A Great Day

Just got home a little while ago from spending all day at the Toronto Bead Society spring bead fair. What a great day. I worked at the Dixon Chick booth and what a lot of fun it was. Stephanie (the Chick in Charge, of both her own booth and coordinating all the volunteers) and I (the assistant Chick) had so much fun chatting with all the lovely ladies who came by her booth to ask about wire crochet classes and techniques and buy wire.

I also did a little shopping, natch. I tried not to, but had to do a tour around and visit my favourite vendors, and a few things caught my eye as I did. But mostly I walked quickly past most places and managed to restrain myself. However, I did buy a few new treasures which I will share with you in blog postings to come. Luckily, Stephanie was kind enough to pay me for my day's labour and that went a long way to offsetting my bead purchases today, as otherwise, my new budget which went into effect only yesterday would be totally shot already! (oops)

Right now, I am weary in that way you get after a busy, fun day full of chit chat and activity. My brain is swirling around a bit with all the images of the day but my body is tired and ready for bed. Of course, it's too early for that and there are a few things I need to do to get ready for tomorrow's jewellery show at my cousin Catherine's. Plus my laundry is still in the dryer. As they say, no rest for the weary!

TBS Spring Bead Fair

Spring is slowly making its presence felt in the neighborhood. Around the corner from my building, this beautiful swatch of daffodils has been blooming merrily all week, seemingly obliviously to whether it's sunny or pouring rain. The tree in this photo still looks quite bare but I can see many others from my window that are starting to get that green fuzzy glow about them.

Another sure sign of spring is the Toronto Bead Society's Spring Fair, which takes place tomorrow. It runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the YMCA downtown, on Grosvenor Street (between Wellesley and College subway stops). I'll be there, working at the Dixon Chicks booth, demonstrating wire crochet, selling wire and whatever else Miss Stephanie asks me to do. In exchange, she has promised that I will have plenty of time to shop and I am quite looking forward to that!!

Lampwork Bracelets

I didn't do my regular Thursday night Beadfx studio visit tonight. I decided to stay home and make a few more pieces for Sunday's jewellery show instead. I was making a few bracelets using lampwork beads.

The black and white bracelet features a focal bead I made myself. I'm quite fond of this bead for some reason, it's funny how one bead can capture your imagination. Something about the random black and white swirls appeals to me.

I also made this green bracelet using some beads I bought from Unicorn beads. The swirls of colour in these beads are quite attractive and I like the look mixed with the stone chips.

Here are the matching earrings:

Then I made this fun little bracelet with a turtle bead I bought from a TBS vendor, Dawn Masters of Silver Dawn Jewels - she always has wonderful beads for sale but these turtles were quite different from her usual fare - isn't it cute?

Midnight Blooms

This necklace is a variation of Jennifer Tough's "Midnight Blooms" design from the Beadfx Inspirations collection. While the smaller blooms are made with 4mm Swarovski crystals, I made a focal bead by combining a larger, clear crystal with the smaller crystals on each wire wrap. I like having the two different sizes of "blooms".

As Jen says in her description, it's a very dainty look for a bracelet but I think it works well as a necklace too. You can't tell from the photo but it hangs very nicely when it's on your neck. I just might have to keep this one for myself!

Of course, the look would not be complete without a couple more "blooms" hanging from your earlobes.

More Shaggy Drops

I am still totally in love with these shaggy drop beads. I really like the feel of them and the sound they make as they shake on the bracelet.

Last time I made a bracelet with them, I used silver jump rings but these blue and brown combo beads cried out for copper and they look fabulous together, if I do say so myself.

The bracelet itself is a jump ring design that I made up myself. I'm guessing it's not a new design as I would think there are only a limited number of ways you can attach rings together but if it is an official pattern, I put it together by accident. I really should write down what I did, so I can do it again and/or take a close up photo.

As always, there are also matching earrings:

Pretty in Pink

Inspiration can come from anywhere. Sometimes I see a bead or beads and instantly know I have to have it/them and what I'm going to do with it/them. Other times, I decide that I have to have it/them but I'm not sure what to use it for, so it or they wait until I get an idea.

In this case, I purchased a mixed bag of pink beads at a TBS meeting a few months ago for the whopping investment of $3 for the whole bag. This past weekend, I finally got around to opening the beads and checking out the beads, then putting some of the beads together.

Here's what came about: a necklace of random beads, linked together with 9 mm jump rings,

a matching bracelet,

and a funky pair of earrings.

Another Busy Sunday

I've been busy making more jewellery today. Feeling a little panicked now that the weekend is over because I still have so many ideas of pieces I'd like to make and I've got a few evenings out this week and the TBS Spring Fair coming up next Saturday, so won't have much time to put too many more things together. Oh well, what gets done, gets done and everything else will have to wait until I can get back to making things.

Here are some pictures of what I have been making this weekend, I'm quite thrilled with them:

This necklace is a new design as far as hanging the focal bead is concerned. I had some left over beads from making the jumble ball and I had the idea of hanging them in a row along the chain above the ball. I really like the way it looks, it just adds a little something.

Of course, there are matching earrings. These came from the Bead Crazy Intermediate class I took last spring, they were designed by the teacher, Katherine. I like the way the two strands hang down and they look even better hanging on your earlobe, because one strand hangs in front and one behind the ear. It's quite different than anything I've seen before as far as dangly earrings go.

I also designed a necklace to go with a heart shaped lampwork bead I had made a few months ago. I really like the way the periwinkle blue, purple and green colours blend together, although I left out the purple when it came to putting beads on the strand - the look seemed to suit just the blue and green somehow.

But don't worry, blue and green aren't the only colours I've been working with. Stay tuned for more previews...