Winter Enchantment- Art Beads blog - Genea Beads

Hello friends!

Well I don't know if you are getting spring where you are, but it sure still feels like winter here in Kansas City, Missouri!

It's been nice that it's been cold since it took me until now to get my Art Beads blog completed. I was swamped with the Bead Soup Party and I am definitely not a "multi-tasker". I always HATE that corporate term. Multi-tasking just means doing a million things at once crappy instead of one thing at a time well done. So now that my soup design was complete it was time to work on my Winter Enchantment blog WELL :D  

Mom ended up coming over to bead with me :) Since she already had her beads picked out for her fringe bracelet it was easier for her to travel here. One never knows what one will need for a mixed-media asymmetrical bracelet, you know!

Here was mom's bead mat with all of her fringe beads layed out. See all of the Genea Beads :)

Here is a pic of mom beading :) I really love beading with my momma. I hope you get to enjoy creating jewelry with someone you love. It is really nice to create with another person!

 Yikes! Is this what your bead table looks like when you are creating? Every time I think of how messy my desk gets when I create, I ALWAYS think of Creation is Messy(they make awesome glass rods). I always think it's just the perfect name because, well creation IS messy!

Here was the first design. I liked it, but the hollow on the right was uncomfortable. It just didn't sit right. I was bummed because I really wanted to use the Hill Tribe silver simple flower bead caps. The caps were actually a bit more rounded, but they stuck out on the sides of my hollow bead. I thought "Hmmm... I wonder if I just put them on my bench block and give them a few taps to make them a little flatter..." Guess what? It worked! See how they fit nice a snug on the bead? Cool little trick you can use if you ever run into that problem. If it's not working out, hit it with a HAMMER! Lol, if only that trick worked for everything :/ Oh well ;)

 

Ah there we go! I took out the hollow bead and stuck in a lovely Hill Tribe lentil that was an orphan in my bead box. Lentils are always such comfortable beads to wear and it fit in just fantastically!  Now for the supplies I ordered. I got: 2mm seamless sterling silver rounds, 2x2 silver crimp tubes,  Hill Tribe silver flower stamped round bead frame, and silver plated round links on round cable chain.

Don't you just LOVE the pieces I got from Art Beads?!  I LOVE the round stamped Hill Tribe bead frame! Of course you knew I would like it because it provides "negative space" which I find terribly visually appealing, oh and it's HILL TRIBE! ;) I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the loopy cable chain! When I saw that Art Beads was carrying it I immediately remembered seeing Lorelei use this very same chain in some of her pieces. I remembered loving not only her jewelry, but oh that chain! It really has a wonderful "soft" feel to it. The loops have this amazing movement to them that is just really incredible :)

Do you like what I did with the square bead frame? I wanted to use it in a different way so I used jump rings to hold the sides and strung a headpin through the bead holes to hold the inside lampwork bead and drop a Hill Tribe dangle from the bottom :D I love doing clever unexpected things with jewelry parts ;) 

Oh and here is the back side. The soldered charm I made is of course, two sided.  So something else you definitely can't tell from the picture is that all of teh little round lampwork spacer beads are actually this really dark blue glitter. It appears black, but its a really sweet odd lot glass(figures, right? Me using odd lot glass ;) called Dark Blue Aventurine by Bullseye.

Well I hope you enjoyed my design process and my product review! Why not hop on over to Art Beads and nab up some of these fabulous products?

Much love,

Genea

**Disclaimer I have received these products free of charge by Artbeads.com. I am honestly reviewing the products and have not been paid for my endorsement as it pertains to the products received.**

Horay for being INSPIRED!

Hello friends!

I just thought I would share some more pieces I made with you. I have been feeling pretty creative lately :)

After making my AMAZING new BIBH(bead-inside-a-bead-hollow) necklace it just wouldn't be complete without a FABULOUS pair of earrings, right?Awesome, huh?! I LOVE them!
Here is a quick shot of what they look like together :)

A few days ago I was looking through one of my bead drawers and came across a bead I had made awhile back after getting a sweet spiral stamp at a bead show from last year. I pulled the bead out and it has been sitting by my computer monitor for a few days.

I remembered I had picked up some purplish dyed coral at the show and thought it would look really pretty with the bead. I don't usually design with semi-precious stones so I thought I would use some in a design with this particular bead.

Why don't I use stones normally? I dunno, not because I don't like them or anything. I just LOVE glass, crystal and other funky stuff so I generally stick to that.

Luckily my other design had some wonder left over pieces so I added them into this piece as well. Horay for asymmetry and mixed-media! These style pieces are perfect for all of those little pretty left over bits from other designs :D

I'm really happy with the design! I wanted to add lots of texture, techniques and style to the piece and then add some of that Genea flair. I think I nailed it :D I uploaded it to the design pool for the Jewelry Accord submissions for Lorelei and Erin's new book. I'm excited to hear what people think of the design.

