Monday, August 8, 2016

New Idea...

It's not my idea but a fellow jewelry blogger that I follow does this, I enjoy hers and I think that my blog will benefit from this too. 

She just adds bullet points with some interesting tidbits about whats happening in her life and Viola, an easy and quick post to keep people informed and to let them know you haven't fallen off the face of the Earth.

 

This summer has been a hot one and super busy too. What I've been up to.

- Work of course, it always seems that I am at work.

-It's been super hot here in Michigan so we have been able to put our pool to good use this year.  

- I convinced my teenage son to not only one but 2 zoo trips. One to the Toledo Zoo and the other to the Detroit zoo.





-We went at the beginning of summer to the Toledo Zoo and it was so chilly that we had to were our jackets most of the day.

- The little one with us is my Niece's little girl Madi. She hangs with us a lot.

- My 15 year old son is working on growing full beard, I call him Wolverine.

- Just finished sanding, painting and updating a headboard for my bedroom and just love how it turned out!

- I have to get this guy ready for driver's training and back to school, he does online high school and excelled so much last year that he's doing it again this year. He went from grades that were toilet bound, to pulling off a 3.3GPA, He made me very proud!
- I have a couple more projects that I am working on, maybe I'll show the progress or maybe even a little tutorial here. They aren't jewelry, but one uses jewelry, and the other is going to store jewelry making supplies.

- Haven't been able to make jewelry for weeks now. I hyper-extended and possible fractured my thumb, the swelling was too bad to see anything on an x-ray. So I have been in this contraption.

-Who  knew you used your thumb for so much? Well, this girl knows now! So there's only so much I can do. Since I can't make jewelry, I decided to clean and organize my studio instead, not as much fun, but I always put that off and if you saw it the way it looked when I started, well I shudder to think, the reaction you would have! Still have a ton to do, but it's getting there!



Hope to see you Soon,

~Rosa


Sunday, May 15, 2016

Bead Peeps Swap and Hop Reveal......

Today Is the day for the Swap and Hop Reveal...

I'm sure most of you know how this works, but if by chance you don't I will give you a quick summary. Our hostess for this swap is the lovely Linda Anderson. She painstakingly matched, everyone who signed up with partners. So then the object or rules are that you send your partner an artisan bead or focal, a clasp and if you really want any beads or other goodies to go along with them and then they create wonderful, gorgeous pieces of jewelry. 

This is the second year that I have participated in this hop and had such a good time last year, that even with my busy schedule and really no extra time on my hands, could not resist signing up! I was partnered with the sweet Susan Kelly . I was so excited when my package arrives, I'm like a kid at Christmas, so I could hardly wait to open it and let me tell you she did not disappoint.  Here's a look see at what Susan sent me.


I must have been a good girl this year, Susan sent me 3 focals, two were lamp work focals and the other was a copper heart with a working spinner!! Some jasper beads, daisy spacers, Greek donut beads, some resin beads, charms, cording and a handmade copper clasp.

Now a few  pictures of what I sent to Susan, just so you know what we had to work with.




All of the focals were made by yours truly. I sent out a couple of my soldered glass pendants one features a real butterfly wing, the other a pressed yellow daisy. The other focal is a druzy quartz stone that I added to a couple of filigrees that I layered. Then a spattering of matching beads and beaded chain that I made using vintage beads, it a color combo that I LOVE!

Just so everyone knows and I love all sorts of beady things, for some reason, I don't gravitate to lamp work beads. I have seen so many that are true works of art and I have seen the amount of talent, creativity, skill and time that goes into them, it's just not my thing. Oh I have many lamp work beads that I keep in their own container, I just NEVER make anything with them. So here I have 2 to work with and I was a little stumped. I thought that there is no way, what the heck am I going to make with theses. So I set my sights on the copper heart focal, I thought yup this is the one I will make something with and guess what that is the one that I didn't use, oh I will I even made a copper heart clasp for it, but I just, as always ran short on time. Let's get real I shopped for matching beads like a minute after my package arrived and you would think I would have started creating then right? Well that would have probably been smart I started the day before yesterday. I know slacker!!! But I work better under pressure, doesn't do much for my stress level, but boy can I whip some jewelry out! 

