Sunday night already? I guess time flies when you're having fun, and I did a lot of that this weekend. After complaining about not feeling very inspired and needing time to play, I found out that the Intergalactic (yes, really. I could not make this stuff up) Bead Show was going to be in town. I decided that I might just need a change of pace. Long ago and far away, I made lamp work beads and other jewelry, and it's something I like to revisit occasionally. So, on Saturday I headed over to the show for an afternoon of shopping and playing. I got some new tools (to replace my $3 tools from Michaels), some really gorgeous beads, and plenty of chain, wire, and findings to put it all together. I've only made one necklace so far, but I'm really thrilled with it, and I see plenty more jewelry making in my near future.

This little necklace is made up of tiny faceted sapphires in a rainbow of blues with sterling silver chain and findings. Right now I'm batting around design ideas for a pair of earrings to go with the necklace. I only used about a quarter of the strand of sapphires, so I still have plenty left for for another necklace, and I want to make earrings that will match both necklaces. I think the other necklace will be a double strand of silver chain broken up with clusters of wire wrapped sapphires, instead of a pendant style like this one. I'm thinking earrings with a short drop of chain with a cluster of wire wrapped sapphires toward the end ought to do it. We'll see. I think I'm going to switch from the sapphires for right now and make up a necklace with some 4mm labradorite rounds that I found in my (very small) bead stash. I also got some great potato pearls this weekend that are the lightest shade of minty green that I can't wait to play with. With my fiber projects, they are so time intensive, it's hard to play with them. There's 10% creativity followed by 90% execution. With jewelry, it's so much easier for me to play. And with just an hour or two invested, I have a finished project I can wear. It's a nice switch to break up my fiber-y blahs.

But amazingly, things weren't blah on the fiber front this weekend. I even managed to get some playtime in there, as well. Friday night I spun up a sample of the camel/silk blend I showed a couple of posts ago. I tried sampling it a week or so ago and I was having trouble managing the fiber. It seemed to want to slip and slide out of my fingers as I spun, but it was a different story on Friday. It was really a pleasure to spin and the colors look great. I plied the singles last night and I'll be knitting up the sample swatch this week, so hopefully I'll get to show it off in my next post. I also got a lot of work in on my scarf this weekend, too.