Up and running- Re-stocked in the shop.

Hello friends!

Wow, 2 weeks seems like an eternity to not be making lampwork beads. It turns out that my element took awhile to get to the glass hive before getting shipped to me. I am so grateful to have my kiln fixed and up and running again.

I re-stocked  few things in the shop to tide you over until I can get to stocking and making some more new things this coming week.

Here is what is back in stock...

Spiral Earth Stones "Frosted Fiber".  I just love these! There is something about the texture and look to them. They would be gorgeous with some semi-precious stones,  beach glass, or something tribal. 

The SUPER popular "Bright Earth" Wing Dings. I can hardly keep these in stock. It seems like every time i stock them they sell out quickly. I just fell in LOVE with this palette and seems like you all did too. Especially wonderful for this time from summer into fall.  I got a really gorgeous batch of the terra cotta this time around too ;)

What else has been going on....

Here is a shot of my most recent glass order. Ahhhhh it feels so good to re-stock some glass colors! 

New glass, new kiln fiber blanket, new bead release, new kiln element! 

I have been doing some designing too. Some stuff is still waiting to be assembled, but this one worked up pretty quickly. A simple design from me! Crazy, right? I always get so complex. These beads just jumped together. The bicone is from MAKU Studio and the faces from from Wonderous Strange. 

Pretty sure I am OBSESSED with Staci's Loopty-Loops and swirl s clasps too. This time I had to make my own clasp since I ran out of hers ;)

I always love seeing jewelry worn. It just gives it such life. That is what I love about Staci's photos. She is always showing her jewelry on. Makes such a difference huh?

What you can look forward to. This is what I was working on before my kiln crapped out. Um.... yeah, pretty f*ing amazing if you ask me! >:D

Well I must be off, but have a happy Labor Day! 

See you soon!

xo Genea

Busy, busy, Beader!

Hello friends!

Do you ever have trouble transitioning from one thing to the next? I do. I switch from bead making to jewelry making. So this week I had some glass testing and some designing to do. I have already been busily creating some AMAZING jewelry for Staci and my limited addition collab sets! I am SOOOOO excited about how well my designs turned out. Unfortunately you will have to wait to see those particular designs, BUT I do have some wonderful designs to share!

I was asked to assemble some of Sue Stewart's silver glass test beads on the different Creation is Messy blacks. Here is a link to the beads I received to assemble. The beads I used are 3-6 on the right hand side of the tuxedo black page.

Here was my first design. Originally somehow I thought I was going to get all of these beads onto one necklace! Lol. Well that didn't quite work, so I did 3 different designs. For this one I imaged a nice LONG necklace, which generally isn't my style. These beads were so wonderfully long they were just perfect for this style :)

The second necklace is the one I was most enamored with. I pulled out these wonderful metallic leathers I bought and go to work. The cool thing about this design is that I had no idea what I was going to do with it. I just sat down and worked it up. Do you ever impress yourself when you sit down to design? This one really did that for me. As I knotted these wonderful loops around the flattened barrel lampwork beads I just loved the look. At the ends where I finished off the knotting I macramed. Wow, I was surprised at how well the leather not only macramed, but looked! I got JUST the right finishing touches to not only complete the design, but end the work without it looking like you could see the exact spot where I stopped knotting. When I got to the end of the leather I wondered what I was going to do with the ends. 

I dug through my stash and found some sweet little deep blue glittery spacer beads and tied them on!

Um... isn't this AMAZING?! I just LOVE it! It has a fantastic weight to it as well! I, of course, LOVE the negative space! 

Here is the last necklace. There were a lot of really gorgeous blues in these beads so I put them with some Sari silk. I am into these double drop necklaces lately. Not sure what that is all about, but they really intrigue me :D

Designs I can share...

While I was working on our collab designs these beads just screamed at me from my bead box. I excitedly dug out some beads of Staci's I had been sitting on for a long while that I loved. These beads were just PERFECT together along with some of Karen's patinated rings and new textured heat patinated donuts! 

