On Broadway

 Tuesday News Day

Welcome to News Day Tuesday -  the day for jewelry updates and snippets of life

On Broadway

The Broadway Center For The Performing Arts is hosting a fundraising auction, in support of providing performing arts opportunities for young people, in Tacoma, WA.  The person in charge of the auction visited Catwalk Gallery, saw my work there and asked if I could contribute an item to the auction.

All proceeds from Star Chefs on Broadway support a stellar cause: The largest arts in education program in Washington State, serving 35,000 students and teachers per year. For most of these kids, the Broadway Center is their only arts experience of any kind. Many face a tough mix of economic need, cultural barriers, geographic and social isolation. No child is ever turned away because of the inability to pay. This year, with your help, we’ll raise more than $300,000 through silent and live auctions to help these kids access vital arts education programs, from school matinée performances to youth violence prevention programs, and from original touring shows celebrating the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. to year round classes and workshops.

 

Here’s the necklace that I designed for the Broadway Center’s auction.  The necklace features lampwork glass by Beads and Botanicals and Genea Beads, plus ceramic beads from Gaea.

Sea Love Necklace

Bunny Love

I was lucky enough to snag a bunny pendant from Nancy Schindler of  Round Rabbit Extra!  Nancy’s work is so sought after that the moment she posts something new, it sells out.  I just happened to be at the right place at the right time!

I love bunnies – not just at Easter –  but all year round.  Who can resist their so-soft fur, wiggly noses, and bunny ears?  Melt.  I had a German professor in college that had a pet bunny that was trained to use a kitty litter box.  So therefore the bunny didn’t need to be caged.  She just hopped all around his house.  I thought it was so cool!

Bunny Love Necklace

I am always delighted to read your comments!  Hope to hear from you.

Linda

Linda Landig Jewelry – ArtFire 

Linda Landig Jewelry – Etsy

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

Snow and Wind

News Day Tuesday

Welcome to Tuesday News Day; the day for jewelry updates and other relevant or possibly irrelevant news.

Beading By Flashlight

The weather couldn’t make up its mind yesterday.  Rain, sun, high winds and snow flurries.  At one point the electricity went out for about 3 hours.  I was in the midst of making a glasses leash for my cousin.  I flipped on the battery operated lantern and kept working away.  It was a bit of a challenge to bead in such a dim light.  Here’s how far I got before giving up in the dark.

Sage green and lavender glasses leash

I did get a couple of earrings completed the day before yesterday.  Both feature artisan ceramic components.

2 pairs of ceramic earrings

Ceramic Flower Earrings

Winner of Genea Beads Giveaway

Genea Beads offered a a very tempting 30% discount over Thanksgiving weekend.  As an added incentive, the names of each person who purchased beads from Genea’s shop, were entered for bead giveaway. I bought 3 sets of scumptious, handmade lampwork beads.  This is one of the bead sets!  Each set is exquisite. 

Spiral Earth Stones-Black Lava Beads

Then, as if getting the beads at a discount wasn’t enough, I was the giveaway winner! Just look at all the beads I won! (You’re drooling on your keyboard–stop it!).

My winnings!
(Yes I was playing in Pic Monkey again!)

Wishing everyone a good weekend!  I love reading your comments!  Thanks for visiting my blog.

Kaz Baildon Bead Giveaway Blog Hop

Kaz Baildon Bead Giveaway Blog Hop

My online friend, Lesley Watt of THEAtoo is hosting today’s blog hop.  Lesley’s friend, Kaz Baildon, gave Lesley a generous bunch of her lampwork glass beads.  In turn Lesley shared this gift with a randomly chosen group of designers.  I received the bead shown below and today we are revealing what we created with the beads we were given. 

Unfortunately I left this task till the last minute and as it turned out, I became sick at the last minute.  I nevertheless designed the necklace and I quite like how it turned out.   I placed the button on the side and used a pendant by Marsha Neal.  Small cube beads and purple seed beads weave in and out of larger lilac colored beads.

 

Perfect Purple Necklace

 

Perfect Purple Necklace

Now you can have some fun hoping through the blogs of the other participants.  Everyone received different beads, so it will be fun to see all the different designs that everyone created.  Have fun.  I’ll be lying on the couch, under some blankets, with a mug of hot tea, and decongestants while perusing all this creativity!

