Disclaimer: No Real Bone Was Harmed In The Making Of These Pendants

Because they are fabulously faux instead! I love creating faux bone pieces, and a recipe makes so much clay, with so many different finishes, that you can really get a lot out of one batch. I've been tinkering with my colors and textures for a new tutorial, and I think I have an idea now of what I want to do. Here are a few pieces I've done over the last month, in preparation. You can see how tweaking the colors can completely change the look and feel of the pieces.

July Blog Giveaway Prize

My good friend Jill Kollmann collaborated with me on this month's blog prize. She created the beautiful rose colored flower basket beads flanking one of my image transfer pendants, and also the other rose colored oval beads in this very special design. Jill's innovative flower basket beads were featured in an ad in recent Polymer Cafe magazine issues for vintagejewelrysupplies.com (one of my favorite sources for unusual findings and the daffodil yellow cut crystal teardrop beads in this necklace.)

I hope I did Jill's beads justice. I wanted to create something colorful to celebrate the beginning of Summer here in this part of the world. I just love Jill's flower basket beads. She can create any color combination or flower combination you could wish for, and I hope you will check out her shop at Etsy to see more of her beautiful work.

So, you know what to do. Leave a comment, either about the necklace or about your plans for Summer. No purchase is necessary, of course. On July 1, I'll pull a winner at random from among the comments and will post the winner's name here. If you do not have email enabled on your blog, please include your email address in the comment, so I will know how to find you.

Thanks again, Jill, for creating such gorgeous beads for me to use in the prize this month. Happy Summer, everyone!

June Blog Giveaway Winner!

Man, with the heat as oppressive as it already is here in the deep South, I'd be sorely tempted to wear these earrings and nothing else today, but I guess I should go ahead and award them to one of my wonderful blog friends anyway, since my running nekid through the neighborhood would probably create mass stampedes of terrified people running in the opposite direction!

We had 12 entries this month, and thank you to everyone who took the time to leave a comment about the earrings.

Our big winner is #8, Lynn!

Thanks, Lynn. I will contact you today for your mailing address. I hope you enjoy wearing them... don't send photos if you decide to go streakin' in them, though, okay? Hee Hee

Next month, I have another collaborative prize created by me and my good friend, Jill Kollmann of JKollman.etsy.com. Jill makes the most intricately ingenius basket beads with polymer and metal. I think you'll like what we have planned for you. Stay tuned for more details in a couple of weeks.

Happy Summer, everyone