The Goodies for BSBP I SENT to my partner, Andrea Frank!

THIS is the soup I sent my partner, Andrea Frank, in pictures. :)

Without further ado...

One of the focals I made for Andrea...

The other focal I made for Andrea! :) This one is very, very orange!

The red and orange soup I created...

Faceted glass rondelles in red, red-orange and orange. Ooooolala!

Faceted orange carnelian CAT!!! And Andrea loves cats, just like me! :)

Reconstituted stone red roses...

Some copper birdies...

Some tiny garnets- Andrea loves these!

A pretty red rose in polymer clay and a rainbow bead- both made by me!

Sue Beads - by a lampwork artist.

By Tiffany Goth-Smith. :)

A selection of findings and traditional clasps that I sent...

Here's one of the clasps I MADE! :)

Another copper clasp I made...

And the last clasp I made. They are all a little rustic! :)

Polymer Clay Fun for Valentine's Day!

Here are some absolutely lovely polymer clay charms & pendants I made recently for, you guessed it, a Valentine's Day Swap! :)

Without further ado, pictures:

I made doubles of EVERYTHING--> I originally had one partner and then inherited another for a total of TWO partners! Hence the doubles. :) But still, each one is UNIQUE because they are formed using my fingers individually. Wootz!

I used red pearl and white pearl clays, with a small smattering of plum for the flowers. Of course, I had to accent with rose quartz and cute little crystals. I also used a metal stamp, (LOL!), to make the indents of the little hearts.

Those little hearts you see on the white pearl clay are hand formed, for the most part. I used a toothpick to make the indent between the two "humps."

I do use a few cutters, some in the round and a diamond one to cut out the triangles between the humps of the hearts. :) Cutting those out by just using a knife would be pretty time-consuming, IMHO.

My favorite tools:
toothpicks
sharp knives/razor blades
bamboo skewers
diamond polymer clay cutter
round polymer clay cutters (Thanks for these, Kerri!)

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask!

Non-Blogger/Blogger 10th Challenge ~ The Sea Garden

I'm participating in the 10th Non-blogger/Blogger Challenge hosted by Esterina Mestoko Jagiella... here's the inspiration photo by Dinink Sonia:

I took the following colors out of it for my palette:

orange, yellow & black for the fishies

shades of green & blue & translucent for the backgrounds!

I made the following beads out of polymer clay, crystals and semi-precious stones:

And here are some (larger) photos of the beads, (just click to view the larger pictures!):

 Aren't those little fishes to die for?! :)

 

Yes! You can vote for my entry by clicking here, and typing in "MY FAVORITE" in the comments box. *mad love* (But only do this if you truly love what I made!). Voting goes until December 1st @ 11:59pm PDT. 

THANK YOU!

Halloween/Day of the Dead Jewelry Blog Hop by Suburban Girl Studio (A dedication to Crab Apple)

Here's a link to Toltec Jewel's Halloweeny Blog Hop: http://zenithjade.blogspot.com/2013/10/octoberfest-day-of-dead-by-jewel-school.html

So for this Halloween/Day of the Dead Blog Hop, we were supposed to make something using artist beads- for the uninformed, they are beads that are handmade, not mass-produced. :) They can include polymer clay, (my medium of choice), lampwork, clay, porcelain, wood, etc etc etc. I actually made a pair of polymer clay kitty cat earrings in honor of my cat, but didn't manage to get a snapshot of them on Sunday. I will add to this post later today, so keep your eyes peeled! They are awfully cute. *love* In the meantime, however, I have made some other beautiful stuff using artist beads... and here they are:

Pumpkin Earrings (the pumpkins were made by me using polymer clay!) on Sterling Silver Earring Hooks:

And a real pumpkin, carved by my finace, Eric:

And a cool bracelet in Halloween colors with a SKULL accent from The Beehive and a lampworked bead by Marica of Shazazz Glass:

Used in this bracelet are faux black matte sea glass beads bought from Bedazzled (our local bead store), purple glass from The Beehive (a bead shop/group on facebook), black faceted crystals, and lampwork glass by Shazazz glass. The little skulls are also from The Beehive. :)

This post brought to you by my Halloweeny Cat, Crab Apple, who died on Friday, October 18th, 2013...

 This is Crabbi... isn't she beautiful? I thought she'd make a great Halloween mascot for this post.

Remember, I'm going to show off a pair of lovely kitty cat earrings a little later today, (when the sun pops out so I can get a good photo!), so keep your eyes peeled!

Without further ado, here are the pictures of the black kitty cat Halloweeny earrings:

Black polymer clay, a little pink nose, Swarovski crystals for the eyes in Topaz I think, and yellow fluorite- all on silver plate. :)

Here's another photo:

Here's Suburban Girl Studio's call for artists. (CLICK!)

And without further ado, here's the participant list:

Christine Damm   http://storiestheytell.blogspot.com

Diana Ptaszynski  http://www.suburbangirlstudio.com (The host!)