Lesley Watt – www.thegossipinggoddess.blogspot.com
Cory Tompkins –
http://tealwaterdesigns.blogspot.com

Rebecca Anderson –
http://songbeads.blogspot.com

Marie Cramp –
http://skyejewels.blogspot.com

Claire Braunbarth –
http://smittenbeads.blogspot.com

Heidi Post – http://
http://expostfactojewelry.blogspot.com

Tiffany Smith –
http://southerngalsdesign.blogspot.com

Sharyl Macmillan-Nelson –
http://sharylsjewelry.blogspot.com

Ailsa Cordner –
http://www.bramalfiebeadsetc.co.uk/

Linda Landig –
http://lindalandig.wordpress.com

Caroline Dewison –
http://blueberribeads.com

Renetha –
http://lamplightcrafts.blogspot.com

Kari Asbury –
http://hippiechickdesign.blogspot.com

Niky Sayers - http://silverniknats.blogspot.com
Purple Cobwebs –
http://www.purplecobwebs.blogspot.com

Cilla Watkins –
http://www.tellyourgirlfriends.com/

Therese Frank – www.theresestreasures59.blogspot.com
Claire Ennis –
http://clairescrystalclassics.blogspot.com

Emma –
http://apolymerpenchant.blogspot.com

Kathy Lindemer –
http://bay-moon-design.blogspot.com

Alicia –
http://www.allprettythings.ca

Sandy Huntress –
http://keepsakecrafts.net/blog/

Lori Bowring Michaud –
http://artfullyornamental.blogspot.com

Amy –
http://copperdiem.blogspot.com

Katherine Gale –
http://terrabeadworks.blogspot.com

Art Bead Earring Swap

Diana Ptaszynski of Suburban Girl is  hosting an Art Bead Earring Swap. Here’s how she set it up:

• Participants will be put into groups of 3 and will create 1 pair of earrings for each partner.  Each earring must contain at least 1 art bead.  (If you need clarification on what an art bead is, visit Art Bead Scene.)
• The reveal date is June 7th.

I was paired with Dee Elgie of Cherry Obsidia and Kari Asbury of Hippie Chick Jewelry and Design. I made each of them very different designs.  For Dee I used lampwork glass focal beads by Radiant Mind and for Kari I featured artisan ceramic beads by Golem Studio. Please visit Dee and Kari’s blogs to see what I designed for them.

And now for the fun part:  Here’s what Dee and Kari designed for me!

Dee is a published lampwork glass artist and her earrings feature her gorgeous  handmade turquoise, purple and green hearts, crystals and a purple lamped beads suspended from sterling silver chains.  Aren’t they lovely? I love turquoise and purple together!

Earrings from Dee

 

Kari’s earrings feature rust-orange/brown lampwork glass beads with copper clay dragonfly dangles by my friend Kristi Bowman.  I wear lots of brown and rust colors, so these go with everything!

Earrings from Kari

Big thank you’s to Diana for hosting this and to Dee and Kari for sharing their creativity with me.

Now I encourage you to check out all the creative earring designs in this blog hop.  The links for all the participants are listed below.

Diana Ptaszynski     http://www.suburbangirlstudio.com Earring Swap Hostess, yeah!

Jan Onipenco   
http://moltenmayhem.typepad.com/

Patti Vanderbloemen       
http://myaddictionshandcrafted.blogspot.com/

Mary Harding  http://www.maryhardingjewelrybeadblog.blogspot.com

Diane Hawkey   
http://dianehawkey.blogspot.com/

Lesley Watt        http://www.thegossipinggoddess.blogspot.com

Jenny Davies Reazor      http://www.jdaviesreazor.com/blog

Melinda Orr      http://www.orrtec.blogspot.com

Cilla Watkins      http://www.tellyourgirlfriends.com

Stephanie Haussler       http://www.pixybugdesigns.blogspot.com

Sally Russick     http://www.thestudiosublime.com <–you are here

Susan Kennedy       http://www.suebeads.blogspot.com

Amy Freeland 
http://www.copperdiem.blogspot.com/

Marla James 
http://marlasmudmoments.blogspot.com/

Pam Sears
http://crazycreativecorner.blogspot.com/

Tania Spivey
http://www.moobiegracedesigns.blogspot.com/

Kathleen Lange Klick
http://www.modernnaturestudio.blogspot.com/

Lori Bowring Michaud 
http://artfullyornamental.blogspot.com/

Erin Prais-Hintz 
http://www.treasures-found.blogspot.com/

Gail Barnett
http://www.atlastanewyearsresolution.blogspot.com/

Linda Landig 
http://www.lindasbeadblog.com/
  You are here (& I’m glad you are!)

