Mediterranean Sea Bracelet

It's been a while since I've posted a completely new bracelet; so let's have one full of beads I've not mentioned before to make up for it!

Mediterranean Sea Bracelet

I love this bracelet, I've not rearranged it since I first put it together so it's stayed pretty much as it was when the beads arrived.  The silvers were inspired by the Mediterranean Sea, the artist behind the collection which is called the Mediterranean Dream Collection says:

"...the history, the influences from different cultures which were often told by artifacts archeologists had found. But I also love the animals who live here and who create a paradise for divers. All these sunny and happy memories and things I have seen in the surroundings are coming back in this collection. I hope you will love them and may bring vacation around your wrist or neck..."

For me, it does exactly that.  I love the Med and this reminds me of many lovely holidays I've taken over the years.

The silver beads are Turtle in Egg, Neptune, Atlantis and Amphora, the lock is by Trollbeads and I'm wearing these on a Trollbeads chain.

The beads are beautifully detailed, I love how Atlantis has the chain threaded through and looks like two different beads depending on whether you see it from the front or the back, the turtle is delightful, I have quite a few turtle beads but this one is definitely my favourite.

Neptune has a tail which fans up his back and the Amphora bead has a small hollow like a real Amphora, atlhough it's still a very weighty bead!  I've even heard of some people filling it with something sentimental and having it "capped off" by a jeweller.

The glass is by artist Gea Hines, I had to track her down after I'd seen some small hole beads she'd made that looked like sunlight on water.  I asked if she would be able to make something similar as a big hole bead (so they would fit onto my bracelet chains), and once she confirmed that was possible; I ordered 10 of these to be made especially and I'm delighted with the results!

I may at some point be tempted to core these with silver myself, but for now I'm leaving them naked as it's such a pretty look.

I love the Mediterranean, what are some of your favourite places?

Unblogged Bead Challenge: 37 beads & 13 bangles later...

Picture the scene: Sunday afternoon, dabbling in a bit of gardening, but then the heavens open and the rain starts in earnest... so back indoors I go...

Then I got one of those crazy rainy afternoon ideas... why don't I challenge myself to put all my unblogged beads in a big pile, all 37 of them as it turns out, and make up some bangles!

To make it more tricky, I would NOT allow myself to use any other beads from my beadbox - 'cos I'm sometimes mean like that, and besides it's supposed to be a challenge!

Some of these beads date as far back as July 2013, so that's 2 years I've had them without ever mentioning them on Curling Stones for Lego People, well apart from when I did U is for Unblogged Beads - and I have included those two beads today as I figured it would be cheating otherwise.

So several head scratching moments and some thunder for that atmospheric background music and here are my results!

Some of the photos are a bit dark, as this was a "Yay let's do this whilst it's raining on Sunday afternoon" post, so it was a bit spontaneous, a bit dark at times and I didn't get out my light tent either... rebel without a cause thought!

1.  Trollbeads Grey & Pink Glass and Stone Bangle
The focal is a second Ruby Rock stone bead that I bought preloved back in August 2014, matched with 2 grey prisms, one of my A-Z unblogged beads and a striped bead from July 2013.

I really like this combo, if I'd been able to choose from my bead box, I would just swap out the striped bead for something else as it's pink is a little bright - I would have gone for something that's a bit more muted to match the others.

2.  Elfbeads Strawberry Dewdrops and matching LE Trollbeads Armadillos Bangle
When I put these together, if I didn't know they were two separate brands, I would have sworn they were made as a set; the colours match perfectly.

There are quite a few armadillo beads coming up, I am still a bit confused as to why I buy them as, apart from my retired green ones, I don't wear them nearly enough... probably that's why there are so many in my Unblogged list.  These purple and red ones were an impulse buy because they are LE, I'm working on curbing this impulse!

3.  Trollbeads Small & Beautiful Ridged Beads with Engraved Fuchsia Bangle
I acquired my first pink ridged bead, preloved, after quite a search for one in August 2013, and it took me until March 2014 to find a second one when a batch of them started to reappear with retailers again.

