Kick Back and Enjoy Gorgeous Jewelry Designs and Tutorials

Grab a hot beverage, sit back and enjoy another issue of Creative Spark Magazine.  The magazine features beads by the retail and  wholesale bead retailer Znetshows.   This Winter 2015 issue is devoted to jewelry designed with the winter theme of  "icy".    Znetshows designers use  cultured sea glass, sea glass beads , glass pearls and Chinese crystals, metals to create earrings, bracelets, and necklaces.  This issue also includes earring tutorials. I am fortunate to be a Znetshows Designer and I was given the opportunity to create a pair of earrings with their beads.  I designed these starfish earrings and wrote a tutorial that is included in this issue.  I would love for you to take a look at my tutorial and let me know what you think.

Starfish earrings available at BayMoonDesign

  Sun and summer! If you love these words, you will love my handmade starfish earrings. They are great summer, casual and fun earrings. I combined white starfish cultured sea glass with aqua sea glass beads from Znetshows. These aqua sea glass beads reminds me of sea glass. The gold brass findings are an addition to make these beach earrings shimmer like the sand in the sun. These long earrings are terrific for the beach or a night out. The beach earrings are about 3 inches long. They are light and comfortable to wear. If you are looking for a gift for a beach lover, consider these handcrafted nautical earrings that are available in my store.

If you want to make these earring yourself you will need to order the following from Znetshows: Cultured Sea Glass starfish small Beads 20x7mm 01-Crystal 
Cultured Sea Glass pebbles Beads about 9x6mm 0 -Turquoise Bay 

     Whether you are a jewelry designer or fashionista, you will enjoy this magazine!

 

      Just click on the cover to see over designs and earring tutorials by the Znetshows designers.

                                    Just think summer will be here before we know it!

Lewes Beach Delaware is my favorite place in the summer

Lewes Beach Delaware is my favorite summer spot.  Where is yours?

February Art Bead Scene Challenge

Amapolas, 1913

Illustration published in "News of Spring and Other Nature Studies

By Edward Julius Detmold

Watercolor, 208 by 124mm

I love the inspiration piece Amapolas that was selected for the February Art Bead Scene Challenge.   This illustration was created by Edward Detmold.  I love the reminder that spring is right around the corner, don't you?   Enough with the snow and cold!

To meet this challenge I decided to focus on shades of cream and coral, as those are the most prominent colors in the painting. And there are a lot of shades of coral to work with, too, from pale and toned down, to bolder and more saturated. Coral comes from a mixture of red and orange.The creamy parchment background has a little variation, but not too much, and tends to take a more muted, grayish cast than pure, bright cream.  I also decided to use brown.

Red Heart Necklace available HERE

I used a handmade porcelain pendants in coral red  called "Abstract Butterfly Hearts" for this necklace.  A large 37mm porcelain heart pendant has a finished front and back in a glossy coral red glaze.  The color is perfect for this challenge and the abstract butterflies on the heart remind me of the butterflies in the inspiration piece.  This unique hand painted pendant was made by American ceramicist Melissa Essenburg at Chinook Jewelry.  I purchased this pendant from one of the sponsors of last year's Art Bead Scene Challenge--  Big Bead Little Bead.  To add to the butterflies on the heart I attached some copper butterfly charms to the natural brass chain necklace. I used large cream colored glass pearls to bring out the cream in the red pendant . The beads in the red necklace are red sponge coral. It is a long 25 inch heart necklace the pendant hangs below the 25 inches.

I love the romantic and feminine look of this necklace.  What are your thoughts?

New Earrings Monday

Sea Shell Earrings by BayMoonDesign

I have taken the challenge of making a pair of earrings a week.  It is time to show what I have been up to.  This time of year, it is easy to do a little day dreaming about my favorite spots to seek some inspiration for new earrings to share with you.  The beach is one of my favorite places to be so I love to use shells and sea glass in jewelry.  These artisan sterling silver earrings are made with Czech glass beads that remind me of seashells.  I combined the seashells with what looks like sea glass and added a white swarovski crystal to each.  These beads are meticulously wire wrapped with sterling silver wire. The earwires on these seashell earrings are hand forged by me. I love the size of these sea shell earring. They are small enough that a professional woman can wear them to work. They are also very cute with casual clothes.

The beach is always calling to me!

I also like to spend time in the woods.  Camping and hiking are favorite activities of mine.  I love to see all the wonderful shades of green in the early part of the summer when the leaves are new, lush, and green.