Sharleen Newland
http://www.shaterraclaystudio.blogspot.com/

Dee Elgie 
http://cherryobsidia.blogspot.co.uk/

Mary Shannon Hicks 
http://uptwnsh-fallingintothesky.blogspot.com/

Lisa Johnson 
http://whimsyswonders.blogspot.com/

Shelby Foxwell
http://sundownbeaddesigns.blogspot.com/

Keri Lee Sereika 
http://www.pinklemonade.typepad.com/

Cheryl Brown    www.dragonflybeads.ca

Linda Younkman
http://www.lindysdesigns.blogspot.com/

Kari Asbury
http://hippiechickdesign.blogspot.com/

Fay Wolfenden
http://www.torchfairy.blogspot.com/

Tuesday Tour – Week 5

Handmade Christmas Gift Ideas

On ArtFire

After a week’s delay, I’m back on track with my Tuesday Tours.  Thank you to everyone who wished me a speedy healing.  I’m still bruised and tender, but I’m feeling much better!

Each week I’ve been sharing items from some of my favorite shops and recently I’ve been featuring items from artisans living in the Pacific Northwest.  I hope you will find some cool Christmas gifts here – for yourself or others on your list!

First off are handmade glass beads from my good friends, Jenelle and Dan, of Beads and Botanicals.  Not only do they live in the Pacific NW, they even live in the same town that I do.  At my shows, the past two weekends, I sold at least two bracelets and two pairs of earrings that included their lampwork glass beads.  Aren’t these green disks awesome?  I love the contrast between the smooth green centers and the rough-hewn edges.  Is there a beader in your life?  Make them happy when they discover these handmade, lampwork beads in their stocking.

Lampwork beads Antiquities Olive & Raku Organic Orbit Disks Handmade

Lampwork beads Antiquities Olive and Raku Organic Orbit Disks handmade

Moving from beads to finished jewelry – I  love this spectacular red poppy themed necklace by Janet of Honey from the Bee.   It starts off with an exceptionally beautiful handmade glass focal bead that looks like a field of poppies in glass.  The asymmetrical designs includes glass poppies vining up one side, accented by antique French brass centers.  As if that weren’t enough, Janet wove a spiral of tiny glass beads to encircle your neck.  This is an heirloom quality piece to give to someone really special in your life!

Green and Red Necklace – Poppy Dreams – lampwork, beaded necklace

Green and Red Necklace - Poppy Dreams - lampwork, beaded necklace

The String Lady, aka Erica, makes delightful crocheted items.  It’s cold in many parts of the country and a hand-crocheted scarf makes a welcome gift.   Aren’t the colors just yummy?

Multicolored Side to Side Scarf Unisex Any Age

Multicolored Side to Side Scarf Unisex Any Age

I really had a hard time selecting one item from Kristi Bowman Design.  Kristi’s work is very imaginative.  She has a great feel for color and interesting texture in her designs.  I really like the way she wire-wrapped the fire opal on these earrings and suspended them from the small blue ruffled rings.  Awesome!

Fancy Faceted Fire Opal and Lampwork Ruffled Rings

Fancy Faceted Fire Opal and Lampwork Ruffled Rings

You can also find great handmade Christmas gifts at Linda Landig Jewelry.  Here’s the most recent addition to my shop.  Titled the “Blue Danube Earrings”, they have copper connectors that are handmade by Kristi Bowman (featured above).  Check out the gorgeous design in the copper!  I suspended cornflower blue ceramic dangles, (by Elaine Ray), beneath the copper.  I really love this combination of blue and copper.  I’m thinking that I may have to make a similar pair for myself!

Textured Copper Earrings Handmade Blue Ceramic Dangles Antiqued Brass

Textured Copper Earrings Handmade Blue Ceramic Dangles Antiqued Brass

If you have questions about any these items arriving in time for Christmas, just send a message to the artist about it.  There is a contact button at the bottom of the first page of each shop.  Some of us (including me) are guaranteeing same or next day shipping.

I hope you enjoyed your fifth Tuesday Tour.  I’d love to hear your comments!

By the way…did you notice that it’s snowing on my blog?!  Move your mouse and it will change the direction the snow is falling!  Enjoy!

