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.

Snow Day in October

Yes, you read right. I saw snow today. Yes, I did double check the calendar. Typically we don't get snow this early in Pittsburgh. Last night the weather man informed us that the last time we had snow this early was in 1972.

I'm not too happy about this snow or unexpected cold weather. I am headed on a camping trip this weekend with my daughter's girl scout troop. Fortunately, we are staying in a heated lodge, but it created a packing nightmare. Heavier jackets, mittens, hats, and long under ware were added to the packing list. I'm hoping the weather man is incorrect about any accumulation.

In honor of today's flakes, I just listed this adorable Snowflake pendant in my Etsy shop . It is a handmade cabochon made from glass and specialized paper. The cabochon is surrounded by speckled pale blue, gray, and metallic blue seed beads. The pendant is backed in slate blue ultrasuede and hangs from a ribbon cord necklace. You can check out more pictures here.

Wishing you warm thoughts this weekend. Please send warm thoughts my way. I have a feeling I'm going to be cold (at some point) the next few days.

Black and White Cuff

I love this dramatic black and white cuff, but it didn't start that way. When I first started work on it, I was extremely frustrated. I usually work with a larger palate of colors. I wanted to try my hand at working with only black and white. I pulled every black and white bead from my ever growing stash. I had acquired the two quartz stones awhile back. I figured that they would become the centerpiece of a neckpiece or cuff, but would be surrounded by a rainbow of colors. As usual, I didn't have a specific plan when I started the cuff. I arranged the cabochons and started beading. Well, after only a few rows of beads I quickly decided that only black and white was not going to do. I was going to have add another color. Focusing only on the black and white, the cuff had no depth and no character. Gray was the natural choice. The addition of gray gave a pleasing step between the black and white beads. The cuff was also embellished with pearls, shell beads, glass beads, and hematite beads. 

So after, a rather dissatisfying start, I was over the top at the finished piece. It is truly a piece of art to wear. 

You can see more pictures of the cuff at my Etsy site (www.jodihorgan.etsy.com).

Custom Order

A friend of mine wanted a simple pendant that she could wear every day with just about everything. She picked a fossilized coral bead for the center. The one she picked is incredible. It is very detailed. It looks like tiny little flowers. We decided to keep the focus on the beautiful bead and surrounded it with various black seed beads. I alternated between shiny and matte to give the piece some added detail. The pendant hangs from a leather cord that has added beads on either side. The pendant is small, only about 1 1/2 inches wide. I delivered the piece to her this morning and she was very happy. So I'm happy too.

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.

Purple Passion Cuff

The Purple Passion Cuff is finished. This cuff came together really quickly. Sometimes I lay out all the beads and I just instinctively know what goes where and what bead comes next. All the beads found their spot and settled into place.

The cuff is 1/2 inch wide with a purple cat's eye as the centerpiece. I embellished the cuff with lots of different seed beads, bugle beads, pewter beads, pearls, Swarovski crystals, semi precious stones, and glass beads. I used various shades of purple, pink, gray, and silver. As always the underside is backed in ultrasuede and of course, this time it is purple.

Pursing Purple

These lovely flowers are blooming all over our property. I have no idea what they are, but I love them. We also have these incredible purple irises that just opened the other day. The thing is that I feel like I am surrounded by purple flowers right now. It makes sense that my newest project would use purple as the primary color.

After the road trip and spending Memorial Day weekend planting the vegetable garden, I finally got to do some beading. 

As I mentioned in a previous post my next project was going to be a cuff.  I decided to use an oval purple cat's eye cabochon as the centerpiece. I've used 4 sizes of seed beads, bugle beads, pearls, pewter beads, and glass beads to embellish the cuff. The cuff is primarily shades of purple with hints of silver, gray, and reds. Whenever I use a lot of different beads, the end result always reminds me of a crazy quilt.  

P.S. If you know what the flowers (picture above) are, please let me know. Thanks.