Friday Feature: dagger jewelry

In honor of one of my newest pieces, I decided to search for dagger jewelry on Etsy this week for the first time in ages. Enjoy.

Beaded Cuff Bracelet - Dagger Fringed - Green Red Purple by randomcreative

Agni Fire & Gold Earrings by AMermaidHeart

Rainbow colorful soutache earrings, turquoise, red, orange, yellow, leaf, dagger beads, swarovski crystals for summer by agtesa

Daggers bracelet, Czech glass daggers, Tangerine bracelet, orange dagger braelet, brass finish by CHARMATIONS

Geometrical Green Spike Earring Fiber Jewelry Long Earrings by LavenderField

Bad Girl dagger necklace with colorful separators by FlirtyBJewelryDesign

continuing my lines: newest rock garden and dagger bracelets

I listed my newest rock garden bracelet last week.

It's available here.  I am so happy that this line continues to do well because 1) the pieces are so much fun to make and 2) my purple rock garden bracelet is one of my favorite pieces to wear.  I'm always scouting new small Czech glass in green, blue, and purple for these pieces.  I used a wide variety of Czech glass shapes included several different types of leaves.  I was able to pick up some new dark purple seed beads in Iowa City before we left, which was a relief, because that finish is awesome.  I have a longer version of this bracelet available, too.  If you're interested, let me know.

I also listed my newest dagger bracelet last week.  I know that I keep saying that I won't make anymore until I sell one and yet I seem to keep making them.

It's available here.  I bought some extra green daggers a while back for this piece.  I didn't know for sure how many daggers I would be getting from Art Beads because there was a little mix up with part of my order.  I don't know why I didn't do this sooner!  Some of you may remember this post where I shared the first version of this piece, which had a big mistake that I realized much too late to rip out.  I love the final result, though, especially with the green seed bead fringe.

Amazingly I don't have any more rock garden or dagger bracelets in the works right now, but as always, I'm open to suggestions.

some of my favorite colors

My most recent listings on Etsy have two of my favorite colors.

This one is available here. The pictures really don't do justice to the turquoise tint in this blue.  Trust me that in person, the turquoise is stunning.  I made a bunch of these shell bracelets a while back when I couldn't keep enough purple shells in stock.  I got out of the habit of listing them, though.  I have matching earrings for this piece that I'll get up at some point.  If you're interested now, let me know.

This bracelet is available here.  I sold a button charm bracelet with this color palette a couple years ago.  It's taken me a while to collect enough lime green buttons to make another one.  I know that this is not everyone's favorite color, but I haven't gotten sick of it yet.  Usually I use slightly smaller seed beads as the embellishment for my button charm bracelets.  Amazingly, I don't have any of that size in lime right now so I went with the next size up.  I like the slightly chunkier look.

I also have a couple new projects in the works with more all-time favorite colors.  I'm one of Kristie's (artisanclay) guest design team members.  I don't participate every month like the regular members, but I get to participate once or twice a year.  I'm doing my first piece for the team in August.

I picked the middle purple donut in the bottom row.  I'm planning to make a beaded bail for it and then a beaded rope for the necklace.  Personally I would pair it with a simple chain because I don't like heavy necklaces.  But I'm going to challenge myself on this and try something new with the rope.

 

 I was able to find delicas that fit with the donut from my personal collection so I don't have to order anything.  You'll have to trust me that the beads on the top right have a purple hint in person and will compliment the other purple beads and the donut perfectly.  I'm planning to use the champagne beads for the rope.

In other news, I started this lovely piece last week.

I made a glitch in the dagger fringe.  I screwed something up with the side fringe, and it threw everything off.  I didn't realize it until much later, so I scrapped it and am starting over.  I still love the overall look of the piece.  The final result will be very similar.

Finally, my strawberry challenge piece is in the works.

"What's Old is New Again" Art Beads design partners piece

Typically I complete my Art Beads pieces about three weeks after the themes are announced.  I got the initial e-mail for the spring theme at the very end of March and didn't complete my piece until this past Sunday.  The size for one of my bead sets was mislabeled on the Art Beads site.  It took a couple weeks to get a new set of something similar in the right size.  I've also been busy with custom orders (no complaints there!) and all of the moving and graduation stuff.  But I finished it and am really happy with the result.

The theme for the Art Beads design partners is "What's Old is New Again."  We were supposed to use any old or vintage inspired components with or without new components to create a brand new piece.  I didn't have any initial idea for the theme.  I started browsing the suggested site categories and came across these patina daggers in the glass beads category.  I'm sure that it's no surprise that I was immediately drawn to them.  I've been eying some similar ones in Shannon's shop for a while, but hadn't bought any yet.  This was the perfect opportunity to use them.  The whole set with orange, lime, turquoise, and purple reminded me of the 70's, which fit perfectly for this theme, so I decided to go with it.

Once I was set on the patinas, I hunted through my own bead stash for cube and seed beads in coordinating colors.  I supplied all of these myself, although three of the cube bead sets were ones that I'd purchased from Art Beads on my own.  You can see my sneak peak post about this here.  I filled in the patina daggers with orange, lime, and transparent green daggers.  I love the dagger beads on Art Beads, but as I've posted about here before, it's cheaper to buy them in bulk elsewhere.  Usually I get a few unusual designs from Art Beads and fill them in with bulk solid colors.

