My apologies...

No Bead Table this week.  My bead table is Top Secret until Saturday when I reveal what became of my bead soup.  

I do have some new items for March, and I'll be happy to share those with you.  They aren't being listed until March 1st, and will be listed at a slightly reduced price, which will go up at the end of March.  Click on the photo to take a look:

Will those stones EVER be finished?

Ok, so last Saturday, you saw these stones after their second round of tumbling:

Now a mere three days later, after tumbling with a pre-polish, here they are:

I'll admit, they look a little rough, but the light wasn't so good.  And believe it or not, both of these pictures were taken with my cellphone.  I need a new camera.

But, anyway, one more week, and they should be done, all nice and polished up.  At the very least I'll also have some polished amethyst.  The tumbler has to have both barrels full to stay in balance.  We'll see what they look like next Tuesday.

I got your sneak peek right here...

At the beginning, I said I wasn't going to do it, that I was going to hold out till the end.  But alas, with so many of my peers doing it, how could I not jump on the wagon?  So I got your sneak peek right here...

I am on a roll tonight!  After deciding yesterday to completely start over, it's like that movie The Mask..... "Somebody stop me!"  I've got 2 necklaces and 2 pairs of earrings, a necklace in the planning, ideas for a fourth,  and there's the possibility of a bracelet thrown in for good measure.

Man oh Man is this fun, or what?

My Bead Soup

I've been seeing a lot of sneak peaks of others' creations lately.  Mine have been finished for a couple of weeks, but I can't bring myself to post any sneak peaks.  You see, the more I look at the pieces, the less I am happy with them.  So.... back to the drawing board.  All this and the reveal date is less than a week away :O 

Don't forget when all this is over, I'll be posting them on Ebay with 100% of the profit being donated to the Kay Yow Cancer Fund.  So, I hope they go for a high price.

Time to check in on those rocks again.

I'm a couple of days late, so my stones had some extra time to tumble.  Cause them no harm, if fact they were looking pretty nice after I cleaned them off.  For comparison, this is how they looked last week after one week of tumbling:

And this week:

You can tell they're a lot smoother that they were a week ago.  Now they're in a pre-polish till Tuesday, and then a week of polishing and they should be all done.

Extra! Extra! Read all about it!

The time has come to announce the winners of the eight, yes eight, gifts I am giving away for the One World One Heart event. 

Chosen randomly, the winners are:

Que Bella of ~Que Bella~

 you have won a pair of tri-color earrings, made from sterling silver and glass

Tahnya Marie of Dreaming of Everpretty

you have won a set of 5 Swarovski and Czech glass and crystal stretchy bracelets

KnutzEls

you have won the One World One Heart memory glass pendant

 

cheekyradish of go sell crazy somewhere else

you have won the stretchy aquamarine colored resin bracelet

Leslie of My Life and Times

you have won a pair of Swarovski crystal and sterling silver earrings

Barbara of Roses on the Water

you have won a set of 20 handmade paper beads

Deana of JuSt DeEz' ArT & LiFe

you have won a collection of chunky beads

Last but not least

Hoopie of Hoopie's Art Dolls

you have won the illusion bracelet

I truely thank each and every one that visited my over the course of this wonderful event. I didn't get to everyone one the list, but I will still be dropping in.

Thank you Lisa for all of your hard work.  I know this is my first time participating in something so grand, and I'm honored to be a part of it.  I'm very much looking forward to the first annual Our World Our Art event next year.

Bead Table Wednesday...while it's still Wednesday on the east coast

What can I say?  My poor little bead board is a hot mess this week.  What you're looking at is 3 different projects.   Two of which are giveaways for One World One Heart.  The third won't actually go up until August.  But hey, an idea hits when it chooses.  You might as well run with it, right?

Another Great Giveaway...

Head over to IndieSpotting  and enter to win an awesome sugar scrub from Sugar Sugar Scrub.  I've entered and you get to pick your "flavor".  I chose Strawberry Bubbly if I win.

Whew!

Today has been a day.  I met with a friend for coffee this morning, and when we get together, it's like a 2 hour affair.  Went home and got to work on some stuff J (my husband) wanted me to do.  Then I remembered, it's Bead Table Wednesday!  Crap!  I have yet to take any pictures, so my table's goin' up late today.

So I'm workin', workin', workin'.  Visiting some OWOH blogs here and there. 'Bout half an hour ago I was making a phone call (I'll tell you about that in a minute) when I looked at the date.  Double Crap!  OWOH is over tonight!  I've still got tons of blogs to visit!  So guess what I'll be doing all night?

About that phone call.  I was (repeatedly) calling a local classic rock radio station (96.1 for anyone in the Triangle area of NC) because they were giving away tickets to a YES show in March.  I'm not even a YES fan, heck, I never even heard of them until I met J four years ago.  He's the YES fan.  So anyway, I WON!!!  I'm so excited, especially because of the look on his face when I told him.  

So, anyway, my BTW pics will be up later tonight, somewhere in between all the blogs I want to visit.

Checking up on things

Remember last Thursday, when I started my experiment with the ruby zoisite stones?  Well a week has passed, and today is the day that the stones take a break from tumbling long enough to be washed off and then put back in the barrels with finer material.

This is how they looked last Thursday:

Like I said, it's kinda hard to tell, but they started out pretty rough.  This is how they looked today:

I'll admit they still look a little rough, but there's definitely some improvement.  Next Thursday, they will look even better.

