a lot of photos of a big project for Australian Beading Magazine

This spectacular magazine is really pretty and that is my bracelet in the middle there on the right --"spell it out" charm bracelet--cool to be on the cover! Australian Beading Magazine

Here is one of my typically blurry photos of one model wearing the bracelet before she heads out to a disco. I think that is where she is going! She is so dressed up! Wow is she happy!

more blurry photos but hey, I am proud of this project. so sue me

slightly better photo, finally and a good idea of the way it lies.

here is the other model--can you believe the treatment they gave me? this is red carpet! I was stunned! SO PROUD!

a close up of that shot

here are a couple of the photos I took at home for the project sitting outside at a work table last summer. You can see how great Lisa Kan's boro beads are and you can see one of the charms I used..."Sexy"...I was torn as to whether or not to use that charm. I took a stand and used it! Sexy. Yes folks, I was brave. Sally Jean makes beautiful pieces. I basically wound up the statement bracelet with that charm. It started with a vintage limited edition numbered button in a little box, and went to photos of children playing ring around the rosy, then spelled out "LOVELY", and finished up with a "twirl" pendant used as a charm, and then the sexy button. I am such a sucker for pink and polka dots, that was half the reason I fell for that one. That charm also has a fantastic antique garter belt snap to hold up stockings on the back--the charm is shaped like a ball. I really like that. It balances well with the button in the box which got the whole thing started. bla bla bla jean is so interesting

here is an E by Sally Jean

There is our shed with some of the crystals I used...Paul, our nephew, set up that shot. He is good. There is the great Green Girl toggle next to it! Wow I love how that turned out.

The last thing I wanted to show you inside...the little competition. The competition requested that you write and tell what YOU would spell out, to win my book, and why. As I said, I spelled out LOVELY. Why did I spell that out? It is in a song sung by Fred Astaire, "Just the way you look tonight", it is one word and not four, and it seems to be a word with motion, to me, anyway.

I was thrilled when the Editor of Australian Beading Magazine invited me to create a project for the readers in Australia. having spent my childhood attempting to dig there, albeit unsuccessfully, at least I finally got the chance to spring forth, even if it wasn't wearing a bathing suit and holding a shell as a shovel, and even if it was around fifty years later than I had planned. I don't have a scanner (well I do, but I don't have it set up) so I had to take photos of the results from the magazine. As you can see, the bracelet I made appears on the cover as well as in a big long article with lots of pages and two different models. Whoa! You don't get better treatment than that! They even had a book giveaway contest for my book, Links, where their beading readers could read a bit about my book and write in to see if they could win the copy I mailed over there, autographed. It was pretty fun to be a part of all of this, and I wish to thank Lisa Kan http://www.lisakan.com/ for her fabulous hand torched borosilicate beads and her champagne colored pearls--they added so much to my bracelet. The fantastic Green Girl Studios patterned pewter circular toggle http://www.greengirlsudios.com/ holds up nicely, strengthwise, to the heavy double stranded bracelet packed with joyous charms from Sally Jean http://www.sallyjean.com/ which I have been using and LOVING for years. I wired it to the two chains , to make the whole bracelet stronger. Once I had mostly assembled it, I added the extras like the crystals.

Everyone was so nice. They even put up a picture of me and a long blathering bio. I felt like a movie star.

I am not 100 percent sure when this came out, but shortly Australian Beading Magazine, which is glorious and stunning in every way, will be available over here. Hooray! This will be great!

--jean

I work now for them off and on a bit. You will hear more about that in the upcoming weeks!