Jesse James Inspirations, indeed.

Most of the time, when I buy beads, my reasons are less than logical: I love the beads, or they are such a good bargain I can't possibly pass them up, or I like the designer and want to purchase from them to support them, etc. I have zero idea what I will do with 95% of the beads I buy (maybe 5% "knowing" is a high estimate).
But, there I was in Joann's checking out the beads and seeing what was on sale, when I noticed the Jesse James beads were on sale. Now, they were a good buy, but I was instantly inspired to make a random beaded necklace with all the beads from one packet. Jesse James sell packets of mixed beads (a lot like bead soup, only the beads actually go together well!). The mixes have fun names, like "Urban Ice", "Wild Side" or "Maui Wowie".
Also, around the same time, I had been shopping with my mother and she was looking for a top that had leopard print. I guess you're never too old to wear animal prints (she's 78). That must have still been in my mind, and I bought 2 sets of beads: "Desert Springs" and "Cinnamon Toast". "Desert Springs" has a mix of brown and turquoise beads. "Cinnamon Toast" is a mix of browns and has some acrylic leopard print beads.
I brought them home and let them sit on my bead desk for a couple months....even when I know exactly what I want to do it can still take me months to get around to it! (head lowered)
I strung the beads in a random way, no pattern at all. I just tried to space out the larger beads. The only beads I added from my stash were some turquoise beads with crystals set in around the circumference (bought at the last Beadfest) and some small brass spacer type beads. I added chain to make them the length I wanted.

 

 The 2 necklaces look AB FAB together too!

Sometimes the simplest ideas are the best.

Znetshows Summer challenge - Days and Nights

Time is drawing near for the Znetshows Summer challenge, Creative Spark Summer digital magazine, and a blog hop! (we're having a blog hop this time!). The theme this time is "Day and Night". We were asked to pick two colors of cultured sea glass from the Znetshows web site and to create jewelry for day and for night. For "day", I was thinking about 4th of July and wanted to do a patriotic themed design. So, I picked Cherry Red and Light Sapphire. The light sapphire turned out to be a bit lighter than I imagined, but that's ok! It's pretty anyway.

The below photo is a shot of all the beads I received. There are red elongated barrels and rondelles, along with irregular circle links (very cool!) and two pairs of fishes. The bigger fish remind me of the fish in "Candy Crush Saga" that wiggle across the screen when you complete a level (is anyone else hooked on Candy Crush Saga??) Also, in both my colors, there are sand dollars! They have great detail. I am thinking hard about them, and hope to come up with a beach themed design - time will tell. Other beads in light sapphire are the hour glass shaped beads, concave diamond charm/pendants, and oval rings.
They did warn us that we could also receive colors in addition to the colors we selected. I also received opaque purple barrels and turquoise free form flat pendants, just to make it interesting!

 

I will let you know when the blog hop will be (mid-July), and if my designs will be featured in the Creative Spark Summer digital magazine!

 

All the above beads are for sales at Znetshows.com.