Bead Table Wednesday

This week's bead table looks very similar to last week's.  I'm actually using the same color crystals in this project.  Otherwise, it's a whole different animal.  This week I went a little crazy.  I guess I've been influenced by some of the OWOH bloggers without realizing it. 

I mean, I got ribbon, I got beads, I got paper and stamps and colored pencils and rub-ons.  

NOT my normal "style" you could say.  See for your self.

What do you think?

Finally!

My wedding was over a month ago (January 4th) and just this weekend did my copies of the marriage license come in the mail.  Finally, I get to change my name and all that good stuff.  I'm a little peeved at the Register of Deeds, but what can you do?

In other news.. I don't remember if I've said anything about learning chain mail or not, but I'm trying.  I got about an inch and a half of byzantine chain done tonight, and I'm pretty darn proud of it considering it's my first real attempt.  Check it out.

I've found this pattern to be easier than one of the other ones that looks easy.  Imagine that.

Busy day in the Pride House

Gotta couple new things going on right now...

First, I've decided, since I had an abundance of amethyst beads, I would create a separate section in my shop for the current month's birthstone.  Now unfortunately, I'm not going to be able to get my hands on some stones (unless someone has some diamond beads?), so I'll have to make substitutions, probably with Swarovski crystal.  I may have a surprise for all you fellow May babies out there.  For those that are February babies, check out the new section.

Second, I've got a little experiment going on.  I'm a geologist.  Not a practicing one, but the piece of paper they gave me when I graduated from NC State says I am.  Really, I'm just a geologist at heart.. a rock hound if you will.  And what else would a rock hound such as myself have but one of these?

Now, the other day, I was in Michael's, when I saw these:

I couldn't believe my eyes.  Ruby in Zoisite beads?  At Michael's?  On clearance?  I had to have them.  You can tell they've obviously been tumbled a little, otherwise they wouldn't be so rounded.  What you can't really tell is that they're rough, they feel a little like a chunk of sandstone.

Can you see where I'm going with this?  The process takes about a month of constant tumbling.  I'll post pictures after each step to check they're progress.  The first step takes at least a week, so we'll see next Thursday or Friday how they're looking.

One World One Heart 2011

While I am honored that you are visiting my blog, I regret to announce that I have closed the comments.  I will be using a random number generator to choose my 8 (yes 8!) winners.  I will announce those winners later this evening.

Thank you everyone for visiting my little corner of the internet.

Jennifer

 

Hi there.  Welcome to my little corner of the blogging world.  I'm Jennifer.  I make jewelry out of my home, mainly as an outlet for creative energy.  This is my blog about my work, my rants, my loves, and sometimes just whatever crosses my mind, like snow, or my cats trying to eat my unfinished pieces.. But that's a whole other story.  I use different kinds of materials too.  I don't stick with just stone or just glass, I mix it up.  I've even been known to use paper beads.

I'm new to One World One Heart, well new to blogging in general.  But I do have (what I think) are some pretty cool things to give away.  First is an illusion bracelet with lovely jewel-toned glass beads:

It's approximately 7" (18cm) long, but size can be adjusted as necessary.

Second is a fun mix of chunky tumbled beads.  Some are faceted, some are not, and even being a geologist at heart, I can't identify some of them.

I do know there's fluorite, amethyst, rose quartz, aventurine, and amazonite in there.

What do you have to do to win one of these fabulous prizes?  Well, first you have to have a blog, and you have to be human.  By that I mean it doesn't matter where in the world you are.  If you meet those high standards ;) just leave me a comment.  Be sure to let me know how to contact you if you win.

How will I pick my winners, you ask.  Simple, I'll draw names out of a hat.  Or, I might ball them all up and let my cats decide, all 7 of them.

I'll announce my winners on February 17th.  I'll both email my winners and post them on my blog.

So stop on by, I hope you enjoy your visit!

Wow!  I've got over 60 comments!  Consequently, I've decided that when it's all said and done, I'll have one gift for every 20 comments I get.  Here's a third gift:

What started out as this pretty Valentine's scrapbook paper,

 has become these adoreable 1/2" beads with the help of a pearlizing medium added to some paper glaze.

There's only 9 in the photo, but ultimately it will be a set of 20.

Any additional gifts will be surprises to be announced when I post the winners.

Thanks again for checking out my little corner of the internet.

updated 02/05

I never could keep a secret.  I know, I know.  I just said a week ago that my remaining prizes would be kept a secret until the 17th.  But I can't keep my mouth shut any longer.  It's the piece I'm working on now that I'm bursting at the seams to reveal... And I thought that I might as well post pics of the others too.

A pair of purple and pink Swarovski crystal earrings.

A stretch bracelet with resin beads that practically jumped off the rack at me because of their gorgeous color.

Last but not least...

These are preliminary sketches of a pendant much like this one:

Those sketches are 3 times the size of the finished pendant, so yeah, I've still got a lot of work ahead of me.

Ok, for real this time, I'm not showing anymore...

Updated 02/12

Bead Table Wednesday

On my bead table this Wednesday is the beginnings of a bracelet using Swarovski crystal and rose gold plated beads, charms, and findings. 

 I hinted about this piece on Facebook last week, and now I'm starting it.  It's gonna be gorgeous when it's done, but this one's not for sale.

Although, some may be seeing it around in the next 2 weeks or so.