Here is a close up of Staci's "Man on the Moon" focal bead. He has a sweet moon face and the back is stamped with stars and swirls. I just love him! You can also see some of Karen's clay discs and one of Staci's Spiral "S" clasps that I am totally in LOVE with! I have been using her clasps in EVERYTHING and they are the perfect size for these designs.

Here is a better shot of Karen's donuts and my weeny dings :D

BACK IN THE SHOP...

So with everything going on this week with designing I didn't have much time to think up some new things so I did re-stock some favorites that were out. 

Bright Earth Wing Dings

These sweet little babies also FLEW out of the shop! You all are so amazing! I think you will love them just as much as I do! Lagoon Weeny Dings.

So since I can't show you the collab designs for the limited addition sets just yet, how about I show you my KILLER earrings?

I just ADORE them! I used Karen's incredible patinated hoops, and star beads along with my weeny dings, enameled "hair pin" wires and teensy 3mm 2x ab crystals! They are just perfect with the tiny size of the weeny dings. I am also quite in love with all of this wonderful chain from Rings & Things I received from Staci.

Here is what the earrings look like worn. They are surprisingly weightless for the amount of beads on them. It's all of that wonderful negative space that gives them that fullness in their design :D

What are you creating with your weeny dings?? I would LOVE to see some photos! Please send them to me via facebook so that I can add them to the gallery! 

On the subject of mini.....

I just ordered some mini cards from the Etsy+ Moo mini card offer. These cards are FREE with only the cost of shipping. It was $5 for shipping to the US. This is my first time ordering them, but I have seen how wonderful these cards are from ones I have received.

Here is screen shot of my beadies in the shape of the mini cards while I was designing them. Thanks so much to Karen for her help getting these started and to Holly and Brandon for being my moral support when I F*ed up the borders and forgot to go to the Etsy link when I started creating these cards!

Thanks for checking in! 

See you soon!

xo Genea

More stone texture beads in the shop! New colors and designs!

Hello friends!

OMG is it HOT outside. It is especially hot today. The kind of heat that makes your head hurt after only being outside for a few minutes. It is a sweltering 102 degrees outside today! I sure am glad to be back in the basement under a fan!

You may have seen my shop update on facebook a few hours ago. I got my listings done and then took a break to enjoy some lunch Ricky made this afternoon. I sure do miss eating meals together since he works so much! I then took my dad out for a sundae for his birthday. He is celebrating 62 this year!

So, anyways, here we are with my blog update and a little bit more inside info on the new beads and styles. You know designs are always fun to start out with and add to. I did JUST that for these new beads. I used some more colors, combined styles and did shiny and matte!

You remember this design, right?

Well if tit looks awesome on clear, surely it will be awesome on black! 

Oooo dont' you just LOVE this design on black with that wonderful "lava" texture?! A little band of some silvered ivory and BAM! A wonderful mix of organic design and texture!

Spiral Earth Stones "Black Lava Silver Thread".

So a funny thing about these new black beads. JUST today Staci was posting some of her new work. I about crapped a brick when she showed me her new beads! It was like our beads were planned to match except we had not see each others beads at all!

Can you believe this?! Our beads are like a match made in heaven! I am not totally sure if these beads are going in her shop or if they are getting submitted for a bead mag. We could always harass Staci and see if she is listing them ;)

I began to play with the placement of the ivory and raku bands. I thought I would crack out the Coral odd lots I had to mess around and see what I could get.

Here you can see the Peach Coral on the top with stone texture and matte and on the bottom left shiny. One has a rainbow band across the center and one has the silver thread band across the center. I just love the different look of them! You will notice that etched they are a little less saturated in color, but have this glow to them.

Sooooooooo I had to try ALL of the odd lot batches of coral to see how they looked ;)

WOAH! Awesomness!

Then I had to try a few other colors. Some odd lot limey greens, EDP aka "Evil Purple", and of course, BLACK. You know the black ones look AMAZING with the new wing dings! 

So I wanted to do some more in the peachy coral since I really liked the results. 

