Summer Carnival Blog Hop and Chicklet Blog Hop

If you're looking for my reveals for either the Summer Carnival blog hop or the Chicklet Bead blog hop, please return later.  This has been an enormously busy summer for me (my youngest is getting married shortly and we've been helping with plans and showers). And with all the work we've been doing for the wedding and some other committments, I've sprained my wrist and hand and the arthritis has gotten worse in my thumb to the point I have dropped several things and broken them.  I haven't been able to knot anything, twist wire or hold onto anything well enough to finish my designs.  So I hope you can forgive me and check back later to see my finished designs.
Thanks for your understanding.
Kay

ZNETShows Summer Challenge Blog Hop

Back in April I was notified that as part of the ZNETshows Design team I was part of a new challenge. This one was a Summer challenge.  The theme was 'Summer Days and Nights' and focused on their Cultured Sea Glass. We were to go to ZNETshows website and pick out the 2 colors we'd like to design with to design a daytime 'casual' set and a nightime 'dressy' set.  We were also sent a few other colors, beads, findings to go along with the sea glass we chose. I was interested in working with their red and black seaglass, so sent off my choices.  I thought I had a picture of the stash I received, but I can't seem to find it on my compurter. But what I received in the following pieces was the red sea glass, black sea glass and purple tube beads. The other beads I had received from previous ZNETshows challenge.  But these are the beads I used:

For the Dressy set these are the products I used :

Purple barrel nugget beads found here:

Jet Black Barrel beads here:

Glass pearls, Clear crystals and Oval Purple and Black beads (a type of dyed jasper).

For the Daytime set:

Anklet

Sand dollar beads in red, here:

Hourglass beads here

Earrings:

Small concave square here

Fish here:

These were all fun to play with. I hope you like what I made for my Dressy Nighttime set and my Casual Daytime set. 

Daytime (casual): This is 'Fun in the Sun at the Beach'

Nightime (dressy): This is Evening Mystique

Be sure to check out ZNETshows website for great sea glass and other beads, the ZNETshows blog for more about the design team and the other participants and the new ZNETshows magazine that has more about the design challenge and participants also.

Ocean Blog Hop

A while back, Lisa Lodge from A Grateful Artist blog issued a call for an Ocean themed Blog hop. I'm not really an ocean person, but I love walking along the beach searching for seashells and treasures, so this was like some found treasures when I received my beads. We were getting cultured sea glass and other beads. I quickly signed up. As usual I got so excited about the beads when I received them I forgot to take a picture of them. I was a little stumped at first with what to do with the variety. I had some starfish, some crystals, some glass tube beads, some clear glass daggers, off white heishe beads, some unique abstract shapes and a wonderful ceramic pendant. I knew I wanted to add a lot of color, since most of the seaglass was a light green or clear. For some reason, when I think of the beach or ocean I almost always think of macramé, so I also knew I wanted to do a little macramé for at least one of my pieces. So, for my first piece I made a macramé bracelet. I did loose knots around the abstract shaped glass using some of my orange and dark beige macramé cord.  I added some small orange and shades of green seed beads in between the shaped seaglass.  I used one of the starfish as the clasp and at the end made loops of the macramé cord to loop around the starfish as the closure for the bracelet.

Next I made a necklace with the long tube beads. I used long headpins to make them dangles and hung them between a series of green crystals, orange and green seed beads, the clear dagger and off white heishi beads. I also took one of the abstract shapes and wire-wrapped a dangle from one end and wire-wrapped the other end to hang as a dangle from the necklace. And on the other side I strung one of the clear/white starfish into the strand. I had a small link of chain that I attached to the necklace along with the metal circle toggle clasp. I really like the beachy feel to this necklace and the 7 wire-wrapped tube beads/focal. 

Finally I took a the last little short length of chain, divided it in half, wire-wrapped 3 dangles with the crystals, seed beads and daggers to make a pair of earrings to match. I really like the colors in this "Ocean" set and hope you do too.

And a close up of the necklace and earrings.

I'm still working on my piece for the pendant. I'm trying a new technique and haven't quite gotten it finished. So come back later this week and I'm hoping to have it done for you to see.
Don't forget to visit all the other blogs participating in the hop HERE. And don't forget to leave me a comment letting me know what you think of my "Ocean" Set. These will be available shortly in my shop, KayzKreationz, along with my other Stained Glass, Mosaics and Fused Glass kreationz for your Home and Garden.

