I'm in July's Bead Chat Magazine!!!!

So, before the month is over and the next issue is out, I need to get this post out!!!  I've been a little shy about showing off my work, hence the delay.  ( I realize that it's silly, considering it is already out there and people who have seen the issue have seen it, but I'm weird like that.)

Artisan Whimsy is an awesome site for beaders that you should join (it's free!!) if you haven't already.  They put out a monthly glossi called Bead Chat Magazine (also free!!) that has all kinds of articles, tips, and eye candy.  Each month, they select five people to take part in the 5x5 Test Group, and this month, I was one of the lucky ones chosen!  I was sent a beautiful selection of Beach Glass Beads from ZnetShows to design with.  I was so excited to get started that I forgot to take a picture of what I received before I started, but there is a picture of it in the issue on page 47.

Elegant Sea Monster

For the first piece, I took the freeform style flat beads, and decided to create a sea monster.  It's head is a faceted Czech glass bead that I surrounded in an overlapping seed bead stitch (that's what I'm calling it anyway) to attach the head to the body.  I added the daggers to the bottom of the flat beads to pull in the color of the seed beads and to give the creature some spines.  I finished it off with a plastic button clasp that kind of looks like it could be a sea sponge or some coral.

Fishy Coral

This piece is made from two Cultured Sea Glass Bottle Curved Pendants.  I knew immediately when I saw them, they would be perfect back drops for the Czech fish and shell beads that I had been hoarding. The red coral is made out of  red seed beads.  The effect I was going for was the fishes to be playing or feeding in the coral.  How did I do?

Sunset on the Ocean

The pendant I got awhile back from White Clover Kiln, and the teal in it matched perfectly with the Cultured Sea Glass Fish Bone Beads.  I also really lucked out, because I had seed beads in my stash that matched as well.  When I look at the necklace, I think of being on a private boat in the Caribbean, looking out at the ocean at sunrise.

Beach Shell Ball

I combined the Conch Shell Beads with polymer clay beads that I made.  I'm very proud of these, since I'm still a newbie at polymer clay.  I'm looking forward to sharing more of my polymer clay creations with you.

Ocean Flowers

I decided to use up the last of the Fish Bone Beads I was sent and make another pair of earrings.  I made these polymer clay beads as well.

I would like to thank Bill at Znetshows for letting me as well as the other testers have an opportunity to design.  Also, a big thank you to Melinda Orr and Alicia Marinache at Bead Chat Magazine!!  You ladies rock!

Oh yeah, the most important thing, go check out all of the testers creations here!  The feature is on pages 47-52, but you'll want to check out the rest of the issue, especially an awesome interview by Cynthia Machata with my buddy Shelley Graham Turner on page 35!

Thanks to all my readers!  What do you think of my pieces?  Which one is your favorite?