So I started out in the "regular" lentil size, but tweaked the design a bit. I used the "leopard spots" on the side instead of the "rainbow ribbons". Sooooo pretty!

Spiral Earth Stones "Coral Peach".

You know a set always could use a nice focal as well ;) I just love that band across the center where you can see the spiral come through. Look at that texture! It kind of has the texture of pumice stone ;)

Spiral Earth Stones "Coral Peach" focal.

So before this focal I actually made one before it. This one had a gorgeous rainbow band across it. It was SO stuck on the mandrel it BENT and CRACKED the corner off of the bead! What a sad day! :'(

You all know my very favorite color is lime green, right? So I HAD to try it out in green(as you saw in the little color sample I did above) BUT... why not stone texture and make them matte?! 

Spiral Earth Stones "Electric Lime"

So here you will notice another funny thing. sometimes etching makes the beads BRIGHTER. As you can see, that is the case for these beads. Amazing huh?! The green and coral really like to let the ivory glass web and curdle. I LOVE the look!

Ooooo look at that COLOR! I just love the details on this bead! Check out that amazing rainbow color fade on the left side! Wow!

Spiral Earth Stones "Electric Lime" focal.

So when doing this focal in black I thought I would lay a fat ribbon of rainbow right in the center! Oooo look at how pretty it is! Look at all of that color, webbing and that amazing ripple in the spiral! 

Spiral Earth Stone "Black Lava Threads and Ribbons" focal.

So you know when you create something and you don't know if you should do another step. Well this was one of those instances. I thought about etching these, but just LOOK at all of that VIVID color! I LOVE the contrast of the sharp shiny black, the amazing "silver thread" band and the webbed rainbows up the sides! I just HAD to leave this set shiny!

Spiral Coins "Black Ribbons and Threads".

Thanks so much for stopping by to see my latest update!

I hope you are staying cool! See you soon!

xo Genea

Wire-Wrap Connector Tutorial

Hello friends!

I have another quick little tutorial for you! I always learn so much while I am working on things. I found this method to work so well I wanted to share it with you! 

Materials 

round nose plyers

cutting plyers

bent chain nose plyers

6" 22 gauge dark annealed steel wire

Renaissance wax

clean cloth(use a scrap of a rag)

Patinated Ring in black- Karen Totten

TUTORIAL

Begin by coating your 6" piece of wire in renaissance wax. You can do this by taking a piece of cloth, rubbing a small bit of wax on the cloth and placing your wire in the waxed cloth. Pinch your cloth around the wire and run it through a few times. Allow a few minutes to "dry" (you can't really see if it's dry, but a few minutes will do). Then run it through a clean area of cloth. 

Grab your wire in the middleand fold it over your round nosed plyers to form a loop in the center(think like a bobby pin).

Next  with your round nosed plyers grab flat across the wire with just a little bit of the loop sticking out of the end of your plyers(use a little less than what you see in the photo). This loop only needs to be big enough to fit a small wire wrap dangle. 

Now curve the wire right until it just about folds on top of itself.

Now take the wire and slip your folded over "bobby pin" and slide it over the ring. This bend should "hug" over the patinated ring.

Now  pick up your bend chain nosed plyers and gently squeeze the bent over "bobby pin" to give it a more snug fit to the ring. 

Grab your round nosed plyers and grab across the patinated ring and the "U" shaped loop for stability.  This hold will give you some nice stability as you do your wire wraps. Dark annealed steel wire is MUCH stiffer than copper, brass or silver wire. 

Take the wire "tail" on your right and wrap a few times around the the patinated hoop.

This is how your wrap should look. See the nice tight coils to the right?

Now take your round nosed plyers and grab the patinated ring and "U" loop and wrap your other wire "tail" to the left side. You only need to do 2-3 wraps on each side, but you can do as many as you like. 

**Designers Note** You can also do some fancy wire wraps with the remainder of your wire "tail" after making your securing wire-wraps! Play around as you feel more comfortable with this technique and see where the design takes you ;) **

Next take your cutters and gently snip the wire "tail". 