This is the first dagger bracelet that I've made with side fringe.  I used coordinating orange and lime pressed Czech glass beads, along with the seed beads, with the same technique that I use for my other skinny fringed/embellished bracelets.  If you want links for the specific Czech glass that I used in this piece, let me know.

Art Beads has several awesome triangle clasps in their clasp category.  I choose this one because it was vintage inspired and has the circles on it, which mirror the ones on the patinas.  Normally I would have used a button from my own collection, but we need two product categories for our pieces, so this was a perfect way to make that happen.

I decided to name the piece after That '70s Show.  I thought that this would be appropriate as I grew up in the 80's and got my inspiration for this retro color combination from my own generation's pop culture.

I love the way the colors came together in this piece.  I also love the side fringe.  I think that the size and shape of the beads that I chose worked really well as a little border.  I may experiment with similar fringe in the future.

It's available here.  I collected some new green daggers in the process of making this bracelet so I'm planning an all green dagger bracelet in the future.  That's the only dagger piece that I have in the works right now, but as always I'm open to other suggestions.

Disclosure - I received my ArtBead's products free of charge through their blogging program. I am honestly reviewing their products and have not been paid for my endorsement as it pertains to the products I received.

Art Beads sneak peak

The Art Beads blog design team got details this week about our newest challenge: "What's Old is New Again!"  Of course my mind immediately went to work because I can never resist placing my blog order with them as soon as possible.  I have a lot of the cube and seed beads that I need for my idea.

As you can see, I'm using an orange, lime green, turquoise, and purple color palette.  I'm actually going to substitute the purple cubes for some darker matte finish ones from Art Beads.  And yes, this is going to be another dagger piece.  I'm going to use the wasabi and orange daggers on the right as well as some transparent green and patina daggers that I'm ordering.

Some of you may remember that I made a dagger piece for the last Art Bead challenge.  The color palette and theme will be totally different for this.  I'm also going to add some side embellishment and substitute a metal clasp for my typical button clasp.  Yep, I have about a couple hundred vintage buttons in my own collection and could easily pick out something awesome, but we need 2 main product categories for our piece so the metal clasp is a perfect way to make that happen.  I found a neat retro one.  I love how it has the circles in it, which will coordinate perfectly with the patina daggers.  I won't have any true vintage components, but I will have vintage inspired components, which is okay for this challenge, and the piece will have a definite retro feel.

I should have my order within the next week and will have more news about this piece soon.

another garden dagger piece

I keep saying that I'm almost done listing my dagger pieces.  But this really is the last one for now.  It's available here.  Someone has to buy one before I invest in any more dagger beads!

I started over with the fringe three times before I finally got a color balance that I liked.  Too much green and red made the purple disappear almost entirely.  I realized that I hadn't created another dagger piece that had the same finish for all of the daggers, and it's tough.  I still wish that the purple were a little more vivid, but overall, I'm happy with it.  It's darker than my other garden dagger piece.  Hopefully it will be just as popular.

next dagger piece and more treasury love

In the last post that I made about my dagger line, I said that I only had one more dagger piece to list for now.  But I was wrong.  I actually have two more.  I kept forgetting about this one!

My original dagger fringed piece was blue so I think in my mind, this was already in my listed inventory.  It's not, though, because it sold.  The new one is available here.  You can't go wrong with blue.  There isn't much else to say about that.

This week started out with two new treasury features.  Anna (Annahatvani) included my Beaded Cuff Bracelet - Dagger Fringed - Neutral in her Silver White Winters - Beaded Beauties by EBW Team treasury.  I hope that everyone knows where the treasury title comes from!  This is an absolutely stunning mix of beaded pieces.

Glenda and April (rougeriverbeads) included my Button Bracelet - Black and White (small) in their Black and White with a Splash of Pink treasury.

daggers are popping up again

I listed another dagger piece this week: Beaded Cuff Bracelet - Dagger Fringed Neutral.

A few of these beads are samples that I got from Shannon (beadsandbabble).  She doesn't have any like them listed now, but they have amazing leopard-ish (but darker colors) detail.  Most of the other daggers are from Art Beads that I've been slowly collecting with a few others pieces thrown into the mix.

I know that I usually stick to lots of colors but neutral pieces can be amazing, too.  I'll be listing two more dagger pieces in the next couple weeks.  Then I need people to start buying from this lovely new line so I can keep purchasing more daggers!

Also on the subject of daggers, Glenda and April (rougeriverbeads) included my Beaded Cuff Bracelet - Dagger Fringed - Fall in their Natural Beauty treasury this week.

the dagger obsession continues

I was not in a good mood earlier this week about the weather, the road conditions/native's attitude and opinions about said weather and roads in Iowa, and my general state of being at this point in Jake's last year of med school.  I decided to list the next piece in my dagger line to lift my spirits a little.  So here it is: Beaded Cuff Bracelet - Dagger Fringed - Pink Garden.

