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| My box of goodies arrived on Monday, October 29th. |
So I got started early and cranked out four pieces the day I received my box. I am chomping at the bit to create more things. Taking a little break at the moment, but I'm sure I will burn the midnight oil making more beautiful designs with these amazing products.
My first creation from the box was a mixed media cuff bracelet. I had a blank copper cuff bracelet laying around that I never did anything with. I was planning so much for it, but it never materialized. So when my box came in, I discovered these amazing metal slider beads.
I flattened out my cuff and laid these beauties on it. I ended up using only three of the four. I had some scrap dyed and embossed leather laying around that I picked up at a yard sale very cheap and decided to make use of some of that too. There was this piece of lovely snakeskin looking tangerine stuff that I felt went with the copper very well. I measured out where I wanted the sliders to be on the bracelet and then cut the leather to fit in between the sliders. 
I torch soldered the sliders to the cuff blank. I then glued the leather pieces down to the blank. I had to use BeadFix since I couldn't find my E-6000. Still worked. I then cleaned, sanded, and polished the exposed copper. I coated the leather pieces with Mod Podge in Matte. I used Environ-Tex's two part Jewelry Resin to cover the leather pieces. After it was all set, I reformed the bracelet on my mandrel. I touched up the silver plating on the sliders with a Krylon Silver Leafing pen you can get at most craft stores. I touched up the places where the solder was showing on the copper with some Ranger Alcohol Inks. I used Watermelon and Citrus from the Tim Holtz line.
My second piece was a simple pair of earrings. I found these lovely connector/pendant things that just screamed ready made earrings. I added a 6mm gray Crystazzi crystal pearl and a 3mm jet black Crystazzi crystal on head pins and connected them to the top of these and then to silver plated copper ear wires.
They turned out very pretty and classy looking. I just love them. They are definitely on trend for this fall.
My third creation was an amazing tribal looking necklace. I found this lovely metal connector in my box. It has a center piece that consists of black and white faux snakeskin and an olive green acrylic gem setting. I used some transparent faceted green glass beads from the Second Skin collection as well as some more of the gray Crystazzi crystal pearls. There was some lovely large double link textured chain in my box as well that I decided to use in conjunction with this focal pendant. It worked out great. The texture of the chain resembles the texture of the faux snakeskin on this piece.
My third piece was another tribal piece. It reminded me of something Egyptian. The focal piece was a three strand connector that had three sections of brown/tan/cream faux snakeskin and two black enameled triangle sections. This piece was very intriguing to me. This one I set on very thing figure eight chain from the same line and made a strand of bead connectors of 6mm opaque black round beads and 8mm matte metallic brown beads from the Jewelry Basics line and, 6mm matte light rose Crystazzi pearls. I strung the beads on 20 gauge steel plated copper craft wire. I found a lovely large faceted black resin pendant in my box that fit the look I was going for. I wire wrapped it on the same 20 gauge craft wire and added some of the Jewelry Basics 6mm opaque black beads. The end result is a necklace fit for a queen for sure.
All product photos are from the Prima Bead website. All finished piece photos are property of Raziela Designs.
