Stained Glass For Your Wrist

A simple black frame to contain the gorgeous primary round glass beads.

Hero of the Week

This week our hero is another two hole bead. These metallic hematite flat beads are another that I can imagine so many possible designs with, but I have narrowed it down to a necklace for you, to be revealed on Friday.

Join us on Friday for inspiration using these 15x5mm two hole beads and share your ideas with us!


If there is a bead from our shop that you would like to nominate to be a future Hero of the Week please let us know!

Super Duos Pose a Challenge

If you haven't tried playing with this week's hero then you are saving yourself a lot of play time. These wonderful beads lend themselves to so many possibilities that I had a hard time focusing on just one design. 

The circle and triangle are just two shapes that these beads so naturally lend themselves. You can imagine how much I just wanted to keep making samples and forget about showing you a finished jewelry set.
Luckily you can just play and make fun shapes and still end up with cute earrings...

...or go bigger and add a necklace for a whole set!

I did not have time this week, but definitely want to try alternating duo colors in this triangle shape to see the cool effects. I would love to see what you come up with using these shapes or any others you end up with in your adventures with twin hole seed beads.

Share your thoughts below and feel free to send us pictures of your Super Duos creations! If you like, we will share them here on our blog.

Hero of the Week

It's a bead... it's a spacer... it's... Super Duos! The most heroic bead of them all is the bead that has the word super right in the name. This week we are featuring the twin hole seed bead  in opaque red.

Aren't they so beautiful with their oval shape and perfect curves and great color? This Friday I will share with you a necklace and earring design that make using these super fun!
If you have used the twin hole beads, let us know how you like them in the comments below. If you have not then what are you waiting for?


If there is a bead from our shop that you would like to nominate to be a future Hero of the Week please let us know!

Rockin' Duck Bill Earrings!

There, I said it, these earrings are rockin'! I had so much fun making these earrings as I began to see how they were forming to really show off the shape and color of this week's hero.

I used square stitch adding the curb chain as part of the work again and simply added beads every couple of rows to curve the beadwork out toward the bottom to display those beautiful duck bill drops.

Of course you can always make them shorter by using shorter lengths of chain but I think they have a totally 80's rocker feel with the length and bright colors.Which means they match my totally 80's rocker shirt!

You can't see the purple hot pants and silver scrunch socks but they are there ;).
You can find all of the materials to make these crazy cool earrings in our shop. The duck bill drops come in different colors too!

Tell us how you are going to rock these duck bill drops and until next week have fun and bead on!

Hero of the Week

Julie picked out one of the coolest shaped drop beads we have found. This week's hero is the aqua and fushia duck bill drop bead.

The colors on these are so fun and pretty and the flattened ends really show off the color mix well. This Friday's project will be a bit of a surprise for us all as I have not made it yet. I am thinking of an earring design but of course things can always change - especially my mind ;). If you are playing along with me and contemplating your own design there are flower beads in our shop that match these cool drops.

Share your thoughts on this week's hero and tune in Friday to see the finished project!

Cubes Squared

This week we bring you a wonderful necklace inspired by the Hero of the Week.

 

 Cube beads make great frames for the square stitched squares on this necklace. The only component that I made separately is the peyote tube toggle. Once that was made I strung the necklace and passed back through the beads weaving the squares on the way back.

 

The squares are so versatile. You can make a necklace just like this or weave the squares separately to string later. The extra large holes in the cube beads would even allow you to run an eye pin through the top row so you could link it too chain. Have fun with it. :)

You can conveniently find all of the materials to create this in  our shop. Here is a full list of what you will need:
     - 3mm Dark Olive Green Cube Beads
     - size 11/0 Frosted Rainbow Oxblood Seed Beads
     - size 8/0 Matte Brown Seed Beads
     - Black c-lon Beading Thread
     - Short Beading Needles

We would love to read your feedback in the comments below and if you have questions, we are always happy to answer!

Hero of the Week

This weeks hero was inspired by my younger sister. As I was listing the first items in our newly opened shop she sent me a message that said, 'I don't bead but I want those dark olive matte toho cube beads'. It made me think about how I have drooled over so much of our inventory as we have been going through this process and how just the finish and color of these tiny glass wonders excite even non beaders.

To be honest, I have used cube beads in my work just a couple of times so this was an exciting inspiration for me and I love the geometric necklace design I came up with. You can find these 3mm cubes in our shop now and you can check back here on Friday to see the project that these gorgeous green cubes inspired.

Do you use cubes in your work? Tell us about it in the comments. :)

Easy Red Square Stitch Earrings

The wonderful, tiny, full of possibility seed bead is  this week's hero. Opaque cherry red seed bead to be exact, that I created a fun pair of earrings that will match the Blooming Heart necklace we featured last week or stand out beautifully on their own.

My favorite stitch to use with my favorite type of bead is square stitch, and curb chain can work into square stitch seamlessly giving you a great way to combine metal into glass seed beadwork.  Again, if you would like to make these earrings there is a kit available in our shop.

The kit includes the beads and metal components. You will need beading thread, needle, a wire cutter, round nose pliers, and a knowledge of square stitch to help you complete the project. I like long earrings but you can shorten these to suit you by simply weaving fewer rows.

If you would like to learn square stitch to complete this project or have any questions about the assembly please don't hesitate to contact me below or through Etsy.

Let us know what you think and have a fun, bead filled week!

A Blooming Heart

 Earlier this week we introduced to you our hero of the week and promised to bring you a design to use or inspire your own. Here is the finished necklace that turns this Unstrung Hero into a winning accessory for Valentine's Day and beyond.

This is a very simple piece to create with just a few components to assemble and connect that garners a compliment fetching necklace that will work with multiple outfits.

If you want to create this design you can see how it is constructed above. All of the materials are available in our shop but we have also simplified it even more for you by creating a kit with all of the components you need to make this fun piece. You just need to provide a few tools and love of  jewelry making and the kit provides the rest.

 Let us know what you think in the comments below. If you would like to share your finished work with this heart pendant or the kit just leave us a link to a photo in the comments and we will share it in a future blog post!