Wednesday's Worktable: A Tale of Migraines and... Sushi?

I've been battling a pretty nasty migraine for the last several days, so I don't really have much to show for this week. I've spent more time staring at the ceiling than doing any creating. Bleh.

Still, I'm definitely on the mend (yay!), so here's what I'm looking forward to working with the next time I'm able to sit down and bead:

Yep... those are whimsical silicone sushi beads. I have plans to make them into earrings--and, if I'm honest, probably a tassel necklace. I'm silly like that.

Something happy to look forward to. Hopefully I'm feeling up to playing soon. 

Thanks for stopping by today... Have a wonderful (hopefully migraine-free) day, everyone!

Rainy Day in May - Surprise Reveal! Woohoo!

Hello everyone!

I have another finished project to share... woohoo! I'm on a roll, getting things done and cleared off my beading table. It definitely feels good.

So, what am I showing today?

Well, frequent visitors to my blog might recognize this little mix:

That's right... It's what I shared for my Wednesday Worktable on May 7th. 

In case you missed that entry, I essentially gave myself a little mini-challenge to create a necklace using only beads from last month's Jesse James Mystery Bead Box. That includes both the beads seen above, and the beads seen below:

I am happy to report: I did it!

And without further ado... here it is! The piece that I'm calling my Rainy Day in May necklace!

Some features of this necklace: 

• The tassel design is actually asymmetrical... most of the tassel strands are different, with very few repeats.
• The necklace chain is also asymmetrical... the length of chain is different between each beaded section.
• Everything is from the Mystery Bead Box except for the chain, the seed beads (which were still from Jesse James Beads), and the tassel's bead cap.

I am really happy with how this design turned out. It's been awhile since I've made a strung tassel like this one, and it was fun revisiting this style. I also liked how everything looks like it's flowing... the asymmetrical design really adds to the organic, falling-rain feeling.

So, there you go. Thanks for stopping by today. See you on Wednesday!

Until then, have a wonderful day, everyone!

Wednesday's Worktable: Another Show-and-Tell!

Happy Wednesday, everyone!

Remember these beads that I shared two weeks ago? 

They were leftovers from my Farewell to Joanns challenge, and I hinted that I might be working on a tassel necklace with them.

Well, I'm happy to announce: the necklace is done. Woo-hoo! And today, I get to show off the final piece. I figured you wouldn't mind. :)

Here it is, in all of its tassel-y goodness:

The Joanns beads include: the focal bead, and the bottom three bead styles in the tassel. Namely, the gold 8mm rounds, the red stone discs, and the 10mm blue shell.

The other beads from my stash include: three styles of Czech glass and golden 4mm spacers.

I have honestly been wanting to make this kind of necklace with these beads ever since I saw the focal bead... it just lends itself so well to this style. It was really nice to finally sit down and just do it.

So, ta-da! Another project on my bead table that is finished. It feels good.

I'm also almost done the necklace from last week's worktable, the one that I'm calling the Rainy Day in May necklace. I hope to show that one off soon, too.

...Did I mention that it feels good to finish things? Heehee. 

Anyway, thanks for stopping by today... have a wonderful day, everyone!

Wednesday's Worktable: Rainy Day in May

The last few weeks have been pretty soppy wet here in Ohio. So, I thought: why not make jewelry based on it?

...Especially since last month's Mystery Bead Box from Jesse James Beads was rainy-day themed, and included such fun things as this mix:

It's a super fun collection of sizes and colors, and I thought it would be fun to do a little mini-challenge: make a necklace only using this mix, and maybe some of the other components in the Mystery Bead Box. (Well, and findings from my stash. Just to be super technical.)

Here is what it looks like, all poured out:

And here is one of the other items from the box, just asking to be part of the project:

So, that's what's on my table today! Playing around with white and blue beads of different shapes and sizes, and being inspired by rain.

Thanks for stopping by today, everyone! And for those of you also in soppy wet areas: stay dry! :)

Wonder and Whimsy May 2025 Challenge: Diamond Tessellations

Happy May, everyone!

I am really, really excited about the challenge I have chosen for this month. 

The inspiration for it was rather... unconventional. So! To introduce this challenge, let me tell you a story. 

Last year was a very difficult year for me, physically. It culminated in surgery... and I am happy to announce that said surgery was very, very successful. I am healed, and getting my energy back. Every day, I am becoming more and more aware of how much things fell into disrepair last year--both around the house, and in regards to my health habits.

So, why am I telling you this? 

Well, to combat this entropy, I recently did something that I have never done before: I signed up for a gym membership. The local YMCA, to be precise. One of my friends goes there regularly, and we're going together a few times a week.

What does this have to do with jewelry? Well, last week, I finished my workout first, and was waiting for my friend to finish hers. I was sitting in the lobby area, thinking about May's challenge, and decided to see if I could find anything to inspire me.

