Summer Carnival Blog Hop and Chicklet Blog Hop

If you're looking for my reveals for either the Summer Carnival blog hop or the Chicklet Bead blog hop, please return later.  This has been an enormously busy summer for me (my youngest is getting married shortly and we've been helping with plans and showers). And with all the work we've been doing for the wedding and some other committments, I've sprained my wrist and hand and the arthritis has gotten worse in my thumb to the point I have dropped several things and broken them.  I haven't been able to knot anything, twist wire or hold onto anything well enough to finish my designs.  So I hope you can forgive me and check back later to see my finished designs.
Thanks for your understanding.
Kay

Ocean Blog Hop

A while back, Lisa Lodge from A Grateful Artist blog issued a call for an Ocean themed Blog hop. I'm not really an ocean person, but I love walking along the beach searching for seashells and treasures, so this was like some found treasures when I received my beads. We were getting cultured sea glass and other beads. I quickly signed up. As usual I got so excited about the beads when I received them I forgot to take a picture of them. I was a little stumped at first with what to do with the variety. I had some starfish, some crystals, some glass tube beads, some clear glass daggers, off white heishe beads, some unique abstract shapes and a wonderful ceramic pendant. I knew I wanted to add a lot of color, since most of the seaglass was a light green or clear. For some reason, when I think of the beach or ocean I almost always think of macramé, so I also knew I wanted to do a little macramé for at least one of my pieces. So, for my first piece I made a macramé bracelet. I did loose knots around the abstract shaped glass using some of my orange and dark beige macramé cord.  I added some small orange and shades of green seed beads in between the shaped seaglass.  I used one of the starfish as the clasp and at the end made loops of the macramé cord to loop around the starfish as the closure for the bracelet.

Next I made a necklace with the long tube beads. I used long headpins to make them dangles and hung them between a series of green crystals, orange and green seed beads, the clear dagger and off white heishi beads. I also took one of the abstract shapes and wire-wrapped a dangle from one end and wire-wrapped the other end to hang as a dangle from the necklace. And on the other side I strung one of the clear/white starfish into the strand. I had a small link of chain that I attached to the necklace along with the metal circle toggle clasp. I really like the beachy feel to this necklace and the 7 wire-wrapped tube beads/focal. 

Finally I took a the last little short length of chain, divided it in half, wire-wrapped 3 dangles with the crystals, seed beads and daggers to make a pair of earrings to match. I really like the colors in this "Ocean" set and hope you do too.

And a close up of the necklace and earrings.

I'm still working on my piece for the pendant. I'm trying a new technique and haven't quite gotten it finished. So come back later this week and I'm hoping to have it done for you to see.
Don't forget to visit all the other blogs participating in the hop HERE. And don't forget to leave me a comment letting me know what you think of my "Ocean" Set. These will be available shortly in my shop, KayzKreationz, along with my other Stained Glass, Mosaics and Fused Glass kreationz for your Home and Garden.

Bead Soup Blog Party

It's here! Finally the 8th Bead Soup Blog Party!  Weeks ago, we signed up and were paired with our partners by Lori Anderson of Pretty Things.  My great partner is Katrina Taylor of Is the Babysitter here yet? blog.  This is the great soup she sent me:

There was a Natural stone focal bead, Czech glass beads and pearls, Swarovski butterfly, copper and brass components (clasp, beads and chain) and amethyst chips. And this is the adorable packaging it came in. Isn't it great?

I love it all, but I've been really challenged. There is so many great colors in this soup and I couldn't figure out what all to put with the focal and how to use the BIG hole copper beads.  Also, I didn't just want to string the focal. As I kept looking at it, I kept seeing FLAMES!  But I have to admit, I love flames. I used to have flame stripes on my truck until the stripes just became so worn looking and cracked/peeling that we had to take them off this last year.  So I seem to be drawn to flames/fire. LOL I knew then that I wanted to create a bail or encase the focal with metal and I wanted it to look as though it was surrounded by flames. So I set to work finding flame pictures I liked and then trying to draw them off to be cut out of copper. I went through about 5-6 different designs, drawing, cutting out, redrawing until I came up with this one that would work with the metal and focal.  But my challenge then was how to create the bail out of the same piece to hang the focal. And then what to hang it with, since now the focal is REALLY heavy! After finally figuring out how to do all that, I realized I wanted to flame paint/patina my metal, too, so it would look even more like flames. That was so much fun. I've just started doing some flame painting and was happy with my results. Here's a pic of the the front of the focal.

