Rings & Things Trunk Show

The Rings & Things Trunk Show came to Grand Rapids yesterday and I had been eagerly awaiting for them to roll into town!  I had my little list of must-haves: spacers, tiny faceted beads, wood and chain.  Mission accomplished!  Of course, I found a few surprises: resin strands in pretty muted shades, some lovely kynanite and bronzite faceted beads - yumm!  I had hoped to pick up tiny gemstones, but they were not in my price range at the moment.  My hunt was mostly for things for summer jewelry - more bangles, necklaces with wood and urchins and other beachy inspired things. 

I need a clone, because I would love to have a line of jewelry to sell to some of these beachy tourist towns dotting the Lake Michigan coast.  I had hoped to do the Artist Market here in town, but found out I missed the deadline.  Yep, definitely need the clone!

I didn't have to shop alone this weekend.  My sweet auntie Rosanne and my friend Heather (you may know her as the Peacock Fairy) drove to GR to spend the day with me.  They have no idea how much I needed some time to play and create! 

I showed them how I make my seed bead bangles and we enjoyed playing with beads and visiting all afternoon.

Rosanne was so productive - until Words with Friends called her name!

Here are the three bangles Rosanne made.

And the ones I whipped up yesterday.  This set features one of my Dandelion beads, a nice chunky raku bead from MAKU and an owl from PatinaWorx.

Here are a few bangles I made last weekend while hanging out with my sister.  We took a long drive to Muskegon and I made some of them in the car.  Then we watched Grimm all night while I worked on a few more piles. 

She kept slipping them on, I wasn't sure they were going to come off - but eventually she gave them back.  With the promise that I would make her set.  Nothing like having a jewelry-maker for a sister!

Rings & Things Blog Partner Project - Steampunk

I'm so late posting this! I was lucky enough to get some components from the Rings & Things blog partner program last month and I have just now gotten around to creating with them. Such is the life in this busy studio.

I received an assortment of steampunk inspired gears, sprockets and cogs in brass and copper. I pulled out an Earthenwood gear bead and went to work...

I textured the gears and sprockets with my ball peen hammer, riveting hammer and a screw driver. (The screwdriver makes that great dot pattern.) I antiqued some with silver/black and others I used acrylic dabbers to create a faux patina look. I sealed the painted finish with Renaissance wax.

I pulled out my Vintaj blanks and drilled a few holes and riveted on the gears and sprockets. The rivets are also from Vintaj.

The necklace is put together with jump rings, chain and check out those cog beads - very cool. I had to show them off by using them with etched jump rings. In between you'll find my teal branch beads.

You can find a lot of Vintaj at Rings & Things now too!

There are over 20 pages of beads, chain, charms, pendants and metal blanks on Rings & Things site that are categorized as Steampunk. Have fun.

I made this necklace for my daughter for her Halloween costume. You see my girls met Melanie from Earthenwood Studios a few summers ago and learned about Steampunk and have been smitten with it ever since. This is Vangie's costume from last year, she was a steampunk explorer. This year she is some steampunk/fantasy hybrid that includes an Aztec cat mask - Steampunked out, Steampunk wire fairy wings and her trusty goggles. There are striped arm sleeves involved too. Yep, that's how my kids roll. Weird and wonderful!

Midnight Garden

This is a Rings & Things blog partner project.  They sent us a mix of shell pearls and faceted glass in this lux color scheme.*

I mixed them with a set of branch disk beads in purple and midnight blue, a dark blue dogwood bead, a key from Green Girl Studios, a flower button from Mamacita beadworks and a copper leaf from a bead shop in Michigan. I combined the beads with a big chunky silver plated chain and a delicate gunmetal chain to off set the bright silver. 

(*As a blog partner we are sent products to review and give our honest evaluations.)

Dogwood beads: I have four colors in my etsy shop.  I have 2 left in this midnight blue color.  If you'd like one send me a convo on Etsy and I will list it for you. They are $12.00.

