Bad Pictures . . .

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I've been trying to take photos of some of the jewelry we've been working on, but obviously, I need to practice a bit more. I seem to have forgotten everything I ever knew about photography! With that said, I do apologize for the poor quality, but I wanted to start an album so we can remember our work, so here goes . . .

This is a beading design that Terry "invented" and I used for this bracelet. While I'm sure someone has done it before, he discovered it without a pattern and I love the look of it. The stone is a piece of dichroic glass that I purchased. This photo really doesn't do this piece justice, it is really bright and flashy in real life.

I made this bracelet and made up the pattern as I went along. Wonder of wonders, it actually came out. I've been looking at the different clasps available and couldn't find one I liked. Then one day I was in a fabric store and found this clasp in the button section. I like the way it looks much more than most "jewelry" clasps.


Terry made this next bracelet. The design is called a spiral and usually you would use three to five different beads to create a pattern, He's made several of these, but decided to use just tourmaline chips for this look. It's one of my favorite pieces

This final one is a piece I made just yesterday. There's a wonderful bead store here in Santa Fe called the Beading Heart. It's owned by a super lady named Barbara Butcher who makes the most astounding jewelry. She also gives classes on different beading techniques.

Yesterday, the class called for the use of petal pearls. Barbara designed an original necklace and earrings using these flat pearls and she shared the technique with those of us in the class.

Here's what I like about beading and making jewelry . . .

Barbara's original design called for using a single color pearl. Two ladies in the class used pink pearls, one lady used a gray green color and I used white pearls. About two thirds of the way through my project I was displeased with the look and started adding green petal pearls. I liked the look so much I added a few more, the decided it needed just a hint of pink.

And when it was all done, I had a completely unique piece

This has been such a fun adventure for both of us, I'll most likely continue to post pictures of our new projects.

What good time we're having!