New batch of earrings

I made a new batch of earrings for myself, using silver and light blue colors, to match the aquamarine earstud I’m wearing for my recent second piercing in my earlobe.

April 2015

Teacher Appreciation Week – magnets

I’m pretty proud of these, I thought up the design myself.  I found some terra-cotta colored polymer clay, and had the flower beads already from another project.  I made wire stems and inserted them into the clay, baked them and glued magnets on the back.  I made 80 of them for my kids’ school’s Teacher Appreciation Week.  The magnets are about two inches tall.  I enjoyed making them, and plan on making a lot more.

Teacher Appreciation Week – earrings

I’ve been wanting to do this for years, and I finally had the time to donate gifts for Teacher Appreciation Week at my kids’ school.  I signed up for 80 small gifts, so I made 60 earrings and 20 keychains.  I used up a lot of beads I’m not that fond of, and just used base wire earring findings.  Here’s a picture of 39 of them, most of the others are duplicate designs.  I added small “Thank you” tags to the envelopes.

40 of the 60 earrings donated to teachers

Designs by ellad2 <- awesome designer

So I subscribe to beading magazines, and occasionally try some of the patterns that are published on two or three very condensed pages.   One magazine mentioned buying beading patterns on Etsy, and that’s how I found ellad2.  She photographs every single step!  I buy the .PDF files, and print out the 20-30 pages that contains each project.  So easy to follow, and such gorgeous designs!  I’ve had to buy a larger notebook as I know I’ll be buying and printing more projects from her.

Polymer clay stones

I know I need to take better pictures, and set up a light box and all that, but I’m too impatient this evening.   I’m also too impatient to make perfectly round clay beads, but that’s okay for stone-like beads such as these.  I don’t know what stone the pendant is, and the smaller beads are glass, but the rest I made from polymer clay.

Green Paprika Ball Earrings

Mixed green polymer clay with paprika, and I really like the result.  They match my Metro uniform very well.

WireKnitz

I learned about this new product at a meeting of the Northwest Polymer Clay Guild. It is copper wire, coated with a light ceramic coating, and knitted. You can cut it, and it doesn’t fray. I can be baked into clay, and molded into shapes. This flower is from a tutorial on their website.

You can learn more at http://www.wireknitz.com

Polymer clay leaves

I learned this technique for making leaves with polymer clay at the February meeting of the Northwest Polymer Clay Guild. I also made some clay beads with the same pattern, and some plain silver clay beads. Then I strung it, making a pendant with a Swarovski Artemis bead, some seed beads on headpins, along with some little white and gold Czech glass beads.

The Lesson Bracelet

I call this my Lesson Bracelet because it taught me to never let a piece leave the house without photographing it first! I had to stitch up this duplicate after losing my original bracelet at a nearby grocery store. I was on my way to a seedbeaders’ meeting, and it fell off in the store, and by the time I got back there it was gone, nobody turned it in. So now, I photocopy everything before wearing it.
This is a tubular herringbone stitch with buttons added.

Another watchband

I stitched this watchband with size 10 seed beads so I could add some peanut beads for texture, but they’re black and hard to see.