Initially, my goal was to just create a necklace design using the strand of crystal
beads. The length necklace that my friend wanted was longer than the strand of beads, so I needed to incorporate some spacers or other complementary beads into the design. I had other beads in the same color as well as a variety of faceted glass and crystal beads that I thought would help showcase the large turquoise crystal beads. I strung up a variety of beads in different patterns to see what my friend liked the best.
She liked the small, faceted, AB coated Czech glass spacer beads the best. They did a good job of adding length, without taking away from the turquoise beads that she liked so much. We also discussed the pattern of spacers and large beads in the necklace. To add more emphasis to the turquoise beads, the final design was to include several of these beads grouped together in the front of the necklace without spacers.There was a pleasant surprise when I laid out this pattern to the correct length. There were four extra large turquoise crystal beads. I sent a photo of the necklace and a suggestion for a pair of matching earrings before I beaded anything up. My friend was thrilled with being able to have matching earrings, so the custom necklace became a custom necklace and earring set.
If you have a particular color or style that you would like incorporated into a custom piece of jewelry, I’d love to hear from you and see if I have the materials to turn your vision into reality. You can contact me through my Etsy shops, EDCCollective or EclecticSkeptic, or send me an e-mail.
In an effort to blend my love for math and science with my love for creating things, I have put on my thinking cap to come up with items for the math and science geek. My goal is to create items that not only are attractive, but that will be appreciated on a deeper level by someone with the appropriate math or science background. 
Perhaps you are more of the science type. Then the 
anniversary gift ideas for her husband. She mentioned in her request that he liked pencil sketches. My bid on the request was for a custom 8 x 10 photographic art print from one of her digital photos, with the aim of making the finished design look like a charcoal or pencil sketch.
I prepared four different starting point files with the look of a charcoal or pencil sketch and two of another style that I found interesting in order to determine my customer’s likes. She picked one of the pencil sketch style images and had a couple of specifics that she wanted adjusted. I took care of those and another that I saw and sent an updated proof. She then noticed a couple of other details that she hoped could be reworked, which I did, along with a bit more clean up. My customer approved the next proof that I sent, so I printed it and mailed it too her. She planned to have it matted and framed to present to her husband for their first anniversary.
The dwarf horsetail reed on the other hand, behaved for a couple of years. It stayed where I planted it and almost looked at one point like it might fade away. In a couple of years it began to spread slowly and I was still not concerned. Then, in what seemed like overnight, it covered about half of my pond, tried to clog up my filter and pump system and spread out into my surrounding garden. I do hate that it got so aggressive, because the dragonflies love to perch on it and I have many 
Two other plants that looked so beautiful in their small pots that I just had to take them home and add them to my pond were floating heart and a four leaf water clover. I have to admit that I had been warned about the floating heart, but its nice leaves and pretty yellow flowers proved too tempting. “I can keep it in check, I reasoned.” Big, beautiful, mistake. We did battle it and get it removed before the horsetail and water clover got out of hand.
so it is a little difficult to believe that fall is actually almost here. We are in one of those season changes where it can be difficult to find something to accessorize your outfits with if you find you need something for the current season, especially if you need something for Labor Day that is patriotic but not quite as in your face red, white and blue as you would wear for the Fourth of July.
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