Almond Blossoms

Almond Blossoms #2
Originally uploaded by HollysFollyGlass

Well, I did it! If you read my post yesterday, you already know I was running late with my Art Bead Scene entry. And I woke up with a dream of how to design the piece! In the end, the aqua bellflower wasn't enough but this Evil Dark Purple one was! It added the punch of pink I felt the focal lacked.

This March Art Bead Scene contest, inspired by the Van Gogh painting called Almond Blossoms.

ABOUT THE BEADS: The art glass beads were handmade by me, Holly Dare of Holly's Folly ~ Glass. The focal is made of layers of opaque and transparent teal glass for depth. The flowers are white with a bit of pink. I didn't want the pink to overpower the piece.

The Bellflower dangle is an opaque pink on stainless steel wire.

ABOUT THE PENDANT: The upper part is a wired wonder! The flower petal shaped bail, the roller coaster swirl and the large hammered flower are all ONE piece of sterling wire! I carried out the flower motif with a smaller hammer wire flower dangling from the large one. The bellflower dangle completes the piece.

In my efforts to continue to educate the folks about the wonderful Revolution Money Exchange, I am offering this pendant at a $10 discount to anyone who checks out using RME. The Revolution Money Exchange does not take money from vendors for using it's services (or from customers either!) It's FREE for both parties!!! Help a struggling artist keep more of her hard earned money and save money too! That's a bargain all around! Here it's $45.00. When I move it to my website the price will be $55.

Blog Feature & Time to Vote!

I was most thrilled when Sara from SoftFlex asked to feature my Winter Monet necklace on the SoftFlex blog. You can check it out here.

I will be taking this special down on Monday:

Winter Monet Originally uploaded by HollysFollyGlass

As a special, limited time offer, I am going to place a check out button here on the blog for $30 dollars OFF the list price of this necklace, provided you check out through Revolution Money Exchange. This is the only free way for vendors like myself to receive money. Other online payment systems and credit card processors take a nice chunk of artisans hard earned money and this is my way of educating the public and other artisans about this fantastic service! So there are two buttons there: One for RME ($65.00) and one for PP at full retail (95.00)! Let's see what happens!

The Fire Divas have a new contest up! Go Vote!

Winter Monet - Revolution in Progress

Winter Monet
Originally uploaded by HollysFollyGlass

January's inspiration painting was cold, wintry scene called The Magpie by Claude Monet. I knew right away I would attempt one of those fantastic tree beads... but I wanted a cold, translucent feeling.


I made the bead and etched it. I found some of the new colored beading wires in shades of blue and some delicate blue opals. I had always wanted to try a design that allowed some of the beads to float and move around on the beading wire. I used crimps and crimp covers to act as "stops" for the opals. A Bali silver clasp and 10mm sterling balls balance out the design.


I wire wrapped the focal art bead in 18 gauge sterling with a rosette bottom.

This was also my entry into the January Challenge for the Fire Divas. I came in 2nd place. Congrats to Lauren of Maybeads on her first place win!

Winter Monet Originally uploaded by HollysFollyGlass

As a special, limited time offer, I am going to place a check out button here on the blog for $30 dollars OFF the list price of this necklace, provided you check out through Revolution Money Exchange. This is the only free way for vendors like myself to receive money. Other online payment systems and credit card processors take a nice chunk of artisans hard earned money and this is my way of educating the public and other artisans about this fantastic service! So there are two buttons there: One for RME ($65.00) and one for PP at full retail (95.00)! Let's see what happens!