The Engraved Fuchsia is from September 2013 as it was part of the Fall Collection from that year, it's been worn a few times but never seems to make it to the blog!  I like this bangle so much it's stayed on my wrist all afternoon.

4.  Trollbeads LE Armadillo, Unique & Beadmaker Bead Bangle
Much like bangle No.2 I would have sworn these 3 were made as a set.  The pink & black unique I've had since July 2013, I've no idea why it's an unblogged bead because I *adore* it and I'm sat here wondering how on earth it's been left out for 2 years, shame on me!

My gorgeous Trollbeads Beadmaker Bead is a new addition that I've only had for a few months, it was made for me by the wonderful Julie from Lush Art Glass (formerly Lush Lampwork) whilst she was at Sizers Jewellers in Scarborough on behalf of Trollbeads.

Readers may remember that I really disappointed that I couldn't attend the Sizers Event back in March as I was off on a prearranged weekend with friends in West Yorkshire, Sizers had a great event and kindly arranged for me to receive my bead, even though I couldn't attend in person on the day - thank you so much!!

P.S. - Sizers have another Trollbeads Beadmaker Event planned for 7th November with Julie, so I hope I can go and get another bead from her in person later this year.

5.  Artisan Carved Amber Starfish, Trollbeads Critter, Unique & Matt Orange Agates Bangle
Some new beads!! The orange agates are from the recent LE Sunbeam Kit last month, I would have loved some green agates to match but I wanted to wait to pick my own stones and I missed out as they disappeared so quickly.

The artisan carved amber starfish will eventually find it's way onto my carved amber bracelet but I think it suits being paired with the agates for now.  Originally this was a 3 bead bangle, but as I was playing I thought the orange in the fish and the blues on both the beads made a nice contrast to the orange.

6.  Artisan Carved Amber Snake
This was my other artisan amber, it's a snake, not that you can see that very well on the photo, my bad!

The weather had taken a turn for the worse at this stage, it was very dark, plus for some reason my phone camera was having problems focusing... like I said in the intro, this was a spontaneous post and I had a lot of work to do, so I still didn't get the light tent out and just carried on, thankfully it did get a bit lighter after this!

I placed the bead on it's own, as it didn't really play well with the other unblogged beads in a combo, although the plan was to use all 37 beads I was still trying to make bangles I'd wear and not just for the challenge!

7. Trollbeads Small & Beautifuls with Elfbeads Silver Everstar
I've had both these small and beautiful beads since 2014 but the Everstar is bit newer from February of this year.

With a lot of the small and beautifuls I love the patterns but find that I don't always use them as much as I thought I would as they are quite distinct.  Hopefully I'll learn to make much smaller beads myself and be able to rectify this in the future - I think if I make some plainer beads that might help me use more of the small and beautiful ones on full bracelets, and not just on bangles.

8. Elfbeads Darkness Fractal Nets with Trollbeads Armadillos
I did mention there would be a few more armadillos coming up didn't I?  I bought my first black one back in July 2013 but I haven't used it at all; at the time I had very few black beads and it never seemed to make it onto any of my bracelets.  I began to feel that I really should get a second one for bangle combos!

My Elfbeads Darkness Fractal Nets are unworn since I bought them last December and  I've been contemplating selling them.  No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't seem to do anything with them and thought that perhaps they are just not for me...  I might have to have a rethink, as I really like them in this combo!

My pink armadillo was bought as a multiple to match my other pink one (I think I see a pattern emerging), however I have a little and large thing going on with them as, unfortunately, they are completely different sizes.

9.  Redbalifrog & Heidi's Klimt Bangle
This is a special limited edition bead that was a collaboration between Redbalifrog and Heidi's Trollbeads (a shop), it was one of two beads created in 2012 to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Klimt's birthday.

The bead depicts The Tree of Life and has Homage a Klimt written across the top and 1862 - 2012 along the bottom of the bead.