So what did I think of the shell pearls?  I actually dig them.  They have the a nice weight to them and I like that they are not perfectly smooth.  Give me a little organic any day!  You can read more about shell pearls here.

More dogwood beads! These are designs from some of my customers:

Gunilla Back from Finland designed this amazing necklace with two dogwoods, a Mary Harding pendant and leaves from Diane Hawkey.  I love it!

Beverly Herman taught this dragonfly necklace on the Bead Cruise this year.  She has the kits and patterns for sale in her Etsy shop.

And a wonderful earthy design from Lorelei Eurto.

Rings & Things Trunk Show Party

So the Rings & Things trunk show arrived in San Antonio yesterday.  We had a day filled with beads and friends.

We started off the day at Anne Pearce's Jewelry & Beads.  Anne is a very talented jewelry designer who has a cute little shop stocked with high quality stones and pearls that she hand picks from Tucson each year.  Her beads are sold by the strand and by the inch!  Ann is the queen of customer service and I highly recommend a visit to her shop if you are in the area. 

We gathered a small group for a Bead Soup party at Anne's.  We each brought a strand of beads in teal, green, blue or brown.  Tossed them into the tray and gave it a stir.  We took turns scooping out spoonfuls of the random mix.  Everyone needed to bring a focal, clasp, accent beads and stringing material.  It helped that we held this party at a bead store and shopped if we were missing anything.  We could use as few or as many of the beads as we wanted from the soup.  Here are the results.

6 completely different designs from the same basic stash of beads.  Amazing, huh?

Here is my design. I cheated and came up with the idea the night before.  But what the hey, not a single Humblebead.  Oh, I might have to go back and put in a few.  I used Vintaj flower bead caps and long curved brass beads.  I added in a little raw brass chain from Ornamentea.

After two hours of beading, we headed over to the trunk show where an entire room of amazing beads awaited us.

Here is part of my Rings & Things stash.  As you can see I'm in a Spring inspired color mood.  From top to bottom: amazonite, green fluorite, green rutilated quartz, pyrite, smoky quartz, botswana agate, rutilated quartz faceted rounds, tourmalated quartz, rock crystal, blue lace agate, lepidolite and mica sunstone.  Along with my beads I picked up chain, wire and a few memory pendants.

More pictures from our party.

The Chain Gang

Oh those buds of mine at Rings & Things sent me this chain before Christmas. It sat on my desk waiting for inspiration to strike and ta-da! I present to you another Rings & Things Blog Partner post.

The first chain is a ring/connector copper chain.  I liked the open and airy feel of the chain and thought it would pair up nicely with a whole mess of dangles.

And said mess includes a lovely collection of spring inspired hues.  Sky blue and lime green branch disk beads, crystals and drops in a pinky/peach color, green Czech glass drops that look like eggs and copper disks.

The clasp is pretty amazing, right? It's a C-Koop enamel toggle that I bought from Bello Modo on the Bead Cruise.  I love the color. 

The next necklace I lovingly refer to as the 'big chunk'.  When I first saw that crazy wooden chain, I thought what in the world can I do with this that won't look like a prop for Marley from A Christmas Carol.  Well, after seeing the latest R & T catalog with a great design using the chain, I was inspired.  It's huge and not for the faint of heart, but I like.  I wear with a black and white striped shirt, it has some sort of nautical vibe to me.  No, I don't get out much.

The other half of the necklace is created with large oval curb chain in copper. The key is a repo from Ornamentea and just hangs there like some weird tassel.  Okay, did I mention when I wear this I walk up and down my hallway pretending I'm modeling some haute couture design. 

One of my Pop Art focal beads and a toggle made with copper link and wire.  Okay, enough of that one - here is the design from Rings & Things that uses the wood chain in a much better design.  If I could pick the wood chain to work with, it would have been this one.

Other Fish in the Sea

Here is another Rings & Things Blog Partner project.  They sent a strand of coral to work into a design.  Being the beachy bead girl that I am, these really appealed to me. 

