Me and Jesse James

Jesse James Beads has a contest coming up in February and I could use some help deciding what to enter.   First of all, let me tell you about Jesse James Beads.   I’ve bought them a lot.   I’ve always looked for them in stores because they have very cool beads.   If you do any jewelry work, you know you might fall in love with a particular style of bead or color and buy them then spend forever looking for the “right beads” to go with them before you start “making”.  Then you might end up with half a strand here and there that just sit around forever because you have all these extra beads and are bored with them.  We all do it!  I think that is why we de-stash so much, LOL.

That does not happen with Jesse’s beads.   When I find a color or style I like, I just move further down the aisle and can find a mini bundle of beads that go with whatever caught my eye in the first place.  And, it makes it really easy to do what I love best…………create a whole SET of things that go with each other, necklace, bracelet, earrings.

So, getting to the point here, they came out with this fabulous Goddess Collection last month and I was all over the page.   There were 4 different Goddesses represented with appropriate color schemes, charms, tassels, pendants and all the things you would ever need to use.   I had a tough time deciding which set to go with.  There were two Norse Goddesses, an Egyptian and a Hindu.   I loved all of them but ended up choosing the Hindu Goddess, probably because the colors were so bright and happy and I am so ready for spring!   These are the beads I got, big beads, little beads, tiny accent beads and charms and tassels!   Love them!

 

I know, I know, I’m talking and you want to see pictures!!!  Getting there.

Anyhow, I have a Hindu friend and when she dresses for weddings and special celebrations, there is always LOTS of color and lots of gold and sari silk so I used gold color wire and just had to use sari silk ribbon in at least one piece

I designed this necklace with some gold wire wrapped in sari ribbon and that fantastic elephant charm plus some tiny beads for accents on the neck piece and those little beauties between the links.   Love it!   It’s such a happy piece.

 

Next was the bracelet.  While I was waiting for the beads to come I made up some “wedding ring” links in this gold color textured wire and all I had to do when I got the beads was put on the dangles and the little gold Hamsa charm.

 

Then I went nuts with earrings.

Here is a pair with tiny elephant charms and these cute little fabric balls.

Here is a fancier pair with big gold color pieces, tiny accent beads and gold wire.

Here are some orange beads that look like balls of string so I dangled little orange tassels from them

I fell in love with these tiny hearts that have the hole through the side so they sit at an angle when they dangle.   A perfect match for those odd burgundy beads which I almost matched up with the next beads that are burgundy and gold but instead put those with the little lotus flowers.

And finally, I made some gold spirals and dangles these tiny tassels.

 

Here is where I need help.   You can only enter one piece in the contest.   Oh, by the way, you win a shopping spree.   I don’t know for how much.  It really does not matter to me because even 20 bucks would be 20 I didn’t have to spend on beads and they just came out with some really cool beads for Valentine’s Day (WANT!).  Help me choose a piece to enter.   Just message me on Facebook or leave a comment here and I’ll go with popular opinion.

 

I made all these things with just two small “bundles” that I bought and had all these beads left over.   My daughter has her eye on some of them so I plan to come up with gifties for her, LOL.   And there are more earrings and maybe a necklace left in that pile.

 

Oh, and last but not least:   they sent me a little free gift with my order, three heart beads that had the cutest design on them.   They reminded me of the little flowers on sugar skulls.

So I dug up some skulls I had left over from buying someone’s de-stash and some other leftover beads and some gunmetal chain.   Now, I don’t think anything but the hearts are from Jesse James so this cannot go in any contest BUT if I had seen the Valentine beads, they would have been perfect with these little hearts.   I made this Goth girl bracelet and the first person who saw it wanted it!   Made me happy!