Sweet Bead Studio — Handcrafted jewelry by Cindy Wimmer

From Blogging to Beyond!

by Cindy on July 8, 2010

You never know where your blog will take you…being a part of this wonderful jewelry blogging world has not led me to some far away places! A part of me was fortunate enough to travel to England recently. Well, a little something handmade did all the traveling.

My travels all started back with Lori’s first Bead Soup Blog party… as you may know she just finished up her 2nd successful party filled with gorgeous collaborative jewelry featured on dozens of blogs. Somehow or other I was super lucky that Joanne of Daisychain Jewellery featured my Bead Soup piece along with others in a photo collage on her blog (you’ll have to visit her blog – she offers a wealth of information!). Joanne is a frequent contributor to Beads & Beyond, and one of the magazine’s wonderful editors contacted me after seeing my piece, asking if I was interesting in doing an article for their publication. You can imagine how excited I was at this opportunity….but the pressure to come up with something “good enough” then hit me. It didn’t take long to find some inspiration though…and I found it with LeAnn’s sweet porcelain bird charm. I knew I wanted to stamp a little inspiration on metal to go along with it… I then added a carved flower from a set that I had been holding on to since forever, and one of Erin’s classic leaf charms. Then I just went right on working with wire – the fun part!! This wire work special issue is full of great projects – I hope you can find a copy to flip through in a store near you.

This is the original "Fly Free" piece that I proposed for my article....a starting point.

I pared down this version by taking out the riveting, but still kept a subtle element of mixed metals.

Another version...this one flew free, to the home of a friend!

Thank you for visiting today, and for listening to a small tale of my jewelry travels.

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Happy 4th of July!

by Cindy on July 4, 2010

Celebrating our nation’s independence today, and remembering every one far from home and in harm’s way. Here’s hoping you’re able to enjoy some of America’s favorite past times today – maybe a parade, a barbeque and some relaxation! As for me, I’m baking a quick coconut cake that seems to have become a potluck tradition, meanwhile the boys are kayaking. Keep cool and thanks for stopping by!

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Art Bead Scene Challenge

by Cindy on June 30, 2010

Have you heard? Art Bead Scene {the go-to site for the latest in handmade art beads} has a new feature! The editors are now offering a monthly Design Team Challenge! I was invited to participate by Heather Powers this month, along with fellow designers Erin Prais-Hintz, Lori Anderson, Jen Judd, and Lorelei Eurto. At the time however, I had no idea who else would be participating, and if we were all given the same beads.

I received a gorgeous set of Heather’s polymer clay beads to work with, as it turns out, we were all given the same grouping and set free to create something with our own unique styles. I was really excited to see Heather’s new hand-painted clay beads in person – and let me tell you the colors are so soft and gorgeous.

I set to work framing the pendant on an oval copper backdrop that I etched with a willow pattern. I was so happy to find this willow stamp at my local stamp store just for this project. I tried a little something new and created a toggle from the same etched metal sheet and with heavy-gauge wire. I then cut and domed bead caps for the Willow Disk beads. Oval-shaped ceramic beads that I found at Bead Fest Wire complemented the shape of the focal, and a double strand of pearls were added. The necklace was oxidized and polished, then finished with a wisp of sari silk ribbon.