Dust has gathered around this blog over the past month and a half, so I thought I'd start by explaining what I've been up to. I'm working on revamping my website from the ground up, so I've been spending some long hours at the computer when I would normally be beading. It's been a lot of work, but I'm learning a great deal about web design and I'm excited about how it's coming together!
But in the meantime, I found a little time for some beading. I created these Pagoda beaded charm earrings for the fall season about a year ago, and found it high time to make a matching pendant. So I made an additional Pagoda beaded charm, turned it upside-down, and matched it with a Double Pagoda beaded bead:
Both the earrings and the matching pendant use 4 by 7 mm briolette Swarovski pendants (article no. 6007) in the place of Czech drop beads, a substitution that I've explored before and found that it generally works for most of my designs.
I also made a pair of little crystal helix beaded bead earrings in the same color palette.
The copper ear wires in this pair are from the same batch as the year-old Pagoda pair, so when you compare them you can see that they oxidize quite a lot over the course of a year of moderate use. I think I like the oxidized look better though; the darker copper draws less attention, leaving it on the beaded charms where it belongs. What do you think?
