Woodland Flora Pendant - Free Project

Whip up a woodland inspired pendant in just a few minutes for some instant nature charm! My new Renaissance Faux Copper Leaf Pendant is combined with a colorful collection of Czech glass. The beads swing from a branch toggle clasp. 

Supplies:
Polymer clay leaf pendant (1 1/4" long) 
10 Czech glass beads
Branch toggle clasp
28" copper plated chain
10 2" ball headpins
12.5 mm jump ring
4 8mm jump rings 
2 5mm jump rings

Tools needs: wire cutters, chain nose, flat or bent nose and round nose pliers.

1. String one glass bead on a ball headpin, create a wrapped loop by wrapping the wire under the headpin twice tightly and two-three times over the top to create a messy wrapped look. Trim excess wire with wire cutters. Repeat with remaining 9 glass beads.

2. Attach an 8mm jump ring to the leaf pendant. 

3. On the 12.5mm jump ring string on the leaf pendant and three of the glass bead dangles on each side of the pendant. 

4. Use an 8mm jump ring to attach the 12.5mm jump ring to the ring of the toggle clasp.

5. Use an 8mm jump ring to attach 2 of the larger glass bead dangle to the bottom of the ring of the toggle clasp on one side of the pendant. Repeat on the other side of the pendant.

6. Use 5mm jump rings to attach the ends of the chain to the bar and ring of the toggle clasp. 

If a shorter chain is desired use either 24" or 20" length chain. 

I'm offering a few kits for the necklace in my Etsy shop.

Sometimes in my Humblebeads VIP Party Facebook group I'll ask for suggestions for new beads. One that caught my eye and pulled my muse in was the request for a leaf that would work with my bird beads. Challenge accepted! 

I had a mold from leaves from my front yard and wanted to make a pendant that was romantic, lush and felt like that fit the woodland feel of my birds. I love them and have been having fun using them in my designs. 

Halfcraft + Humblebeads: Pretty Palettes Challenge

I was invited this month to participate in Halcraft's Pretty Palette Challenge this month. I was gifted an assortment of beads in hues of peach, orange, green and brown. I loved the earthy combination and pulled out some art beads to help add a story to this lovely collection of glass, stones and wood.

For those of us in the north that weather through dark, cold and grey winters, it takes quite a bit of faith to trust that the promise of spring is right around the corner by March. Even thought a snowflake may still fall this time of year, once I hear the birds sing for the first time in spring I know the world will soon wake up. I wanted this necklace to capture that faith in the promise of spring!

For this first necklace I used 1mm gold leather from Classic Elements and strung on those gorgeous wood disks from Halcraft. I paired one of my Gilded Bramble Birds and Diane Hawkey word bead in shades of green. 

I was pleasantly surprised that those green jasper chips had large enough holes for the leather, but they did! I don't think I've used chip beads since my beginning days of jewelry making. I have to say I like their organic, rustic look. 

I used some of the seed beads sent in a mix of beads and finished the design with a leaf button.

This design used more the seed beads from the Halcraft mix. I strung them on headpins to make a tiny tassel with an enamel leaf from Gardanne Beads. I wrapped a wire nest for my Gilded Bramble Bird. 

I had one wooden disk bead left, so I didn't want to waste that! I used another word bead from Diane Hawkey that was the perfect color and sentiment. On the pearl leather cord I strung wood beads from the Halcraft stash. 

(I'll be sharing how to make wire nests for your birds and other beads today on Facebook live at 2pm EST. https://www.facebook.com/humblebeadspage/) 

When I saw these ceramic beads in my package I was both delighted and little scared. These are some big beads girls! I actually almost bought them last month but chickened out because of their size. My goal for this necklace was to make something I'd wear, so I thought simple, little nature thrown in but let those big beads do the talking.

I really love the mottled finish on the beads, they reminded me of my Monarch Beads, so I pulled those out from my stash along with those oval wood beads. The round wood beads are from Halcraft.

I strung on the large beads and used a spacer before I knotted the 1mm leather cord that I used for the necklace. I knotted between all the other beads and finished this necklace with adjustable knots. Simple, but fun and something I'd totally wear.

My last design is a knotted bracelet on waxed linen cord. I really went out of my comfort zone with those bright orange glass lentils. But as soon as I saw this tiny heart charm from Mary Harding I knew I could pull it off.

I used one of my Wooden House beads and another Monarch Disk with the glass lentils, quartzite and dye jade beads along with a few more wooden beads. I love how the blue of waxed linen is part of the design throughout the bracelet. 

I want to thank Molly for inviting me to join in the fun this month and a big thanks to Halcraft for providing the beads and inspiration! 

Stop over to the Halcraft blog to see more creations inspired by this month's Pretty Palette challenge and to learn more about the beads. 

Gilded Bramble Birds, Monarch Beads and Wooden House beads can all be found at my website, www.humblebeads.com. 

