Waxed Linen - I think I'm Hooked

Waxed Linen Stack

A few years ago I discovered the term "arm party" - well doesn't that just sound like fun!  There is a trend that has been going on for a very long time of stacking or layering your jewelry.  In my travels to South Carolina and Georgia over the past 10 - 12 years while my children were in college I used to admire the ability of those Southern Belles to stack many bracelets on one wrist - most of the time they were gold charm bracelets and gold chains of various styles.    Never finding the right mix of chains to suit my taste, I just could never quite pull that off.  So when I saw a blog post about "arm parties" a few years back,  I was intrigued by the way gals were wearing not one, two, or three bracelets at a time, but four, five or six bracelets.  All styles of bracelets were being stacked.  Well, my daughter has a sense for fashion, actually she graduated from college with a degree in fashion design, and has always had the ability to layer bracelets together.  Mom not being quite as hip had to struggle with this stacking idea but I sure gave it a try.  During my following of these "arm parties" on various blogs across the internet I stumbled upon an arm party blog hop  hosted by Tracy Statler of Make Bracelets, using your own jewelry creations.  Well I definitely was going to participate in that one and my daughter and I began to stack them on.  I guess the rule to good arm stacking is to mix mediums - some beads, some leather, some chain, some fiber - you get my drift.

After participating in the waxed linen blog hop last week I got the itch to try some more designs with waxed linen.  What better way to try different designs than to try layering several together.  I had a day where I just wanted to make something but didn't want to pull out all my beads and supplies - easy solution, waxed linen thread and a few beads.   I pulled out some gorgeous natural colored waxed linen that I purchased from White Clover Kiln on Etsy and a few beads that I had in my stash and started creating.  The first bracelet I did was a simple flower design that I found on Beadaholique's website.  I modified it to the beads I had on hand.  The second bracelet is a braided wrap bracelet that was found on a blog post on  I Always Pick the Thimble.  After finishing these two bracelets I was going to make a third waxed linen piece but I found a bracelet that I already had in my collection using similar beads to the flower style that I had made using a tutorial picked up from The Gossiping Goddess's blog.  I was so happy with how these turned out, simple but fun.  I think I may have to make some more "stacks".   For more inspiration on stacked bracelets and waxed linen, you might want to check out Erin Siegel's blog.  She is the waxed linen queen and has many inspirational tutorials and ideas on her site. You can find my post on stacked and layered here and a peek at my "arm party" blog post here.   Keep in mind that some of these arm party stacks in that last post are maybe a little overboard, but a 20 year old wrist can pull off just about anything.     Inspiration for some of these bracelets was found on Erin's blog as well.  Enjoy - I know I sure did.

Going Crazy for Flowers

During the summer wearing flowers just seems appropriate.  I love flower jewelry and over the years I have made quite a few flower fringe bracelets for summer fun!  

Recently I decided that wearing flowers on your wrist just wasn't  enough so I came up with the idea of making a fringe flower centerpiece to wear as a necklace.   Instead of making a beaded necklace to finish off the centerpiece,  I decided to add  Sari silk.  The shades of pink in this necklace are just luscious and it will definitely be a summer favorite.  Can't you just picture this with a white cotton shirt or t-shirt this summer?  I certainly can.

Coral and Copper

Coral and Copper by lyounk featuring strappy sandals

Vero Moda , $44 / Chloé straight leg pants / J.Crew strappy sandals

Bead Chat Glossi

What's all the chatter... check out the new  digital magazine created by Melinda Orr and Cynthia Machata for the Artisan Whimsy Bead Chat group.  This is the premiere issue and it is filled with lots of lovelies including a few of my own creations.  This digital magazine will be a monthly feature and will only keep getting better.   This beautiful glossi showcases the work of fellow Artisan Whimsy Members as well as providing great information on new tools, new products, and highlights a member of our Artisan Whimsy team each month.  If you haven't already, please check it out by visiting www.Glossi.com.  

Bead Soup Blog Party - Meet my Partner

It is time for Lori Anderson's Bead Soup Party for 2013. This year's event
has over 500 jewelry artists from around the world. The largest Bead Soup Party yet.  I am thrilled to be a part of this party again this year.  

Each year Lori Anderson undertakes this massive project and spends countless
hours matching up partners, arranging schedules, sending out emails to all the participants and Lori does an awesome job.  She is truly the queen of Bead Soup Parties and has earned a reputation this event.

This year I am going to be participating in the second reveal on April 6th.  
My schedule this spring has been quite hectic trying to get things arranged
around the events of my three children.

My partner this year is Laura Guenther of Blue Antiquities.  Laura was my partner last year and my a slight twist of fate I again was matched up with Laura.  

I became acquainted with Laura in last years Bead Soup Party.  It was the first party for both of us and I thoroughly enjoyed working with Laura.  Laura lives in Georgia with her husband and three children.  Georgia is a favorite state of mine as all three of my children have attended the Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah Georgia and my husband and I have spent many years visiting that city and somehow having a partner in that same state give me a connection.  

Laura is a very talented artist.  She does some fantastic enamel work and has recently started using mica in her work. She has done some some great pieces using this medium.  I am always impressed with Laura’s talent.  Laura has an Etsy shop http://www.etsy.com/shop/blueantiquities where she sells her beautiful artwork, she does art shows, and her packaging for her jewelry is as awesome as the jewelry itself.  She is also a published artist having her work published in the most recent Winter Issue of Belle Armoire.

Here is just a sampling of Laura’s work:


I can’t wait to see what Laura is going to do with her soup again this year and I look forward to working with her.  Come back soon to see the soups received and sent.

Rebel Mouse - Great Tool for Summarizing Your Favorites

Rebel mouse just added to my blog!

RebelMouse organizes your online presence into a beautiful, dynamic and social site - in minutes. Rebel Mouse provides a quick way to review your favorite blogs, facebook pages, twitter accounts, pinterest pins, Magazine sites and more.  By setting up a user profile and adding the sites, feeds and RSS codes for your favorites you can get an organized view of all your favorite things on just one page.  It's quite easy to set up and get going.  

I just recently started using Rebel Mouse and I love the way that all my favorite sites and feeds are summarized into a beautiful front page. I am going to be doing a tutorial on setting up your own personal Rebel Mouse in the near future but in the meantime, I have added my own Rebel Mouse account to my blog for you to check out. This way when you visit my blog you get a little bonus. You can check out my Rebel Mouse by clicking the Tab above and it is live - as things update so does the Rebel Mouse screen. 

Rebel Mouse gives you a summary of the information that is being fed into the screen, but if you want to see or read more simply click on the link and it takes you to the original source.

Take a peek.  Click the tab and if you like what you see then I would love to have you follow me on Rebel Mouse.