But now my challenge was how to create the rest of the necklace. I didn't want to add too much to it and take away from the focal, so I started creating bead links with the crystals and amethyst chips Katrina sent me. But I wanted to carry that flame look through, so as I wrapped the beads I hammered the ends of the copper wire and then folded it down around the beads, hoping to get a flame look to the links.  Then after taking a class on enameling, I got out my copper washers and practiced my enameling in some colors that I thought would complement the colors of the beads and the focal. I also wanted to enhance the great copper clasp that Katrina had flame painted  for me so I wire wrapped some of the crystals and beads to the clasp and simply wire-wrapped the ring for the clasp to attach to.  I'm happy with all my components, but not sure if I'm happy with the end result. I was going to use leather to hang the focal, but decided it wouldn't be strong enough to hold the weight of the stone and metal together. So I hammered another piece of heavy wire, textured it, punched the holes and flame patina'd it to slide through the flame bail on the top of the pendant. I like it, but the pendant keeps sliding around, so I may have to redo it or perhaps wire some copper wire around the hanging wire in between the 2 flames to hold it still. But I'm not sure it all looks right together. I'm hoping it grows on me, but if not, I'll try to redesign the necklace. I was running out of time to do anything more with it now, as I was gone for 10 days at the end of March, first of April and then I've had non-stop company since then till Sunday the 27th.  Plus I've developed a problem with my left hand/thumb joint. Not sure if I've just hurt/sprained the join or I'm developing some arthritis in it, but it makes it difficult to hold anything ( I picked up a glass a week or two ago and dropped it and broke it because of not being able to hold it) and it is difficult to wire-wrap anything. I hope you like the finished necklace.

Next, I wanted to make a multi-strand bracelet with more of the crystals, amethyst chips, large triangular gold and copper beads and some dark brown dagger beads. I was going to wire wrap some of the crystals, amethyst chips and other beads to hang from the gold chain, but again all the wire wrapping for the dangles on the chain piece that Katrina sent me has been a little difficult. So I think I'll leave them off for the time and see how I like it with the simplicity of just the chain with the beaded strands on either side of it. It uses the gold clasp Katrina sent me.

Finally, I loved these BIG hole copper beads, but they kept stumping me on how to use them. I couldn't just string them as the hole was too big, I couldn't find/didn't want to use bead caps on each end of them, so I finally came up with the idea of knotting some leather in between each of the four of the big, copper beads Katrina sent me. Then I wire-wrapped it to the copper clasp Katrina sent me. I haven't cut the leather on the one end yet as I'm not sure I like the clasp with it, but couldn't figure out how I might want to close it otherwise, so I may end up redoing the clasp/closure later, too. It also might look great as a necklace with a little adjusting and some other beads. Just not sure yet.

I hope you like all my creations with my soup.  And I completely forgot to make any earrings to match anything, but I'm thinking I may want to enamel some more washers and attach some of the crystal or amethyst chips to them for earrings if they aren't too heavy. :)
For the rest of the participants in the Bead Soup Blog Party visit Lori Anderson's blog Pretty Things. There were over 400 participants who all got amazing partners and soups to create with. They all will inspire you.
If you're looking for any of my jewelry pieces or my Stained Glass, Mosaics or Fused Glass kreationz for your Home and Garden, check out with my shop, KayzKreationz.  Thanks.  And please be sure to leave me a comment to let me know what you think of my pieces.

My Bead Soup party Partner and my Soup reveal

I'm finally getting a chance to post about my great partner for the Bead Soup blog party.  Her name is Katrina Taylor from 'Is the Babysitter here Yet?' blog.

She's a veterinarian from Pennsylvania, which is cool, since we do Wildlife management on our small Texas ranch.  She loves metal work which is great, because I love metal, especially copper and she created this great flame-painted copper clasp for my soup. But she hasn't been able to work as much as she likes because her work area is in a cold area of her house and the winter there has been exceedingly cold. But she put together a great soup for me.  Isn't this great?  (And she kindly left out any BLUE, since I told her I'm not a fan of blue.)  It contains a Natural stone focal bead, Czech glass beads and pearls, Swarovski butterfly, copper and brass components (clasp, beads and chain) and amethyst chips.  I love it all.  Now the challenge is what to do with it all to do it justice. (As usual I forgot my before pic, but Katrina had a great picture of the soup she sent me so she let me use it to show you this great soup.)