Bead Table Wednesday: Gem Faire

BTW: New Goodies

I went to the Gem Faire in Tacoma last Friday and I have all kinds of new goodies on my bead table now.  I’m fairly cautious at Gem Faire, because many of the gem dealers don’t have store fronts or websites and I see a lot of gems that look dubious to me.  One booth had beads that were obviously glass, but were billed as quartz, (but had garish bright non-quartz colors).  Other dealers looked quite reputable.  I really didn’t need any stones any way.  They have good deals on Swarovski crystals and I picked up several strands.  The oval beads (below) are Chinese crystal.  The rest are Swarovskis.

Swarovski and Chinese crystals.

Unicorn Beads always has a booth at Gem Faire and they have great deals on their discontinued lines.  Unicorne Beads specializes in handmade lampworked Boro (Borosilicate) glass.  At a nearby booth, I also picked up one strand of moukite – my only gemstone purchase.

Unicorne Beads and moukite

Here’s a close up of some of the boro beads.  Pretty, huh?

Unicorne Beads

I finished off my shopping spree with 4 feet of brass chain and 2 feet of copper chain.  The ceramic pieces below are from Summers Studio and they arrived in the mail this week, too.

New chain and ceramic beads from Summers Studio

Now I can’t wait to get into the studio and start creating with all these new goodies.

✿✿✿

Visit the BTW Flickr group and see what others have on their  bead tables.

Lampwork Leaf Earrings

Autumn Favorites

I’ve added two pairs of earrings to my jewelry shop, which are my new autumn favorites.  They both feature lampwork (handmade glass) leaves by Havana Beads.

The “Autumn Leaf Earrings” showcase large (14 mm) fire agate beads.  The color is s-o-o-o-o gorgeous! I framed the fire agate with brass spacers and topped them with cool sage green fire polish glass beads.  The handmade glass leaves at the bottom have flecks of amber, pink and green.

Autumn Leaf Earrings

The “Dappled Leaf Earrings” are smaller and more subtle, but just as pretty.  This pair of leaves has varying shades of brown and cream with hints of green.  I accented them with gleaming tiger eye (the brown stone), brick-red glass beads and light green beads that have a copper core.  Both pairs of earrings are suspended from handmade brass ear wires.

Dappled Leaf Earrings

Earring Swap

Art Bead Earring Swap

Diana Ptaszynski of Suburban Girl Studio, hosted an Art Bead Earring Swap. And today we are revealing the Art Bead Earrings we received from our partners.

The rules were as follows:

• Participants will create 1 pair of earrings containing at least 1 art bead on each earring.
• You must have an active blog.  That means you post on it at least a couple times a month.
• You must live in the US or Canada.
• Blog Reveal Date: October 5th.
• Your earrings can be as simple or as elaborate as you want them to be.  Just have fun!

I was paired with the lovely Cilla Watkins of Tell Your Girlfriends.  She has a blog by that name and an Etsy store that is also called Tell Your Girlfriends.  I’d seen Cilla’s name around in various online challenges I’ve participated in, but I’d never had any contact with her.  That is one of the fun things about participating in challenges and exchanges; you get to know new people who share some of the same passions as you do.  Cilla and I wrote to each other about what our favorite colors were and then we waited with anticipation to see what we each made for the other.

I told Cilla that I prefer autumn colors, such as oranges, russet reds, browns and golden hues.  Here’s what the package looked like before I’d opened it.  Oh, the anticipation!  The packaging and the card she enclosed were all handmade by fellow Etsy artists.

What's inside? I can hardly wait to see!

I was so incredibly delighted with what she sent me!  These earrings are perfect in every way!

Handmade Earrings by Cilla Watkins

A requirement of the exchange was that we use art beads.  Cilla chose to use artisan made lampwork beads from two different artists.

Handmade Earrings by Cilla Watkins

The gorgeous lampwork glass, leaf-shaped head pins are by Ellen Dooley Lampwork, and the etched, cranberry colored lampwork glass beads are by Lynda’s Bead Dream.  I also really love the little antiqued brass foliage bead caps that Cilla placed in a upward facing position.

Handmade Earrings by Cilla Watkins

And here is a glimpse of the earrings I made for Cilla, using ceramic from MartiC and lampwork from Beads and Botanicals.  You can read more about them by going to her blog:   Tell Your Girlfriends.

