5 day self imposed challenge

I'm still talking about my bead society (Bucks County Bead Society), and last month's meeting. We had show and tell and I brought what I had made that week.....related background story.....

At my full-time job, we had been "asked" to rotate working 11am to 7pm once every 10 weeks or so. The week of the last bead society meeting was the week I was working the "late shift".

On Monday, I thought I'd see if the couple extra hours I had in the morning were enough time to make jewelry. I had a strand of grey top drilled pearls I wanted to use (I bought them at Beadfest for my sister, but she didn't like them, and I already have about 5 gallons of pearls, so I didn't want to add them to my stash). Anyway. I made this necklace. Grey pearls with copper bali daisy spacers. The added bonus is that I used a Green Girl Studios pendant that I have been hoarding for probably 10 years!! So, I was very pleased with myself.

On Tuesday morning, I had some left-over ideas in my head. There were more pearls that I wanted to use (and not add to the already ridiculous pearl stash). So, I went to the bead room, to do another design. I used tiny copper round spacer beads from Panda Hall between the pearls. The added bonus here is that I used a beautiful lampwork bead (by Jennifer Cameron) I just bought at Beadfest, and did not add it to my humongous stash of lampwork beads!! (my stash is really getting too big - and that's something I never thought I'd ever say!)

  

 

 

On Wednesday morning, with more left-over ideas in my head, I had now set a goal to make something every day that week! As I was making Tuesday's necklace, I noticed that the strand of pearls looked good with the lampwork bead, but they also looked good with my enameled flower pendant. What to do?!? I used half of the strand for each necklace, and added chain at the back for the needed length. This pendant is one of my enameled flowers layered with a Vintaj filigree flower.

 

 

This is where I need to talk about the bead society again. For my show and tell that Wed night, I took my 3 necklaces I had made that week and told my story (same as above). I think I actually heard clapping! They cheered me! They were so supportive of my little goal that week. This, compared to my husband, who I did not even tell. Because, I know if I told him I made jewelry every morning that week, he would have asked if I did anything else, like clean something, wash something, etc. He just doesn't "get it", but the bead society members do!

On Thursday, I used another strand of pearls from Beadfest. While rummaging through things earlier in the week, I ran across some antique copper discs with different leaf designs. I most likely got them on clearance at Michaels or AC Moore. I bought 2 packages of 3, thinking they'd make cute earrings, and they would have, but they are way too heavy. So, I made a pendant. I forgot to snap a photo of the back of the pendant, but I used 2 discs, so there's a cute leaf design on the back of the pendant too. I had the mother of pearl leaves, from Fire Mountain, on hand.

 

On Friday, I decided to make a necklace with one of the wire wrapped pendants I made at the bead society meeting. I really liked the red in this cabachon, so I went with it. I bought the tiny picasso Czech cut beads at Beadfest a couple years ago from Grain of Sand. They were sold by the hank, with mixed colors on every strand. So I picked a strand with plenty of red beads. And I sprinkled in some random Czech beads that were laying around, to add texture. I also added a length of chain, to give it a slightly heavier look.

 

 Believe it or not, I had time to make a second necklace that morning! I used another wire wrapped cab from the bead society meeting. It's black with raku. I liked how it looked with the Czech glass I found in my stash - black with green picasso finish.

 

 

To wrap up this post, my additional pleasure that week was, after making jewelry for a couple hours, I came downstairs, took my shower, and got dressed for work, picking out clothes to wear with my new necklace I made that morning!