Waxed Linen Blog Hop

(If you're looking for my BSBP Reveal post and design click HERE) Recently Diana of Suburban Girl studio issued a Waxed Irish Linen blog hop. The participants were to use waxed irish linen  and preferably art beads to create a piece of jewelry. I had been wanting to try a tutorial I'd been eyeing so I felt like this was the opportune time to sign up for this. As usual I forgot to take a before picture of the linen and the art beads I got to use to try this. But I think you'll be able to tell what all they are in the pictures. I chose 2 different colors of linen, a tan and teal combo linen and got these great art beads on Etsy (I think it was from Sherry Stokey). I love the little beach house and the conch shell beads.  This is a wrap bracelet, which I've been wanting to try for quite a while. I've had quite a few challenges since signing up for this blog hop. I had non-stop company for almost a month, have had to be out of town several times when I wasn't planning it and seem to be developing arthritis in one of my thumb joints. But I've been working on it and finally got it done. Also, the instructions weren't quite as clear as I felt they could have been. I used to do macramé back in the 70's and used all of these knots, but had forgotten the half-hitch and had a little bit of a problem understanding how it was being described. But I googled the know and finally got instructions that I could understand.  I enjoyed getting back to some macramé and will be doing this wrap bracelet again with changes to it to make it my own design. I love the colors in the waxed linen and the numerous opportunities with macramé to make unique jewelry and other items. (I've even used macramé with my Stained Glass, Mosaics and Fused Glass kreationz like this piece below)

So here is my reveal for the Waxed Linen blog hop. Hope you enjoy it. And be sure to check out all the other participants in the hop either below or at Diana's blog, Suburban Girl Studio. (Hopefully I got the links all right)

Diana Ptaszynski - Suburban Girl Studio

Kelsy Vincent - Jill of All TradesCraft

Susan Kennedy - Suebeads

Linda Landig - Linda Landig

Kashmira Patel - Sadafulee

Jenny Davies-Reazor - JDaviesReazor

Vanessa Gilkes - Culturezine

Sandy Huntress - KeepSakeCrafts

Kay Thomerson - KayzKreationz - (you are here)

Sarajo Wentling - SJDesignsJewelry

Kari Asbury - HippieChickDesign

Rebecca Anderson - SongBeads

Melissa Trudinger - BeadRecipes

Ann Schroeder - BeadLove

Shai Williams - ShaihasRamblings

Blanca Medina - Peru-MeDesigns

Cheryl Brown - DragonFlyBeads

Johana Nunez Rivera - Artincendi

Lori Bowring Michaud - ArtfullyOrnamental

Kelly Morgan - SilverParrotDesigns

Barbara Bechtel - SecondSurf

Kristen Stevens - Kristen-BeadJourney

Heather Boardman - HeatherBoardman

Janet Bocciardi - HoneyfromtheBee

Kathy Lindemer - Bay-Moon-Design

Lesley Watt -TheGossipingGoddess 

Susan Kolovson - BeadInspired

Jayne Capps - MamasGottoDoodle

Michelle McCarthy - FireFlyDesignStudio

Cynthia Deis - ShinyLittleThings

Karla Morgan - TexasPepperJams

Erin Siegel - ErinSiegelJewelry

Becky Pancake - BeckyPancakeBeadDesigns

Kelly Hosford Patterson - TravelingSideshow

Sharyl McMillian-Nelson - SharylsJewelry

Inge von Roos - IngeTraud

Carolyn Lawson - CarolynsCreationswa

Linda Younkman - LindysDesigns

Sandi Volpe - SandiVolpe

Toltec Jewels - JewelSchoolFriends

Michelle Mach - MichelleMach

Jen Cameron - GlassAddictions

Dorothy Winchell - Winchell-Clayworks

Darlene Mansue - D7StudioBlog
Cory Tompkins - TealWaterDesigns

And if you're interested in any of my Stained Glass, Mosaics or Fused Glass kreationz for your Home or Garden, check out my shop, KayzKreationz. Thanks. Happy hopping.

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.