Okay enough of my yap trapping here is what I made.....

 This is the whole collection so in about 2 days and roughly 4 maybe 5 hours 7 pieces were made.
 These bracelets are bangles that I wrapped in silk, wrapped some wire around and add a couple of the charms that Susan sent me. These will be mine to wear. I love bangles!
 This set is made using the jasper beads and clasp that Susan sent. I had to patina the toggle a bit, it was a bright and shiny copper and I needed it more of an antique copper color. Simple which is totally my style. Oh and I made the copper ear wires, I didn't have anything that suited my design.
 This is the copper beauty that I'm in love with. I'm not even a heart gal, but I am totally a "this" heart gal. This is the heart clasp I made to match. Now I have to make something with it!
 One of the lamp work focals, loved the colors just made and easy beaded chain with a simple pair of earrings to match. These will go to my beautiful momma!! She'll love them! I made these with her in mind.

This is the other focal. It is so pretty on it's own I didn't want to do to much, so that the beauty of the bead could shine. I just added a little chain fringe with a few color coordinating crystal to the end on a super long copper chain.
 Oh and I almost forgot to show the ring that I made from the Czech beads I was sent. I wrapped them to make them into the flower shape you see here.

This is how it looks on.

Thank you Linda for hosting this swap and Hop, I'm sure it was a lot of work. I will now shut up, so that you can visit all of the talented jewelry artists blogs to check out there pretties. Here's a list and have fun hopping!!!!


Linda Anderson http://fromTheBeadBoard.blogspot.com
Natalie Davidson http://www.northshoredays.com



Marcy Lamberson http://www.studiomarcy.blogspot.com
Kathy Lindemer http://bay-moon-design.blogspot.com/



Dita Basu Http://www.alankarshilpa.blogspot.com
Andrea Glick http://zenithjade.blogspot.com/



Kristina Peck http://tealeavesandtinyhats.blogspot.com/
Shai Williams http://www.shaihasramblings.com/



Catherine La Vite http://www.drygulchbeadsandjewelry.blogspot.com/
Christina Hickman http://vintagetreasuresjewelry.blogspot.com/



gloria allen http://wingsandbeads.blogspot.com
Teresa Schurter http://treezstreazurs.com/



Maria Rosa Sharrow http://willowstreetshops.blogspot.com
Susan Kelly http://mimismilesdesigns.blogspot.com



Jenny Kyrlach http://anafiassa.blogspot.com/
Michelle McCarthy http://www.fireflydesignstudio.blogspot.com



Terry Jeanette Carter http://tappingflamingo.blogspot.com
Lee Koopman http://stregajewellry.wordpress.com



Laurie Vyselaar https://lefthandjewelry.wordpress.com
Marianne Baxter http://simplyseablimejewelry.blogspot.com



Divya N http://www.jewelsofsayuri.com
Kelly Hosford Patterson http://travelingsideshow.blogspot.com/



Johana Nunez http://www.artincendi.com
Kari Asbury http://hippiechickjewelrydesign.com/blog



ROBIN REED http://www.willowdragon.blogspot.com
Kristina Hahn Eleniak http://www.peacockandlime.wordpress.com



Robin Lynne Showstack http://heartsdesiresjewelryforyou.blogspot.com/
Rosantia Petkova http://bairozan.blogspot.com/



Claire Fabian http://saraccino.blogspot.de/
Inge von Roos https://ingetraud.wordpress.com



Rachel Mallis http://mintmonarch.com
Sam Waghron http://palemooncreation.blogspot.co.uk



Lori Schneider http://beadaddicted.blogspot.com
Fay Wolfenden http://torchfairy.blogspot.com









SEEDERS




Suse Stelljes http://pearlify.blogspot.de
Ginger Bishop http://www.lilmummylikes.blogspot.com



Nelly May http://www.smellynelly.blogspot.com
REbecca White http://morganafeycreations.121hub.com/



sheila Prosterman http://catswithbeads.blogspot.com
CatherineKinghttp://catherines-musings.blogspot.com



PALLAVI ASHER http://kalaabhushan.blogspot.in/
Krafty Max http://kraftymax.net



Renetha Stanziano http://lamplightcrafts.blogspot.com/
Becky Pancake http://beckypancakebeaddesigns.blogspot.com



