Yellow Sunflower Cuff

Last weekend I needed a pick me up from all the snow that is now piled up around me.

I've had this beautiful yellow flower cabochon from Lisa Peters Art. This cabochon reminded me of the sunflowers we grow each summer. However, yellow is a really difficult color for me to incorporate into my pieces so this beautiful cabochon has been waiting to be used. I pulled out my trusty color wheel and decided to pair the yellow cabochon with purple. The color combination provided me with that color pick me up.

I decided to embroider the yellow cabochon with bronze seed beads. I wanted to mimic the feel of flower petals so I added the two rows of fringe beads in bronze and rainbow opaque. The centerpiece is attached to a metal cuff that was covered with genuine purple leather. The underside of the cuff is lined with lavender ultrasuede. You can see more pictures of the cuff here.

If you'd like to see more of Lisa's work, you can find more of her lovely beads, buttons, and cabochons here.

A Few More Hearts

I posted a few more bead embroidered heart pins to my etsy shop today. Please stop by and check them out.

Have a great weekend!

New Cuff

I love these 1/2 inch bead embroidered cuffs. They are perfect for everyday wear and they are lightweight. I just listed a new one at my etsy shop.

I've had these long bugle beads for awhile. I've used some for long fringe on bead woven earrings. I hadn't really tried to use them on any cuffs. They fit perfectly across a 1/2 inch cuff. These bugle beads are twisted and have a beautiful color that is both blue and purple. The texture of these beads provide a lot of interest to a simple cuff. The abalone provides a nice contrast and breaks up the line of beads. The beadwork is attached to a metal cuff and the underside is lined with ultrasuede.

You can see more pictures of the cuff here.

Ladies Who Lunch Ring

Today I listed a new piece in my Etsy shop.

This is another piece I've made with the glass cabochons I've been making. I love this picture. It reminds me of a woman who has time to get dressed up and lunch with her friends. This woman is not me, but I'd like to be her sometimes. So even if you don't get to lunch with your friends (while wearing your long white gloves), you can wear this ring and dream it.

The ring is embroidered with red and purple seed beads. The beadwork is attached to a silver plated adjustable ring. The underside of the ring is covered in red ultrasuede.

You can check out more pictures of it here.

End of the Season

Last night it was really cold here. The kind of cold that indicates winter is right around the corner. I haven't made it out to the flower garden, but I expect that the frost took the rest of the zinnias.

Zinnias are one of my favorite flowers. They are extremely hardy. They can tolerate too much rain or lack of it. This year we had a lot of rain and not a lot of heat. They are a wonderful cut flower and can last more than a week once cut. Best of all they have a really long season. We actually had so many that we sold them this year and donated the money to a charity.

So as I am mourning the end of the zinnia season, I'm sharing with you a picture of zinnia from my garden and the ring that was inspired by it. Until next year zinnias. Enjoy!

White Turquoise Bead Embroidered Cuff

As promised, here is today's newest post to my etsy shop.

Back in June, I went to a new bead show that came to town and found these beautiful white turquoise beads. The beads are just beautiful. Each one is different. The all have the traditional black matrix. Some have a pink hue and some have a brown one. They are really versatile and many colors complement the stones.

I love how the white turquoise pops against the various shades of pink, purple, and gold beads used to embroider the entire cuff. The cuff is also embellished with pearls, pewter beads, and bugle beads. The base is a metal cuff and the underside is lined with pale pink ultrasuede.

You can see more pictures here.

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.

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.

More Purple Inspiration

I'm hard at work finishing the cuff, but I wanted to share a few photos of the irises that are blooming near our house. They are an wonderful shade of purple with hints of blue. I love the little yellow hairs that grow from the center of the petals and the purple veins that meet them.

Iris is a genus of between 200-300 species of flowering plants. Iris comes from the greek work for rainbow. I believe this type maybe a bearded iris, but I'm not sure. Never the less, they are lovely.

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.