You can now pick up your bent chain nosed plyers and gently "tuck" the snipped "tail". Repeat on the opposite side.

Here you can see how the wrap looks finished. See how you have a "U" shaped  dangle loop that hangs on the inside of the ring? This is where your wire-wrapped dangle will hang. 

**Designers Note** You can do a wire wrapped dangle that will hang in the bottom of the "U" shaped loop, but you can also add a jump ring around the patinated ring and through the top of the "U" in the "U" loop as well for an earring!(See last photo with necklace and earrings for a demonstration of this).

Here you can connect a wire-wrapped dangle to the "U" loop you just created. For instructions on that technique, please see my other tutorial here. 

Here is what the patinated ring looks like with a dangle hanging from the "U" loop you created :D

Remember my new necklace and earrings? This is where I came up with this wonderful technique while designing my new piece!

 Center patinated ring, toggle, and "Clay Ding" beads by Karen Totten.

Black Loopty Loops and  Batik Style Hippy Girl focal by Staci Smith

Enameled hoops, "Wing Dings," glass headpins and design by Genea C-K

I hope you enjoy using this technique in your creations!

xo Genea

Box of treasures- Beads, Components & Jewelry- Staci Louise

Hello friends!

I am SOOOOO excited about the most recent box I received from Staci! Wow, does this girl SPOIL me! Our most recent exchange came about from one of our conversations. Staci was talking with me about us creating some designs with our special LIMITED ADDITION collaboration sets. I was telling her I really needed to get some new chain and findings since it had been AGES since I really spent a good amount of money on beading supplies(my main sink hole is glass ;P ). She was such a sweet heart and offered to send me a fun little package of some chain and other goodies to help get me inspired. She said she was really excited to get a box together for me since she loved picking out goodies to send. YAY! Well I couldn't leave my girl empty handed so I got together a box for her as well! You can see what she received from me here.

Oooo just look at this mix! Some of Staci's wonderful Sea Urchin charms, a patinated star with a face and one of her lovely wired swirly connectors she has used in her jewelry.

Here is one of her necklaces she made with a similar one :)

Oh look at all of this AWESOME chain!! I love these antiqued copper and brass chains! 

Look! She even sent me some of the SUPER CHUNKY chain she has! I just LOVE it!

She actually sent me 2 of her BEAUTIFUL  Batik Style "Hippy Girl" focals, but I already used on in a necklace! He he!

Awwww! She even MADE me jump rings! Now that is love! I can't imagine winding all of those up and cutting them all! Blegch! What a sweet girl!

Ooooo just look at this beautiful leaf focal and some wonderful metal shells!

OMG she even sent me some of her amazing Loopty Loop focals and her wonderful spiral s clasps! I just LOVE these!!

Awww fresh water pearls in my colors :) and some mop sticks, a large oval coral? barrel and a mop hoop.

Some more sea urchin spines! Some red(thank God, I have like NO red beads at all!) some wonderful kind of  fossily looking gray stones, some copper beads, and some other wonderful stones in oranges, and browns!

Look! She even sent me one of those gorgeous wire worked sea glass rings she had made for her shows!! I just LOVE it when she sends me jewelry too! I even have some pretty nails to show it off ;) 

Here are those rings I was telling you about...

Aren't they amazing?! I just love mine!!

I love black labradorite, turquoise  and amazonite! She even sent some dark green stones and some mixed ones!

Awww! she sent me some leather and suede as well! 

Staci makes these amazing cuff bracelets! You can see one below.

Sweet huh?!

OMG! Love these! Little texture stamped and patinated spirals and some little bronze organic dangles! They are SOOO sweet!

Oh here is my other batik style "Hippy Girl" focal that worked up perfectly into a design I had sitting on my table along with some of Karen's amazing "Clay Ding" beads! 

Staci, words can't fully express my gratitude for your kindness, inspiration and friendship! 

Thanks so much!!

xo Genea