Earring for Cilla Watkins

Do you love earrings?  Then you’ll want to see all the other great artisan earrings that were in this earring swap.  Here are all the participants:

Diana Ptaszynski   
http://www.suburbangirlstudio.com
  — Our Hostess!

Jenny Davies-Reazor 
http://www.jdaviesreazor.com/blog

Marie-Noel Voyer-Cramp 
http://www.skyejewels.blogspot.com

Lisa Petrillo 
http://www.lucidmoonstudio.com

Patty Chaban Gasparino 
http://www.mylifeunderthebus.typepad.com

Susan Kennedy 
http://www.suebeads.blogspot.com

Shannon Iko Chomanczuk 
http://www.formysweetdaughter.blogspot.com

Cilla Watkins 
http://www.tellyourgirlfriends.com
— My Partner

Diane Hawkey 
http://www.dianehawkey.blogspot.com

Pam Ferrari
http://www.ferrarioriginalsyahoocom.blogspot.com

Lori Bowring Michaud 
http://www.artfullyornamental.blogspot.com

Stacey M. Curry 
http://www.starhitchedwagon.blogspot.com

Linda Landig 
http://www.lindasbeadblog.com
— Me

Norma Turvey 
http://www.moonlitfantaseas.blogspot.com

Melinda Orr 
http://www.orrtec.blogspot.com

Holly Westfall 
http://www.silverrosedesigns.blogspot.com

Rosemarie Cowit 
http://www.gemrosedesigns.blogspot.com

Staci L. Smith 
http://www.stacilouise.blogspot.com

Sarah Elder 
http://www.mysocalledjunkylife.blogspot.com

Have fun!!!!

Bead Table Wednesday: New Beads

Retail Therapy

I’d been feeling a little low lately and that led to some serious bead retail therapy shopping…. This picture doesn’t even show it all–oh my!  Here’s what’s on my table now:

New beads and pendants

The strands of glass beads and the ceramic beads in the little bowl are all from Shipwreck Beads. Fortunately – or unfortunately, (depending on how you look at it), I only live about 15 minutes away from Shipwreck.  Those red and black beads are so-o-o cool!  The round ceramic charms are from Bo Hulley Beads. You can sorta see that I already made one pair into earrings.  The green and brown leaves and the deeply textured rounds are from Chinook Jewelry.

H-m-m-m, what else have I gotten?  Well, these from DaviniaDesign:

Venetian Glass from DaviniaDesign

and these from Free Individual:

Handmade bronze metal oval beads from Free Individual

and this from Golem Studios:

Poppy pendant from Golem Studios

and finally this from MartiC51 !

Green Banana Owl - How cute is this???

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I encourage you to visit the BTW Flickr group and  see what is on other bead tables.

Muffin Tin Challenge – Finished Jewelry

 One Dozen Earrings – Done!

Heather Powers, polymer clay artist extraordinaire, created a fun challenge she named the Muffin Tin Challenge.  The idea was to use muffin cups to organize everything needed to make a dozen pieces of jewelry and to complete the 12 projects in just a week’s time.  I didn’t catch on to this challenge until Wednesday and then I had other commitments for most of the weekend.  For me it pretty much boiled down to two and half days of marathon jewelry design.  I originally had a couple of necklaces and a bracelet planned in 3 of the muffin cups, but earrings are quicker and so I had to put off the more time-consuming projects for another time.  You can view my beads sorted into the muffin tins on the post I wrote this morning.

So without further ado, here are the first half-dozen pairs of earrings.

This group includes 1 set of copper metal clay charms by Kristi Bowman of Dream Some.  This pair turned out a bit on the heavy side, so I may turn them into necklace pendants sometime soon.

Here are the second half-dozen earrings.

At the center top are earrings which feature a pair of small cranberry and amber lampwork glass beads by Beads and Botanicals, which I  paired with more charms from Dream Some.    The earring just below them also have very cool copper metal clay charms from Dream Some.  The long rectangular dangles on the two bottom pairs of earrings come from Miss Fickle Media.

I may blog about some of these earrings in more detail in the next few days, but I wanted to at least get out a brief post in time for the challenge.  The challenge was stressful to accomplish in 2 and a half days, but I also think it is good to occasionally push myself outside of my comfort zone.  If you visit the Art Bead Scene you can get links to other participants in this challenge.

Here’s a last look at 10 of the 12 sets.  Whew–mission accomplished!  What challenges have you met recently?