I loved this at the time it was released, but back then I was a very new Trollbeads collector and hadn't ventured into trying other brands, so I was delighted to discover it (preloved) back in May last year, this is another "I can't believe I haven't told you about this yet" bead!

10.  Trollbeads 3 Monkeys and Artisan Glass Unique
I originally bought the glass bead to match a black and yellow jasper stone but unfortunately they didn't match in the slightest... looking at the two beads in my beadbox I can't imagine why I thought they would, creamy yellow on the glass and harsh yellow on the stone!

The glass bead is unusual but I do like it in it's own right, the buds are a lovely metallic coloured glass which blend nicely with the details on the silver bead next to it.

I picked up 3 Monkeys in a closing down sale in May last year, it was on my wanted list of beads and I must admit that the clearance sales are usually somewhere that I tend to pick up a lot of older wishlist beads.

11.  Elfbeads White Jade and Everscale with Trollbeads Howlite Bangle
These 3 are some of my newer beads from this year, although I've had White Jade and Everscale from Elfbeads for a while, my gorgeous Howlite from the Trollbeads Sunbeam Kit has been with me only a few scant weeks.

My plan was to use Everscale on a dragon bracelet, and it still is, but I love how this sits between the two stones that are both different.  I wouldn't have paired these two stones or everscale deliberately, but I think doing Challenges like this forces you into combinations that you might not obviously make.  I think we all can be guilty of going to our "usual" combination ideas - I think this one might be together for a while!

12.  Trollbeads Shadow Flower and Winter Jewel Flower Stalk Bangle.
I picked up Shadow Flower way back in March 2014, tried it on a Fantasy Necklace which it's designed for, didn't like it, and put it back in bead box.

When I went to the Hugh Rice Blogger Event back in April this year, I was trying out various bangle combos and made a Shadow Flower bangle with a "red bead flower stalk" worn off centre on the bangle.  Since then that's been my default way of wearing Shadow Flower!!

Winter Jewel is a new addition for me, picked up in a clearance sale and I "stole" my pink ridged beads off Bangle No. 3 to match - it's the only time I've used beads on 2 bangles in the Challenge but it looked so cool I couldn't not blog the bangle this way!

So please excuse my "cheating" - at least they weren't out of the beadbox!

13.  Trollbeads Brown Desert Bangle
Brown Desert, last but not least, but sadly on it's own!

Although it was possible to pair this with some of the other unblogged beads, the fact that I wanted to showcase other combos meant this one ended up by itself today.  It's my second brown desert though and I don't think it will be my last.

I hope we'll be getting some new darker sparkly beads in the upcoming Trollbeads Collection, if so, I can see a darker sparkly bracelet in my future!

This could just as easily be done with Unworn, Forgotten or Barely Worn Beads as a Challenge, if you find yourself making the same old combos, why not give it a go?

What are your "unblogged" beads?
Or is it only me who doesn't always use their beads straight away?!

T is for Turtle

Trollbeads (a brand of beadmaker) have made glass, silver and amber Turtle beads.  I think they must really like Turtles!

The pic below is of the Trollbeads silver turtle bead that was bought for me by my friend Alison as a surprise present, I treasure this bead!

The carved amber turtle bead was part of a limited release of carved amber beads and I was lucky enough to snap one up when I found it.

Can you make out the carved Turtle on the middle bead of the bangle?

However my favourite glass Turtle bead is not the Trollbeads version but one made by an artisan beadmaker - Christa from Luccicare.

When you're Addicted to Beads, it's fun to look at ALL the different beadmakers and not just the big brands.

Which of the turtle beads is your favourite?

and / or

If you were going to name a Turtle, what would you call him or her?

Critter Crawls & my Garden Bracelet

Critters, as they are fondly known amongst Trollbead collectors, are those glass beads that commonly feature any form of animal.  Some collectors are critter mad, but I've not previously dipped my toe into the Trollbead market, generally preferring the artisan versions of these types of beads.

