Summer Serendipity – Charms, Pendants, and Glass Beads from Artbeads.com

Summer is my favorite season, and it always takes its sweet time getting to my neck of the woods (and it never sticks around as long as I would like), so I’m always thrilled when it finally arrives. I was no less excited to work with the items I chose for the Summertime Blogging Fun promotion for Artbeads.com, featuring charms, pendants, and glass beads. Landlocked ocean lover that I am, I love paua shell and dolphins, so I combined two loves  in the Paua dolphin pendant I chose. The pendant comes plain with the paua shell on the front and black acrylic coated resin on the back, like this:

This dolphin pendant is pretty on it’s own, so I could have happily put a jump ring in the hole and threaded the pendant on a chain or ribbon, but of course I saw the pendant as part of a larger picture. So I finally came up with the idea to create a polymer clay and domed resin pendant piece with wire curls that simulate stylized ocean waves so that the paua shell dolphin would look like it was leaping out of the ocean. Combined with some seed beads, seafoam green ribbon,  shell beads, crystals, and blue pearls, the final design came out like this:

And would summer be complete without butterflies? Of course not. Lately I’ve been admiring the necklaces I’ve seen that feature decorative clasps somewhere in the front of the design, so when I saw this Sterling silver 3-strand butterfly hook and eye clasp, the design idea came pretty quickly. I’m primarily a wire wrapper, but in this case I thought a lot of wire work would just detract from the beauty of the butterfly clasp, so I kept the design simple and elegant, using some cyclamen colored Swarovski bicones and Czech glass maple leaf beads that I chose from Artbeads.com to go with the butterfly clasp.

When I ordered this clasp, I couldn’t really tell how it worked from the pictures on Artbeads.com, but when it arrived I figured out how simple it was. The clasp is well hidden. The middle ball of the butterfly’s body hides the eye, while one wing hides the hook, and when the clasp is closed you can barely see the seam. The butterfly has a slightly oxidized appearance, but parts are still shiny and reflective, as you can see in the pictures; the colors are a reflection of the aqua and purple fabric I used on the surface where I was photographing this piece. Though I chose to use the clasp in front, I could easily imagine how beautiful a necklace would look with this clasp in back, either with short hair or an up-do. Perfect for a summer wedding.

And anyone who knows me knows how much I love hummingbirds, so from the extensive selection of charms, I chose this sterling silver hummingbird charm to work with:

In my opinion, this is one of the prettiest sterling silver hummingbird charms I’ve ever seen. I’ve used other sterling hummingbird charms, but none had quite the detail and graceful appearance of this one. This one is very dimensional–so dimensional you do need to be careful how you use the charm in your jewelry, because the little guy’s beak sticks out and could be a bit uncomfortable. This would make a nice bracelet charm, and the attached hidden loop on the back is perfect for threading the charm on a chain or ribbon, but because of my penchant for complicated jewelry, this is what I ended up doing with it:

Though I sometimes receive free items because of Artbeads.com’s blogging program, I also order other items from them on a regular basis because of the quality of the items I’ve received. I’m thinking these items have been some of my favorites so far. Plus, you can’t bead free shipping in the United States.

Disclosure Notice: The sterling silver butterfly clasp, the paua shell dolphin pendant, the Czech glass leaf beads, and the sterling silver hummingbird charm used in these pieces were provided free of charge by Artbeads.com for my participation in the Artbeads.com blogging program. I have not received any payment from Artbeads.com, and this post represents only my personal opinion.