Staci Smith  http://www.stacilouiseoriginals.com/

Kathleen Breeding  http://99bobotw.blogspot.com

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

Dianne Miller  http://www.artbydianne.blogspot.com

Lisa Liddy  http://www.lisaliddy.wordpress.com

Toltec Jewels  http://www.JewelSchoolFriends.com

Linda Landig  http://www.LindasBeadBlog.com

Laura Medeiros  http://Www.zoeowyn.blogspot.com

Veralynne Malone  http://www.veradesigns.blogspot.com

Lynn Jobber  http://thecreativeklutz.blogspot.co.uk

Michelle McCarthy  http://www.fireflydesignstudio.blogspot.com

Karen Totten  http://www.starryroadstudio.blogspot.com

Jayne Capps  https://mamasgottodoodle.blogspot.com

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

Joan Miller  http://metalmudandsand.blogspot.com/

Melissa Meman  http://melissameman.blogspot.com

Melissa Trudinger  http://www.beadrecipes.wordpress.com

Kari Asbury  http://hippiechickdesign.blogspot.com

Inge von Roos  http://www.ingetraud.wordpress.com

Andrea Glick  http://zenithjade.blogspot.com  (You are here!)

Stephanie LaRosa  http://Www.stringaholic.blogspot.com

Lola Surwillo  http://www.beadlolabead.com

Jennifer Cameron  http://glassaddictions.com/blog

Diane Hawkey  http://dianehawkey.blogspot.com

Kristi Harrison  http://kristibasket-itsanewday.blogspot.com

Nicole Valentine Rimmer  http://www.nvalentine.blogspot.com

Tanya Goodwin  http://www.Pixiloo.blogspot.com

Shai Williams  http://shaihasramblings.blogspot.com/

Sandra McGriff  http://skyescreativechaos.blogspot.com

Sarajo Wentling  http://www.sjdesignsjewelry.blogspot.com

Marie Covert  http://thistledown-and-swaddlings.blogspot.com

Lisa Stukel  http://www.carefreejewelrybylisa.blogspot.com

Laurie Vyselaar  http://www.Lefthandjewelry.wordpress.com

Sherri Stokey  http://www.knotjustmacrame.com

Pam Traub  http://www.klassyjoolz.blogspot.com

Lori Dorrington  http://lorisglassworks.blogspot.com

Kristen Stevens  http://kristen-beadjourney.blogspot.com

Eleanor Burian-Mohr  http://cornerstoregoddessjewelry.blogspot.com

Sally Russick  http://thestudiosublime.com

Dawn M. Gallop  http://www.flipflopsandpoptarts.com

 

"Oh NO! Someone’s Copied My Work!!!" by Lexi Erickson

http://lexiericksondesigns.wordpress.com/2012/03/28/oh-no-someones-copied-my-work/

^^^ There's the link to the article. :)

http://zenithjade.etsy.com/

A Day of Jewelry Selling on Etsy, Alzheimers, Jilly's Bead Posse, ++!

A neat infographic on selling jewelry on Etsy! (Here's the original post with additional information: http://www.beadinggem.com/2012/03/day-of-jewelry-selling-on-etsy.html).

I thought this was too cool not to share! *grins*

Also, a neat article from the same source on a jewelry-making world traveler:

Esfera Jewelry - A Traveling Jewelry Store

I've been busy making new things today! Some of it I'm donating to Jilly's Bead Posse, (a dedicated group of artisans working to raise funds++ for researching Alzheimer's). I made 36 pairs of earrings for the cause, (I forgot to take pictures, but you can view some of them on Jilly's Bead Posse by searching for my name!), and now I'm making some polymer clay pendants, a waterfall pendant or two, and some other stuff!*laughs* It's keeping me pretty busy!

And a random photo from my Etsy shop:

http://zenithjade.etsy.com/

Cool Faceted Polymer Clay Beads! Mosaics!

http://artjewelryelements.blogspot.com/2013/04/polymer-clay-how-to-faceted-crackle.html

Learn how to make these lovely beads by following the above link! (I did NOT make these, but thought they were too cool not to share!).

(c) Art Jewelry Elements

Here's something I DID make:

I just learned recently how to make polymer clay roses! I really love how this one turned out!

What I Gave My Partner (Andrea T) for Bead Soup Blog Party (BSBP7)

A lovely mishmash of mostly greens and a little bit of brown and some pink. I also gave her all black findings, (toggle clasps, earwires, and other findings). The idea was to use the fancy jasper as the main focus of the design, so all the colors blend well together. :) But that's just MY idea. I can't wait to see what Andrea does!

The focals on the left are made by me, ZenithJade Creations! You can find more focals like them in my Etsy shop, here: http://ZenithJade.etsy.com/ ! I also included a brown and green jasper? focal that's on the bottom right in case the others wouldn't fit her color scheme. (They're a mix of brown, copper, pink and translucent!)

As you can probably tell from the photo, I included a diverse variety of goodies to choose from! In the middle top is a strand of irregular freshwater pearls...

Here's the heart focal I made for Andrea. Isn't it cool? I embedded three Swarovski crystals into the heart. It also has a place to hang dangles from! :)

Here's an up-close view of some Czech? glass beads that are black & green, some fancy jasper and green aventurine. YUM!

Andrea T just received my beads YESTERDAY, so I can post about what I gave her safely now. :) I'm sorry if these pictures are a little washed out- I edited them in photoshop so they wouldn't be so bad! *laughs* You can keep up with Andrea's blog here to see what she does with all the goodies! YAY!