Catalina Christmas Gifts

This year, my favorite class is Spanish I. My teacher, Senora Everist, is a short woman from Cuba who I absolutely love. Every morning, I go into school early so I can help her get ready for the day. I usually will organize papers or punch holes in worksheets for the day's class (when she forgets to set the "punch" setting to yes on the copier). Also, it gives me a chance to hang out with her and her student-teacher, Senora Wiane, who is a student at the U of A. So, for Christmas, I've made them both necklaces. Senora Everist's is a little shorter than Senora Wiane's, who is very tall.

Senora Everist:

Senora Wiane:

Working with Wire

I've started working a lot with wire lately and I've made a very nice necklace with wire and chains. Using a round pliars, I made each bead into little charms with hoops at each end. Then I attatched it to chains. It took a while because I made to make each charm by hand, but I'm very happy with the results. I used only three kinds of beads, little 5mm red ones I've been working with for a long time, orange carved beads that I used in my Robin's Egg Wood necklace, and some larger red ones that I found at Michael's.

Materials:
23 5mm red beads
8 7mm red beads
2 orange carved beads
silver wire
1 silver toggle clasp
silver chain

Traditional Black and White

I made this necklace with two strings of black and white beads that I bought when I was getting ready to make a personalized necklace for my aunt, Laurie. I loved the colors together and how the white, shell-like beads looked with the shiny black beads. Then I decided to make a traditional looking necklace from them. It was easy to bead and quick because of the simple design.

Materials:
9 big black beads
10 medium-sized white beads
20 5mm black beads
2 gold crimp beads
1 gold toggle clasp
silver wire

Many Charms, Many Possibilities

Last week, my family and I went to a Food and Wine show at a nearby park. There were many people selling their jewelry there and we met this one woman who made a very interesting lariat that had multiple strings and two separate lengths. One length was like a choker and one part was much longer. It gave me an interesting idea to make a long necklace with three strings of all the same length. At each end of these three strings were two bars from a toggle clasp. Then I made a charm using the ring part of a toggle clasp. This way, you can use the same necklace but easily use many different charms. I have personally worn my own version of this necklace (the one shown above), and I love wearing it. You can basically wear the same necklace for many different occasions. I wore this one to a party that my swim team held for the seniors that are graduating this year and then I also wore it to school the next day. Its fun, funky, and very easy to switch out charms.

Materials:

Necklace:
Hundreds of white, green, dark blue, light blue, orange 5mm beads
a few mixed 10 mm beads
2 toggle clasp bars
3 long strings of MagicStretch String

Black Charm:
silver wire
1 toggle clasp ring
9 black 5mm beads
1 big black bead
6 black and gold 7mm beads
1 gold crimp bead

Blue Charm:
silver wire
10 white 5mm beads
6 light blue 5mm beads
1 silver crimp bead
1 gold toggle ring
3 big brown and white beads

Fabulous Pricing

I have decided to start selling my jewelry soon. I've already made necklaces for my aunts and cousins so now is the time to widen my base. This list may change a little bit, but this is just a basic starter list. The pricing list is as follows (shipping is additional at $4.95):

Single Stranded: $10 (type featured in 'Green Eyed Lady')
Double Stranded: $10
Triple Stranded: $15 (type featured in 'Thoroughly Modern Millie')
Lariat Style: $15
Single Stranded Choker: $5
Double Stranded Choker: $10 (type featured in 'Crossing Strands')
Woven Choker: $10
Single Stranded Bracelet: $5
Double Stranded Bracelet: $5 (type featured in 'Opposites Attract')
Charm Bracelet (metal): $5 (as featured in 'Charmed')
Earrings: $5
Key chains: $5

You tell me the colors, sizing, and I'll make it quickly and efficiently.

Crossing Strands

Indigo Lotus:

Robin's Egg Wood:



Lately, I have been making necklaces that are in a choker style but with a twist. They are double stranded, but cross in the middle to make a somewhat knitted appearance. It takes a little longer to make these, but they are gorgeous when put on and can be either formal or casual. Because I prefer to use toggle clasps, these two have those, but you can also use lobster claw clasps or any other type. Also, I have made a switch from stretch string to wire. Its much more durable and the crimp beads don't fall off as easily.

