Summer Jewelry

 Lots of show and tell from summer beading projects.  Above and below are details from bracelets I made designed by the talented and creative Barb Klann, nationally published bead artist and member of my bead guild.  The bracelet above is 3 strands of St. Petersburg stitch attached with channels of right angle weave.

 The second bracelet shows details of a delightful right angle weave bracelet.

 Above are the two bracelets in full view.  I plan on wearing them as "sister" bracelets and hence I coordinated the colors.

 Caravan Beads has a great blog on their website and the bracelet above is from there.  I used blue iris beads in 3 sizes, 11, 8, and size 10 triangles.  Using the different sizes gives the bracelet the dimensional look.

 Wrap bracelets are fun and easy, but hard to photograph!  The ones above were made using size 2 seed beads, which are often used by knitters because they're so large.  These bracelets wrap around my wrist 3 times.

 Half the fun of a wrap bracelet is choosing the button! These bracelets use size 8 seed beads and some pewter beads to give them a little flair.

 Linda Richmond is one of my favorite designers and I've bought a lot of her kits over the years.  The set above comes from her and it's delightful.

 When I went to the Inspired by Nature retreat we made a garden bracelet, which you can see above.  The polymer clay beads are made by Heather Powers and then there are 6 passes of Zulu stitch using seed and fringe beads.

 When I went on the bead cruise I saw a woman wearing the bracelet above (hers was in navy blue) and she was generous enough to share the pattern with me.  Again, it's another bracelet that changes the sizes of the beads, 8,11, and 15, which creates the ruffle.

 A few years ago Leslee Frumin came to our bead guild and taught the crystal part of this necklace.  I added my own strap, the now favorite St. Petersburg stitch.  Leslee is a member of our guild and used to live in Michigan.  She now lives in CA but luckily comes back to teach.  Her designs are fabulous!

 Marcia DeCoster is another teacher that we're lucky to have teach in our guild.  The above photo shows detail of a bezeled cab that is actually designed to be a bracelet.  I like necklaces, so I made it into one, using, once again, the St. Petersburg stitch.

Here is a full photo of the necklace.  If you look at most of the pieces I made this past summer, you will notice I used a lot of blue!  I love blue - it is the color of the sky, the sea, the Great Lakes.  It is an integral color of nature and surrounds us in our daily life.  For me, being a Pisces, I always feel connected to blue and find it both soothing and stimulating.

Hope you've enjoyed my summer tour!