The Infrequent Beader: Two Blogs in Less Than a Week!

I'm still rolling on necklaces, especially my necklace for the BSBP, but I've started to work on earrings as well. Earrings for Halloween, no less! Last year I didn't start early enough. This was a harsh lesson to learn. I'm still the world's greatest procrastinator, but I recognize my problem and I'm dealing with it. Tomorrow:)

This is a necklace I made the other day with irregularly shaped coral beads accented by turquoise and silver. I could not resist making the necklace into the shape of an arrowhead for display purposes. I think the coral looks like Indian corn.

This is a close-up of the copper toggle, handcrafted by me.

Speaking of toggles, pictured below are two toggles I made from silver clay (actually the bar portion is not in this photo). There are also three small charms formed from silver clay. I want them to look beat up, like metal artifacts that just came out of the ground. I still need to dip them in liver of sulfur. The toggle at the back is going on a strand of pearls; the toggle in the foreground is going to a lovely strand of turquoise from magpiegemstones.com that I am in the process of stringing on brown silk thread.

I'm also trying to finish up a relatively simple necklace, but just can't seem to commit to one strand of chain or two. I'm leaning towards two. This design, from bottom to top, consists of a large rose quartz bead attached to an ethnic brass/enamel coin-shaped hollow bead. The chain is actually antiqued brass, though in this photo it looks more like antiqued silver (hmmm, something to think about).

Below are a few pairs of my funky, hopefully scary, Halloween earrings. I have playfully (twistedly?) dubbed them Skull Fairies. I was inspired by Day of the Dead imagery and those tiny aluminum flowers!

Court Jester
(Kind of Beetlejuice to me, but perhaps I flatter myself)

Dancing Skeletons
(These remind me of those weird squiddies from the movie Matrix)

Finally, I'd like to include a photo of my friend Heidi. This picture was taken at her birthday tea this past weekend. We had a great time at the English Tea Room in Covington, LA. I had a tea named Sgt. Peppers; it was a Rooibus with cayenne and some other type of pepper. Very tasty.