Crepuscule, design by Yoko Shimizu

Crepuscule, designed by Yoko Shimuzu

Crepescule: I have no idea what it means. Honestly I can’t even tell you what the name of the book is that this came out of, but I can tell you that the author is Yoko Shimizu.

It is an Ondori Book  and it says “Make the Accessories with the favorite gemstone beads to express my own way in fashion” on the front cover.

I’m not in Japan, so I don’t have access to the same supply opportunity that a Japanese Beader would, however, I did the best I could. My pearls are slightly larger than necessary so my bracelet is a bit longer. I don’t have a delicate wrist so it ended up working out well for me. Hooray! I also opted to go with a larger charm in an attempt to keep things proportional.

Crepuscule, pearl and quartz bracelet designed by Yoko Shimizu

This is my favorite Japanese bead book to look at. The photos are absolutely gorgeous. I love the simplicity of this design. The smaller pearls make Yoko’s bracelet look much more delicate than mine. It’s what I love most about the Japanese bead designs. They are so very feminine.

Gem Faire is coming up so I was looking through my books last night. There are so many pretty things that I want to make, but I don’t have enough of the smaller sized beads in my stash. 2mm and 3mm seem to be pretty popular in the Japanese bead books, so that is what I’ll be on the prowl for this weekend.

If you’d like to purchase this book your best bet is going to be on Ebay. This is what you are looking for.

Yoko Shimizu Bead Book

Sea Foam Drop Earrings, by Penelope

Sea Foam Drop Earrings

These ones are all me Baby!   I’m actually a really big fan of simple. I made this pair of earrings about three years ago and I absolutely adore them. The copper is starting to get a bit of a patina to it so I need to decide if I’m going to let them go or clean them up. Tough call, for now I’ll err on the side of lazy and leave well enough alone.

I actually made these to go with a necklace but the necklace appears to be MIA at the moment. About a month ago it was sitting on the mantle above the fireplace (where all necklaces should be). I think I moved it to a “safe place” so that I wouldn’t lose it, which in all reality means it’s probably as good as gone.

At any rate, I purchased these beads at gem Faire in Salt Lake City. I have no idea what they are, but my money  is on pretty glass. They actually remind me of sea glass. I disassembled a curved, copper, linked chain, faced the links in opposite directions and then joined them together with jump rings. These are fairly long earrings so they swing quite a bit when I wear them. I love them.

“Creative Crossings” designed by Noriko Romanko

Creative Crossings, designed by Noriko Romanko

This is the other erinite necklace that I made. Not only is this out of the same book “Creative Beading Volume 3”, but it is the preceding pattern and can be found on page 66. It was designed by Noriko Romanko and this particular one was assembled by me.  In the book they show it made with  crystals and pearls but I opted to go with just swarovski crystals. This is slightly shorter than the other necklace so it sits a bit closer to the neck.  I can see this one in clear crystals with a wedding gown. It’s very pretty.

Linked Crystal Squares designed by Jordana Hollander

Last week I wore a necklace that I made two and a half years ago. I found it while digging through a box and hung it on my handy dandy, new, low budget jewelry organizer. Now that I can see it, I’ve started  wearing it and can I just say  that I wasn’t expecting to get so many compliments on it. I had two people stop me to ask me about it. As it happens I took my older two to the pediatrician that day. When I took my youngest in two days later my pediatrician also wanted to know where I got that super pretty  necklace I was wearing two days earlier.

I’m not sure why I didn’t blog about it at the time of it’s construction. Looking at my rack I’ve actually got several pieces that I’ve not blogged about. I think something was wiped off the computer and I lost my ability to (easily) watermark my photos, or I just forgot how to do it.  At any rate, here it is.

Linked Crystal Squares

“Linked Crystal Squares”. Designed by Jordana Hollander. I found the pattern on page 69 of “Creative Beading”, Volume 3

I remember making this. Given my current lack of brain function that in of itself is a feat. At the time I had this brilliant idea that I’d buy a bunch of crystals in one color so that I had enough beads to make just about any intricate pattern.   Swarovski crystals add up quickly and there are tons of patterns I want to make. I figured I could  blog about it, take it apart and then use the beads to try a new pattern.  I bought a ton of erinite swarovski beads. I also bought some garnet beads. This was around valentines day. I remember it because I started with the two valentines necklaces and I did end up taking those apart, which sucks because I spent three hours looking for that garnet one last week. (which, incidentally is how I found this one)

The problem that I ran in to was that I made this necklace, and one other. I liked them both and I couldn’t decide which one to keep so I never took either one of them apart.  It’s a problem for me. Once I’ve got  a piece of jewelry I have a hard time letting it go. Only now I’ve got two necklaces in the exact same color combination and I don’t want to dismantle either one of them.

Needless to say, I’ve stopped using erinite beads for fear of flooding my jewelry box with redundant jewelry. But can I just say that Swarovski erinite beads look awesome with copper… and apaprently I’m not the only one who thinks so!