To me, it feels like May just began yesterday—but obviously not—since here we are at the end of it today! It's a happy day though, as it's been a wonderful month for me in many ways… and of course, one of those highlights is getting to see some new jewelry today created for the AJE CoM reveal!
Our hostess this month is
Sue Kennedy of
Sue Beads and she provided us with a choice of beautiful glass cabochons or sweet sets of chicklet beads (pictured above). I went for the beads and believe it or not, I chose the pink and red set! Shocking, I know. Having learned a lot about myself and pink in the
Bead Soup Party, I felt ready for another pink challenge!
And so, here's what I made…
I knew immediately when I saw Sue's little chicklets that I wanted to make a bracelet and use them with one of my new sleepy bunnies (another excellent reason to go pink!).
The pink chicklet bead was the starting point for me—it's such a nice soft dusty pink and really set the mood for the whole bracelet. I wanted to keep with the feel and theme of softness, going a little shabby chic with a bit of vintage, and so I chose to go without any wire. You know how much I love to work with wire so that was a challenge in and of itself to find other ways to connect the bracelet together, but in the end I managed and I have to say I love the way it turned out! I've titled my new bracelet "Sweet Flower Dreams".
I used soft pink seed beads on hemp to make a button and loop clasp. From there I added two czech glass beads, knotting between each one.
The chicklets have a nice large hole and worked perfectly with some vintage lace, which I also knotted.
As you might already know, my mom has been making these lovely fabric covered bead cords (now available in my
shop—I'm so very excited about that! :-) and so I snatched up another one for myself and tied it into my bracelet.
One of my biggest challenges of making this bracelet, was actually the red chicklet bead! I wanted so much to use all three beads in one design, but the brightness of the red nearly had me designing a second jewelry piece. Finally, with a little rearranging I decided to separate the chicklets, putting this one at the clasp—that kept the design softer around the bunny and then the pop of bright red seemed just right at the end of the fabric covered bead cord—or at lease it makes sense in my mind! I love a little element of surprise in my designs—the ones that (hopefully) make people wonder at why I did it that way—because, believe me, I scrutinize every single element of every design!
This is my third time working with Sue's beads (see what I made before
here and
here) and just as before, I'm so very happy with what they bring to my jewelry—if you've never had the joy of creating with Sue's beads you must go grab up a few for yourself in her shop
here! Thank you all for stopping by to see my latest creation! And a big thank you to Sue for another fabulous challenge!
And of course, don't miss out on all the lovely new creations made with Sue's glass lovelies! Check them out here…
Guest Artists:
The AJE Team:
