Friday, June 25, 2010

Summertime Creations


The challenge this month from Artbeads was to create something with a summertime theme using glass beads, charms or pendants. My first thought was to do a charm bracelet with some shell or boating themed charms. However, I wanted to do a little something different.

I fell in love with the simplicity of the sand dollar sterling silver pendant. Artbeads has a great selection of pendants to choose from. Normally that is where I start with an idea for a necklace, with the pendant, because it is the focal point in the design. I liked the shades of green and blue in the glass pearls and added some Swarovski crystal for a little sparkle.


My favorite colors right now are orange, red and yellow. I like vibrant colors during the summer. In browsing the selection of glass beads it was hard to narrow it down! I selected a strand of big bright flower beads as they were not something I would ordinarily pick and I thought they might be fun to try. I combined them with some lemon yellow swirled beads I had in my inventory and thought they made a good combination. This is a fun piece to wear on a hot summer day!


My final piece uses one of my very favorite design elements - furnace glass beads. I just love these! I picked the bright citrus package with random beads, some solid and some striped. I really wanted the solid orange bead to stand out so I put in some big bold silver beads. The pinstripes on the other beads remind me of candy. I really like this bracelet!


As always, I really enjoy these challenges as they allow me to think outside my normal style and have have a lot of fun with it!

Disclosure: The sand dollar pendant and glass beads were kindly provided free of charge by Artbeads.com as part of their blogging program. The author of this blog has not received any payment from above-mentioned company. The post represents the personal opinion of the blog author.