What we made while my son visited

Here is one of my boy’s creations from our beading nights.  

We headed to the gem show with a plan this time.  First stop, our favorite pendant lady.  We picked out set stones then filled our bags with beads to match from the other vendors.

This one is some sort of agate that looks like a window into another world.  It has a polished, clear dome that you can see down into.  I wish I could’ve gotten a better photo, and that I could’ve bought more of them.

This mother of pearl pendant has a similar look, but in a completely different way.  The agate was naturally clear, the MOP has been layered with a faceted quartz over it to create the window effect.

I put this “doublet” on a double strand of tiny garnets and finished it with silver findings  the jump rings are hearts!  This is for my Sissy, garnets are her birthstone.  And there was a store we would visit in Florida on our sister trips with Bobbie that specialized in these layered stones.

While my son was doing beadwork based on the Fibanocci theory (his stones were placed in a very planned sequence!) I decided that mine would be simple strings of one color to hold the pendants that I’d bought.  

These are for the Spring Good Juju sale.   Along with tons of lovely blues that I’ll be selling for ladies to wear with their Royals shirts when they cheer on the local team.  

A lot of my time was also spent in re-organizing my beads.  There is a slight chance, well honestly, a very BIG chance that I got carried away with my purchases…  I had to make room for my new preciouses.

 
While I typically buy only genuine stones or take apart vintage necklaces for my creations, this time I picked up a lot of new crystals.  I’ve had sun catchers on my mind and wanted to give them a try.  Since the gem show is only in town twice a year, I went all out and bought a pile, hoping my idea plays out.

We had hoped to make them while Adam and Quelyn were here, but simply ran out of time.  I’ve never made these before, but when I get my curiosity tickled, I go all in.  I doubt this haul of shiny beads will go to waste.

But I do wish the kids were here to make them with me.