Art Bazaar

Sorry folks about my hit and miss blogging the last few weeks. Now that the BIG charity event is over, (as I wipe sweat from my forehead) I've got an art show this weekend. I've been madly beading the last few weeks. I've got most of my ducks in a row for the event and I'm crossing my fingers.

So, if you find yourself in Pittsburgh this weekend, you can find me here this Friday and Saturday. It is the Art Bazaar at the Boyd Community Center. The event is benefiting Art for Autism. Join me and over 30 other local artists and get some holiday shopping done while supporting a great organization.

Here's a sneak peak at a few items I will be selling at the show.

All dressed up and I have a place to go

Tonight is the night. It's finally here. After months of preparation and the last few weeks of coordinating ticket sales and seating, the benefit performance of the Radio City Christmas Spectacular starring the Rockettes for Child Watch of Pittsburgh is here. It is going to be SPECTACULAR. So many people have worked to make this event a huge success. The theater is going to be packed.

I was originally working on the bib necklace to wear to the event, but due to some technical difficulties and lack of time, plan b is going into action.

This past weekend I finished these earrings. These earrings came together so easily. It was like all the parts were meant to be. I just love them. So mama's got a new pair of earrings (and shoes) and ready to hit the town.

Silver Button Earrings

I just listed these Silver Button earrings in my Etsy shop. I really love these earrings and it was hard to decide to post them. I recently picked up these triangular drops and they are great. They have a really beautiful finish, kind of gray and brown. They were a great complement to the earrings. I used a matte gray, matte bronze, and shine bronze seed beads. The earrings were also embellished with silver pearls and hematite beads.

You can check out more photos here.

Super Star Earrings

At last years Academy Awards, Angelina Jolie wore these incredible emerald earrings by Lorraine Schwartz. They were breathtaking and caused a lot of buzz on the red carpet. They are worth $2.5 million!

These are my "Angelina Earrings". I used a emerald green swarovski rivolis for the top section and a green agate teardrop for the bottom. The earrings are bead embroidered with dark green and silver seed beads. The earrings are backed in black ultrasuede.

These are statement making earrings and would be perfect for any red carpet event or maybe this year's office Christmas party. You can check out more pictures at the Etsy shop here.

Peacock Earrings

Here's a new pair of earrings that I've recently finished. I actually had completed the base of these earrings earlier in the summer. I wasn't going to put a large fringe on them originally, but I just wasn't happy with what I was putting together. I put the earrings away for a while.

In the process of unearthing my dining room table, I found the half done earrings and with new eyes immediately figured out how I wanted to finish them. Maybe it is also because I found the dagger beads at the same time. I didn't set out to mimic a peacock feather, but once they were done that's what I think they look like.

The center piece is a dyed mother of pearl tear drop. They are surrounded by seed beads and Czech fire polished beads. The fringe is made from seed beads, Czech fire polished beads, howlite beads, and dagger beads. These are big earrings - 3 inches long. But still incredibly light weight. They are backed in black ultrasuede.

Black, Gold, and Penguins

I purchased a handful of these black Swarovski crystal rivolis a couple of months ago. I originally thought they would find themselves in a neckpiece. However, when I finished the "Joie de Vivre" cuff, I decided to the dig out the rivolis. I've been holding onto these gold daggers waiting for the right pair of earrings to incorporate them. I'm usually so sick of a color combination after I've finished a piece, especially if it is a cuff or neckpiece. I think I was influenced by the fact that Pittsburgh Penguins kick off their season tonight. Something that we are looking forward to here at our house. There's been a lot of coverage of the team this week because they will be raising the banner representing their Stanley Cup win last year.

Black and gold are sacred in this town and you can never go wrong with black and gold.

Good luck Penguins!

Spider Earrings

I realized the other day that many of my items in my ETSY shop had expired. Since Halloween is just around the corner, I decided I would relist my bead embroidered Spider Earrings. When I purchased these beads, I instantly thought they looked like spiders. The beads have a beautiful metallic quality to them. They seem to change color depending on the light.

On a somewhat related note, I was shopping at Jo Ann Fabrics the other day with my youngest daughter and all the Halloween stuff is already on sale. And the Christmas items are already out. I had to take a double take. It is still September, right? I guess Valentine's items will be appearing around December 1 at this rate.

Challenge Complete?

Okay, so I didn't exactly meet my challenge. My challenge was to post new items each week day this past week to my etsy shop. Since I met a few challenges (computer and etsy), I didn't actually get everything posted. However, I have posted new items to my blog this week. So I going to feel somewhat satisfied that I met my challenge. I do acknowledge that it wasn't what I originally planned, but sometimes you just have to go with the flow. Anyone who has a husband, children, pets, etc. is very experienced with going with the flow.

Well, here's the last of the new items. And I DID post these to my shop today. I purchased these filigree drops last year from dimestoreemporium on etsy. They are brass finding that have been hand aged. I just love the look of them. They look old and weather, like they've had a life before they came to me. Because they are so detailed, I didn't want to do too much beading. I attached them to beading foundation and used bronze size 15 seed beads to embellish the edge. The earrings are backed in burgundy ultrasuede and hang from brass ear wires. They are incredibly light weight. You can see more pictures of the earrings here.

