beadworkbybetsy

This card is in honor of our bee situation.  I love to stamp the bee on tan card stock.  Then when I color the wings with white prismacolor, it really stands out.  The bee stamp is an old one by Lisa Hindsley.  She is working for Stampendous.  I also have a lady bug by her.

Below are some photos of the drones, just waiting to hatch and build more honeycomb inside our wall.  It was hard for me to poison the bees, but we knew we couldn't have them in there.

Bees moved into our wall on June 4th.  That night I googled and learned a lot about our options.  Most bee saving outfits come in, cut through your stucco and collect the hive.  On June 4th our new stucco had just been completed.  We didn't want anyone cutting a hole in our stucco.  We still tried to be environmental and called up a bee keeper on June 5th.  They said they could be at our house by 5 pm and it would cost $150.  For what?  They said they would poison the bees and cut a hole in the outside wall to clean it out.

We decided we could poison the bees ourselves and then we could cut a hole in the interior wall and do the repair.  After being in our home for 13 years we feel we have more expertise in the area of patching drywall.  Or at least my hubby does.  He poisoned the bees on June 19 (poison I bought from the Orange County Farm Supply).  We thought it would take a couple days to reach the queen, but it didn't.  Pete had to poison again.  Finally we saw no more activity going in or out of the hole.  A roof repairman closed up the hole on July 1.  So that means the bees were only building for about 3 weeks before the poison took effect.  It is amazing how much they built and how many drones were waiting to hatch in such a small amount of time.  The honeycomb is about 2 feet long.  In some places it was already as deep as the wall would allow.

This shows some of the honey glistening inside the honey comb.

I got to do demo.  I misjudged on my first attempt.  That just meant a bigger drywall hole to patch.  We started the clean up on July 9th, had the hole patched by the 11th, but we didn't get to the texture or painting until the following weekend.  For us to start a project and complete it in less than two weeks is amazing.  Of course we had to get it done so that Luke and Elijah could have their room functional again.

These small chandelier pendants are waiting to be placed on chain.  Even this part of making jewelry offers choices.  Do I put them on copper? antique copper? real silver (costs more and tarnishes)? silver plated? gun metal?  I have to decide and get them listed for sale.  For these pendants I used subtle papers.  I now realize the glass can take much brighter images and I look forward to making more.
I also have two different shapes to offer in a larger size.  The chocolate/turquoise flower pendant is  2 1/2 inches long and 1 1/2 inches wide; the one with the flowers in the center is 2 inches long and 1 1/8 inches wide.

I have a new creation.  These pendants are made with chandelier crystals.  I have lots of paper from making cards and scrapbooks.  I decoupaged the paper onto the crystal, sealed the back and then wire wrapped the pendant onto chain.  The chain is about 25 inches long, with a dangle at the end, so the length is adjustable.  There are so many color possibilities.  The hardest part was to decide what paper I wanted to put on the first batch of crystals.  I'm hoping after a few sales I can buy more chain to list more of them at etsy.  The large one pictured is a birthday gift.  I am going to list the smaller one of the same print at etsy.  Prices are $35 and $32 for the large and small pendants (chain included), respectively.  The large pendant is 2 1/2 inches long and 1 1/2 inches wide.  The smaller pendant is 1 1/2 inched long and 1 inch wide.