20 Earring Inspirations

From quick and easy gifts to the bread & butter at craft shows - you can never have too many earrings or too many earring inspirations! Here are 20 fabulous designs featuring Humblebeads. 

One of the best things about using Humblebeads for earrings - they weigh next to nothing, so even bold designs can be worn all day.

Did you know most people who have sensitivity to earring wires are having a reaction to the nickel in base metal?  A simple and affordable solution are nickel-free natural brass earwires. I couldn't wear earrings for years until I discovered Vintaj's brass earwires.  People who are highly sensitive find that niobium earwires are another great choice.

Feathers & Leaves

Leaves and feathers are still quite popular, the geometric dagger shapes are on trend for summer and fall. 

Feather charms mixed with enameled headpins and glass.

Willow Headpins mixed with Czech glass, copper acorn bead caps and buri nut beads.

Frosted Leaf Charms mixed with jump rings and faceted brass beads.

Headpins make super quick earrings - you can get creative with the wire like I did in the Wire Rosebud Tutorial on my website. 

Charming Pairs

Looking for something charming? Try creating earrings with tiny charms, you can keep them simple with a little wire-wrapping or jump ring embellishments or pair them up with beads. 

Pair Falling Leaf Charms and wire for a simple design. 

 Or get fancy with the wire and create nests like I did in this pair with my Meadowlark charms.

Try creating a pair styled after my Spring Forest Earrings. 

Layer tiny charms with metal charms like I did with these Tiny Acorn charms and brass leaves that have been colored with a patina.

Sandy Shores Starfish Charms are perfectly paired up with copper wire spirals and copper rings for a surf and sun inspiration. 

Wire & Humblebeads

Wire and Humblebeads opens up a world of design possibilities. From making your own earwires to creating wire elements, get creative with wire in all different gauges and metals to see what you can create.

Use 20 gauge half-hard sterling silver wire to create your own earwires to embellish with beads. For this pair I used Willow Disk beads with a bit of sari ribbon that was ruffled unto the wire. 

A little bit of sterling silver wire and disk beads and you can create the spiral earrings in my Candy Cane Earring tutorial. 

Use wire to transform these Matchstick Charms into flower stems. Click here for the tutorial.

I love making wire nests and used steel wire with my Tiny Eggs for the cutest earrings ever!

Disk Beads & Spacers

Dangles, dangles, dangles - I pair up tiny wobbles with pewter charms and beads for some of my favorite earring designs. I love mixing brass with the pewter, they warm up the design and offer more choices for matching your earrings with other jewelry. 

Try stacking tiny spacer beads for a fun effect like I did in the Totem Earring tutorial here.

 Pair up my tiny wobble beads for a interesting little touch of color to your earring designs.

Tell a story with your bead shapes. The Willow Disk beads in this design play the part of meadow while the copper beads look like beehives and the tiny brass faceted beads like honeycombs. 

Another Willow Disk bead (can you tell I like them for earrings!) are matched up with pewter charms that have been given a patina treatment with Swellegant paint. I used a ball headpin to create a wire bail for the flowers.

Go long with a dramatic charm like these copper oak leaves paired up with Bittersweet Disk beads. The results, pure fall inspiration!

Hammered Metal and Disk Beads

Whether you are cutting your own metal pieces or using commercially offered blanks, pull out those texturing hammers and sheets and go to town making your own focals for earrings.

I pulled out some copper and a texturing hammer and paired the rectangles up with disk beads for a very artsy combination.

This layered look started with Arte Metal blanks for Vintaj and bronze dangles from Nina Designs. I textured the blanks with a ball peen hammer and paired them up with a set of my Art Nouveau Peacock Disk beads.

Pin to Win! 
Since today is July 25 I'm feeling a little Christmas in July-ish and rather gifty.  So I'm going to give away a $30 Humblebeads gift certificate this weekend.

To play:
Pin any 3 of these earring inspirations to Pinterest and leave a comment here letting me know you did. On Sunday morning I will randomly pick one comment as the winner.

Share Your Creations:
Bonus entry: Use the Inlinkz tool below to share a pair of earrings you've made using Humblebeads. (Each link will count as one bonus entry.)

An InLinkz Link-up

Designing Dilemma

So without any grand plan last night I sat down to make some new memory wire bracelets. I threw some colors into the bead spinner and away I spun in some zen-like beading trance. I needed a mental distraction for the evening. I think it's called procraftinating (that's procrastinating crafting). 

40+ bracelets later and my peanut seed bead stash almost depleted I started to formulate what to do with these awesome stacks of bracelet-y goodness. 

At first I thought I would make some tiny willow headpins to coordinate with them, but as I looked at my mountain of bracelets I realized they were the colors of the butterfly wings I had been creating last week. And so I whipped up some headpins to go with them.

And doing some further contemplation on what to do with 40 bracelets had me thinking of where I would sell them which led to a momentary dilemma. I would like to take some of them to our local Center for Arts where I have a collection of jewelry. 

