python, Cobra, Buffalo and more.  So I asked him a few questions about how and why he got started.  Read on for his interview:
1. How did you get started making your items?   In the beginning, I started making watch straps for my personal use. Then friends started asking me to make other accessories (wallets, key chains, belts,etc).

2. How long have you been making them? And how long have you been selling them?  I've been making my items for a few years, but I only started selling them since last year. I've only started selling on etsy about 2 months ago.
3. Do you make these items yourself?  Yes, I make my items myself, although some of the designs were created by what my friends have requested.
4. About how long does it take you to make an item?  It depends on the designs and the availability of the materials.
5. What pushed you to make your items and sell them?  It was a personal hobby of mine, but I've never thought that other people would like to buy them. I take pride in my products, when I go out, I usually wear my own watch strap, wallets, belts, mobile phone case. That's how I get my sales from local buyers, actually. My friends see them and buy from me. When they wear my products, their friends will also be interested. So, I got a lot of repeat buyers.
6. What prompted you to use the materials you use? The calf leathers, buffalo, python skin, cobra and others?  I personally like leather products. I think they are more durable and can last longer than other materials. I use genuine materials only because I want to present my buyers with quality products. Snakeskin is one of the hottest trends this year, especially for women's products (wallets, purses, shoes).
7. How hard is it to get your materials for your items?  I purchase my materials from trusted suppliers. They have a higher price compared to other suppliers, but I can rest assured because their qualities are genuine. For me, I think it's a bit harder to find calf leather that suit my needs. As I hand-pick each leather and skin myself, I will only purchase the materials that are high qualities, something that I see I can wear myself. Which is why, I have limited products in calf leather.  For snakeskin, it's easier to find, but for some colors, I sometimes have to wait until it's available in my suppliers.
8. Where else do you sell your items?  I sell on etsy for international orders. For local orders, I sell using my facebook page. I also get regular orders from a boutique at a high end mall.  I've also been getting sales from local repeat buyers. 
Here's one of his great Passport holders from Python:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/82230088/python-leather-passport-cover-natural

Now, for my Blog readers, mrhanz is offering a 10% discount code valid until Nov. 7th.  Just use OCTMRHANZ909 for your coupon when you check out.  Be sure to check out all his other great items.  2 more are featured in the Featured Shop of the Day at the top right of my blog.

Beaded Keychains on BuyItSellit

Just listed a couple of small beaded keychains on BuyItSellit. They are a nice size for a small set of keys or for a child's set of house keys. Make nice filler gifts. This one is Red, blue and clear on a blue leather/suede cord.

Check it out: http://kayzkreationz.mybisi.com/product/90770/Red-Blue-and-Clear-Beaded-Keychain_410695.html