Mother's Day 2013

from me and my cat. ( sorry about the oversized kitties, I can't figure out how to shrink the cats )

Earrings, Earrings, Earrings and a Trailer

Yes, earrings are my favorite thing to make . . . at the moment.

I really love how these turned out.

Chunky African turquoise, faceted turquoise, blue African tribal sand cast glass beads and Cornelian 

These are for sale at Solabee Floral & Botanical

902 SW Morrison - Portland, OR

Right now, this is the only pair- but I like these so much and have more of that yummy chunky turquoise, so I will be making more.

Black Mystic Quartz with faceted Pyrite

also at Solabee

Vintage Majong counting sticks with African sand cast glass beads

At Solabee  ~ this is their facebook link.

Vintage African clay beads with more tribal sand cast glass and white brass heishi trade beads from Kenya at Solabee.

Vintage Tukoman tribal rounds with more African tribal sand cast beads.

These are for sale at Boys Fort, located in downtown Portland, Or.

920 SW Morrison

( their web page is in the works ( please hurry ) and will most likely be: Boys Fort )

These Raku disks were added in as a thank-you for the other beads I ordered from Star Spirit Studio I'm hoping she will be listing more soon.

They are paired with lava, Ruby Picasso Czech and Sunflower Yellow Picasso Czech beads. 

I love these too much.  They are either on my ears or waiting for their turn.

Hand dyed Silk Cocoons - for real. I know, who would have thought, right? They are paired with some equally wonderful stick pearls. They weigh almost nothing at all. When you hold them in your hand, it feels like they could float away.

For sale at Solabee.

Love these.  Kept them.  For Now.

Sweet carved bone flowers and rounds with African sand cast beads and enameled headpins from 4ophelia on Etsy.

One of a kind - because there were only these two flowers in the small bag of vintage goods I picked up at the Plucky Maidens Show in Portland, Oregon.

Vintage Czech blue lamp work glass leaves (killer, aren't they?) with Picasso Jasper and Olive Jade.

For sale at Boys Fort 

You guessed it. 

Dyed Silk Cocoons with pearls and Ruby Picasso Czech and Sunflower Yellow Picasso Czech beads.

For sale at Solabee.

Gold leafed Prayer beads from Thailand sit inside aged metal washers. Below them are carved vintage bone beads and African sand cast glass.

These are available at Boys Fort.

Boys Fort & Solabee are having their GRAND OPENING

May 5th at 5 PM ( get it? 5, 5 @ 5 )

consider yourself invited - food, music, prizes and fun ~

Arm candy. It's fun to just layer them on.

 I'm working on some bracelets with a summer or beach theme that aren't listed, yet.

The silver MADAME cuff is available at Boys Fort, along with other silver cuffs, including one that says Monsieur - love those, too.

Then taking a completely different direction - My Walla Walla girlfriends, Catie and Shannon are opening up their very own mobil shop in a vintage travel trailer they call Haulin' Sass. 

Jealous, aren't you? ( I am )

They have a Facebook page that will keep you up to date on just where these ladies are going to be and when. 

 I made them some cute charm necklaces that are fun to layer and give as gifts.

Catie also owns  a  the wine shop in Walla Walla and is known as The Walla Walla Wine Woman 

If you want to know anything about wine in the Walla Walla area, she's your girl.

They are also in the planing stages of putting together some ' Glamping ' parties.

Knowing those two, it will be more fun than several ( wine ) barrels of monkeys.

xoxo

gretchen

Bead Soup Blog Hop 7

 Bead Soup Blog Hop 7 has begun ~

This is only the first of three reveals, with over 400 people taking part.

The captions below the photos explain which beads my partner, Joan Williams sent to me.

( I had a heck of a time with blogger now, of all times, so you'll just have to bear with me here, sorry. )

 The beads at the bottom of the cone and the striped beads in the center of this pair of earrings.

The two large center pieces, the blue above them ( that are so neat, I will have to track them down ) and the copper colored beads on the left of each. 

The brown carved center bead . . .

and the tiny blue beads at the bottom.

In this pair of earrings, it's the two striped center beads.

I jazzed up these old lock washers with some gold gilding.

The neat clay bead in the center of the deer hide bracelet 

and the two striped beads, next to the ostrich egg disks.

 On to the main event.  

This Queen Bee disk was a challenge. I first thought it would make a great bracelet charm, but the size was just too large. So I got out these curved tubes I've been wanting to play with and after a couple of tries, it came together. The clasp was also part of the soup, along with the small striped beads, you've seen in the earrings. 

 Here is the other side. How fun is this that you can wear it either way? 

The wonderful cuckoo clock chain was also from my partner, Joan.

This was the other focal that caught my eye . . .  literally.

I used more of the bead soup beads in the back part of this after wrapping the front with silk ribbon and wire.

After I took the photos, I could see that they could be worn together in several different combinations and I know that I will do just that. 

Be sure to visit my partner's blog at lilruby jewelry and see what she made with the soup I sent her.

Then go visit all the other fabulous blogs in this hop by clicking on the link below:

 Lori Anderson Bead Soup Blog Party

Happy Hopping ~