I live in a small, conservative farming community that enjoys a crazy summer tourist season thanks to the beautiful shores of Lake Michigan. I've struggled with finding the right local venue and of course I could adjust what I make and throw on some tiny bead charms like the bracelet above, which would give me a lower price point and make them more sell-able. And it's a cute bracelet and all, but, meh...

It's hard to settle when I know adding these beauties to the bracelet will do some serious magic.

Wowzer, note to self: don't settle as a designer. Just don't!

Look at what I could have missed out on making if I had settled to make something just to sell them quickly. These are little works of art, these stand out, these are unique. These make my heart sing.

I will take some down to the local art center and work on marketing them there. But I will also sell them on my website where I can connect to those who are looking for something beyond the ordinary.  I just can't make things to fit the local market. I need to make things I love and then go out and find my market. My time is too limited to make things that are ho-hum.

Working with Linen Cord and Humblebeads

This summer I have been making jewelry in between my crazy beadmaking sessions.  This is a pendant I whipped up the other day.  I can't get enough of tiger lilies.  I'm also loving waxed linen and just ordered some more from White Clover Kiln. (Check them out!)  I'm gearing up to do a few craft shows/markets to sell my work.  I miss doing shows, chatting with folks, meeting new artists, seeing my jewelry go off to good homes.  Yep, all sweet stuff.

So something I've discovered is that the holes on my pendants just aren't quite large enough for waxed linen, but I have super easy fix to share with you.  This works whether you need to enlarge a whole for a bigger jump ring or a cord.

 

Required tool: Round Nose Pliers

Stick the tip of the pliers in the hole and give it a little push, slow and gentle until you make the hole big enough for your cord.  This only works if you need a slightly bigger hole.  I wouldn't suggest doing this to enlarge the hole more than a 1 or 2 mm bigger.

 

I'm thinking this is super cute for quick and simple pendants with my tiny charms.  I'm making these to sell at the Farmers Market - if I can get a booth.  It's a little tough getting in around here, but I'll try my luck in a few weeks.

Blog special: buy 4 tiny charms and get one free.  When you check out include in the note section which charm you'd like as your bonus one!   This special is good until Friday.  

Tiny Charms
 

Seeing Red

Are you scared of red?  I tend to shy away from this color myself.  I would be hard pressed to find red beads in my stash, other than the few that I have created. 

I think it's because I'm never sure what to do with it. 

There are so many pitfalls with red:

Red + Green = Holiday
Red + Purple = Red Hat Ladies
Red + Black = Vampire
Red + Pink = Valentine

I think the trick to red and I could be wrong, but my thought is it to pair it neutrals - like charcoal gray, smokey quartz, earthy browns (like wood) and creams.  And then throw in several bright colors like these:

(Images from Pinterest - sorry, they weren't attributed.) 

Red + Teal + Yellow + Green

Red + Orange + Red + Purple

Red + Teal + Orange + Purple

I've been looking through images of bohemian styles and Indian cultures and how they pair red with other colors.  Layer on textures and fibers to give red a rich backdrop.  I also like the idea of mixing patterns like floral with geometric designs.  Several necklaces or bracelets paired together offer a bolder statement that are so in for this summer.  Chain and silk in varying lengths are an easy way to add layers with several larger pendants.

Hopefully this will give you some inspiration for playing around with bolder colors.  I know I'm looking forward to creating jewelry inspired by summer's trendier styles.

 Poppies and other red beads can found in my Etsy shop.

Clever You!

I love seeing what you guys do with your Humblebeads.  You can share you links or photos on my Facebook page.  Today my friend Rose Noble sent me the link to this necklace - she totally rocked my tiny charm into an eye-catching pendant.  Love lemon and teal!

Fellow ABS blogger Rebbecca Anderson created this garden-inspired bracelet with one of my dogwood beads.  Love the tiny wisps of threaded knots between the beads.

My dear friend Erin Prais-Hintz used my beads in this FABU tutorial and feature on the B'Sue Boutiques website.  This is going to be an ongoing series with Erin using art beads paired up with the product line from B'Sue Boutiques, so it's one to watch.  Erin always inspires me and amazes me with what she can create.  Now, the sad news is I don't make these pendants anymore.  I couldn't get consistent results even with using the exact same materials - but I think this bracelet would be pretty fantastic with my new Hibiscus pendants or even the dogwood pendants above.  You can find the tutorial here.

My final show and tell today is a fun pair of earrings from the talented designer and long time bead buddy Lorelei Eurto.  She makes it looks so effortless.  She paired up my disks with some ceramic charms from Elaine Ray.

You know what I would love to see? Your projects inspired by my book or the projects in there.  Have you made something inspired by Jewelry Designs from Nature? 

Now I have you all worked up to pull out your Humblebeads right?  Heck yeah!  So guess what I'm also offering 20% off in my Etsy shop for today and tomorrow.  Sweet inspiration sent right to your door.  Use discount code BLOOMING when you check out.

Happy Creating!