Turtles were the most common critter when I started collecting, but "common" is a misnomer, as they were more rare at that time and therefore harder to get hold of and often accompanied by a hefty price tag on the preloved market.  Roll forward by 18 months and now I could reasonably (via the Internet) pick myself up a Trollbead turtle straight from a shop and as a result they are now seen for much fairer prices on the preloved market.  Currently there are turtles, fish, ladybirds/ladybugs, bees and butterflies that are becoming more readily available in a much bigger variety of colours and types.

Personally I prefer the Luccicare turtle beads, one of which featured in my first critter bracelet and was my first critter bead.

Luccicare Turtle Bead

Christa at Luccicare is also responsible for my second critter bead, a fish that arrived last month and went straight onto my bangle!

Luccicare fish bead on my bangle

The fish is a beautiful two tone orange with yellow and the background is a sparkly glitter purple and green that includes a gorgeous galaxy swirl that you can see above between 2 of the fish.

The one Trollbead critter that I have been looking for is a ladybug (or ladybird as we call them in the UK, but I've started to call them ladybugs in relation to the beads).  I knew what I wanted, a red ladybug on a green background, preferably with a glitter line down the middle to denote the separate wings.  I was quite happy to wait as I knew I'd eventually find the one I wanted...

Trollbead ladybug, red glitter on green from Trollbeads Studio

My ladybug arrived almost a month ago, and it was exactly what I wanted, so pleased with finding this one, but I had yet to use it on a bracelet!  This is mostly due to it arriving on the same day as my second delivery of Summer Stones (review coming soon I promise) that have barely been off my bangles in the last few weeks.

So I now had a turtle, a fish and finally a Trollbeads critter, my ladybug.

I didn't intend to add to these anytime soon.

Famous last words.

I blame my holiday.

I'd booked a week off work, a mix of days out, new things to try, nights away and some boring domestic tasks... unbeknownst to me when I booked that particular week - it also happened to be the week of special Trollbead events, 24hr flash sales and a major retailer liquidating their entire Trollbead stock.  By not having a holiday and trying to save some money by staying at home, it sincerely would have been cheaper to have booked that holiday!!  Admittedly I now wouldn't have such awesome jewellery but I might have come back with a tan.

So, er, back to the story.

Goldmine Boutique held a "Critter Crawl" on their website so I thought I'd pop in for a look, it was late, I got a bit carried away... I saw a lovely yellow bee on a yellow background, bees being the other Trollbead critter that I wanted acquire.  Trollbeads Bees come in a huge variety of shapes, sizes and to some extent colours, I'd not seen any artisan ones and like the ladybug I was waiting for the right one.

Goldmine's website doesn't "hold" your bead when you put it in the cart so they'd helpfully suggested buying the beads one by one to ensure you got the one you wanted.  I bought Bee No.1.  Then I saw another bee on a yellow background.  I bought Bee No.2.  By now I was wondering what I was going to do with 2 yellow beads, as I have no yellow beads at all in my collection... I know... I need more yellow beads... (it was late, I was tired, it made sense at the time).  Bead No.3 was a red ladybug on yellow and Bead No.4 was it's twin.  Bead No. 5 almost went  into the mix too (it was the twin of my original ladybug on green) but by now I'd got a bit panicky over the cost so took it back out of my cart.

Trollbead bees and glitter ladybugs on yellow

When they arrived I was so pleased the yellows matched, because once each one had been "bought" and having been removed from the website it couldn't be viewed again, so each subsequent bead was bought without being able to reference the colour and I'd spent the week worrying I'd have lots of different yellow beads that just looked mismatched...

To show my friends and as a sneak preview on Twitter I put them on a bangle with my original ladybug in the middle.

Trollbead critter bangle

By now I had an idea of what I was going to do with them, inspired by my friend Trish who had made a magical garden bracelet with troll babies and all sorts, I wanted to make a garden bracelet with critters.

I've been fiddling with this bracelet for the last week, but have finally settled on the arrangement of beads...