Can't wait to see  new fresh and lush leaves

Green is one of my favorite colors.  It is always fresh.

Long Green Ceramic Earrings available for purchase

I was lucky to come across a pair of pretty pastel green ceramics for these earrings. These long green earrings are made with artisan ceramics by Marsha Neal Studio.  I love her beads!  I added gun metal earwires give them a bohemian look.  The pastel green earrings are boho chic don't you think?

My Partner for Bead Peeps Swap N Hop--Claire Fabian

Partners are paired for the 

Bead Peeps Swap N Hop.

So it is my pleasure to introduce you to...

Claire Fabian
of Saraccino byCF

Claire Fabian

Claire lives in Leipzig, Germany.  She has been given many travel opportunities.  From reading her blog I have seen parts of Germany, Brazil, and Korea.  She has a very active blog called Saraccino which is all about how to make things and where she gets her inspiration. She loves showing how her work starts from the idea and goes all the way through the creative progress to the end.  Many of the items that she makes are for people who are dear to her. 

Claire finds inspiration all around her

Claire is a very generous person.  Back in Dec. 2013, I won a gorgeous blue polymer clay ornament.  I was thrilled.  Claire sent it as a Christmas present. Claire's idea of a Christmas present is that it should include sweets and surprises!  She included a dark chocolate bar that was luscious.  I am a huge fan of chocolate so I enjoyed every morsel of it.  European chocolate is so much better than most chocolate available in the U.S. so it was a real treat.  I made the ornament into a pendant for a necklace that I am very proud of.  I believe this necklace was the first of my necklaces to include sterling silver links and clasp that I made rather than purchased.

Blue deer and tree Ornament by Claire

The next month I sponsored a patina blog hop that Claire participated in. She had been playing with different patinas so she was anxious to participate. She says, "I really need blog hops and challenges so I can force myself to create (because I know I need this to keep sane!) even if I just come home very late from work and am exhausted." 

Coke and Candy Earrings by Claire

Claire also works with metal.  She makes jewelry from all kinds metals that she finds.  These  art deco Coke and Candy Earrings are made from tin from a candy box which she had for at least 15 years or so. The inner parts were starting to rust therefore she took it apart. The flavor was cola (as you may already have guessed). 

Bitter lemonade bottle caps and Spanish tuna can become  jewelry

She has used bitter lemonade bottle caps to make a pendant.  The Spanish tuna can above is on its way to becoming a piece of jewelry.

Earrings by Claire

 Claire  also wire wraps with great skill.  Lately, she has been making some great earring like this pair.

Earrings with movement by Claire

Claire believes earrings should have movement.  By adding chains to this pair she gave the earrings movement.

Floral Earrings with movement by Clarie

Claire says she had a hard time with these flower beads. The combination of color and shape is not one that she normally works with. She took them on as a challenge to get out of her comfort zone.

I know I will have a difficult time finding a challenge for this talented jewelry designer who has such a range of skills!  I will see what I can come up with for this Bead Peeps Swap N Hop!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I have a great day!

Kathy

We're All Ears February Challenge Inspired by Flower Girls

from a calendar of  Flowergirls by Lim Zhi We

Who doesn't love color especially in the dead of the winter?  This month's "We're All Ears" Inspiration is a series of watercolor illustrations paired with fresh flowers.  I think these are just perfect for Valentine's Day too.  Malaysian artist and photographer Lim Zhi Wei (a.k.a Limzy) is the creator of these whimsical flower girls.   For 2015, Limzy created a very limited run of a calendar of her Flowergirls. We were given a whole garden of the flower girls for our inspiration.  I picked this gorgeous pinky purple part of the flower girl above. 

Long Pink Floral Earring available for purchase

I always find it hard to locate pink and sometimes purple beads that I am happy with so I decided to make my own.  I got out my Vintaj brass flowers and Ranger paints and when to town creating these earrings.  I added some pretty pink peanut beads and ear wires.  When the long pink earrings were done I put a sealant on them.  I think that they capture the colors, flowers, and beauty of the inspiration piece.  What do you think? 

Spring flowers are right around the corner!

New Earrings Monday

My cobbler's children have no shoes earrings.

