Beading Supplies - Create Fashionable Accessories From Excess Supplies

These necklaces used to be trash among my beading supplies before. They're excess pieces which I didn't know what to do before. But since I started this hobby again, my creative juices, as well as my sense of inspiration and motivation to create and/or reconstruct pieces just keep on flowing.

I couldn't sleep last night so here are the necklaces I did:

These are made of leather strings. At both ends of the string, I attached some semi-precious stones. This style is quite versatile because you can wrap it around your neck, any way you want, to get the desired effect that can match your clothes.

~~~oOo~~~

For this one below, I also used a leather string. The center piece was actually a center piece for one of my old shoes. before I threw away those shoes of mine, I took out the center piece and used it to make a unique necklace piece instead. ^_^ It's fun turning trash into something pretty.

~~~oOo~~~

For this one below, I again used the remainder of my leather strings and just put various semi-precious stones and glass beads as pendant.The strings don't have locks in them, meaning, they're free flowing and you can tie them anyway you want to.

~~~oOo~~~

This one below used to be much longer and it was missing a lot of beads. I reconstructed it by cutting and re-attaching the wire, making sure that the pearls are placed symmetrically. Now, I can use it once more.

~~~oOo~~~

This one below is another broken necklace which has a missing pendant. I added a lobster claw clasp and hook at both ends and added a Carnelian piece of gemstone as pendant. Carnelian helps energize the blood, prevents lower back problems and diseases in the reproductive organs, kidneys, lungs, liver, gallbladder, and pancreas. It also enhances creativity and concentration, plus it brings about prosperity.

~~~oOo~~~

I've had this bronze pendant with studded stones since forever, plus these bluish ivory and bronze earrings I never wear. I just figured, maybe I can used some ribbons to form a necklace, that can match the color of the earrings. I'm not yet done with the locks because I was already quite sleepy by then. So in the mean time, I tied both ends with safety pins instead. Quite avant garde, I think. ^_^

Making something beautiful out of supposed trash or excess crafts and beading supplies can really be fun. Now that I think about it, I also have a few real silver and pearl pieces that need repair as well. I hope to get my hands on them soon.

Til my next post. ^_^

Jewelry Beads - Restarting An Old Hobby

Howdy!

I told you I'll be back sooner. When June started, I felt kind of pressured with the fact that it's already the middle of the year, and so far, I have only accomplished a few things on my new year's resolutions list. It's a good thing that I have been studying about beading at work and it inspired me to to once again create jewelry beads like I did before! Yup, I used to make and sell my own creations from 2004-2006. Then life happened and I got too busy doing other things. But now, I really feel like letting my creative juices flow once again. I know I'm a little bit rusty. In fact, when I restructured some old pieces I have and made some new ones, my hands were a bit shaky while I was handling the long nose and other beading supplies and tools. But I don't mind. Practice makes perfect and in so doing, it helps me feel a lot happier and more relaxed.

Let me show you the two sets I did so far:

This golden butterfly jewelry beads set is made up of tiny glass beads, mother of pearl and a thin, hard, golden butterfly foil (I don't exactly know what it's called but it can be bought at Simple Joy crafts store). The earrings have additional magnetic beads at the bottom to add weight when worn.



This second set of jewelry beads set is made up of semi-precious stones namely:

• Agate - This is a micro crystalline kind of quartz silica. It is one of the ancient stones in recorded history. It brings physical balance, strength, healing, protects the wearer against bad dreams and reduces stress.
• Amazonite - This is also called the Lucky Hope Stone or the "Amazon stone". It is a green types of of microcline feldspar. It helps calm the nervous system, brings about creativity and improves physical stamina (which I need because there are still other projects I want to accomplish before the year ends).
• Goldstone - This is a kind of glass created with copper or copper salts in the presence of a reduced flame. It helps add vitality and energy.
• Herkimer Diamond - This name is actually quite misleading. It is double-terminated quartz crystals. It was first discovered in the exposed outcrops of the town of Dolostone at Little Falls in Herkimer County, New York as well as the Mohawk River Valley. It helps release physical stress and tension and discharges toxicity from your system.
