Echo Creative Club September Reveal

In my last post, I shared the beads I am using in this month's Echo Creative Club Challenge. They are gorgeous Caribbean Blue peeled paint beads from Jeannie. Here's the photo of the beads again: 

I created 2 pieces with these beads (and still have a few leftover to work into other projects!)  The first piece is a necklace that is a long, beaded chain with a filigree focal that I used to drop one of these larger beads. I used turquoise and gold Swarovski crystal pearls to keep the colors uniform.

The next piece is a pair of earrings. I plan on doing a pair just like these with bronze findings to match the necklace, but originally I did them with 14K gold filled findings as shown here. They have Czech gold glass metallic pearls and crystal golden shadow Swarovski crystals.

Pardon my crappy lighting - hard to get decent pics inside my house and I haven't been able to get any recently outside due to a hectic day schedule.  

I hope you enjoy the beads and the jewelry. If you want to check out Jeannie's amazing jewelry, visit her store by clicking HERE

Be sure to check out Kristin's and Jeannie's blog post reveals as well by clicking on their names below.

KRISTIN     JEANNIE

Echo Creative Club September Beads

I am honored to participate for the last time in the Echo Creative Club. It has been a blast getting to use Jeannie's fabulous beads in my projects and share with you all. This month, I had some beautiful round peeled paint beads in a Caribbean blue and gold/copper color.  You can purchase some of her beads for yourself HERE. Make sure to check out her other beads, pendants, and jewelry!

Stay tuned for my reveal tomorrow, Wednesday the 25th of September to see what I created with her beads!

Echo Creative Club Design in Process

Once again I am a lucky participant in the Echo Creative Club, where I get to take a handmade set of beads or pendant made by the awesome Jeannie K Dukic and create something with it. This month I am using this cool green Gin Blossom pendant. You can get one for yourself HERE.

I think I'm going to use some of the new leather cord I just got with this piece. The reveal is on June 25th, so check back to see what I design with it!

- Jessica

Creativity in the Works

Hello all,

March came and went quickly thanks to our wonderful 9 day vacation to Orlando. April has been a month of catching up, custom orders, and preparing for a 3 day show I'm doing at the end of the month. It is also a month of creativity, as I have 2 different design challenges in the works. The first is the Polymer Clay Bead Challenge with the Echo Creative Club. We take a bead that is gifted to us by the ever creative Jeannie K Dukic and design something with it. This month, I had one of her fabulous Lonely Hearts Pendants.  

Isn't is cute?!  I think so. I will post the final piece I made on the 25th of April.

Next up is the one and only Bead Soup Blog Hop! My partner for this event is the oh so talented Cassie Donlen. Click her name for her website, or click HERE for her blog.  She is an incredible designer and glass bead maker, among other mediums. She sent me a gorgeous bead soup including one of her focal enameled flower clasps found HERE as well as 3 of her candy pop beads, found HERE.  There were also an array of other glass beads, some of her handmade glass bead headpins, fantastic funky chain, and a beautiful dyed silk. It was like a bead filled birthday! I am so lucky to have been paired with a bead maker as talented as she, so please check out her stuff and show her your love and support if you are in the market for some unique components! Also her finished jewelry is fantastic! I especially love her cool, funky bangle bracelet sets! 

Here are photos of the soup she sent. First, the attractive packaging was so cute!

Then you open the boxes and bag, and here is what was inside!

Here is a close up of the beads, spacers and headpins, and focal clasp, I just love everything about all of them!

I've had so much fun working with these colorful and whimsical components. I can't wait to show you all what I made. The reveal date is April 27th, so look for my reveal on that day!

Thanks for checking out my creative challenge components and reading!

REVEAL for Echo Creative Club

I received 4 pendants from Jeannie for the months I'm participating in the challenge, and it was pretty hard to decide which one to go with. After way too much time pondering and daydreaming, I ended up going with the Purple Anemone. Here is is:

I combined so many different beads trying to brainstorm a design, but I ultimately decided to keep it simple and sweet, much like the pendant itself. I chose Swarovski crystals in Lilac and Golden Shadow shades, which happened to match nearly perfectly with the shades in the pendant. Tanzanite was pretty close as well, but it was quite a bit darker than the lilac, and I found the lilac to be sweeter. I combined the crystals with lovely figaro chain from vintaj natural brass, which also has a feminine, sweet look to it. For a little extra bling, I took a 12mm rivoli and made a setting with a vintaj filigree to enhance the pendant.  Here is the final necklace:

You can purchase a pendant of your own from Jeannie HERE  They come in 3 different colors.   Check out her other awesome pendants and beads as well.

Please visit the other blog participants shown below. 

Dagi http://www.kokopellidesign.blogspot.com/

Jeannie K Dukic http://site.jkdjewelry.com/blog

Jessica Klaaren (you are here) http://cellardoorjewelry.blogs

Thanks for reading!

Echo Club Preview

The month of February turned out to be a lot busier than I expected! I ended up having to move my booth space at a store I sell in that is over an hour away to a new glass case they made, then I had a new store open here in town that I had to quickly inventory and price jewelry for (not to mention make a few new pieces) I had to have numerous doctor and dentist appointments and had an opportunity to send jewelry to the Wendy Williams show, and had to quickly make, package, and ship out all of that. In the meantime I've been working overtime at the day job in order to save up some money for our Disney Vacation AND I did my own taxes, and with 2 schedule c businesses, that definitely took a lot of time. Oh not to mention the interview for the paper and the fact that I had to create a studio in 2 days because a news crew is going to be at my house TOMORROW to interview me for a segment.  Needless to say, my 1st Echo blog post where I reveal the pendant is very very late. The truth is, I didn't even decide on which pendant I was using until last night, and I finished the necklace up at about 3 am this morning in order to have it ready to photograph today. So forgive me for not having a preview earlier, I just hadn't decided on what I was doing yet. Since I have some more time until my next month in the club, I should be well above schedule for the rest. : )  So here is the pendant I ended up deciding on. Forgive the photo as it was about midnight when I picked the pendant and had to take the photo indoors where my lighting is terrible. 

This is the Purple Anemone Poppy Pendant. You can purchase one for yourself HERE

Thanks for reading and check out my reveal blog tomorrow!

My Bead Mess

I desperately need to clean up my bead mess...I would say bead table, but if you have been to my house you know I am referring to my coffee table, which has become my extremely messy bead table. Every time I sit down to start cleaning things up, I start designing instead, and end up getting even more things out...it doesn't help that the boys like to play "tornado" and basically bring their wrath to the table. I still have a box of wooden beads that Jaidon dumped over the other day, and a 7 year old's version of picking up isn't quite on the same level as mine...  : )    I expect to receive several bpo orders on Monday...this being my day job and some much needed work, so I will probably take the next 2-3 days at least off from making jewelry...I will make it my goal to spend my free time cleaning during those days, and hopefully the next time you see my "bead table" it won't resemble complete and total chaos!