This "New Earrings" challenge inspired me to add these earrings to my wardrobe.   "The cobbler's children have no shoes" refers to the phenomena where people who are successful at doing something but don't demonstrate that in their own personal lives.  In my life this saying can be applied to the above earrings.  I bought them at least 30 years ago along with a matching necklace.  I love them and wore them a lot early in my work career.  At some point the earwires broke and the earrings sat abandoned in my jewelry box.  I finally got around to make some sterling silver earwires that are heavy enough and the right size to go with the metal.  I attached them and now I can wear them once again.   

Marsala Earrings available for purchase in BayMoonDesign store

I made the sterling silver earwires for these red sponge coral earrings .  I wanted earwires that are very modern looking.  I bought a strand of red sponge coral for a necklace that I made and as I worked on the necklace I realized that they were  this year's Pantone color of the year--marsala.  In my opinion, this color seems to be hard to nail down so I was excited about making this connection.  I had a few beads left over that I made into Marsala earrings .  I think they are very stylish!  What do you think?

Checkerboard Blog Hop

Red, black and white beads for Checkerboard Blog Hop

 Welcome to the  “Checkerboard” Blog Hop sponsored by Lisa Lodge.  The participants had a choice of  “pearl” kits containing a mixture of glass pearls and cultured seaglass, or the “crystal” kits.  The "crystal kits"  contained a mixture of Tiaria crystal and cultured seaglass.  I opted for the crystal kit. Since this is a checkerboard blog hop, it only makes sense that the color theme is red, black, and white.

Long Red Geometric Necklace by BayMoonDesign

This long red geometric necklace was made with Valentine's Day in mind.  The cultured seaglass black triangle pendant is suspended from a lightweight but strong gunmetal chain.   I added some round, red cultured seaglass to the triangle to give this long red necklace a modern look. I also used a handmade sterling silver clasp that I made.  The gunmetal chain necklace is 24inches around. The pendant hangs 3.5 inches below.  It literally flew out of my online store!  Always a good thing!

Red Choker Necklace available for Purchase at BayMoonDesign

I also made this  red choker necklace to wear with the long necklace to create the popular layered look.  It is made with clear crystals, black crystals, red cultured seaglass beads and silver beads. It has a hand forged sterling silver clasp. The black necklace is 18 inches.

The shorter necklace is available for purchase in my online store.

A photo of the 2 necklaces layered together.

Matching black cultured seaglass geometric earrings are available for purchase

I made these black and silver earrings earrings to match the necklace and bracelet.  The geometric black cultured seaglass beads are paired with interesting looking pewter bead with lots of texture. I made the sterling silver ear wires so that their size would accent the geometric dangles and pewter beads. These are fun earrings that are about 2 inches long.  Again the earrings are perfect for that little black dress.

Geometric Bracelet by BayMoonDesign

This is the  black crystal bracelet I made to match the necklace set.  The crystal bracelet is made with a geometric black cultured sea glass bead in the center, black crystals, and clear crystals.  This geometric bracelet is a perfect to wear with that little black dress as well as a casual event. 

                                                     
In fact I like to wear all of my jewelry before putting it in my online store.  My jewelry has to pass my wearing test for comfort and durability.  I wore this bracelet when my husband took me to Cirque du Soleil in Miami for my birthday.  What a treat for me!

Please visit the participants to see what they created.  A special thanks to Lisa Lodge for her inspiration piece and bead selection.

Your hostess:  Lisa Lodge, A Grateful Artist

Jo-Ann Woolverton, It's a Beadiful Creation

Carolyn Lawson, Carolyn's Creations

Toltec  Jewels, Jewel School Friends

Heather Richter, Desert Jewelry Designs

Candida Elkins Castleberry, Spun Sugar Beadworks

Kathleen Breeding, 99 Bottles of Beads on the Wall

Mischelle Fanucchi, Micheladas Musings

Becky Pancake, Becky Pancake Bead Designs

Kari Asbury, Hippie Chick Design

Susan Anderson, La Main Tresor

Kathy Lindemer, Bay Moon Design

Ann Schroeder, Bead Love

Kim Dworak, Cianci Blue

Margaret Pelech, Margaret Pelech's Blog

Lisa Prewitt Knappenberger, LiRaysa Designs

Annette Rivers, Mama Owls Mess

Carol Briody, A Beads Life

Miranda Ackerley, MirandAck

Marybeth Rich, A Few Words from within the Pines

Karin Grosset Grange (France), Ginkgo et Coquelicot

Katrina Scuderi Taylor, I Wanna Go Out