Katy Heider http://onthepondcreations.blogspot.com/
Deborah Apodaca http://deborahapodacadesigns.blogspot.com/



Heather Richter http://desertjewelrydesigns.blogspot.com/
Tami  Norris https://tamisdesigns.wordpress.com



Brandy Scozzari http://bhjewelry.wordpress.com
Catherine King http://catherines-musings.blogspot.com



Kathleen Breeding https://www.facebook.com/99BOBOTW/
Veralynne Malone http://veradesigns.blogspot.com



Bobbie Rafferty http://beadsong.blogspot.com
Lori Blanchard http://alainnjewelry.wordpress.com




Sunday, April 10, 2016

Meet My Partner and The Goodies we Sent Each Other....


Meet my Bead Peeps Swap n Hop Partner.....


Her name is Susan Kelly and her blog is found Here . This is her Etsy Shop . She is very talented and I am so glad to be her partner this time around. I am just going to add a couple of pictures so you can see what she and I will be working with, although I haven't even begun, but of course I did go shopping for more beads to match and spark some creative juices, really I just use any excuse to buy beads, findings and new tools, It's a sickness I have.

Let's start with what Susan Sent me....

The first picture is all of the pretties Susan sent to me. The next is a close up of all 3 focals and handmade clasp she ordered especially for me. The others are just close ups and different angles of the beads, stones, donuts, charms and findings Susan so generously sent to me.


This is what I sent to Susan........

This first picture is the entire kit and caboodle. All 3 pendants were made by yours truly. Most people enjoy my soldered butterfly pendants so I sent he one of those. The second picture is a druzy pendant that I assembled I LOVE DRUZY!!!! so I pushed it on Susan hoping she would love them too. Then lastly a yellow daisy soldered pendant. Of course as you can see there is a clasp a smattering of matching beads, etc... 

Now to get busy the reveal is May 15!!



Thursday, February 4, 2016

Quick Update For Bead Peeps Swap-N-Hop


 Today I am writing just a quick post. To participate in this years Swap-N-Hop for the Bead Peeps group the gal running the show required all blogs to have posted something within the last 3 months. My last blog post has been just about that long ago.... So I am posting not only to be compliant, but also to show my partner a little bit of my current work, which is totally helpful if you don't really know someone and what they do.

 

I snapped a few quick pics and I will let my partner know a few tidbits about me......



 I love working with vintage components and beads the above are bracelets and earrings made from salvaged vintage goodies.
 Druzy pieces. I loved stones that are rough and have color shift and druzy fits both of those likes for me. The purple druzy all the way to the right is only started I haven't finished it yet.
 But my passion in soldering things. What I do is considered cold soldering. I enjoy putting lovely things between glass and soldering them, with this method my pendants become reversible, the first picture is the front side of my pendants. I also solder around vintage tin pieces(sorry no pictures of those they sold very quickly), stained glass shapes, wood, vintage buttons, marbles, rough stones you name I'll try to slap some solder on it and make it into jewelry.
 This is the flip side of the above pendants. Since they are different it's like having 2 pendants in 1. The butterfly wings are almost shockingly different from on side to the next!

Well that's what I have been working on. Now a little about me.

1. My name is Maria Rosa but my friends call me Rosa.

2. I am in my early 40's and have been with my husband for 17 almost 18 years.

3.I have only one child,a boy, who is almost 15. He's an awesome kid,he has brought uncountable and unimaginable joy to my life! 

4. I am a manager of a local health food store. That means I try my best to live a healthy lifestyle, which is very hard sometimes as I LOVE sweets.

5. I'm an environmentalist, I love the planet Earth, My motto is the Earth can live without us, but we can't live without the Earth, my son teases and tells me I'm an over the top tree huger. I've been called worse.

6. This year my son is attending school at home, it's an online charter high school so I now have become a teacher too!

7. I love all colors. Reds not really a color I gravitate towards so it's probably my least favorite.

8. This past summer my family adopted a German Sheppard, we named him Dozer he completes our family.

9. I love nature.

10. I try to find beauty in things around me.  Make a conscious effort to try it you'll be amazed!

That's enough for now. I would hate to ramble on and bore people to death! 

I can't wait to meet you partner!