Materials:

Indigo Lotus:
2 strands of silver .25 wire
2 silver crimp beads
1 silver toggle clasp
120 dark blue 5mm beads
60 white 5mm beads
30 black and gold flat beads
14 blue beads with pink flowers

Robin's Egg Wood:
2 strands of silver .25 wire
2 silver crimp beads
1 silver toggle clasp
88 robin's egg blue 5mm beads
44 blue 5mm beads
22 orange carved wooden beads
10 caramel wood beads

Keychains, Keychains, and More Keychains

Spring Green:


Fresh Snow:


Depths of the Sea:

Flaming Lava:

Midnight Black:


I have just discovered how easy it is to make keychains and I am having a lot of fun making them. Its faster so you can put out a lot more in a shorter amount of time, yet you can still make almost any type that you want. I've put charms on a few, and some have spacer beads. Anything you can do with a necklace or anklet you can do with a keychain.

Materials:

Spring Green:
22 light green 5mm beads
3 dark green 5 mm beads
3 brown/green 5mm beads
2 green oval 7mm beads
6 assorted green beads
2 gold crimp tubes
1 gold lobster claw clasp
1 gold jump hoop

Flaming Lava:
34 red 5mm beads
13 orange 5mm beads
5 gold crimp tubes
7 assorted red beads
1 gold lobster claw clasp
1 gold jump hoop

Fresh Snow:
5 white 5mm beads
12 white/black 5mm beads
8 black 5mm beads
6 assorted white beads
5 white oval 7mm beads
2 gold jump hoops
4 gold crimp tubes
1 gold lobster claw clasp

Depths of the Sea:
21 dark blue 5mm beads
23 light blue 5mm beads
6 assorted blue beads
2 gold crimp tubes
1 gold jump ring
1 gold lobster claw clasp

Midnight Black:
5 white 5mm beads
10 black 5mm beads
8 white/black 5mm beads
7 assorted black beads
1 assorted white bead
1 gold jump hoop
3 gold crimp tubes
1 gold lobster claw clasp

Green Eyed Lady

I call this one Green Eyed Lady for three reasons, a) it does have green in it and b) it reminds me of how when you look at an eye, it never is just one color. There are always flecks of brown, or blue or sometimes gold. My final reason is cause when I read the lyrics to the song, certain parts of it reminded me of the actual necklace.

Green eyed lady, windswept lady
moves the night the waves the sand

Green eyed lady ocean lady
child of nature, friend of man

Green eyed lady passions lady
dressed in love she lives for life to be

I made this necklace completly on a whim. I had no green necklaces and I just decided one afternoon to make one.

Materials:

8 dark brown wood tube beads
8 caramel wood square beads
36 black 5mm beads
36 white 5mm beads
68 green 5mm beads
1 silver toggle clasp
2 silver crimp beads

Charmed

Last week, I made a charm bracelet... and I even made the chain. I'd felt in a "cutsy" mood and decided to make something I usually wouldn't have made. Using jump rings, I made my own pattern for a chain and strung them together easily. Over the last few days, I've been scouring through my charms and jewels, looking for three little things to hang from the bracelet. The first one I found was a small silver heart that came with a packet of spacer beads. Then I used one of those spacer beads and hung it from another jump ring that I'd added, hanging from the chain. However, I got stuck on what the last one should be. This morning, I found a small metal outlining of a swallow and found that it was a perfect match.

Materials:

37 tiny silver jump rings
10 medium silver jump rings
2 large silver jump rings
1 silver toggle clasp
1 silver heart charm
1 flower spacer bead
1 metal swallow "outline" bead

Specially Bought, Specially Made

A few weeks ago, Mum, Dad, and I went to a man who does epistolary. He said that the fabrics he sold were more expensive than if we went to his friend, Herman. Herman owns a fabric store called "Fabrics On the Go" and it is now, my favorite store in the whole city. Its a small place, but it has every fabric, button, and bead imaginable. We bought two fabrics from him so Art could make some pillows for our outdoor seating area in our front courtyard. Also, we bought three strands of these awesome beads.

One of the strands we bought from him was of these shell-like blue beads that I just love. I decided to make a necklace and earrings for a friend who is going to a wedding in a few months and used those beads.

Materials:

Earrings:
2 silver pin heads
2 silver jump hoops
2 blue/silver shell beads
2 silver earring hooks

Necklace:
Stretch Magic String
gold toggle clasp
2 gold crimp beads
13 blue/silver shell beads
65 light green 5mm beads
26 purple 5mm beads
26 light blue 5mm beads

Simple Pleasures

During school the other day, I suddenly had an idea for a pair of earrings. I just recently had helped my mum make some earrings for a challenge on her stamping blog and I didn't know what else to do with the extra earring hooks that we had. So I designed a simple pair of earrings that are super easy to make, yet they look sexy and fancy. I am actually modeling the earrings in the picture above.

