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.

Polymer Clay Wonky Bead Blog Hop Challenge

Recently Kristi Bowman-Gruel at DreamSome Designs issued a challenge for all artists using her new Polymer Clay Wonky Beads. I love them, they are so rustic and earthy looking and feeling to me. So I couldn't resist the call.  And as usual, I forgot to take a before picture of the beads I received.  When I got them I immediately knew I wanted to do something with macramé with the beads.  I recently started getting back into macramé. I used to do it back in the 70's when it was popular and have been falling in love with it all over again. I also knew I wanted to do something very rustic and earthy/country feeling.  I went back and forth between a bracelet or necklace. The necklace finally won out.  I finally found some hemp cord in the color I wanted while on our epic 1900 mile road trip, bringing our new Honda Goldwing back from Virginia. (But that's another post, and video of the Tail of the Dragon ride!) LOL  I also knew I wanted to use all the larger beads in the macramé part of the necklace and the smaller one as part of the clasp.  And since I love copper and felt it lent the right rustic feel to the piece I found a copper washer I had, hammered/textured it and used it as the other half of the clasp.  So the smaller bead is the toggle bar and the washer is the clasp.  I love the magenta, purple and brown of these beads, so I went with the natural hemp and the magenta hemp cord.  I also added some seed beads in the same colors to add a little bling.  Then I had to decide how to lengthen the necklace as I only wanted the macramé part for the beads.  I first braided this fluffy yarn I had to add to it, but didn't like the look with the macramé and earthy beads, so I had to come up with another idea. Since I was using the copper washer for the clasp, I thought I should use a copper chain.  But I couldn't find a chain I liked that I felt went along with the rustic look I wanted, so I decided to make my own.  I created these 'Figure 8' links, then hammered and textured them.  I also made my jump rings to attach each link.  I knew I would macramé the one end of the necklace back over itself from the end of one of the 'Figure 8' links.  But I had to figure out how to attach the small 'toggle bar bead' to the other end.  I finally decided to take some of the natural hemp, wrap it through the bead, back up over the end of one of the links and then wire-wrap it to the link with copper wire.  I really like the look, although I know some may feel it is too 'eclectic'.  But I think it all went together well.  Be sure to check out all the other 'hoppers' and see what they created with Kristi's Polymer Clay Wonky beads.  And please leave me a comment on what you like or don't like about my piece.  Thanks. This shows a close-up of the beads I was sent.


Wonky Beads
 

Next is the bead I used as the clasp for the necklace.


Wonky Bead clasp

Finally, here is the whole necklace with the Kristi's Wonky Beads, my Macramé and my Hammered Copper wire links and clasp.  Hope you like it.


Wonky Beads Macramé Hammered Copper Necklace

And if you're looking for some of my other Wire-wrapped, beaded Jewelry or Stained Glass, Mosaic and Fused Glass pieces for your Home and Garden, check out my shop, KayzKreationz.

Tree Wings Studio Blog Hop and Challenge

If you're looking for my Bead Hoarders Blog Hop reveal piece, I'm sorry, I couldn't get anything finished. I had a case of Heat Exhaustion and haven't been able to finish my pieces. I'm still working on them and hope to post them soon.  In the meantime, please read about my Tree Wings Reveal piece which I had already finished before this happened. Thank you so much for understanding.

Recently I signed up for a chance to win a set of polymer clay beads from Rebekah Payne of Tree Wings Studio.  I love her beads. I have a set with the most adorable little pony and some additional beads and I haven't had the time to make up a bracelet with them. It will be for me, since I love horses.  Just need to make the time. Anyway, I got chosen to receive one set of a large and small round bead.  I was overjoyed.  I love the colors in them, to me very earthy and rustic.  And as usual, forgot to take a picture of them before I started.  I knew I wanted something very rustic, but since there were only 2 and they were different sizes I had to figure out how to use them.  I had started hearing/reading about Chinese knotting and this intrigued me. It seems to be very similar to macramé which I used to do in the 70's and have been starting to re-add to my repertoire. (See my macramé anklet here and a fused glass piece I did a couple of years ago and added a small macramé hanger to it and sold in my shop.) 