I paired them up with a pendant from Off Center Productions, a brass fish pendant from Vintaj, the nautical looking beadcap came from TierraCast via Bello Modo.  The amazonite rondelles are ones that I picked up at Rings & Things trunk show last year.  (Counting down the days for the next one!) All four of these companies were Bead Cruise sponsors this year!

The urchin connector is from my Etsy shop.  I used two 15mm jump rings from Vintaj - I love working with those big rings!

If you read my Studio Saturday post you know I'm all about working my designs with a little more thought and care. Here I focused on textures, mixing rugged coral and brass elements with smooth ceramic and copper. Color, I went with a basic compliment of copper and teal, with white for the contrast.

Czech glass flowers, handmade copper jumprings and curved copper tubes round out this design.

Even the clasp works into the motif of the necklace with a fish hook design. 

Love Birds

I've been working away designing new jewelry with some goodies that Rings & Things sent to their blog partners.  They sent these fun little lampwork heart beads that remind me of candy!  I've seen some of my fellow bloggers work their magic with them and decided to give them a try.

Art beads:

polymer clay bird - humblebeads

pewter nest - green girl studios

beehive pewter button - mamacita beadworks

lampwork disks - studio rent

I mixed in some crystal, silver spacers and Czech glass beads.  The clasp was created with steel wire and the pewter button.  Here is a detail:

I love being able to support Rings & Things, they are such a great company that really work to inspire their customers.  Have your received the latest supplement catalog?  These are fast becoming treasured items to me. I love the designs included in them, of course you can see all of their great inspiration pieces on their website.  Jess and I went through the catalog and made a nice long wish list.  I'll share more on that next week! 

Stop by the Art Bead Scene tomorrow, I'll be sharing some thoughts and giving away a free bead for Studio Saturday.

Rings & Things Blog Partner Project: Holiday Charms

Here is a fun and easy project to whip up for last minute gifts like stocking stuffers, secret santa, student gift exchanges and teacher's gifts.  It's also a great way to use up any left over beads you have on your table!

Rings & Things sent us these Chinese lampwork glass beads.  They may not have the longest lifespan because they are not kiln annealed, so be aware of that when buying factory made lampwork beads. 

The "snowflake" charms are bead caps that have been flattened with my ball hammer. 

1. Penguin Zipper Charm: these little charms can be used on coats, purses or backpacks.  Add a lobster claw clasp to your charm with a jumpring.

2. Snowman Pendant: Add your charm to a cable chain for a cute necklace for a young one on your gift list.

3. Coal Cell Phone Charm: Add your charm to a cell phone lanyard to add a little holiday bling to your phone. 

These are also a perfect project to keep the kids busy and offers them a chance to make some fun gifts for their friends and family.

Fly Home Little One

Fly Home

Another necklace that I created from our inspiration painting.  Of course for this one, it was about the color of orange and black & white.  (Which is really brown and cream here, eh that's close enough.)

That's a ceramic bead from Jangles as the focal.

Yep, more Elaine Ray - those tiny teal ceramic cubes.  A few copper Humblebeads.  Lots of Vintaj.  And a few things thrown in from the local craft store, like the red ceramic bead, nest, the chain and bone bead.  And one lone crystallized cube that came in our Rings & Things blog partner packet a few months ago.  It takes a village to make a necklace!

Rings & Things Blog Partner Project

Rings & Things sent their blog partners some sterling silver and gold-filled wire connectors to play with a while ago.  I finally got around to taking photos, so today I'm presenting a free project featuring the gold-filled wire connector and a hardware store retaining ring. 