• Unakite - This is also called epidote, which came from the Greek epidosis, which means "growing together". It is a combination of green epidote and red jasper that were solidly bound together. It is used to draw off negative energy, tends to lift your spirits when you are not feeling happy, and helps you to see the positive things in your life, to name a few.

I also included some oval glass beads for the bracelet and multicolored coconut beads for the necklace.


Now that I've once again started making and wearing jewelry beads, it's no wonder that I feel happier and more relaxed as of late. These jewelry beads are not just used to enhance the getup of the wearer, but they also aid in bringing about wellness.

Ciao for now! I wanna make more jewelry beads which I will share with you on my next post. ^_^

Wishing for the Moon this June

Wow, I've already reached half of this year and yet, I still haven't done a lot of the things that I have placed on my resolution list when 2010 started. Let's see what I wrote on my list last January:

• 1. Soap Making
• 2. Level 2 of Drums
• 3. Baking
• 4. Guitar playing (must memorize 4 songs)
• 5. Painting
• 6. Candle Making
• 7. Spa Making
• 8. Scuba Diving
• 9. Wind Surfing
• 10. Surfing
• 11. Making Beaded Accessories
• 12. Driving
• 13. Biking
• 14. Play Keyboards (must memorize 2 songs)
• 15. Tarot Card Reading
• 16. Cooking My Own Dishes
• 17. Reading My Books
  

It's all been about work, work and more work since last month but I'm not complaining much. I am happy that somehow, I am compensated for a job that I enjoy doing... that somehow, despite the many financial obligations Peter and I have been facing as of late, we're still able to manage them all.

Like Peter said, it just so happened that these obligations came in one big wave (house and car mortgages, MRI & Fire insurance, registration of 2 cars, sky high electricity bills, unexpected Nikon D40 repair, life/health/personal accident insurances plus the usual credit card and utility bills). That's more than Php100k down the drain in one go. I guess this is what being a mature adult is all about --- the fact that we can make some simple sacrifices in the hopes of big returns in the future (Yup, 2.5 more years for the car and 7 more years for the house! And come August, I shall be getting one of my insurance claims. Yes!)

And even if we haven't been traveling much these days, even if we haven't been spending on simple luxuries, even if we're just always at home watching DVDs, cooking our own food, spending quality time together... we're still happy, healthy and content most of the time. I think these are the things that matter the most.

On another note, I have been more active on blogging these days. To wit:

• I overhauled my fashion site and included Hollywood celebrity news and gossips in it.
• I am a very much active baby wiccan as of late. I always do tarot card readings, spells, and further enhance my psychic development which I share to my readers.
• I manage to update my travel blog almost everyday.
• I manage to also update my food blog more regularly than before (at least once a week).

And because I am back to my meditation practices, and regularly read my self-help books, I also plan to squeeze into my busy schedule a little time to update my self-help and bookwoorm blogs as well.

What else did I miss?


The only time we got out of the house last month was when we went to Enchanted Kingdom Biki Water World to cover the Crocs event. I had fun watching the fashion show and I was so awed by the magic tricks performed by a magician afterward.


What else...

Oh, Peter and I will be celebrating our 8th wedding anniversary on June 8! We didn't plan anything special. Both of us will be working on that day. And I'm still not sure if we will go ahead with our Dumaguete trip scheduled for June 10-15 coz Peter may not have enough vacation leaves to cover the trip plus we're a bit reluctant to spend money. The plane tickets have already been paid for last March. It's the hotel and other travel expenses that I'm really worried about. Hopefully, after I do some financial check-up, some funds will be left for that trip. If not, well, it's not the end of the world. And hopefully, the weather will cooperate too. It's been raining hard these days. Though I very much welcome the cold and rainy weather, it is not conducive for traveling.

I guess that's pretty much it for now. I'll try to do some beaded jewelry today plus play with my drums and guitar. And maybe try to do a jar of body scrub too! ^_^

Ciao for now! Update you again next month. Or perhaps sooner. ^_^