Summer Garden Necklace

Summer in Maine has arrived at long last! The sun is shining and the flowers are in bloom giving me just the inspiration I needed to create this piece.


For this necklace I used vintage and contemporary Lucite flowers, beautiful rich genuine pearls in 3 colors, filigree bead caps, large pieces of high quality Rose Quartz and vintage Lucite leaves. The clasp is by Swarovski and the entire piece measures 18.5 inches but can be made smaller with a sterling lobster claw clasp.

Both the base and the garden were woven by hand by yours truly. The leaves are made with seed beads, also each woven with care.

This is a wonderful summer piece of wearable art and as I do only one you will be the only one at the party wearing this beaded Summer Garden necklace.
Available at Divella Delights

Update from Divella Delights

Hello Everyone!I hope you are all enjoying your summer. It has been a tough few months with family difficulties and health issues but it seems as though things have stabilized and now I can really get back to work! Good timing too since it is time to begin the new Winter Hat designs for this year! I want to do some really fun and funky felted hats this year getting back to the 20’s and 30’s era.
I had a request for bead crochet rope necklaces so am going to do a few of those with some wonderful new lampwork and other embellishments. I am going to go ahead and do a few bracelets too so stay tuned!

Classes will start soon and I will be adding more info to the website.

Shortly you will see a “Tips, Tricks and Patterns” tab at the top of the page where I will post things such as my trials with different materials, good websites for supplies and some patterns for you.I will be going to Oregon for 3 weeks in August for a little R&R as well as a little business. When I return I expect to be doing several classes a week for 3 different age groups beginning at 9 years old. I did a trial run on my niece this Spring and it went very well. If you live in the Waterville, Maine area and are interested in the classes, shoot me an e-mail for more details.

Have you been to the website lately? I have been doing some really cool designs with my new beading software, stop by Divella Delights and take a look. More soon!Have a great day!
Dianne

NEW Daily Specials

Divella Delights has started something new. You will notice next time you visit us that we now have a " Today’s Special" Category. Each day or two there will be a different item at a substantial savings. Once it is gone, it's gone so stop by early! I have listed the kick off item here, but won't be doing so every day.
If you have not checked out the new ornaments made by David Jacques, come check them out. They are 3 dimensional and handcrafted from beautiful hardwoods. There are more to come so stay tuned! Shipping is still free and you always receive a free gift with every purchase over $20.00

Making Jewelry

I have been having so much fun making jewelry the last few days! The time has come however, to get busy on all my crochet orders.
Most of the orders are for the crochet Flapper hats that did so well last year but I also have some orders from the jewelry store for crochet necklaces and more crochet bracelets. I am doing the ones with the gemstones and pearls in the center for her. Funny, I had intended to give those up all together but now I am getting orders. I guess you can never guess what is going to happen next in the world of retail.

As always you can see my work at Divella Delights.
So, off I go now to get my crochet hooks, knitting needles and get to work!

Bead Crochet Instructions

The sale is going very well at Divella Delights and the crochet bracelets are selling fast, thanks to all my wonderful customers. Because I still have some beads left and the gemstone style sells quite well I will be working some of those up until my stash is depleted.
If you know how to do bead crochet and you are interested in making them yourself I am going to tell you how! If you don't want to go through making these yourself, I have a number of these available on my site right now at very good prices. I will also be happy to make you one in your color choice while my bead supplies last. http://www.divelladelights.com/
The first thing you need to do is make the rope leaving long ends, about 12 inches. There are a number of good sites explaining this technique; I have provided a link to those below. Once you figure out how long you need the bracelet to be you need to figure out how much you want in the center and collect gemstones, seed beads (#6, #11 and #15), pearls and the like. Remember the bracelet has to roll over the hand so you want to measure the hand at the widest point with the thumb folded in towards the palm.
So you have your crochet rope. String your first end cap, your #6 seed beads and your other end cap. Fasten that securely by taking it through the center of the rope, knot, glue and then weave it through a couple of times and repeat. As you pull the string through the knot will go into the rope and not show. Finally, weave it through again, do not knot, glue, give it a pull and cut. The string will disappear into the rope.
At this point you are ready to do the center and you should have something that looks like this
Take a beading needle and Nymo thread that has been conditioned with beeswax. Enter at one end leaving enough of a tail to tie off later, about 3 inches being careful not to go through your crochet string. You are now between the first and second bead. Add a gem or pearl and a size 15 bead and push it down to the bracelet. Take your needle and go through the gem and the next #6 bead, repeat to end, turn and repeat back to beginning end. Tie the ends together but do not cut! Repeat this until you have the desired fullness then tie off, add a dab of Hypo cement, let dry and wear! Here is a picture of the bracelet above finished.

Good source for end caps: http://accessoriessusan.com/
Beads: http://www.beadinpath.com/
Crochet Rope Tutorial (Free): http://www.sova-enterprises.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=2_5_134_189;products_id=814

Another Freebie: http://www.beadcrochet.com/lessons/basicbeadcrochet-rt.htm

Armed Forces Day

For those who do so much for all of us...Thank you for your service, past and present! Please enjoy 50% off your entire order this weekend if you serve in the military. E-mail me your rank and I will give you the password! http://www.divelladelights.com

Micro Macrame

Well folks, here I go again in pursuit of another lesson. A friend of mine had a book on micro macramé and it looked really interesting to me. My mind went away with all the design possibilities. It will be my new venture to incorporate some of that old 70’s style stuff with my designs. Understand that this is not done with the Jute we used back in the day. It is done with thread or very fine cord and beads…even gems! Yea! Sounds like it will be right up my alley. I have ordered the instructions and that should be in for me to pick up in a couple of days.
I am still working on the vases; in fact I have a beautiful black, silver and white one in the works now. It is smaller than the first one I did for 2 reasons. First to make it more affordable and second don’t you know those things take a long time?
I am also still doing the crochet bracelets, the woven gemstone work and free-form peyote so if there is something you would like, please ask.
I will be going on vacation soon and am trying to get my ducks in a row, learn new techniques to keep things interesting and figure out what I want to take with me for some possible new accounts.
Look for new designs at www.divelladelights.com

Peyote Stitch and Knit One Pearl Too

As the vase nears completion so does the bracelet. The direction of the vase is hard to see but after I finish beading the actual vase I will add the embellishments. I have decided on a title...Midnight Garden so I will be going with that theme. There will be beaded flowers, leaves and a few dragonflies, perhaps a butterfly and I am thinking vines...we'll see. I go back and forth between the two and now I have thrown in a sweater into the mix. I made the boyfriend sweater a few years ago and actually married the guy! Against the old wives tale for certain. Anyway he is due for another and here is the beginning of that...did this last night watching some tube with my honey. I am adding a copper crochet necklace to the batch of projects tonight, although I have to get that done for a special order at the jewelry store. I love having a few different things going on at once, it keeps me from getting bored. The free form peyote is really good for me as I tend to be OCD and very black and white. Abstract has never come easy for me, I do better with realism so this is quite a stretch.

You can see another little vase peeking out from behind, that'll be the next one while I wait for the shipment of larger ones to come in.

I will be taking a break pretty soon as I will be driving my daughter's car down to her in Florida where she is in "A" School in the Navy. I can't wait to see her as well as get out of the snow for a few days, we have had so much. Well, I had better get back to it...more tomorrow unless I finish it today...as if.