Index of Valentine's Day Projects 2010

Back in January of 2010 I created a series of Valentine's Day projects. This post indexes each project with a link, description and supplier links, where possible.

Idea #1

Vintage style, red jasper hearts with gunmetal chain and filigree from Rings & Things.

Idea #2

Cute lampwork glass heart bead in light pink with a white cross-hatching from Rings & Things, plus various pink glass hearts and glass pearls.

Idea #3

Bracelet from Rings & Things lampwork beads and two small black glass beads to keep the headpins from slipping through the rather large holes, on memory wire (the link takes you to a gold-tone wire, I used silver-tone, purchased at Michael's) covered with rubber tubing.

Idea #4

Earrings with Rings & Things red faceted glass crystals and silver plated bulk chain, also from Rings & Things

Idea #5

Lanyard/necklace with Beadalon Square Knot links and Beadalon Quick Links ovals.

Idea #6

Bracelet with CRYSTALLIZED™ Swarovski Elements red coral bicones, Bordeaux Swarovski Crystal Pearls from Jewelry Supply.com around complimentary matte and clear glass rivoli's I found at The Bead Store in Redondo Beach last June when I was visiting my family. The spacers are gold vermeil daisies from Artbeads.

Idea #7

Lavender glass hearts from Global Beads and red glass hearts and silver heart lobster claw clasps from ABeadStore.com, in a lanyard necklace

Idea #8

Red rose on black cabochon from AlphaStamps set in a beaded edge silver pendant setting from Accessories Susan's Vintage Jewelry Supplies on a sheer black ribbon pre-made choker necklace from Michael's.

Idea #9

Sodalite heart donut from ABeadStore.com and sodalite beads from Shipwreck Beads strung on medium SoftTouchPremium wire from SoftFlex company.

Idea #10

Gunmetal beading chain from Rings & Things, ruby red glass beads (unlabeled in stash, no clue about supplier(s), but I think I picked them all up at Michael's so they'd be Bead Gallery strands and Blue Moon mix beads) in an illusion style necklace.

Idea #11

Simple necklace with a blue & pink striped white lampwork glass heart and some 4mm opaque white Czech glass beads from Rings & Things.

Idea #12

I used two types of gunmetal chains, plus oval solid links and some wrapped loops to connect various CRYSTALLIZED™ Swarovski elements in this lariat style necklace. I got the beads from a number of suppliers, the ring and the twist are from Artbeads, the chessboard beads from A Grain of Sand. The square component and the heart from Rings & Things

I had to do some color manipulation in the picture to make all the beads the same color, since I didn't actually have a couple of the pieces in Crystal Red Magma, the original square and heart beads are Vitrail, temporarily, as placeholders until I can order the proper color replacements.

Idea #13

Rhodonite beads and a Rhodonite heart pendant with silver beads and a silver heart toggle on medium Premium Satin Silver SoftFlex. You can find the Rhodonite heart pendant and heart toggle at ABeadStore.com. The silver roundel beads and round beads are from Artbeads. The other Rhodonite beads were purchased at my local bead store, Global Beads.

Idea #14

This one took me many tries, and probably a foot of copper wire, to finally get three closely matched hammered hearts for this necklace. I added some rough faceted garnet drops and round garnet beads from my stash, for a bit of color. The chain was something I either picked up at Michael's or, and more probably, now that I think about it, came from a Rings & Things blog partner package. To match the look of the chain, I used walnut stain Distress Ink and jet black Archival Ink. I'll probably need to coat it with something so it won't wear off - will have to do some research to determine the best product.

Idea #15

Garnet glass bead and copper hearts necklace with copper spacers with loops from ABeadStore.com. I threw in a few Bordeaux Swarovski glass pearls as well. The bead caps are ornate Tierra Cast copper.

Idea #16

Vintage/romantic style bracelet with ornate copper bead caps, gold Swarovski pearls, Crystal Copper Swarovski 6mm bicones and large faceted carnelian beads. The bead caps are Tierra Cast copper plated pewter.

Idea #17

Dark amber color glass heart beads from a mix purchased in Santa Monica at Beadniks , and gold plated heart shaped toggles I had in my stash from who knows where.

Idea #18

Inspired by a left over length of the copper chain I had used in Idea #14. It was just the right size for a bracelet, so I pulled out some copper bead caps, a copper heart toggle and grabbed my box of pink glass beads. I'd completely forgotten about some small pink hearts and the last of the Rings & Things blog partner lampwork heart beads which I'd put in the same box, so those became the inspiration beads. I wrapped the hearts and other pink glass beads with antiqued copper wires and the fancy copper caps, and used some lovely iridescent coated dark pink matte beads for accents.

Bonus Valentine's Day Necklace

Meanwhile, although my official Valentine's Day projects were done, as one of the Artbeads Blogging for Beads partners, I got the opportunity to choose from a specific set of their beads to use for review or design purposes.

Artbeads suggested I select from their Valentine's day charms, beads and stoneware pendants, so I chose one of the new stoneware pendants with matching beads: Stoneware Large Red with White Flowers Heart Pendant-Offset Hole Right.

I created the necklace in a symmetrical pattern, added a little heart glass dangle bead and a beaded wire bail. The bail was very easy to make - just wrap the center of a length of wire add a bead to the wire left over at each side, create a wrapped loop and trim after each bead.

The way I made the necklace was to string and finish each side using scrimps and at one end looping the beading wire (SoftFlex medium satin silver) through the wire wrapped bail. At the other end I put the clasp findings.