September Pretty Palettes Challenge :: riding a bike...that sparkles

Beading is best when shared! 

For months, a couple of my friends and I had been striving to schedule a beading "play date" for ourselves. Our busy schedules, our kids' busy schedules, and the fact that we don't live in the same town made it challenging, but soon after Erin posted September's Pretty Palettes post, my friends contacted me and let me know that this was THEIR palette and we couldn't let this month go by without giving this palette a go.

After bunches of messages, Jenn, Rachel and I managed to carve out a few hours to work together to make something beautiful based on this gorgeous palette from Jessica Colaluca of Fresh Hues. YUM!

To get ready for our beading play date, I made an amazing--but so easy--roasted tomato and pepper soup the night before, stocked the little fridge in my studio with some drinks and snacks, and set out the goodies for us to play with that worked with the palette. All of these beads are from Halcraft's Bead Gallery line available at Michaels Stores.

These are some of the goodies that we played with during our play date!

Jenn and Rachel and I went to college together, traveled together, and wrote poetry together. It was about time the three of us sat down and created something sparkly.

Speaking of sparkly, I have to share a photo of what happens in my studio on sunny mornings when I put the beads out on the table. Kinda dreamy, right?

Sometimes I just need to watch the beads sparkle!

After rifling through beads, Rachel and Jenn and I chose the ones we liked best and went from there. Jenn, who has a penchant for sparkles, chose a rose gold slider and coordinating beads. Jenn is known for her need to balance, in her life, in her work, and definitely in her beading! Jenn and I have been beading together for over a decade, and I most definitely noticed this trend in her work. Jenn described our morning like this: "I beaded today...for the first time in a long time. It was like riding a bike...that sparkles. Also, yes, I did, in fact, put a bird on my earrings."

Rachel chose some gorgeous glass points and made "grape cluster" earrings. I taught her to pinch her crimps shut to hold the marquis-shaped chain to the strand of glass points, which she carefully placed in an order so that the longest points were in the center of the necklace. Aren't they beautiful? I realized during our time together that I didn't have a mirror in my studio, so Rachel was clever enough to think of using the Photo Booth on my computer. Did I ever tell you that Rachel is, like CRAZY smart? (I think that the carving on this one is beautiful. Maybe when I win the lottery?)

I found myself drawn to  coppery chain as well, but I used a smaller version and hung little dangles from it to create a lariat-style necklace, and I couldn't help but make a few stretch bracelets to layer, too.

Thank you so much for taking the time to peruse our beading projects. I hope that they inspire you to participate in the Pretty Palettes challenge next month, and maybe even plan a girls' night to make a grouping of projects like we did! I know I'd love to be able to do this every month. 

Visit www.halcraft.com/blog next Wednesday, October 1, to see Erin's October's Pretty Palette!