Sparkle, Little Pearl, Sparkle!

This is a serious pile of sparklies!!

As a fundraiser for my organization, I designed a simple Swarovski crystal, pearl, & silver bracelet. We took orders for these pretty little Mother's Day gifts, including a cute chiffon bag and a hand-stamped gift card and they were much more popular than we expected!

It took about a week and a team of "stringers" to put together over 130 of them, but they are gorgeous!! I've never crimped so much in my life...I have a new appreciation for ergonomically designed tools. Anything to avoid having to do a bake sale in the hallway every month.

If you need an idea to make some great money for your club, think about a simple stringing project. I'd even be willing to help with the designing if you provide the labor pool!

Springing Green

I'm finally getting some time to craft after a great Vegas vacation--with a few bead store trips thrown in between shows. Tonight I picked a great glass bead by Dora Schubert (from Germany) that I picked up in a set at Arts Afire in Alexandria. I love the fun floral bit of the bead with the green chalcedony and pearls. My attention span is only good for about seven inches, so bracelets are my game tonight!

Glassy-Eyed Girl

It was a great shopping day today in Old Town with stops at Bead Obsessions & the Arts Afire Gallery. I used great restraint around the gorgeous beads...something I'm not known for...and came out with some really wonderful pieces.

Tonight's project is focused on fun purple, blues and greens that grew from the great focal bead by artist Kristin Perkins (from Michigan). You can see the two sides of the same bead in each of the pictures. Love the great vintage beads and some recycled glass that created a great combination.

Halfsies in Splitsville!

I came up with an idea the other day while idly enjoying my commute...I could take my "halfsie" bracelets one step further and design several half bracelets that could be interchangeable. So, here's a set of them based on all glass beads of different types and styles.

I tried things from a single strand of cat's eye beads to a braided three-strand section of seed beads to a featured lampwork bead to a dangle-filled silver chain section. All of them tied together by a common delicious color combination of pink, orange, & green.

What do you think? Does it sound like a good idea? Would you buy a few sections to coordinate? Which sections do you like best? Let me know!!