And here's the soup I sent her.  I wanted to send her a Texas themed soup, so I cut out the state of Texas with my saw, flame painted it (it turned out a great red, which I felt was very appropriate as we're always HOT here in Texas, LOL)  and riveted it to a textured brass background. I enclosed some lava beads, some hand created copper double-balled headpins, some Picture Jasper beads, some of what I call my Texas Tornado copper wire beads, a small brass clasp and a hand created Texas Yoke toggle clasp that I hammered and also flame painted, plus some teal leather.  I wrapped it all up in this Orange bandana, since we were/use a lot of bandana's in Texas. My thought was she could use some or all of the bandana in her creations, but she told me her son loved the bandana and confiscated it and she may not be able to get it back to use. LOL  So for all of you wondering what the theme was to my soup that I posted on facebook, here it is: TEXAS!  :)

Be sure to come back on May 3rd for the reveal of what I made with my soup. And for more of my jewelry kreationz or my Stained Glass, Mosaics and Fused Glass kreationz for your Home and Garden, check out my shop, KayzKreationz.

Create Three Dimensional Jewelry book review

Kalmbach sent me another great book to review. This one is 'Create Three Dimensional Jewelry' by Heather DeSimone. Heather lives in Maine and has been taking apart and putting together jewelry for 35 years and has been co-owner of The Beadin' Path and beadinpath.com since 1993. She was influenced by the work of Miriam Haskell and realized she didn't have to 'string' beads, but could 'build' her jewelry. She dabbled in vintage beads, but got an e-mail from a man in the Lucite bead business that had some beads to sell.  She decided to check it out and came back with 3 semi-tractor trailer trucks with 40,000 lbs. of beads, plastic hoops, bangles and other components and decided to meet the challenge of using the brilliantly bold plastic pieces in her jewelry and inspiring others to use them, too.  She has done a great job of that in this book. She starts with materials (small beads), nailheads, sew-ons, filigree, beads and buttons and more.  Then she gets into the tools you need for stacking all the layers in your jewelry work and explains the Building Blocks of stacking and working in layers. In fact, she has other building blocks for stitching and creating surface adornment and constructing custom components, before you get into the projects. She describes elements you may use to incorporate into finished jewelry, then gives step by step projects for you to make. Along with that comes Tips to make your work go more smoothly, tidbits that are facts about jewelry or fashion for fun, and alternative projects based on the elements that are introduced in the projects. They are fun ideas to get your creative juices flowing.
I've been trying to work with/add leather to some of my jewelry, so I really enjoyed her 'Boat seats to Begonias' project. They found some overstock vinyl at a fabric warehouse and used it to create upcycled vinyl flowers to mix with metal, Lucite flowers and other materials for a fabulous Statement necklace.

One of my favorites, though was the Memory wire Cuff. I've been working with memory wire quite a bit and I loved the way she built on this cuff to make this wonderful bracelet.
The Silver Lining necklace is featured on the front of the book and another favorite of mine is the 'Down by the Sea' stitched cuff where she stitches found seashell beads and frosted glass to a copper cuff. I love it. Be sure to check out the book for both of these projects.
All in all, this is a great book to add to your repertoire for jewelry inspiration and learning how to 'build' your jewelry to make it unique and find your own style. I loved it.
If you're looking for some of my jewelry or Stained Glass, Mosaics and Fused Glass kreationz for your home or garden, check out my shop, KayzKreationz.

Color of Dreams Blog Hop

Today is the day. I signed up for Rita of Jewel School friends' Color of Dreams blog hop. She graciously sent all the participants an orphan/ooak bead from Patricia of Color of Dreams Boutique to create with. We were to share a dream that has come true, one we are working on now, or one we hope for in the future. The one goal of the hop: we'll focus on our dreams as entirely possible, with the idea, "If we can dream it, we can achieve it". I love her pillow beads. They have so much color in them. This is the bead I received. Isn't it wonderful?

 I love reds and pinks so this was great. It also has a touch of yellow/orange and brown in it, plus a very pale green. Reminds me of Spring when everything is starting to grow, be born and bloom again. Which is kind of appropriate for my dream. I dream or hope one day that my jewelry will bloom, flourish so that people will want to buy it and wear it for themselves. Plus I also hope for a time when I have more time to play, experiment and create more jewelry and glass items than what time I have now. Anyway, I thought about what I wanted to create with my pillow bead. And since I had just gotten a new stamp set from PJTools (more on that in another post) I knew I needed to stamp a tag with dream on it, since this was about our dreams. Plus I wanted my bead to dream itself or fly on its own. So I created a 'dream' tag and a focal/dangle with the bead to hand together from this memory bracelet. Then I found beads I had plus a few I bought to bring out all the color in my bead. So this is my 'Dream' bracelet. I hope you like it.

 

To see what all the other participants created, go to Jewel School Friends blog and check them out or click on the links below. (Hopefully they work).