 
As I perused the internet for ideas and information about Chinese knotting I found a knot I like, the Chinese coin knot, I think they called it, also known as the Celtic knot a and thought it would make a great bracelet with the larger bead as the focal and the smaller one as the clasp.  I found some hemp in a neutral color that matched the main color in the beads and then some wonderful 6/0 seed beads in the coordinating colors in the bead to add as pops of color.  I set to work tying off a knot with a small seed bead as a stopper for the small round bead for the clasp. Then I started tying Coin/Celtic knots and adding the seed beads in between each knot. I was hoping both pieces of the hemp would go through the seed beads instead of having to put a bead on each piece, but it didn't work.  I figured out how long I needed the bracelet and added the larger focal bead. Then I finished tying off the rest of the knots and the seed beads.  Finally, I tied another knot, left a loop for the small bead/clasp to slide through, tied another knot and then 2 small seed beads on the end.  I love the way it turned out. Very earthy, rustic that would go with so many things.  The only thing I'm not fond of is the way it turns. I think I should have reversed the strings I was using working from left to right and then right to left as I would in macramé to keep it straighter. However, the tutorial I found didn't say anything about doing that. Next time I'll try it to see if it helps.  Anyway, tell me what you think of my Chinese/Celtic knotted bracelet.  Hope Tree Wings studio thinks I did justice to her beads. Here's the bracelet and a closeup of the larger bead/focal.  Thanks for letting me play.  Be sure to check out what everyone else did with their beads on Tree Wings Studio.

For more of my Wire-wrapped, Beaded jewelry or Stained Glass, Mosaics, Fused Glass kreationz for your Home or Garden, check out my shop, KayzKreationz.



Here's the participants:

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

Stephanie LaRosa - http://stringaholic.blogspot.com/

Kathy Alderfer - http://artfulaccents.blogspot.com/

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

Anklet Blog Hop Reveal

(If you're looking for my AJE reveal with SueBeads component, click here)
Well I managed to sign myself up for 4 challenges/reveals within a month time. When I was doing this they all sounded like so much fun, I wasn't paying attention to the time frame.  This is the 3rd of the 4. The last one comes on June 7th.  Sadafulee had posted about having a blog hop with anklets.  I like anklets and have a few, but always forget to wear them.  And I've never tried making one. (Or if I have it was a LONG time ago)  But I figured it couldn't be that hard.  Plus, I used to make macramé jewelry back in the 70's when it first became popular in small town Missouri where I lived and had been trying my hand at it again little by little.  I made a macramé hanger for one of my fused glass pieces and incorporated small shells. I made a macramé guitar strap for my son for one of his guitars, so I thought, what better than to make a macramé anklet.  I had won some great little tube beads a while back and had some macramé cord left over from the 70's that would go great with these beads. Plus I dug through a stash of other beads I'd won and found some great Onyx beads in the brownish/orange color in the beads and that would go great with my macramé cord.  So I picked out my orange and beige waxed nylon cords and the beads and got ready to start. I also knew I wanted to try a sliding clasp for this anklet as I'd been reading about these and had just seen one on a friend's bracelet, so found a tutorial about how to do it and got started.  I couldn't finish it like she suggested as I didn't have any needles that would go back up through my knots, but I just knotted and tied off like I used to and I think it turned out great. This way I can open it up to slip on over my foot and then adjust it to fit my ankle and have little dangles.  I used some small Czech faceted glass beads I had for the dangles in a coordinating brown color.  I love it. Now to get to wear it. And best of all I still have 3 of the tube beads left to make something else or another one to sell, give away or something.  What do you think?  Do you like macramé?  Would you wear this?

 

I never realized how hard it is to photograph an anklet or anything while wearing it, but I wanted to show it on the ankle. Check out all the participants and see how each one met the challenge of creating an anklet/anklets.  I only had time to create one anklet due to time constraints.  However I will be creating more.  For some reason I can't get the list of participants to post properly, so please visit Kashmira's Blog and see what everyone else created.

And if you're looking for some of my other Jewelry, Stained Glass, Mosaic or Fused Glass Kreationz for your Home or Garden, be sure to check out my shop, KayzKreationz.  Thanks for stopping by.