New Designs for Bead and Button 2014!

Hey there! Here are some of the new designs that will debut at the Bead and Button Show in Milwaukee June 6-9. 

This wide pendant is still in progress, it needs to be cleaned up and polished a bit more. I was thinking it would be nice to have a really simple, clean lined butterfly that would look pretty with that sparkly gemstone chain. 

This piece was inspired by the book Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor. It's a beautifully written trilogy featuring angels and demons and a girl with blue hair. The original symbol ( Hamsa ) has a long history of use, with variations existing all over the globe. This piece isn't really part of the original symbol and looks a lot different, in my opinion. I made it as sort of a protection piece. Anyway, I carved this piece imagining it strung with mixed materials, wire work and hand carved stones, maybe as an amulet necklace, or part of charm tassel to attach to a purse strap.

Can you tell I was still listening to those books? More on the protection eye theme, this time with a bit of open work. I pictured faceted stones wire worked with leather, or if cast in bronze, turquoise and carnelian for an Egyptian flavor. I can't wait to add some danglies to this pendant! I bet Andrew would put this on a leather cuff, with some rivets, or stitch work.

This little bee is going to look good in pewter! Better in bronze, but then, what doesn't? I can picture this on charm bracelet, or simply strung on a cord. Sometimes simple is nice.

This little plumpy baby is a pearlscale goldfish, like my beloved Popo. I'll probably only sell one ( to a diehard goldfish fanatic like myself ) but I don't care. I make whatever I want, which is why our site is chockfull of weird things like bumble friends and mer sprites. Oh well. Stay tuned for more goldfish, because I've been staring at my baby goldies with soft eyes. So you know that means I have to carve a telescope, a ryukin, an oranda and celestial eye! I know, so perfect for a charm bracelet! For my bracelet, I'll paint them with enamel paint to look like my fish. It WILL be cute. 

Anyway, the month before the show is always chaos, nobody is getting enough sleep, time seems to speed up and I run around in questionable fashion choices ( sweatshirts and Thai fisherman pants? Aprons worn 24/7? Why not! ). 'These are good times' I say to Azalea, as I convince her that polishing bronze coins at the dinner table is good fun. It is actually fun, we push ourselves till we have crazy eyes, but that's when good, no, awesome ideas happen! Then, we have the rest of the summer to create all the wackiness that we dreamed up before B&B. I look forward to the day we leave, because it means I can sleep for like ten hours in the back seat and wake up and see all my buddies. I only have 23 days to go.