Natural Spring Greens

There was a fantastic turn out for last week's faux amber bead giveaway, and a wonderful variety of input from readers on the best natural beads. I have consulted Random.org, and we have a winner! Congratulations to Kindred Images, and thank you so much to everyone who entered!

For this giveaway, I asked for your favorite natural beads. The winning comment was a toss up between peridot and Job's Tears - beautiful natural seed beads that look very much at home with subtle greens. The combination is perfect for spring!

Next week I have a very special, totally new giveaway for you, with multiple winners and some fun treasure hunting! To help make the contest a bit more fun, I'll be getting a little help from one of my new favorite places - Pinterest. If you're not using this fun tool yet, you can request an invite and get started.*

Today is the last day of greens for the week, although I can't make any promises as we get closer to spring. Meanwhile, have a safe and happy St. Patrick's Day weekend!

*Warning - Pinterest may cause hours of fun.

Copyright 2012 Inspirational Beading
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Wear It Twice: Emeralds and Peacocks

With St. Patrick’s Day coming up, everyone is thinking green, especially the deep and enchanting shades of emeralds. When I went in search of a great emerald green necklace for today’s collage, I couldn’t resist adding a little indigo blue, and some black. With hints of gold thrown in, suddenly a St. Patty’s palette became a peacock feather one.

The ‘emeralds’ in the beautiful fan necklace that I found are actually resin - an ideal material when you want colors and shapes to be just-so. To back up this elegance piece, I chose a beautiful little black dress, and a surprisingly pretty macramé top in deep blue.

Emerald City Peacock by mortira featuring a leaf ring

It’s always tempting to go overboard with accessories, especially when working with such a great color as emerald green. I found so many pieces that I wanted to use, it was hard to pare things down to a few favorites. The turtle brooch with green enamel and brown crystals was impossible to resist!

This color palette is so inspiring, that I couldn’t stop with just one treasury of peacock picks.

And here are my favorite Polyvore sets featuring some of today’s fashion finds.

Wambli Green and Gold for MP3039 Loves by wambliwakan featuring elastic sandals

Senza titolo #50 by ale23-244 featuring leather satchel handbags

green with envy [tagged] by deeelushious featuring a stripe dress

Night Out 1 by ninjalily featuring cocktail dresses

Do you like to use peacock feathers in your work? What do you like about them?

Copyright 2012 Inspirational Beading
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Two Rivoli Collars

Last week I worked on destashing some Swarovski rivolis, and ended up with two necklaces that are made exactly the same way, but look completely different. I had five rivolis in my stash - two Crystal Purple Haze, two jet black, and one tiny aquamarine. I’ve been holding on to them for awhile because I simply got bored with peyote bezels, and I just couldn’t find enough inspiration or motivation to make anything with them.

When I decided to try and use up at least a few of these rivolis, I wanted to try something new - no rings or pendants. The colors were too different to stitch them all together in a bracelet, so I decided to tackle them one at a time, and use each rivoli in a collar. I’ve had some success with big focals on netted collars before, and I thought these crystals would do nicely for the same job.

I started with a Crystal Purple Haze, and chose a palette of tangerine, rootbeer and purple lined Rosaline to complement the unique array of colors in the crystal. Jonquil lined aqua 15/o’s in the bezel pick up on the hints of blue and green and give everything a fun contrast.

With the jet rivoli, I saw an opportunity to use some of my new white-hearts in bright red, so I created a palette of tribal inspired opaques. Although the only opaque 15/o’s I have are orange, I decided not to complement them with the rest of the palette, and stuck with blue, black and yellow in the collar. I love the way the white hearts look as accents in the beadwork - their unique beauty isn’t lost in among the rest of the beads.

Predictably, I got bored after two bezels, so the remaining three rivolis will have to wait their turn. If another inspiration doesn’t come along, I may end up making another collar or two, since these ones turned out so nicely!

What’s your favorite way to use rivolis?

Copyright 2012 Inspirational Beading
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Bead Giveaway: Faux Amber

This week’s bead giveaway is timely - after our little visit to the home of Baltic amber, it’s fitting to share some pretty acrylic beads inspired by those natural beauties. There are two sets of beads up for grabs, all of them collected and treasured for their resemblance to lovely warm amber.

The first set includes some round beads and assorted nugget shapes in clear and translucent oranges and browns. The warm glow is irresistible! To go along with these, I have a handful of amber colored coin beads. They have an interesting vintage appeal - I think they would look fantastic paired with micro-macramé.

These beads are definitely not the real thing - most acrylic beads can be spotted by the minute seams left by molds and presses, if not by their weight and feel. Did you know that genuine amber is one of the easiest stones to appraise? Warming a piece in your hands will produce a very faint odor like pine resin - the source of this beautiful stone.

How To Enter

For your chance to win all of the beads shown here, leave a comment on this post, answering the following question:

What is your favorite type of natural bead?

One lucky winner will be drawn at random on Wednesday, March 14th. If you don’t have a Blogger profile with email contact enabled, please make sure to leave a contact link with your comment, so I can let you know if you win! This giveaway is open to readers from Canada and the US.

Good luck, and happy beading!

Copyright 2012 Inspirational Beading
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World Beaders: Latvia

Today we’re going on a trip to visit the beaders and jewelry makers of Latvia, a Baltic country nestled between Estonia and Lithuania. With its origins in the ancient amber trade, and regional influences from the Iron Age, it’s no wonder that Latvia is home to some incredibly talented jewelry artists. Working mainly with silver and other precious metals, designers create stunning art jewelry that is prized by collectors and museums.

Latvia has been at the center of much turmoil and conflict over the centuries. German traders and missionaries arrived in the 13th century, and dominated the region until 1918, when Latvia gained its independence. Following both world wars and Russian occupation, Latvia reclaimed its independence in 1991.

Riga, Latvia’s capital city, is renowned for its beautiful Art Nouveau architecture. It is also home to several museums and art galleries, including one of the oldest museums in Europe - the Museum of the History of Riga and Navigation. Riga is one of 7 UNESCO world heritage sites in Latvia.

Happy beading, Latvia!

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