Birthdays and Blue

Sorry, I've been MIA the last few days. It has been a busy week. My daughter's 9th birthday was this week and we had a lot of activities the last few days.

Last night we had her "friend" birthday party. She decided to have it at our local "paint your own pottery" place. The girls got to make their own charms to put on a bracelet. It was a lot of fun to watch their creative process. I love that they got to be part of each step of the process - picking stamps, cutting the clay, and painting. They even learned how to make roses out of clay. It was very cool. They were very serious about the whole thing. They were working so hard that they were really quiet. Not your typical birthday party. When the bracelet are done, I'll take some pictures to share.

I actually finished these earrings last week, but am finally getting around to posting and sharing. An amazonite cabochon and a blue pearl are the focal points. The earrings are embroidered with size 11 pale blue seed beads and size 15 blue metallic seed beads. A metallic blue drop hangs from the bottom. The earrings are backed in slate blue colored ultrasuede and hang from sterling silver ear wires. You can see more photos here.

I made these as part of the Thursday Sweet Treat theme "It's Going to Be A Bright Blue Day". You can see what other artists submitted here.

Tiny Flower Earrings

Since, I've obviously been focused on flowers the last few days, I decided to relist my Tiny Flower Earrings on Etsy. These adorable earrings are perfect for any occasion. Two glass flower beads are surrounded by seed beads and hang from sterling silver ear wires. The earrings are backed in black ultrasuede. These bead embroidered earrings are so light weight, you won't even know your wearing them.

A Lot of Green (Beads and Garden)

I am surrounded by green. Green beads and green garden. I thought I'd share a little of that green with all of you. 

I finished these sweet little earrings awhile ago, I just haven't gotten a chance to take a lot of photos and prepare them for my Etsy shop. (Boy this sounds a lot like my last post.) The small cabochon in the center is an amazonite. I surrounded it with three different colors of green seed beads. It reminded me of all those great green colors you see at the beginning of summer.

And here's one of my garden's. This is the one I call my "house garden". Just because it is closest to the house. In this garden, we have tomatoes, lettuce, carrots, basil, cabbage, and a lot of beans. I love it right now because it is a sea of green. Everything is full and flowering and hopefully we will soon be picking. Well, technically we have been picking lettuce, but nothing else yet.

Red, Purple, and Bronze

I was hoping to post something in red, white, and blue, but unfortunately, I don't have anything in those colors. So the closest were these earrings. The center is an oblong piece of red glass that is surrounded by pale purple and bronze seed beads. A small bronze flower bead cap was sewn at the top. Red daggers and purple Czech glass beads make up the fringe at the bottom. 

These are fun, flirty earrings. They are pretty long, but very light weight. 

New Pierced Earrings

I finished these earrings the other night. I was working on them for the Thursday Sweet Treat theme "Whirling Colors in Mid Flight". Unfortunately, due to an extremely crazy week I never got them submitted in time. 

I've used the teardrop beads before, but this time I turned them upside down. This provided a whole new design direction. These are bead embroidered pierced earrings. The gray teardrop shell bead is surrounded by seed beads in cream, gold, and purple. The earrings are also embellished with purple jasper beads and Swarovski crystals. Shell fringe hangs from the bottom. The pierced earrings are backed in black ultrasuede. The posts are sterling silver plated.  

If you'd like to see what other people submitted for the "Whirling Colors in Mid Flight", you can check them out on the Thursday Sweet Treat blog.

Pyrite Earrings

Here's the next pair of earrings. These earrings use a square pyrite bead and a pewter bead as the focal points. The beads are surrounded by matte gray and metallic blue seed beads. A beautiful metallic blue dagger bead hangs from the bottom with Czech glass beads on either side. The earrings hang from sterling silver ear wires and are backed in black ultrasuede.

It is a rainy weekend here so I hoping that I can get some more beading done. I'm also glad it's raining because I just don't feel like weeding the garden. I'd rather weed through my beads.

Purple Jasper Earrings

Somehow last weekend I found a lot of time to bead. I finished two pairs of earrings and two pendants. Now the hard part is getting everything photographed so that I can post them to my Etsy shop. Here's the first pair. 

These bead embroidered earrings use an amber Swarovski flat back crystal as the centerpiece. The Swarovski crystal is surrounded by size 15 seed beads in a dark cranberry and bronze square seed beads. A purple jasper bead is stitched above the crystal. A gold drop hands from below. The earrings are backed in eggplant color ultrasuede and hang from gold plated ear wires.

These earrings aren't very big and they are super lightweight. They're great wear everyday earrings. 

Angelina Earrings

Do you remember those gorgeous earring that Angelina Jolie wore to the 2009 Oscars? Her stylist hit a home run that night. Beautiful black strapless dress with show stopping jewelry. In addition to these incredible earrings, she also wore a matching ring. Who knows maybe a ring will be next? 

Here's my interpretation of the earrings.

The top part of the earring is made from Swarovski rivolis. The bottom section is made from green agate teardrops. These are definitely red carpet, show stopping earrings. 

By the way, I dropped off the pendant to my friend today and she loved it. I just happened to be her birthday so that made it even better. Happy Birthday Lynn!