...And then I saw it. 

The chairs.

Okay, hear me out.

Those chairs have the most mesmerizing diamond tessellation pattern.

So much so, that I spent several minutes taking pictures of them. Thankfully I was the only one in the lobby at the time--otherwise, I might have felt quite silly!

So, that's my challenge this month: make jewelry inspired by these diamond tessellations.

I have so many ideas. Diamond shaped beads are always fun to play with, and I'm already plotting on different techniques to use. Heh. We'll see if any of these ideas actually turn out... Come back on Friday, May 30th to see if my experiments work.

Thanks so much for stopping by today... Happy May, everyone!

Wednesday's Worktable - April Challenge Continued!

On my worktable today, I'm playing around with the combination of gold, red, and turquoise!

Earrings in the making!

How did I choose that particular color palette?

Let's just say that I was inspired by some of leftover "Farewell to Joanns" challenge beads:

Notice that the gold beads shown in the first photo can be seen here, too!

And I have more than just earrings on my worktable. I may or may not also be working on a tassel necklace:

Who am I kidding? I'm absolutely working on a tassel necklace. It's actually coming along nicely, too... I hope to show the finished result soon(ish).

Thanks so much for stopping by to see what I've been up to. I really am enjoying showing glimpses of my various projects... and I feel like I get more of a chance to talk about it than I do on Instagram. I definitely think I'll keep up this Wednesday Worktable trend for the time being. :) 

Oh! I've also been having fun preparing my May challenge... I'm pretty excited about it. Come by tomorrow to hear what I'll be working on.

Until then, have a wonderful day, everyone!

Wonder and Whimsy April 2025 Reveal: Farewell to Joanns

Well, here it is: monthly challenge reveal day. 

Hurray!

This challenge, as suspected, was a little bittersweet. Understandable, really, since the whole thing was centered around one of my favorite stores going out of business. It's always hard going into a dying store--seeing the bare shelves and disorder, and feeling the sheer sadness of everyone there.

But once I got home, and was able to look at all the treasures I bought... the only thing I could feel was grateful. Grateful for the memories, grateful for a chance to buy a few more special things--and now, grateful for a chance to share them with you.

When I introduced this challenge, I shared a sneak peak at some of the beads that I bought:

So now it's time to share some of the things I made!

First up, we had a necklace I made with the strand of golden bicones, barely visible in the center of the above photo:

From those beads, and some of the beads in my stash, I made this!

I really love how regal these beads feel, and I wanted them to be the star of the show. So, I fell back to my stringing, kept the design simple, and am very happy with the results.

Next up, I started designing with this strand (also vaguely visible in the sneak peak photo):

I actually made two designs with this strand. The first was very simple. Essentially, I just used that exact pattern, strung it, and added chain on the end:

It actually turned out really well. But then I got a little antsy, and decided to switch it up. (Partially because it wasn't quite long enough for my personal taste, and adding a 5 inch extender seemed rather silly. Oh, and I ran out of gold chain so I couldn't just redo the chain.) 

So, as a late night inspiration, I took another strand that I bought (not visible in the picture, and I forgot to photo it before I used it) and mixed all of the beads together.

This was the result!

I actually like this design a lot better. It's a little bit longer--which fits my personal taste just fine. It also feels a bit more unique--not just using the design from the original strand. 

And lastly, the weight of it is wonderful and rich--those beads are all actual metal, so it has just the right amount of heft.

I did make earrings to match, but I don't have pictures yet. I had so many ideas, that I just ran out of time.

And, speaking of ideas... here's the last finished piece I made for this challenge. (Notice I said finished piece--I do have at least two more in the making, but I imagine that this is going to be an ongoing challenge. I have a lot of beads to work with!)

Anyway, here are the beads!

To those beads (which, again, are visible in the sneak peak picture), I added some others that I had in my stash:

I love the combination of black, white, and dark red, so I brought in some of my garnets.

And from that mix, this is what I made!

I had so much fun making this necklace. I draped chain, added little dangly Hessonite garnets (which I teased you with on Wednesday), and went all out. When I make layered necklaces like this, I try to make the layers distinct and neat, but for this I tried to just make it organic and kind of wild.

I love the result.

I also tried to take some pictures to show how it lays when worn... these didn't turn out quite so great, but hopefully they give you a bit of an idea of the finished look:

So, there you go. Those are the pieces that I made for this challenge. A fitting tribute, I think, to a really wonderful store. Joanns might be going out of business, but I'll still have the memories of going there with friends and family, and learning new things. And, as I hinted at before... I have a lot of other beads that I bought. I'm sure I'll have more to share as time goes on!

Thanks for joining me today for this reveal. I appreciate still having people to share jewelry with. 

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!