My critter garden bracelet

In my lurid imagination, I have a fish pond in my garden where 3 fish swim in the greeny blue water, a snake nestles beside the pond, the green glitter python bead showing it's markings.  There are bees buzzing around their hive and honey (faceted amber) and lots of flowers and ladybugs both glass and silver.  I wore this bracelet yesterday in the brilliant sunshine at a local festival for a day out, it's definitely a bracelet that makes me smile when I see it! (Probably because I think I'm slightly nuts in that I can "see" the garden in my imagination when I look at this bracelet)

Luccicare Focal Bead Bracelet

Finally I got around to having some serious bead play with my Luccicare Focal Bead, I knew what I was going to put with it initially as I'd bought my 2nd milan bead especially for this.

So I started with a bracelet...

L-R: unseen small planet, Luccicare Bead, Zodiac Libra and Sagittarius Birthstone Star, OOAK,
Capricorn Star, Milan, Luccicare Focal Bead, Milan, Capricorn Star, Blue Goldstone,
Libra and Sagittarius Star, Luccicare Bead, Cells.

I was really struggling to find enough beads to make a full bracelet and it wasn't quite working, as there weren't as many beads it was quite loose on my wrist and because of the weight it kept swinging upside down.

So Plan B, try it on a leather.  I decided to use stoppers and have it all on one strand so it would stay put, the idea being I could twist it tighter if I needed to, so I wouldn't have the problem of it slipping upside down.  It was quite a challenge getting the stoppers on the leather but then it was done...

The first time I tried it it was a bit loose, I was chatting online with several friends at the time so mid-conversation I twisted the bracelet and locked it so it was tight; big mistake!

I had to stop chatting as I'd cut my circulation off, not a problem thought I, I'll just undo it, no such luck the tension I'd created in the bracelet meant the lock was well and truly "on" and not easily removed with my remaining good hand.  Cue a few panicky moments whilst I mentally tried to prepare myself to the prospect of having to cut myself out of my lovely leather bracelet.

Some deep breathing and finally some zen like calm descended and I eventually got the bracelet off and made a mental note to not try experimental stuff when in the house on my own.

So once I'd had a cup of tea and let the blood flow back into my hand I was ready for a rethink, less beads!!  Here's the quick shot I took of it to show my friends after I'd explained what had happened...

And here's the very first photo I took when I got my new phone, guess what I was wearing that day?

This was taken after a very lovely couple of hours sat in my Local Dealers having a cup of tea whilst they all admired my focal bead!

Artisan Turtle by Christa at Luccicare on Etsy

So, given that I was disappointed not to receive silver Turtles earlier this month I made plans for a replacement and decided to go with Artisan bead maker, Christa Keizer and one of her glass turtle beads.  I was already a fan of Christa's beads having bought my first ones last month.

As much as I like trollbeads glass turtle beads (which can a bit hard to get hold of) I must admit I actually prefer Christa's turtles, the detail on them is incredible and whilst I've been admiring them for a while, it was this fella with his shiny spots that made me take the plunge.

This won't be the last turtle I buy from Christa although I haven't decided on what colours to go for next, if you fancy one why not pop along to her shop on Etsy, there's one just like this available right now, but if you miss it and you can't see what you want, you can always get in touch and ask for your own choice of colours!  Christa is a delightful and talented lady to buy from and very accommodating to her customers, she comes highly recommended from this blogger!

Swap Bead - OOAK

On the same day that Christa's beads arrived, my swap bead also turned up.  This was the bead that I'd traded Midnight Flower for (below left), the bead next to it is Forest Flowers which is still available to trade should anyone be interested?

I really like these 2 beads, but probably more to look at than to use in combinations so they spend more than their fair share of time in my bead box.  Well apart from that little trip I took them on in Trollbeads on Holiday.

Originally I was after a silver charm, as I knew I'd ordered a lot of glass beads recently and for once I was thinking ahead rather than just reacting to a pretty glass bead.  My potential swap partner didn't have any silver beads that I was really interested in and in an effort to make the swap work for her I asked to see any glass beads that she might want to swap instead.

