Workshop Update

So, I know I haven't posted about a jewelry-making project in quite a while, but I've been busily working away nonetheless. Feast your eyes on these updates!

I found these sweet ombre beads not too long ago.

I snagged these guys at JoAnn's. I wasn't actually drawn to the purple at first - they had a number of colors that were all developed in ombre. There was a coral-y pink, and a teal-y blue that both caught my eye. But, for a long time I had been on the hunt for purple beads to make a purple necklace. I wear a lot of purple, so I knew I needed something in that family to complete my wardrobe.

I had encountered lots of bead choices in that middle purple shade displayed above, but that really was not what I was looking for. It was the darkest purple shade that sold me on these ombre bead sets. You can see, despite the color distortion in the photo, that I actually used all of the darkest purple beads and only a few each of the lighter shades when making my necklace. It doesn't exactly look like ombre from the front, but I'm pretty okay with that since it matches more of my purple clothes.

I also did a little bit of jewelry repair not long ago.

These earrings were part of a combo with a necklace that I bought at Charming Charlie. From the moment I saw them, I considered the possibility of replacing the earring hardware so that they would be lever-back rather than fish-hook style. That became not an option but a necessity when I got them home and removed them from the card. Though you can't see it super well in the photo above, there was silicone-type gel on the hooks that would not come off. EEK!

 Lever-backs to the rescue!

So, here's the finished product: it's functional, since there's no solid goop preventing the hook from going through the hole in my ear, and its perfect for work since it's comfortable when answering the phone.

I also picked up these cool beads a while ago, with dreams of making a pink necklace to add to my collection.

I thought this shape would be just interesting enough that I could get away with a single strand of all the same bead.

And, since the pattern was so simple, making the necklace was a snap! It's already achieved favorite status, because even though the beads are large they are very light. They're like super shiny gumballs!

So that's it from the jewelry workshop for today. There'll be more soon, you can count on that!