Honorary Artist: Patricia Handschuh
Patricia's blog:            The Color of Dreams        
Patricias Etsy:             The Color of Dreams
Hostess: TJ                Jewel School FriendsKay Thomerson           KayzKreationz (you are here)
Audrey Belanger          Toki No Hourousha
Alicia Marinache          All the Pretty Things
Terry Carter                TappingFlamingo
Lori Schneider             Bead Addict
Jenny Kyrlach             Wonder and Whimsy
Asri Wahyuingsih         Asri's Beadwork
Dini Bruinsma              Angaza by Changes
Karla Morgan              Texas Pepper Jams
Debbie Rasmussen        A Little of This, A Little of That
Veralynne Malone          Designed by Vera
Kathy Stemke               Vintage Memories Jewelry Design
Mowse Doyle               Mowse Made This
Heather Richter             Desert Jewelry Designs
Lori Poppe                   Adventures in Creativity with LorilliJean
Jayne Capps                Mama's Got To Doodle
Andrea Glick                Zenith Jade Creations
Kathleen Breeding         99 Bottles of Beads on the Wall
Becky Pancake             Becky Pancake Bead Designs
Karin Martinez              Fairies Market
Miranda Ackerley          Mirandack
Penny Houghton           Smelly Nelly
Carolyn Lawson           Carolyn's Creations
Chris Eisenberg            Wanderware
Christie Murrow          Charis Designs Jewelry
Monique Urquhart        A Half-Baked Notion
Eve Shelby                  Raindrop Creations Jewelry by Evelyn
Cryss Thain                 Here Bead Dragons
Jasvanti Patel               Jewelry By Jasvanti
Nan Smith                   NanMade Handmade Jewelry
Sue Kennedy               SueBeads
Jean Yates                   Snap Out of It, Jean! There's Beading to be Done!
Debbie Rogers             Debbies Treasures
Marybeth Rich             A Few Words From Within the Pines
Shirley Moore              Beads and Bread
Shaia Williams             Shaiha's Ramblings
Kathy Lindemer           Bay Moon Design
Linda Anderson           From the Bead Board
Judy Turner               Silver Rains
Gloria Allen                Gloria Allen Designs
Regina Wood              Ginas-Design
Robin Reed                Artistry HCBD
Mary Goovars            MLH Jewelry Designs
Marlene Cupo             Amazing Designs
CJ Bauschka              4 His Glory Creations
Robin Showstack        The Crazy Bead Hoarder
Cynthia O'Toole          Sparkles and Sweets
Jael Thorp                 Jael's Art Jewels
Renetha Stanziano      Lamplight Crafts
And if you're looking for Stained Glass, Mosaics or Fused Glass kreationz for your Home or Garden, check out my shop, KayzKreationz. You will find some of my beaded, wire-wrapped jewelry there, too.

8th Bead Soup Blog Party Partner and Soup Teaser

I've signed up for Lori Anderson's latest Bead Soup Blog Party. I love these. This is the 8th one. She pairs you with a partner, you e-mail back and forth so you can get to know each other a little bit and the you create a 'soup' of beads and other materials to send to each other to play with and create something with. I've always been in awe of all the talent I see while blog hopping all the other participants in the Blog Hop. (By the way, that's a requirement. You have to have a blog so that on a specified day, you blog about your 'soup', what inspired you and what you created).
This time around I was paired with Katrina Taylor. This is her first time to participate, so I'm doubly honored to not only get to participate, but be able to help/have fun with someone new to the Party!  She just started creating jewelry again about a year ago and most of what she makes right now is for friends and family. But after checking out her blog, I wanna go out, you wouldn't guess she'd only been doing it for a year.  She loves Metal beads, Polymer and Metal clay and glass, but says she doesn't really have a style. She mainly just lets the beads and materials 'speak' to her about what to make. She makes some of her own beads and focals and loves BLUE! LOL  As many of you know, blue is one of my least favorite colors, although I seem to be using a lot of blue lately.
She is a veterinarian, so we have something in common, since she likes working with animals and we do Wildlife management here on our small Texas ranch. She also likes to eat out a lot. LOL  So here is a teaser of the 'Soup' I put together for her.

And here is the wrapping it was sent in. Can you guess the theme for her soup?  

Come back in a few days and you'll get to see the soup I sent, the soup I received and find out the Theme behind the soup I sent. And don't forget to check back May 3rd for the Reveal. Be sure to check out my shop, KayzKreationz for my other jewelry, Stained Glass, Mosaics and Fused Glass 'kreationz' for your Home and Garden.

