The Birds and the Beads

Although we do not live or work on the waterfront, with the Corrotoman and Rappahannock rivers both within a mile or so of us, our family is literally surrounded by water. This week I’ve been taking the kayak out at dusk and staying out until after the moon and Jupiter are high in the sky. It is difficult not to be inspired by a trip through a world flooded with the deep blue hues of night, pursued by glowing trails of bioluminescence that flow behind my paddle and boat.

There has been a lot of sea and water at 123Bead this month as well (ok, not literally) — from our “Summer by the Sea Sale”, to Erin’s By-the-Sea Charm Bracelet project.

Whether you find inspiration in the mountains, the sea, or somewhere in-between, we wish you a luminous and creative summer — Eric & Erin

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Our Summer Sale includes all of our beautiful TierraCast Sea Shell and Sea Creatures Beads & Charms with a 15% discount through August 7, 2008.

For other discounted beads, check out our clearance and seconds on our new Sales & Specials page.

If you only buy one book on making jewelry with wire, this is it. While there are over twenty complete projects in Bead on a Wire to inspire you, the real power of this book is the first 60 pages devoted to step by step instructions for making jewelry components. Understanding the creation and use of wire working building block components (jump rings, eye pins, various hooks, and wire wrapped beads) will help you move on to putting together beautiful designs.

The beautiful, full color photography and level of detail in the step by step instructions in this text are phenomenal.

Paperback, 8 1/2″ x 11″. 128 Pages. 350 color photos.

Bead on a Wire By Sharilyn Miller

This gorgeous summer time charm bracelet is easy to make, and quick to assemble. It uses TierraCast’s beautiful Sealife Beads & Charms, gorgeous TierraCast Panten beads, plus Swarovski bicones and pearls. For complete instructions and a parts list, click By-the-Sea Charm Bracelet Project.

Actually – it was a rather fast air plane that brought beads in this week from China – about 400 pounds of them, including some new goodies! I’ve had requests for 10mm round cats eye beads to fill in the gap between the 8mm and 12mm lines we sell.  Most of the colors that I ordered came in this week, and can be found on the website here – 10mm round cats eye beads. I also received some new colors in the 16mm round cats eye line, and a small selection of a brand new line of 10mm faceted glass rounds – with more colors on order.

In addition to these new beads, I received a much needed restock of our 10mm cats eye coin collection – our most popular colors were out, which also meant that our most popular mixes were out of stock, too. I’ve received all colors except for black, and the mixes are available again now, too. I also received in our long awaited “hot pink” flower beads in both the 8mm x 9mm size and the 10mm x 12mm size. There were a couple of other goodies in this shipment that I’ll put on the website in the next week, including some new faceted glass cubes (for Ruth!), and cream colored cats eye in various shapes and sizes.

Since borrowing a friend’s catamaran last year, I’ve been wanting a Hobie Cat (never mind that we already have two small sailboats, one of which is a “project”).

Since, well, pretty much as long as I can remember, Erin has been wanting a kitten (never mind that we already have two cats, both of which are “projects”).

Owen agrees with us both.

So, let me introduce to you, our newest family member, someone who ensures that we all get what we want: a kitten named “Hobie Cat”!

Just a quick note to let you know about one of our favorite blogs – The Colour Lovers Blog. This fantastic blog takes a series of images (for example – different species of frogs), and breaks them down into their constituent colors and palattes. My favorite is the Butterfly Collection. This is just a fantastic resource for color ideas and inspiration.

You can follow us on Twitter now at: twitter.com/lythastudios!

There is nothing quite like hanging out in a cardboard box if you are a cat.  We ended up leaving it right where it was for a few days so Burt could take a nap in it every afternoon.

We’re offering FREE Priority Mail shipping on all orders over $50.00 placed from Thursday, July 3rd through Sunday, July 6th. This offer applies to orders shipping to destinations in the United States only.

Wishing you good friends, good food and good fireworks! Happy 4th! — Erin, Eric & Owen

These amazing earrings are easy to make, requiring only basic wire wrapping skills, but set aside a good half hour to put them together – there’s a lot of wire wrapping to be done. These earrings use an assortment of Swarovski Crystal and Sterling, plus “Nugget Heishi” from the new TierraCast® Keepsake Collection.

Aside from the nugget heishi, these earrings are a great way to use up spare beads floating around in your bead box. The little beaded drops in the middle of the earrings are all 4mm beads – in this case Swarovski bicones and pearls, but you can use what ever smallish beads you have that need a home.

Tropical Palms Project Instructions