Rags to Riches Pendant

Supplies:

1 1/18" retaining ring

gold-filled connector

Branch lentil bead

headpin

copper seed bead

Vintaj flower beadcap

2 brass 7mm jump rings

2 gunmetal 6mm jump rings

2 gunmetal 4mm jump rings

18" gunmetal chain

Tools:

bench block

ball peen hammer

round nose and chain pliers

wire cutters

1. Slightly flatten and texture the gold-filled connector with the ball peen hammer.

*AVOID the loops, they will break off!*

2. String the seed bead, lentil and flower bead cap onto a headpin and create a wire-wrapped looped.

3. Attach the lentil to the connector with a 7mm jump ring.  Attach the bottom of the connector to the bottom of the retaining ring with the other 7mm jump ring.

3. Attach the top of the retaining ring to the connector with the 6mm jump rings.

4. Cut the chain in half and attach each side to the pendant with 4mm jump rings.

You can work magic with a bench block and ball peen hammer, I consider these as essential as my set of pliers. 

Jazz Trio - Rings & Things Product Review

I'm a little behind on my Rings & Things product reviews. The good folks at R & T send their blog partners things to review or experiment with each month. Products provided by Rings & Things include the 8mm Swarovski crystal cubes in topaz and montana blue, the 22 gauge copper wire, the round copper blanks and one lonesome brown lava bead left over from a previous review

I also wanted to work on a piece that used the color scheme of the Art Bead Scene challenge. If you've seen this month's painting, it's a crazy folk art piece featuring a piano playing cow. So to say I stretched the connection between the inspiration and my piece may be an understatement. I loosely used the color scheme of blue, orange and green. .

So here is what I did:

I took the copper blanks and textured them with a screwdriver for the dot pattern and the other blank I used my ball peen hammer. I used my handy metal hole punch and added two holes to make those disks into connectors and then I pulled out my wooden dapping block and domed them into a concave shape. I used an eye pin to hold the beads in the center of those connectors. Next I wire-wrapped the cubes and black wooden beads to the copper chain. The rest of the components are connected with copper eyepins and jumprings. So there we have a nice little necklace that reminds me of improvisational jazz with elements speaking and playing off one another.

Tools provided by Rings & Things: wooden dapping block, ball peen hammer and metal hole-punch.

And really with those 3 tools and a bench block you can make so many different things with wire and metal, I would consider them as essential as your set of pliers.

hello? hello?

Hedgie get off the line, I'm waiting for a phone call. Ha! (Yes children, when I was a kid we didn't have call waiting and phones didn't travel in our pockets. No I didn't live in a castle and wasn't called my lady.)

Last month Rings & Things sent their blog partners "Things to String" to play with and see what we think. I'm not a cell phone person. I have a little one that I load up with minutes when I travel, but it's not something I carry around with me on a daily basis. So the cell phone lariats that they sent to us were a bit of a mystery to me. How do they attach? What do people put on their cell phones? Those burning questions were eventually answered thanks to google.

So I guess if you are too hot to wear jewelry this summer, you can still sport your art bead collection on your phone. For some reason these remind me of projects for a slumber party or camp. Kumbaya my Lord, Kumbaya...Okay no more silliness from me.

Have you adorned your cell phone with some bling or beads of some kind? Or have you used these cell phone lariats in some other kind of project? Leave a comment and on Monday I will draw a random winner for my hedgie cell phone charm.

Oh Nuts!

I've been sneaking in some late night jewelry making sessions over the last month. These designs were created a few weeks ago and I'm just now finding a few spare minutes to share them. Lorelei had sent me a strand of very funky nuts, I'm not sure what they are called, and challenged me to do something creative.

I started by assembling a collection of larger beads: a shell and wood bead, ceramic, turquoise-daggers-of-awesomeness, and a buttery yellow urchin I made before the Bead Cruise. I sprinkled in some copper spacers, brass chain and a fish pendant/clasp thing from Vintaj. (I get all my Vintaj from my good buddies at Bello Modo.) And I had to add in a little brown lava bead from Rings & Things. They are popping everywhere in my designs, they are just so much fun and so very versatile.

The finished piece reminds me of my recent trip to Costa Maya, a beachy tribal design. This will be in my etsy shop soon along with a whole slew of summer inspired jewelry.

A detail of the clasp
a matching bracelet