Beautiful Leather Jewelry book Review

Here's another great book from Kalmbach books. This one comes to us from Melissa Cable, called, Beautiful Leather Jewelry, timeless techniques for today's trends. Melissa is a mixed media artist who love to develope new designs and techniques with traditional and non-traditional materials from metal, leather, wood, clay and found objects. Since I, too, love leather and metal this book really called to me, putting leather, metal and other components together in great jewelry pieces.
She starts off with the Basics for Leatherworking using her 'key' to how leather works and how you can use it in your projects. The first section covers the different types of leather besides cow leather. Things like Snakeskin, Fish leathers (which I've been hearing more and more about and what to try as soon as I can find some) and even Ostrich leather. Melissa also covers the different types of tanning, dyeing and grades of leather besides how to purchase it and even recycle it.
The next section covers the different tools to use as well as equivalents you may already have at home to use on your leather. This includes things like stamps, corrugators and even mallets/hammers to use to texture/shape your leather. Next is a section on hardware to use to finish your leather or decorate it and then finishing it to make clasps/closures for your pieces. There's even a part on Special Effects for your leather like dyes, paints, and sealants for your leather pieces.
Then she moves into Making Leather jewelry starting with Technique Tutorials and then the Jewelry projects. I really like cuff bracelet, so the tutorials on cuffs really intrigued me. The Mesa Pendant was interesting to me, too, since I love texture and the stacked pieces were cool.  2 of my favorite projects were the Four Seasons collar since I also really like collars and the textured leather discs and metal discs together combined 2 of my favorite mediums.

The next one is the Laurel Necklace, because I really love nature and loved the shape, look and texture of the leather leaves in this necklace.
Finally at the end is a section on Beads and More Jewelry from leather. I especially liked the Rolled Leather Column Beads with the rivet decoration in them. I can see myself using these a lot in my jewelry projects. If using leather is something you've wanted to learn more about in your projects, check out Kalmbach books for Melissa Cable's book, Beautiful Leather Jewelry.
Here is a Leather/Metal bracelet I made for my Patina challenge I was in that was inspired by my reading Melissa's book. It uses Leather, metal, rivets, chain, patina and cogs/gears in it.

If you're interested in my 'Find Your Way to My Heart' bracelet or any of my other jewelry check out my shop, KayzKreationz. There you will also find my Stained Glass, Mosaics and Fused Glass 'kreationz' for your Home and Garden.

Weaving Freeform Wire Jewelry

Kalmbach has done it again, along with Kaska Firor.  They sent me Weaving Freeform Wire Jewelry by Kaska Firor to review and it's a fabulous book.  I love working with wire, and this book has my mind spinning with all the wonderful designs in it.  There's 20 beautiful step-by-step projects in this book.  It covers 5 different wire weaves, the Over-over, over-under, coiling, circular and looping. I'm thinking I don't really know anything about wire now. LOL Kaska was initially studying interior design in college, but took her first class in wire jewelry in 2000 and that was all she wrote, you might say.  You can feel her enthusiasm and passion for freeform wire weaving in this book, and she has done a great job of passing that on to the reader.

  She starts off with the basics about wire, frame and weaving wires, selecting your wire, wire shapes, wire hardness, wire size or gauge and metals and colors. She also cover other materials you may want to incorporate into your weaving such as beads and stones, embellishments and findings.  There is also a section on Tools and Supplies as well as Wire Techniques.  Her pictures are very well done and easy to see/understand.  She also tells you how to fix a mistake (which I'm sure I'm going to need a lot-at least at first). Then she gets into the Weaves. And after each weave, she has a project for you to try once you've practiced the weave.  I have seen so many wonderful pieces done with wire weaving and always wondered HOW they did that. Well now I'll be able to weave myself.  After the chapter on all the weaves along with projects to make from those weaves, she added Chapter 2 which take you to the next level and shows you how the weaves and techniques you learned in the previous chapter can be used to create more advanced, multi-level designs.  I'm not sure I'll ever be able to go that far with my wire work, but it doesn't hurt to dream.  Kaska teaches classes at her studio in Cincinnati, Ohio and displays and sells her jewelry at art shows in the Midwest.  She has won numerous awards and her woven bracelet design was featured on the cover of March 2012 Art Jewelry magazine.  So if you're ever in the Cincinnati area, look her up and take a class.  It looks like from the book, you'll love it.

There are so many great designs in the book, but so far my favorite is the Gnarly Bangle on page 59 which incorporates the circular weave and the cylindrical weave.  Just be prepared to use a LOT of wire. LOL  Here it is:

Isn't it wonderful? I can't wait to try making it.  And if you're looking for some of my other Beaded wire-wrapped jewelry, Stained Glass, Mosaics, Fused Glass kreationz for your Home or Garden, check out my shop, KayzKreationz.  Please comment below and let me know what you think about the book. Thanks. And be sure to go to Kalmbach and purchase the book to get your creative wire weaving juices flowing.

