New Necklaces and a Bracelet in the Shop

Sometimes I find it hard to let go of the jewelry that I've made, even when I know deep down that I need to put it up for sale to make room for new designs. I finally did just that with several pieces that I've been hanging onto for quite a while (click on the photos to learn more about each piece). First up is this Crystal Helix necklace in silver night and hematite:

Next, we have this ocean-themed aqua and silver necklace featuring Pagoda Beaded Charms strung as beaded beads, complemented with lampwork beads handmade by glass artisan Melissa Vess:

This necklace features a Circle Starburst beaded bead focal and four Squared Circles beaded beads, strung with Czech glass and grey freshwater pearls. It reminds me of the foggy summers on the San Francisco peninsula where I grew up:

Finally, this little sparkly bracelet was the result of my experimenting with substituting crystals for Czech glass beads in some of my designs. It has a Double Bubble Jacks beaded bead woven with crystals as a charm.

All four items are available for purchase in my Etsy shop.

New Patterns and Kits: Tila Garden and Cubed Tilas

Now that I've had some time to recover from the Bead & Button show, I've put up patterns and kits for the Tila Garden Pendant and Cubed Tilas Beaded Bead on my website.

I have several kits left of the above Antique Flowers Tila Garden Pendant, and a few of the other two color choices. The Cubed Tilas beaded bead kits are available as special edition necklace kits:

Special edition kits are also available for the Ice Queen necklaces. I've taken to wearing the Night Queen version as of late when I go out for a nice evening:

All three kits are available at www.beadorigami.com. Both necklace kits contain all the materials to make the entire necklace, and the pendant includes the headpin, bead caps, and chain, all in sterling silver.

New Pattern and Kits: Squareflake Earrings

Before I left for the Bead & Button Show, I wrote up the pattern for the Squareflake Earrings and put together kits in three different color combinations. Here's the original pair, with those luminous green crystals:

The earrings are about 35 mm long without the ear wires, although you could always adjust the bottom dangle for a longer or shorter pair. Here's another version with red siam crystals and some purple iris beads, with a touch of silver:

Finally, this last pair is in a wintery color scheme, with air blue opal crystals. The twin seed beads in this pair are light lavender, but they're so light that they're nearly transparent:

The Squareflake Earrings pattern and kits in these three color schemes are available at beadorigami.com. Each kit makes a pair of earrings and includes the ear wires in sterling silver.

Scenes From the Bead & Button Show

I'm back home and gradually getting back into the swing of things after teaching at the Bead & Button Show last week. The show was as intense as I expected, but I had a great time! I was so busy that I only managed to take a few pictures though. Here I am posing with my booth right before the Meet the Teachers event:

Meet the Teachers was crazy busy! I was happy to meet Sarah of Saturday Sequins, Linda Roberts of My Heart Beads For You, and reconnect with Carol Perrenoud of Bead Cats. Next year I'll have to set aside more time outside of Meet the Teachers to be able to talk to everyone for more than 30 seconds!

Here I am with my fellow beaded bead addicts Gwen and Florence at their booth. Gwen's wearing her Infinity Ubercube necklace that graced the show schedule page of the show program.

Speaking of Cali peeps, I had a lovely dinner with Beki and Shawn Haley of the seed bead mecca Out on a Whim, and also met with my soon-to-be San Diego neighbor Marcia DeCoster. I'm looking forward to living in the same town as such a fantastic bead artist!

My students were awesome! Fellow dodecahedron fan Sharon Wagner of Yadasi Beads finished her Tila Garden pendant in class, and was exceptionally kind to come back the next day and assist me in my larger class. Check out the Infinity Dodecahedra and Ionic Polyhedra in her necklace:

Finally, Gwen and Florence and I had a nice breakfast with Leslie Rogalski. We didn't plan to all wear pendants that morning, but it just somehow turned out that way:

Have you gone to any bead shows lately? What kinds of pictures did you take?

Off to the Show!

Well, I'm headed off to the Bead & Button Show tomorrow! I've been very busy packing patterns, kits, and all the odds and ends that I'll need for my classes. I hope I haven't forgotten anything...

You can still place orders and download patterns off my website while I'm away, but any kits ordered will ship out on June 11 when I get back. Are you going to the show? I'll be offering attendees 10% off patterns and kits, so stop by at the Meet the Teachers event on Wednesday night or check out my classes Friday through Sunday.

I must admit that I'm both excited and anxious to be going to this show... I've admired photos of the past Bead Dreams winners for several years now, and many of my favorite vendors exhibit at the marketplace this weekend. But I'm especially looking forward to meeting the attending bead artists who I rarely get to see in person, several of whom I've only ever interacted with online. With so many people and bead art to see, I'm already feeling overwhelmed!

Earrings with Twin Beads

During my brief respites from preparing for the Bead & Button Show, I found some time to play with the new Czech two-hole "twin" seed beads. Then these happened:

They remind me of snowflakes, but snowflakes have six-fold symmetry instead of four-fold symmetry. Perhaps I should call them squareflakes?

The above earrings also use the crystal luminous green shade of Swarovski crystal, another new bead. These use the traditional crystal with an AB finish, plus silver seedies:

Have you worked with twin beads before? How do you like them?