Lotus Drop Earrings in Pink Bronze Burgundy Pearl

Here is a new pair of Lotus Drop Earrings I stitched with pink and pearl Swarovski crystals and bronze and burgundy seed beads. I like the way the colors look deep and rich together. The pearls and the facets on the crystals add a touch of light.

Find this pair here: https://www.etsy.com/listing/261517656/
Learn to make your own here: http://www.beadinfinitum.com/Kits/Lotus_Drop_Links.html

Have a great day, better than yesterday.  Thanks for looking.

Wisdom Mandala Pendant with Lapis

I sold a Wisdom Mandala yesterday, which means I got to make another one!

I've been wanting to make one to match this pair of ginkgo leaf earring for a few months, and so I did. Of all of my designs, the Wisdom Mandala is definitely one of my very favorites to make and wear. It has so much detail and sparkle, and you really get to explore complex color pallets when you weave them.

This two-sided pendant is woven from hundreds of tiny seed beads and sparkling Swarovski crystals. It has a natural deep blue lapis in center, surrounded by all tints of silver, gold, purples and black. The mandala hangs from a beaded tube that I strung on a matching piece of silk and cotton cord that I spun on my spinning wheel.

The design is named for the Five Wisdoms in Buddhism. These include the bare non-conceptualizing awareness, mirror-like awareness, awareness of sameness, investigative awareness that perceives the specificity, and the awareness that spontaneously carries out all that has to be done for the welfare of beings, manifesting itself in all directions.

Rainbow Mandala

I've been having fun beading rainbows lately.  Rainbows are all about color.  I call this piece a Wisdom Mandala.  It's a two-sided pendant.

Here you can see the other side of the rainbow... pendant. :)

At first, I thought I preferred the top photo, but then after I slept on it, I decided I liked the bottom photo better, but now I'm not so sure.  Which side do you prefer?

This pendant is for sale here: https://www.etsy.com/listing/179768812/
The pattern for the Wisdom Mandala is available here: http://www.beadinfinitum.com/Kits/index.html#Wisdom_Mandala.
Thanks for looking!

Lotus Drop Earrings

These beaded earrings feature little fan dangles in the shape of lotus flowers. They are woven with purple and bronze glass seed beads and Swarovski crystal in hot pink, and creamy pearl. All of the metal is sterling silver. They are fancy enough to be noticed, yet still casual enough for day wear.

These are medium sized earrings, and the beaded beads have a ton of detail for their size.
Length of earrings from top of ear wire is 37 mm (1 3/8 inches).

I have a tutorial available if you would like to learn how to make you own Lotus Drop Earrings. Thanks for looking!

Wisodom Mandala Pendant in Blue and Gold

Here's my latest pattern, the beaded Wisodom Mandala, named after the five Wisdoms.  Te photo shows the front and back of the same pendant. 

Playing with seed bead colors can be really fun and challenging. It took me a bit of practice to reliably get color combinations I like with the Wisdom Mandala, but I think I nailed it on this one.  For this mandala, I stayed within an analogous palette of blues, green and gold.  One side is basically just blue and gold, very simple.  The other side shows all three analogous colors: blue, aqua, and gold.  Staying simple helped make it work. 

One of my favorite things about making these pendants is that you get to use lots of different colors of beads, and you get two chances to get the colors to look the way you want.  By limiting my colors to I think I was able to get a harmonious design on both sides.  Nice.  See more Mandala Pendants here.

New Pattern: Beaded Wisdom Mandala

Here's my latest pattern, the beaded Wisodom Mandala, named after the five Wisdoms.

The Beaded Wisdom Mandala is a symmetric beaded pendant that is reversible. It is woven with two layers of seed beads throughout most of the piece except for an abundance of crystals that show through the windows of seed beads. The layering creates a pendant that looks different on each side. It has five-fold symmetry on one side, and nearly ten-fold symmetry on the other.

 The mandala hangs from a beaded tube with jump rings to make an easily wearable pendant. The 22 page pattern shows a variety of pendants in different colors, a few of which I show here.

Beaded Wisdom Mandala

In the pattern, I explain how to make the pendant and the hanging tube in three different sizes so you can make a complete necklace, like this Earthy Mandala Necklace. The mandala is woven with a combination of double outline stitch, loops, square stitch, and peyote stitch.  Here you can see one of my early Wisdom Mandalas, before I figured out how to link the mandala to the hanging tube with jump rings.

The hanging tube is woven with super right angle weave (SRAW) with embellishment.

I really love that the front and back are so different.  Measuring just 1 3/4 inches across, and the complete pendant is just 2 1/2 inches tall, they are pretty detailed for their small size. If you like playing with color (and size 15° and 11° seed beads), you'll love making these.  Thanks for looking!

Lotus Drop Necklace Kits

Last month, I introduced the Lotus Drop Earrings.  Now I've got a Lotus Drop Necklace to show you.  This one is a kit.

The necklace is 20 inches long (51 cm), longer than what I typically wear, but it seems right for the shape of the dangles.  Of course, you can make it shorter if you want by leaving out some of the components.

Then, with the leftovers you could make matching earrings.  Anyway, I kind of really like this next photo.

As I was making this necklace, I was excited when I realized that I could source the beads to make a limited number of kits, all except the blue briolette drops.  So the kits include everything but the briolette drops and the wire I used to wrap them.  I left out the drops because it is terribly difficult and expensive to acquire natural faceted briolette beads in bulk.  Plus, I didn't think the ones I used are particularly the "right" choice, and you might enjoy, just as well, finding your own drops to make your necklace personalized for you. That way, every assembled kit will be a little different.

Here is what this necklace looks like as a drawing.

I used the drawing to help me make the necklace.  With Doceri software on my iPad, it's a lot easier to make copies than it is with real beads.  Doceri lets me design complex bead work quickly and easily, especially for a design like this, where a few motifs are repeated over and over, and there are lots of different ways to combine them.  The necklace I made wasn't the first necklace I designed on my iPad.  Here are a few others.

Here are some small ones.

I have patterns and kits available if you would like to make your own Lotus Drop Necklace.   Thanks for looking.

Color Medallion No.3 Violet Boudoir

This is the third color medallion I made.

I'm pretty happy with it, so much that I might actually have to keep this one for myself.  I made kits, but they are all sold out. You can find other kits and the pattern here.

Florence and I taught this class together at the Bead & Button Show 2013.  Thanks for looking!