Patina Challenge Blog Hop

I had my post all ready to go, had the pictures uploaded and then had to go out of town. No problem, I was taking my iPad with me so I could polish it up some before posting.  Unfortunately, I can't seem to edit my blog posts on my iPad without deleting something.  I've tried a couple of times and it always happens. So lesson learned, just don't edit with an iPad. :)  Anyway, thanks for bearing with me and here goes:

Recently Kathy at BayMoonDesign issued a challenge. She was picking 10 people to send a Vintaj compass piece to. We were to patina it any way we wanted and then make something with it.  I haven't been happy with any of my patina efforts so far, but thought maybe this would help me figure out what to do and how to patina something I was happy with, so I signed up.  I got my wonderful compass piece, started to work on it and then had to put it up to go out of town for a business conference.  Well I THOUGH I had put it up, but my Manx cat, Lata decided he could get to it anyway. And when I came home from the conference, the compass was nowhere to be found. (It still is MIA, despite having turned half the house upside down. I'm sure one of these days it will turn up. LOL) Anyway, I e-mailed Kathy and asked if I could buy one somewhere so I could still participate.  She graciously mailed me another one.  This one I made sure was with me all the time so Lata couldn't get to it. I forgot to take a pic before I started the sanding, but in this picture I've sanded the point in the center, the direction letters, the edge and the little arrows (?) all around the outside ring.

I pretty much knew what I wanted to do with it, so now to get to work using my patina's.  I used some Ranger Alcohol Inks in the Weathered Copper which was greens/blues.  But after I got it done, I really wanted a little more color so added just a dab of Cinnabar so it would have a little of the red to blend with the red leather I was using.  I painted, sanded, painted some more, then used some Bronze Gilder's paste on it and finally sealed everything with a Ranger sealer. I think I'm finally happy with one of my patina projects.

I then took some brass and silver cogs and washers I had and patina'd them. I knew I wanted a 'steampunk' look to this bracelet(although I've never done Steampunk, so this is my first attempt at that also).  After I had the brass washers done I decided I didn't like the look of the silver cogs on the brass washers, because they just faded into the background, so I turned them over and hammered them instead.  Then I got busy punching holes in the leather. I had intended to texture the leather, but forgot. I HATE punching holes in leather because I don't have a hole punch strong enough to go through the leather. So I had to use a thick darning needle to try to start the hole and then my hole punch to finish out the hole.  This was very difficult, but I finally got all the holes punched.  However, after finally getting the little clips on the back of the compass pushed through 2 of the holes, they broke off while trying to bend them back over to hold the compass. So now what to do? I really didn't want to wire it to the leather, but Karla (from Texas Pepper Jams) and I had just gotten to play with our torches a week or two ago and had made some balled copper headpins. I punched 2 holes on the inside ring of the compass on the E/W sides, then took the balled headpins which added another little pop of red to the piece, pushed them through and twisted/spiraled them together on the back side. Viola!  My compass was now attached.

I had originally intended to rivet the cogs/washers to the leather, but realized I didn't have any rivets large enough for the holes in the washers, so stumped again.  I found 2 beads I thought would go well with the piece, took another 2 of my balled headpins, put them through the beads, through the cogs and washers and twisted/spiraled them on the backside, making sure all the wire and ends were smooth enough to not rub the skin when I wear the bracelet.

Then I attached a little silver heart I had to the bottom of the leather piece because I wanted to name this piece "Find your way to my Heart" (because of the compass) And finally I decided to make it a double chain bracelet, so punched 4 more holes in the leather, made my own jump rings our of some Annealed Steel wire I had, attached the 4 pieces of chain, made a clasp out of the same Steel wire and Viola!

"Find your way to my Heart"

Hope you like it.

Be sure to visit all the other participants of the blog hop below or going to Kathy's BayMoonDesigns blog. (Hopefully the links will work, but the way things have been going for me, they may not. LOL)   Thanks for bearing with me and stopping by.

Looking for more of my jewelry or Stained Glass, Mosaics or Fused Glass pieces, check out my shop, KayzKreationz.

