ZNETshows Winter Pearl Challenge

As part of the ZNETshows design team, our newest challenge was for the Winter Glossi.  It is a Winter Pearls Challenge.  We were to pick out 3 pearl items and 2 other items, either crystals or base metal.  These are the items I picked:

Pearls

BDS1868-17 glass pearls teardrop round Beads 0 Raspberry Color K0588  9x7mm 

BDS1894-22 glass pearls round Beads 0 -off white K0822   16mm 

BDS1923-02FIVE glass pearls rice Beads 0 Butter Color K0121(15.5-in-str)  6x4mm   and

Crystals

RT250-05AB Chinese crystal designer glass cube Beads faceted 05AB-Cherry Red AB (50-pc-str)  4mm

 Base Metal

M0513-AS Base Metal Alloy leaf Necklace antique silver tone Chains-antique silver  about 3-9mm 

I have always wanted some of that leaf chain to work with, so this was a great opportunity.  Now I knew those 16mm round glass pearls would be large, but I guess I didn't realize HOW large. LOL  I had googled the size and it just didn't register, I guess, because when I received them, I was in shock for a little while.  I hadn't ever worked with something that large and round.  So, this has been a little bit of a challenge for me.  Here's a picture of what I picked and received.

I knew I wanted to make a sweet pair of earrings with that leaf chain and some of the small rice pearls and the cherry red glass cubes. I love the way these turned out.

And I finally decided I wanted to make a bracelet with some of the large round Pearls.  During all this time, my son and daughter-in-law have been here visiting and helping us do some work on the ranch, so I've been limited in my time to work on my designs.  But she suggested I use some of my pink silk/fiber in my bracelet and necklace design.  So I got it out, cut it up, accordion folded it and punched through it with a large darning needle and strung it between the Raspberry teardrop pearls and the large Off-white Pearls.  I added a small silver toggle clasp and love the way it turned out.

The necklace has been giving me fits, though. I just haven't liked any design I've come up with so far.  But I finally decided to try this. I strung some of the large Off-white Pearls with the Raspberry teardrops and the pink fiber.  Then in the center I added a section of the leaf chain as the focal with the small Red glass cubes and the Butter rice pearls as dangles.  I think I like the way it turned out.  Hopefully ZNET and Hope will like it too and feature it in the ZNETshows Winter Pearl Challenge Glossi coming out in December.

To see more of my Jewelry or Stained Glass, Mosaics and Fused Glass items for your Home and Garden, check out my shop, KayzKreationz.

Bead Packet Design Challenge from Sharyl's Jewelry & NKP Designs

Back at the end of September, I signed up for a Design Challenge on Sharyl's Jewelry blog.  It was in conjunction with NKP Designs, using some of her artbeads.  We were mailed a packet of beads and asked to design a piece of jewelry. The idea was to see what 10 different jewelry designers would come up with using the same beads. I loved the beads.  The colors were fantastic and I had several ideas right away.  We were required to use the large focal artbead and at least 2 other of the artbeads. Then we could use the rest of the beads or beads from our stash to finish our piece. I thought my beads all complimented themselves so well, I decided to use only the beads I received in my piece along with the silk and the chain.  This is what I finally settled on. I'm loving using Sari silk ribbons in my jewelry lately and I had the perfect colors left from some silks I'd gotten from Marsha Neal's studio that I had used in my Bead Soup Blog Party piece in August.  I found this chain that just seemed to say "Use me" with these beads and the silks.  And the toggle fit perfectly, too.  What do you think?  How did I do with my beads and the Bead Challenge?  Be sure to visit Sharyl's Jewelry blog for the rest of the participants and see what the other 9 designers did with their beads.  Here's the beads I started with (I forgot to take a pic before I started designing, so this is the pic of the beads from Sharyl's website for the challenge):

And here's my finished piece:

If you're interested in purchasing this piece, let me know. I'll be putting it in my Etsy shop, KayzKreationz shortly.  And if you're looking for Stained Glass, Mosaics or Fused Glass kreationz for your Home or Garden, be sure to check my shop out.
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Silk Color Challenge

DON'T FORGET TO VOTE, Voting ends today!  Marsha Neal is having a fun challenge. She has wonderful silks and has come up with a challenge using her silks and silk colors. You have to find an inspiration (photo or something) and then pick up to 10 silks that feature colors in your inspiration. I found a wonderful photo of some autumn colors and picked 10 colors (actually I had 14 at first and had to change it) that I felt were found in the photo.  You then have to make them into a Mosaic and starting next Monday, people start voting on their favorite palettes.  Plus you can buy the palettes that are made if they have the most votes.  I've called my Silk Challenge mosaic Autumn Tranquility. So please check it out and vote on it starting next Monday, the 18th.  Here's a picture of my Mosaic, Autumn Tranquility.  Vote here: Marsha Neal, starting Monday.