Like the first dagger piece that I listed, this is another one that features daggers from Etsy's own TheDespinaCollection.  I also have finished dagger pieces in blue, neutral, and purple/red/green (another garden look).  Now I just need to photograph them!

new line (with the pattern) is up and running

My new dagger fringed line is officially up and running!  You got a sneak peak of it during my Art Beads winter piece post, but now they're up for sale.  I actually listed (and sold) the first one at the end of 2010.  I'd had those blue daggers sitting around FOREVER because they were awesome, but I had no idea exactly how I wanted to create a full fringed cuff.  When I finally did put it together, I completely fell in love with it.  This may be like another version of my leaf obsession.

So I got a bunch of new daggers and have been creating new dagger pieces since Christmas.  I decided to list the one that I made for the pattern since I listed the pattern at the same time I listed this first piece.  Here it is: Beaded Cuff Bracelet - Fringed - Fall.  (Wrong time of year I know, but these colors are so gorgeous that they'll carry you through any season.)

The majority of the Czech dagger beads in this bracelet are from Etsy's own TheDespinaCollection.  She does not have a huge selection of dagger beads, but the ones that she does have are amazing.  There are a couple sets I haven't ordered yet, but I most likely will at some point in the future.

I have blue (similar to the original), a couple garden that are garden themed, and neutrals ready to go that'll be up throughout February.  That's all I have planned at this point, but as always, I'm open to other suggestions.  And for now, here is the pattern. :)

winter Art Beads piece

For the winter Art Beads piece for the design partner program, we were allowed to choose any components that we wanted from the Art Beads site for a winter piece.  An idea came to mind for a winter piece about 24 hours after I got my e-mail.  I ordered my beads right away.  You can see the components that I used here.

As I mentioned in my post with the components, this piece is part of my new line.  I have to be honest: I am keeping this one.  But I am starting to list other pieces from the line in my shop.  I'll have a post about that and the pattern for the line later this week (or you can go to my shop now if you can't wait to see what's already available).  And as always, if anyone wants one with this particular color scheme, please let me know.  I'm always happy to do custom orders.

All of the beads that I selected for this piece are from the glass beads section of Art Beads.  I used Toho cube beads and Czech dagger beads.  The majority of the beads in the piece are from Art Beads with a few others from my personal collection thrown into the mix.  If you want to know any of the specific colors that I used, please let me know.  I'll be honest again: I DO order a lot of my Toho cubes from Art Beads.  I normally DON'T order my dagger beads from Art Beads.  I order them elsewhere in bulk.  But I watch for sales on Art Beads.  Throwing a few of their patterned daggers into a mix with solid color opaques and AB finishes can add a wonderful hint of detail.

I selected two "special" components for this piece.  Most of my dagger fringed bracelets won't have these, but I thought it would be a neat touch with this mix.  The first component is a button from their Swarovski collection.  As you know, I love all buttons.  The Swarovski buttons are pretty cool.  The second component is a sterling silver charm from their charm collection.  You can find that charm right here.  I normally order silver plated charms because they're considerably cheaper.  However, sometimes I like to splurge on some higher end pieces through the design program.  I'm a sucker for heart jewelry (such a cliche I know).  I don't go overboard with floral themes in my life because that would be pretty corny for obvious reasons, but I thought the rose here would be a subtle touch for this piece.

I love how the color theme came together for this piece.  I didn't make this at the same time as my winter leafy bracelet, but it has a very similar feel.  I still have a lot of the cubes left so I will most likely make something else with a similar color scheme at some point.

Here's a posed shot with the clasp showing so you can see how that comes together.

And here's a shot with it turned the way that you would normally wear it so you can see how the daggers will hang.

I am currently in the middle of writing the pattern for my dagger design with the cube base.  I'm hoping to release it around the same time that I start rolling out the new line on Etsy.

Disclosure - I received my ArtBead's products free of charge through their blogging program. I am honestly reviewing their products and have not been paid for my endorsement as it pertains to the products I received. 

in the right season

As I'm sure a lot of you already know, I don't always make jewelry pieces that coordinate with the current season.  So I'm really proud that I'm getting all of this together in the winter!

I got my newest stash from Art Beads through their blogging design program this week.  We were allowed to pick any items that we wanted to create a winter piece.

It will be part of my new line that I blogged about earlier this month.  I'm very excited about it.  I used to maximize my number of choices for the blogging program and get lots of smaller items.  Lately I've been trying to splurge on some nicer pieces.  Thus, I chose to include the Swarovski button and sterling silver charm on the left.  I'll have more details about all of that in the near future.

I finally took pictures of my newest leafy bracelet: Beaded Bracelet - The Leafy Series - Winter.  It's available in two different sizes.  They're very similar and both awesome.  Both of these pictures are of the smaller version.

The clear blue and silver leaf beads that I used in this design are from Shannon (beadsandbabble).  I've mentioned her here before, but if you haven't checked out her shop yet, please go over there.  Also, the pattern for my leafy bracelet is available here.

Disclosure - I received my ArtBead's products free of charge through their blogging program. I am honestly reviewing their products and have not been paid for my endorsement as it pertains to the products I received.