Hostess:  Kathy Lindemer,  BayMoonDesign 

Jennifer LaVite, Dry Gulch Beads and Jewelry
Karla Morgan, Texas Pepper Jams

Carolyn Lawson, Carolyn's Creations

Shai Williams, Shaiha's Ramblings

Jessica Murray, Whimsical Monkey
Tammie Everly, TTE Designs
Kay Thomerson, KayzKreationz Blog (you are here)

Claire Fabian, Saraccino
Christie Searle Murrow,  Charis Designs



ZNETshows Winter Pearl Challenge

As part of the ZNETshows design team, our newest challenge was for the Winter Glossi.  It is a Winter Pearls Challenge.  We were to pick out 3 pearl items and 2 other items, either crystals or base metal.  These are the items I picked:

Pearls

BDS1868-17 glass pearls teardrop round Beads 0 Raspberry Color K0588  9x7mm 

BDS1894-22 glass pearls round Beads 0 -off white K0822   16mm 

BDS1923-02FIVE glass pearls rice Beads 0 Butter Color K0121(15.5-in-str)  6x4mm   and

Crystals

RT250-05AB Chinese crystal designer glass cube Beads faceted 05AB-Cherry Red AB (50-pc-str)  4mm

 Base Metal

M0513-AS Base Metal Alloy leaf Necklace antique silver tone Chains-antique silver  about 3-9mm 

I have always wanted some of that leaf chain to work with, so this was a great opportunity.  Now I knew those 16mm round glass pearls would be large, but I guess I didn't realize HOW large. LOL  I had googled the size and it just didn't register, I guess, because when I received them, I was in shock for a little while.  I hadn't ever worked with something that large and round.  So, this has been a little bit of a challenge for me.  Here's a picture of what I picked and received.

I knew I wanted to make a sweet pair of earrings with that leaf chain and some of the small rice pearls and the cherry red glass cubes. I love the way these turned out.

And I finally decided I wanted to make a bracelet with some of the large round Pearls.  During all this time, my son and daughter-in-law have been here visiting and helping us do some work on the ranch, so I've been limited in my time to work on my designs.  But she suggested I use some of my pink silk/fiber in my bracelet and necklace design.  So I got it out, cut it up, accordion folded it and punched through it with a large darning needle and strung it between the Raspberry teardrop pearls and the large Off-white Pearls.  I added a small silver toggle clasp and love the way it turned out.

The necklace has been giving me fits, though. I just haven't liked any design I've come up with so far.  But I finally decided to try this. I strung some of the large Off-white Pearls with the Raspberry teardrops and the pink fiber.  Then in the center I added a section of the leaf chain as the focal with the small Red glass cubes and the Butter rice pearls as dangles.  I think I like the way it turned out.  Hopefully ZNET and Hope will like it too and feature it in the ZNETshows Winter Pearl Challenge Glossi coming out in December.

To see more of my Jewelry or Stained Glass, Mosaics and Fused Glass items for your Home and Garden, check out my shop, KayzKreationz.

Hot and Cold Jewelry Connections Book Review

I recently received this book from Kalmbach Publishing for review. It's written by Kieu Pham Gray.  This is a fantastic book describing how to make jewelry with and without a torch. So many of us don't have the place to use a torch in our homes or are afraid to fire a torch in our homes.  So I love Kieu's approach to this. She teaches you about the materials, tools and techniques in using metal to make jewelry so you can choose which approach works best for you or the piece, with or without a torch. 

She covers connections with wire, metal tabs and other cold connections plus heating your metal with a torch to make the same piece. 

She starts out with the Basics on materials, covering different metals, wire and wire gauge and strength as well as tips on how to save money on recycled jewelry wire and using less expensive metal/wire especially when starting and practicing.  She then covers the Basics in tools, starting out with the 'must have tools' moving on to tools to add over time and finally the 'luxury' tools we all would like to have. Finally she moves into the Basics with Techniques.  This section covers making loops, cutting and piercing metal, riveting with tube and wire rivets, metal stamping, adding color or patina, annealing and soldering, sawing, texturing, filing and sanding, gluing and finally polishing.  Whew!  That's a lot of information. 

Then we get to the 'Projects!'  And what wonderful projects they are.  And my favorite part is that they are always in pairs, made with hot connections, i.e. soldering and cold connections in so many different ways.  The funny thing is, that in each of these projects I had a favorite, but it wasn't always the same. Sometimes it was the hot connection and sometimes the cold connection. So I have my work cut out for me in making some of these projects. LOL  I really like the little Pod pendants on the cover of the book.

And these little Memento pendants are adorable.

But my favorite project is the Flourish bracelet!  And I like it both ways, hot and cold. So I may have to make one of each.  

I can't wait to get started with my projects, inspired by her love of connections and teaching in this book.  Plus, she's coming to my local bead store in Killeen, Texas, Bead Bistro!  So, I'm planning on getting my book signed AND hopefully taking a class from her. I can't wait.  So, if you've been unsure about how to use Connections in your jewelry to enhance it or weren't sure of which way was best, be sure to get over to Kalmbach books and get your copy of Hot & Cold Jewelry Connections.  You'll love it.