Once I saw the photo of the row of available beads I'd already made my decision as it was a fairly easy pick for me, I saw a close up but that was more to see the bead again than because I needed to confirm my choice.  It was a "with fingers" day of bead photography that day as here is the picture of my swap bead...

Swap bead, a pretty trollbead ooak with bubbles

I've since tried to take other photos of this bead but none really seem to do it proper justice, and one of the reasons I was rushing on the day with my "with fingers" photography is I was wanting to show my swap partner just how well her bead went with my Christa bead that came on the same day.

Christa Keizer artisan bead

So with my first trade completed it just leaves me to play with these beads, my new bracelet and lock to see what will happen, oh yes, just a few more things to tell you about first!

Artisan Bead Makers - Christa Keizer (Luccicare) on Etsy

As observant readers will have noted a while ago I've already bought some Non-Trollbead artisan beads from another collector but as they were preloved I didn't know who the original artist was.

Not so with my next purchase as I bought direct from the bead maker - I have been longing to buy some Christa Keizer beads for quite some time; Christa has a shop on Etsy and I have been drooling over her beads on a regular basis as her shop was one of my browser's early bookmarks.

What finally spurred me on to make my first purchase was seeing a preview of this focal bead, called Shades.

Stock photo copyright of Christa Keizer

I was immediately drawn to this in a I *must* have it type of compulsion, I hadn't thought of how, when or where to use it, I just wanted to look at it!  Probably not the most practical way to buy a new bead but that's how it actually happened... or rather it was a little bit more complicated than that.

I am not a member of Etsy, so when this bead was listed I had to go through the joining process in order to be able to purchase the bead.  That done I put the bead into my "shopping cart" and settled down to choose some other beads, both to go with it and because I figured it would be cheaper on the shipping to get a few more whilst I was there.

Great idea, but for one small flaw that I was unaware of.  I had spent a happy half hour choosing 3 other beads and was just about to complete my purchase when my shopping cart told me the focal bead was no longer available!  Much confusion, how could it not be available?

I contacted Christa directly, who informed me that unfortunately someone else had bought this lovely bead, I was still confused... it turns out that in Etsy, when you "put" a bead into your shopping cart, it literally is only there as a virtual item as it still displays in the shop and can be bought by another person whilst you are choosing something else.  I was very disappointed, however the lovely Christa replied almost immediately that if I wanted she would make me another one tomorrow (which was a Sunday).  Now that is customer service!

"Customer service plus" was achieved shortly thereafter when Christa created a private listing of my yet to be made bead, so that I could purchase it along with my other beads to save coming back and finding that one of my three other beads had been bought in my absence.  You can see the type of thought patterns I was experiencing, I'd already identified them as "my" beads, when I'm perfectly sure they were legally Christa's beads at the time!

Transaction completed, now I just had to wait whilst "my" beads winged their way over from the Netherlands.  When they arrived there was no setting up of photos to show off the beads artistically, just a quick snapshot between fingers to show friends!

The size of the focal bead was a lot larger than I thought it was going to be, initially I wondered how much use I would get from it (even though I'll never tire of actually just looking at it) and I guess only time will really tell with this, I've been quite busy recently and I've only just literally received my 4th bracelet with my new lock, so I haven't had a spare bracelet to hand to try anything out.  

I can highly recommend Christa's beads and shop, the beads are beautiful and well made and the shop itself is very well organised so you can easily find what you're looking for.  Christa also makes beads with a variety of core sizes so you can use them on other bracelets and they also go well with other charm brands.

Here are a few quick links...

Sale beads - grab yourself a bargain

Small core beads - only suited to trollbead bracelet sizes or smaller

Larger cored beads - suitable for bracelets bigger than troll

Cubic Zirconia - for those who like their sparklies

Focal beads - for when you want to make a statement

I'm popping off on my (work) travels for a bit so I'll be working on making my bracelet statement with "Shades" in the coming weeks rather than days.  I've a few more new things and experiences to share with you before that... once I've come back from my travels.