Shhhh a Surprise

I made this necklace for my Mom for her Christmas gift. After just a few minutes of working with the seed beads, I almost stopped. It took me a couple of months (that's right, months..) to finish it. It's a mixture of clear, silver lined size 11 delicas, clear, silver lined size 11 seed beads and clear, silver lined size 15 seed beads. Using white thread. The center crystal is a pretty purple color.

I sure hope Mom likes it!

Sparkles and Colors

Sparkles - because believe me when I say this necklace sparkles. Each of the red rows has 3 3mm crystals, 4 4mm crystals and 1 6 mm crystal. My husband said, "It looks like a design you would see from Egypt." I love it!

Ok, this next one is an issue of color. I have a blouse that my husband said, "It shouldn't work, because of the colors.. but somehow it does." One might think the colors are... well.. ugly? But it really does work on the blouse, so I made a necklace to go with it :)

Arizona Necklace

I call this my Arizona necklace, because I purchased the pendant during our Arizona trip and also the two red beads in Arizona. I beaded the bail and the spiral necklace.

Coraling

Oh my gosh, I'm addicted! Hello, my name is Aleta, and I'm addicted to coraling. The beading technique, that is... I love it! Once you get used to how to coral, it's just too much fun. I ended up making 3 coral necklaces.

Penny for Your Thoughts

Etsy is a great place to find talented handmade crafts. I was fortunate to find JustDogs by Vicki. She makes dog pendants and necklaces. We emailed back and forth; I sent a variety of pictures to Vicki of our new dog, Penny.

Vicki sent pictures to me throughout the process and asked questions to make sure we were on the same page with the glass colors, etc. She was a treat to work with and did a beautiful job. Vicki captured Penny's expression perfectly, including the raised eyebrows, the soulful eyes and the tilted ears.

I wanted pennies in my necklace design when I received the pendant. It took me a while to find the right chain and the mixture of crystals and pearls to wire wrap into the chain.

Fleur de Lis reversible pendant

The design is by Cynthia Rutledge in the Beadwork magazine. She has the other side of the pendant as a gold oval. But I found two shell ovals that I liked, so I created a reversible pendant. It might not show in the pictures, but one fleur de lis is purple and one is pink.

First Embroidery Piece

This is the first time that I've tried bead embroidery. It's not elaborate, as I wanted to keep it simple. When Mom went to Arizona to visit a cousin, she saw the turquoise cab and thought of me. Once I learn more stitches for embroidery beading, I think I'll enjoy the techniques all the more :) But for now, this is a start!

Floating

Herringbone Tubular stitch for the necklace, when you alternate the sizes of the seed beads, it curves. When I showed Greg the necklace, he said it looks like the center piece "floats." I like that :)

Two New Necklaces

I love turquoise....

This next piece was inspired by the Mah Jong game. My mother-in-law and I were playing Mah Jong on our iPads. I found the center tile piece, the Red Dragon, and decided to create a necklace around it. The following necklace is called Dragon Eyes