For some of my wire-wrapped and beaded jewelry I've already made, check out my shop, KayzKreationz.  I also have Stained Glass, Mosaics and Fused Glass kreationz for your Home and Garden.

Into the Forest Blog Hop

A while back, Lisa Lodge of A Grateful Artist sent out a challenge. She was providing beads for a blog hop with the theme, "Into the Forest".  The challenge was to see how we would interpret that theme with these beads. I signed up and love the beads I received. They look to me to be a jasper of some kind with the dark green donut that reminds me of deep into the forest.  I immediately thought of my red jasper beads that would help bring out the greens of the forest along with the changing colors of the forest as it moves into the fall months.  I love fall and the colors it brings, although we don't really get much color here in Texas.  But I grew up in the Ozarks of Missouri and miss those colors every fall.   I also had this great copper leaf chain that I thought would be wonderful with all that fall color and remind us of all the leaves, falling or not, in the forest. Here's the beads I received and my beads I added.

However, in the last 3 months, I've been gone on trips 3 times, had company for a week or more twice and ended up cutting fingers on both hands.  So my creating has been a little challenged.  But I finally got to start yesterday, so hoping I get both the pieces I envisioned finished in time.  The first thing I wanted to make was either an anklet or some more boot jewelry.  I'm not sure this is long enough to wrap around your boot, although I could add more jump ring links and make it long enough. I need to measure it.  But as an anklet it turned out great. I cut off a small piece of the leaf chain, wire-wrapped three of the stoned I received and six of the medium size jasper beads and interspersed them with the leaves. I wire-wrapped the small jasper with brass headpins so it would look like small shafts of light shining through the forest. I'm not real pleased with the closure yet, but I can always change that later.

My next piece is this necklace. I wire-wrapped some of the green jasper beads with the small glass seed beads. Then I wire-wrapped 2 small jasper beads with one of the green crystals. And finally I wire-wrapped a medium jasper bead. I joined all these links with copper jump rings to the green wire-wrapped donut bead. On the opposite side I added some more of the copper leaf chain with medium jasper beads wire-wrapped and interspersed in between the leaves. I really like the way this necklace turned out, although for the life of me I can't find my copper leaf toggle bar clasp I had for it. So I'll be switching that out when I can find it. LOL

And finally, here's a pair of earrings I made with some of the larger green jasper beads, the green crystals and the small and large size red jasper beads I had.  I wanted the large red jasper beads to dangle. I tried them on these gold toned ear wires.  But I'm not sure I like them, so I may be changing out the ear wires for copper ones as soon as I get a chance to make some.  And another pair of earrings with 2 more of the larger nuggets and the crystals and my medium jasper beads. I love wire-wrapping the nuggets and the jasper beads.  I have plans for a bracelet, but ran out of time.  Hope you like all my designs. Let me know what you think.

Here's the rest of the participants.  Be sure to check them all out and see how everyone developed the theme, Into the Forest with the beads they received. If the links don't work, go to Lisa's blog for the full list with links.



Your hostess:  Lisa Lodge, A Grateful Artist

Melissa Trudinger, Bead Recipes

Kathy Zeigler Lindemer, Bay Moon Design

Eleanor Burian Moore, The Charmed Life

Jo-Ann Woolverton, It's a Beadiful Creation

Chris Eisenberg, Wanderware

Christine Stonefield, Sweet Girl Design

Carolyn Lawson, Carolyn's Creations

Janine Lucas, Esfera Travel Blog

Jasvanti Patel, Jewelry by Jasvanti

Shaiha Williams,   Shaiha's Ramblings

Kay Thomerson, Kayz Kreationz

Karla Morgan, Texas Pepper Jams

Veralynne Malone, Designed by Vera

Toltec  Jewels, Jewel School Friends

Christie Searle Murrow, Charis Designs Jewelry

Molly Alexander, Beautifully Broken Me

Monique Urquhart, A Half-Baked Notion

Janet Bocciardi, Honey from the Bee

Dini Bruinsma, Angaza by Changes

Heather Richter, Desert Jewelry Designs

Christina Miles, Wings n Scales

Elizabeth Engriser, Bead Contagion

Alice Peterson, Alice Dreaming

Alicia Marinache, All the Pretty Things

Kay Mallery,TBD

Catherine Yvonne King, Catherine's Musings

Alice Craddick, Alice's Beads and Baubles

Ema Kilroy, Ema K Designs

Looking for these designs to buy and wear?  Check them out soon in my shop, KayzKreationz.  Or looking for some great Stained Glass, Mosaics or Fused Glass kreationz for your Home or Garden? They're in my shop, too.  Enjoy.