OLE' Ombre' !!

Seems the latest rage in beading and jewelry is something called OBMRE'...  I beleive that means when colors are blended..by going softly from one color to another or from dark blue to light blue, within one piece.  I've seen some really great examples of this and wanted to give it a whirl myself.

My intent was to follow the sun so to speak...to go from Light to Dark.  First I chose a clasp, in this case a two loop bar with a Toggle clasp.
I started with some beautiful Gray Crazy Lace Agate, stringing them with little pale green crystal beads between each one.  Then, using beads the same colors as in the agate beads, I threaded them onto some tiger tail beading wire, starting with cream colored seed beads and ending with brown ones.  I used Czech glass ones as I love the shine they have. 

Occasionally I threw some clear ones in to help keep things bright. Once done with those strands I added chains...a few times I broke all conventional jewelry making rules and combined GOLD chain in a Silver piece!!  oh, for shame!!!

In keeping with the light to dark theme...I used half gold and half silver when adding the gold chain..I just connected them in the middle with a tiny jump ring.

I did add two little splashes of color ... do you see them peeking through?
(click on the photo to enlarge it).

Maybe you just need a better view!!

 Yep, there they are... Two adorable Lady Bugs!

Who doesn't like Lady Bugs?  Right ?

The only problem I have with this piece is, it doesn't lay flat nicely...  I think I got carried away with it when criss-crossing the beaded strands.  I will probably leave it as is, learn from it and just hope I don't make that mistake again.

So, there it is... Oh, since I have your attention (assuming I still do)... I have figured out why ''jump rings'' are called ''jump rings'' .....it's because just as you are ready to use one to connect one thing to something else in your piece... They ''JUMP'' away from the piece landing goodness only knows where!  I'm sure I could build a whole piece with just those JUMP rings that have escaped me so far.

I call this piece:  OLE' OMBRE' !!  by BoHoChick

Sun Sand and Surf Bracelet

I recently returned from a trip east with my mother and son to visit my 92 yr old aunt where she lives in Cape Cod.  Being a desert dweller, I am completely in love with the ocean!  if it weren't for the lack of big rocky mountains, oh, and snowy cold winters, I could definitely see myself living there.  The ocean was wonderful and put me in the mood to make something ''beachy''.  I came up with this bracelet that I think suits the bill.

The items you'll need for this project are:

Tiger tail beading wire (or the beading wire of your choice) cut to 10 wires 12 inches long.
 A bracelet clasp, a dozen or so jump rings, crimp beads and crimp bead covers (optional).


Any beads you like that represent the Sun, Sea, and Sand (to you).  I opted for Sunstone, Pearls, and originally Beach Glass, some little copper fish, gold swiped Czech glass beads, clear crystal beads and some seed beads using colors found in the other beads and some bone tube beads.

I later decided to use the beach glass for something else...the sand will be represented by the glistening clear beads and the many tiny seed beads instead.

Once you get the beads all strung, just crimp each end leaving a small loop to use for connecting the strands to a bracelet clasp of your choosing.  I'll use these 5 loop bronze connector bars.

Now either bring the loops together and connect them with jump rings to a clasp bar or you could connect them all to a metal ring or larger jump ring, which you would add a clasp to one end and a ring to the other end and... You're finished!
 If you want to, rather than connecting them all in a neat row, you could try criss-crossing a few over the others etc. before connecting them together at the ends. (As I did here).

I hope these directions made sense...  I'm new to this:-)

Do let us know in the comments what you think...and how your bracelet turned out!
 Now all I need to do is decide which chain to use on the Beach Glass and gold swiped black Czech beads, to use them for a choker/necklace...hmmm I'd love your opinion on this... chunky gold chain or delicate gold chain ???  (see below).

New Directions

Well, it's clear I'm no ''blogger'' ..my tech abilities are about as low as possible as evidenced by it having taken me 20 minutes just navigating this blogsite to this point..which isn't far.  The few posts I have managed to make are not very interesting...not even to me lol...  so I've decided to rename this blog and change direction completely, to something at least I am interested in.  I give upon on trying to change the name to something that relates to what the site will be about ..not only can I not figure out how to go about it, but I can't think of a catchy name.
What you may expect to find here are my jewelry making results,  views and tutorials
As well as new products, links to other people's tutorials etc.
I hope it will help other jewelry makers in some way.  Thanks for stopping by..and
..If you think of a good name for this blog...please tell me what it is, just in case I do learn how to change it.  Thanks!