Materials:

silver earring hook
silver jump ring
silver chain (in three pieces that are three different lengths)

Abi

Today is my friend, Abi's 15th birthday so I wanted to make something special. Since my move to Arizona, she and I have become closer than ever before. We talk over Skype almost every day, call each other, and email all the time so I wanted to make something special. This was the first necklace I had ever made with chain and metal charms. After atatching the chain to the charms and the toggle clasp, I added on a long string of stretch magic string and started to bead, moving the string through the chain at certain points.

Materials:

Silver toggle clasp
clear stretch magic string
Silver chain
Silver heart pendant
Silver birds pendant
Wood tube beads: 2 creme, 4 dark, 6 caramel
Small round wood beads: 4 creme, 2 dark, 6 caramel
4 creme wooden big round beads
8 caramel wood flattened beads
Wood square beads: 2 creme, 2 dark, 2 caramel
49 5mm green beads

Thoroughly Modern Millie

I have a beading book that I bought about two weeks ago for ideas and knowledge of the trade called The Impatient Beader. In that book, there is a necklace with three layers called "Bahama Mama". When I first read the book, I made a connection to a story that my grandpa and his lady friend, Millie, told us. They often go on vacation to the Caribbean where Millie has a time share and often eat at a bar/restaurant called "the Bahama Mama". So I decided to make a necklace for Millie inspired by the original one in the book.

Materials:

clear Stretch Magic string (three 16 inch strands)
6 gold crimp bead tubes
gold toggle clasp
7 10mm silver "oriental" beads
11 10mm blue "oriental" beads
8 10mm red "oriental" beads
several hundred robins egg blue 5mm beads
several hundred orange 5mm beads
several hundred blue 5mm beads

Opposites Attract

Freshman year of high school, I had an art teacher who was really into contrasting colors (though she herself never wore anything but black). The more contrasts, the better in her mind. I guess that may have rubbed off a little on me for now I have a double bracelet with colors that are opposing, but look great together (light blue with chocolate brown, pink with dark blue, and red with yellow).

Materials:

9x10 mm chocolate brown wooden beads
11x10 mm light blue beads
24x5 mm blue beads
12x5 mm red beads
22x5 mm pink beads
11x5 mm yellow beads
1 silver barrel clasp

The Blue Tree

When I was out shopping for beads with my mum, we found these pendants on sale for $2 at Michael's. So I bought a bunch and this is the first one that I've used on a necklace. It is of a light blue tree with a darker background. That same day, I also bought a pack of 5mm beads of various colors and a package of gold toggle clasps. So i decided to make this necklace, my inspiration coming from the the mountains that I can see from my window.

Materials:

several hundred 5mm beads (dark red, robins egg blue, lime green)
gold toggle clasp
5 gold crimp tubes
clear Stretch Magic string

Leora B.

I have decided to let other people send in pictures of their work to be displayed as guest beaders. My first one is a friend of mine, Leora B. who basically got me started with beading. She has been doing it for a LOT longer than me and is quite.... amazing.

L-O-V-E

When I first started beading, I only bought two types of beads and one clasp. It was two days before I was going to move from Wisconsin to Arizona and I had gone out shopping with two close friends of mine, one who is an amazing beader. She asked us if we could go to the nearest craft market after lunch (Wisconsin Craft Market) so she could look for some new sharpies and such. On a whim, I bought my two bags of beads and my clasp. The next night, I made my first anklet, which also happens to be one of my favorites.



Materials:

1 copper Toggle Clasp
25 5mm green beads
30 7mm turquoise beads
4 Alphabet beads (L, O, V, E)
10 inches of black stretchy string (ends that were cut off included)

Mexican Birds of Paradise Blooms

In our backyard, we have a flower that is special in the Southwest called the Mexican Bird of Paradise (see above). The flowers are a rich orangish red and bright golden yellow and there happens to be one just below my bedroom window. I look at it every day while I'm beading and it helped to inspire one of my favorite bracelets that I made.

Materials:

Stretch Magic .5mm clear string
Various orange and red beads of many sizes
Silver barrel clasp