Welcome to Beads and Barley

My Lampwork Jewelry

2010-04-14T22:03:00.018-04:00

I have been making so many pieces of jewelry with my lampwork beads! I teach a class called "Drop on By" which is a bracelet that uses a lampwork bead as a focal. I have also been incorporating many of them in necklaces as well. Here are a few of my new bracelets and necklaces!

Now that the weather is nicer I am able to make beads in the morning, before I open the store and at night, after the store closes. I have been making about 8 to 10 beads a day. Most of my beads I sell at the store and seem to sell them faster than I can make them. I pull a few aside to use for my personal jewelry. I am still working on making them round but that doesn't seem to matter to my customers. I call them "Organic", they call them "One of a Kind" and they love them! I consider myself extremely lucky to be able to sell my beads while I continue to strive to make them round and work on different color combinations.

I haven't burned myself to badly yet and, best of all, I haven't burned down the house!

My First Peyote Wrapped Cabacon

2010-03-05T19:47:00.004-05:00

We had 17 people at our Peyote Wrapped Cabacon class. Most people chose gemstones, well I chose one of my Dichroic Glass Pendants that I had etched. I really like the way it turned out but also learned a few things that I will do better when I make my next one!

2010-02-21T09:57:00.004-05:00

We had a full house for our Peyote Cab Class. We had 17 show up for class!! It was so much fun to learn another use for all those little beads that we have in our store! We had a guest teacher, Gina Cooper, who did a spectacular job!

What a Day!!

2010-01-27T09:18:00.003-05:00

Last year a large bead manufacturer used one of my bracelets in their catalog. It was the first time that any of my jewelry pieces had been published. Yesterday I received an e-mail from them asking to BUY another one of my pieces so that they can use it for some of their promotional pieces. I am so excited! Here is the piece that will be going in the mail today! I call it my Indian Corn Bracelet.

Precious Metal Clay (PMC)

2010-01-25T10:30:00.002-05:00

I was lucky enough to take a week long class with MaryAnn and Ken Devos learning more about PMC. She is so talented! I made about 8 or 9 pieces and became certified in PMC. I was so proud of what I made. I put them all in a tray and displayed them in one of the front cases in my store. Customers would tease me and say, "When are you going to wear one of those pieces?" I treated the case like it was a shrine! Well, yesterday I finally took one of them out an incorporated it with some gemstones and crystals. Here it is!

2010-01-14T20:04:00.003-05:00

We spent the last 3 days tubing, labeling and hanging seed bead tubes on the wall. Check out all of our new inventory. Another shipping is coming in next tuesday. It is never ending!! I love getting new beads in the store. It is fun showing new inventory to customers.

I did it!

2010-01-13T20:09:00.003-05:00

I did it! I made a Lampwork bead to match two Czech Glass beads that I had in the store to create a beautiful Necklace. Here it is!!

BLING!

2009-08-14T22:21:00.003-04:00

Here is what it looks like to Kumihimo 320 4mm Swarovski Crystal Bicones and some 8/0 Round Seed Beads! I love it!

My First Spiral Beadweaving Project!

2009-08-10T22:52:00.003-04:00

I am a beadweaver now! Since we own a bead store with my seed beads and delicas than most bead stores it is essential that I learn more about beadweaving. This is one of my favorite bracelets that we teach at the store. Sarah came up with it last year and it has been bringing in a lot of people to take the class. I finally learned how to do it and here is mine! It is the first time that I have ever made a spiral!! I loved it!

My First Lampwork Necklace

2009-08-06T09:21:00.002-04:00

Here is my first Necklace made will all of my own lampwork beads. I used different colors of transparent glass and etched each bead to make them look like Sea Glass. I was very happy with the way it turned out!

Latest Kumihimo Project

2009-06-01T14:48:00.002-04:00

Since Kumihimo is one of my "Specialties" I thought it would be the perfect necklace to make my Mom for Mother's Day. I knew that I couldn't do just any Kumihimo since my Mom has been an artist for many years. The moment that I saw this pendant I knew that was her colors! Then I needed to pick the elements that I was going to use for my Kumihimo Braid. I chose Labradorite, Freshwater Pearls, Swarovski Crystals and 3 different colors of 8/0 Seed Beads. It turned out great! She loved it! Of course I had to make a second one for our store so that customers could get inspired by it too. Here is the second one that is in our store.

Two New Lampwork Bracelets

2009-04-29T20:49:00.003-04:00

Everyone has been asking to see some of my new lampwork beads. I starting making lampwork beads in January and I still haven't burned my arm or the house down!!

Pink Crystal Sterling Heart

2009-04-27T10:49:00.004-04:00

I have made many "Puffy Hearts" but I have wanted to make one by incorporating Sterling Brites with the Crystals. I used 4mm Rose Matte AB Bicone Crystals with 2mm Sterling Brites. It turned out nice and I will wear it today!

New Gemstones at Beads!

2009-04-11T20:35:00.003-04:00

With the help of Cindy and Sarah we added a ton of new Gemstones to our wall. The store is packed with new merchandise! It looks awesome. Even Barley has a new favorite gemstone, "Lab"adorite!

Earth Day Necklace

2009-04-08T20:35:00.005-04:00

A few months ago my friend Joan taught me how to make coils out of Polymer Clay with a clay extruder. I am hooked on this tool! Every time I load clay into the extruder and make coils, customers say, "There she goes squeeking again!" It is a lot of fun. When I made the beads for this necklace a couple of people thought that the front beads looked like the earth so I named this necklace "Earth Day." It is made with the two most popular Florida colors, Aqua and lime green!

Copper Etching Class

2009-04-07T21:40:00.003-04:00

I have been wanting to learn how to etch copper for a long time. Sarah LeCompte and I tried to do it on our in the store but we didn't like the results so I took a class from Stacy Perry and this is the bracelet that I made. It came out great! Stacy is awesome. That was the first class that I took from her. She is very knowledgable and I am looking forward to learning more from her.
Now I will be teaching a Copper Etching/Copper Riveting Class on April 25th. We will be doing a pendant. I love working with Copper!!

My Newest Kumihimo Necklace

2009-04-06T20:53:00.002-04:00

Well, I finally stepped into the world of Blogging. And, what better subject to start with then Kumihimo. Kumihimo, a Japanese braid, is one of my favorite things to do. It involves using either fibers or seed beads. This particular necklace is made with 8 strands of 8/0 seed beads, a Lampwork Focal bead and Bali Silver Caps.