Ok well, it's 12:26pm and I am still in my p'jam's so I guess it's time to go shower, eat breakfast(yes breakfast, if you miss it you still have to eat it, no matter what time ;), and get dressed.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Much love,

Genea

NEW Flying Hula Hoop, Flying Rubber Bumper, and Flying Rubber Bumper Slide

Hello friends!

I'm SOOOO excited to share my new designs with you! As you know it's ALL about color! These new designs are packed full! Just a little bit of metals for connectors and findings and the rest is pure unadultered COLOR! Woot!

What inspired these fun new designs besides having color from which to choose? Well I would most definitely say the colored leather and the Rubber O's I purchased from Yvonne at My ELEMENTS. Yvonne is unfortunately running dial up for her internet service so I told her that I would go pimp out her products right here on my blog :)

The new "Flying Hula Hoop", "Flying Rubber Bumper," and "Flying Rubber Bumper Slide" designs were inspired by my "Wing Ding Waterfall" necklaces. I also got these AMAZING vintage lucite hoops that made the designing that much more fun! They are super light so earrings are a blast. You can really load them up with beads and still have them light weight enough to wear all day!

NEW IN THE SHOP....
Here is what the set looks like all together. FUN, huh?!

Colors include: Coral orange, scarlet red, yellow, fuchsia, and orchid.
Flying Hula Hoop- "Blood Orange Blush" necklace- Super fun wing ding dangles, a vintage lucite hoop and swirly spacer center all on an 18-20"(45.72-50.8cm) adjustable necklace.

Flying Hula Hoop- "Blood Orange Blush" earrings- Super fun wing ding dangles, a vintage lucite hoop and swirly spacer center. Earrings dangle 2 1/2"(5.08cm).

Flying Rubber Bumper-"Blood Orange Blush" bracelet- Wiggly and bright colored rubber rings and wing dings slide over colored leather while swirly spacers weave together with silver wire. Fun for every wrist. Bracelet is just shy of 7 1/2"(17.78cm). This bracelet fits comfortably on my 7" wrist with a little room left over for a loose fit.

Colors include: coraly peach, electric yellow green, aqua and tangerine orange.
Flying Hula Hoop- "Kumquat Lime Sky" earrings- Super fun wing ding dangles, a vintage lucite hoop and swirly spacer center. Earrings dangle 2 1/2"(5.08cm).
Flying Hula Hoop- "Kumquat Lime Sky" necklace- Super fun wing ding dangles, a vintage lucite hoop and swirly spacer center all on an 18-20"(45.72-50.8cm) adjustable necklace.
Flying Rubber Bumper-"Kumquat Lime Sky" bracelet- Wiggly and bright colored rubber rings and wing dings slide over colored leather while swirly spacers weave together with silver wire. Fun for every wrist. Bracelet is just shy of 7 1/2"(17.78cm). This bracelet fits comfortably on my 7" wrist with a little room left over for a loose fit.

This is how the bracelet looks worn. As you can see there is only one shot of this bracelet, but I figured the other photos let you know what the rest of it looked like ;)

Colors include:scarlet red, orange, yellow, kelly green and lapis blue.
Flying Hula Hoop- "Original 8" earrings- Super fun wing ding dangles, a vintage lucite hoop and swirly spacer center. Earrings dangle 2 1/2"(5.08cm). The name "Original 8" was suggested by my mom. She said the colors in this necklace reminded her of the "original 8" crayola colors :)
Flying Hula Hoop- "Original 8" necklace- Super fun wing ding dangles, a vintage lucite hoop and swirly spacer center all on an 18-20"(45.72-50.8cm) adjustable necklace.

You are waiting for the bracelet that matches this listing right? Yeah... well... uh... I didn't have the right color supplies to make one so you will just have to enjoy the earrings and necklace ;)
Flying Rubber Bumper Slide-"Leaf Splash" bracelet- Wiggly and bright colored rubber rings and wing dings slide over colored leather while swirly spacers weave together with silver wire. Fun for every wrist. Bracelet is 7 1/2"(17.78cm).

See the little design twist? Instead of stringing the wing dings I decided to knot them to soldered rings to make a dangle and then slide them that way! So cool! Half strung, half dangle!

Bracelet is 7 1/2"(17.78cm). This bracelet fits comfortably on my 7" wrist with a little room left over for a loose fit. This bracelet is just a tad longer that the other "Flying Rubber Bumper" bracelets. Additional jump rings may be added at clasp to lengthen bracelet upon request.

Well I hope that you enjoyed checking out the new designs! I had SO much fun creating them!

Stay tuned for more!

Have a fantastic evening!

Much love,

Genea