Our absolutely fabulous team member, Lisa Liddy has provided our wonderful featured piece for the month of July, and it is truly


RED HOT!

From Lisa:

I live in Arizona and it really is “red hot” here with temps this week hovering at 110 degrees and the humidity around 50%…we usually are at 15% so the difference makes it uncomfortable in those rare moments between the A/C’d house to the A/C’d car to A/C’d anywhere else.

In the spirit of the Red Hot theme for Ornament Thursday, I decided to finally finish a project that has been strung for over a year!

Here’s another look at the teaser:

And here’s the finished project:

And here’s a little of how I got there. The glass lampwork beads are from an amazing talented German artist named Andrea (Annikalilly is her seller name…sadly she hasn’t sold or posted in over a year) and over the years I would win one of her auctions on a rare occasion. I was going to the Gathering (an annual conference glass beadmakers…and their bead junky friends!) for in KCMO a couple of years ago and had heard all my bead friends talk about “trade beads”…not being a beadmaker, I knew I’d have nothing to trade. Then I had the idea to get a set of Andrea’s beads in flame colors! She made me a special set so I had about 15 or so to trade with my friends (most of whom I met in person for the first time at that event). I was pleased to be able to trade and to share with them the art of a fellow beadmaker I admired and I was especially pleased to have these flame-colored beads to share.

I managed to hang onto one focal and some spacers and proceeded to string them with some Hill Tribe silver woven spacers onto beading wire. I tied a loose knot and forgot about them for a year or so…As you can see below, I had Swarovski crystals on there at first and the wire curled pretty much after I unknotted it.

I decided that the crystals weren’t going to work with the final idea…the proportion was going to be too small next to the large chain necklace…so they were ditched. I also restrung the beads onto SoftTouch wire (my favorite) as I couldn’t get the other into the Wire Guardians.

The idea was to make a somewhat removeable beaded block that could be changed out of a fun chainmaille necklace I adapted from a magazine. The necklace started out all chain and then I decided to take out a section of chain in the center and add my favorite curved lampwork focal that I got from Melissa Vess. I also made a wired section with amazing glowing boro disks from Sonya Husko.

And now I have a Red Hot focal section!

I put a crimp bead and a wire guardian on each end and crimped so I had a loop to add to the silver ring. Then I opened up the silver ring, attached the three silver rings from the side of the necklace and the loop end of the beaded section. Closed the ring and repeated on the other side.

Voila! Instant necklace.

And now it’s time for a dip in the pool! Stay cool the rest of the summer!

Here’s what the other OT gals have been up to. We’ve got a few more coming so be sure to check back!

Art Bead Scene
ABS Editor Cindy Gimbrone Goes Red Hot Crazy!

Beading Help Web is RED HOT!
Lynn Kvigne takes up the torch and shows you how to make a toe ring using fine silver.

Cindy Gimbrone aka Lampwork Diva
Trendy, Popular and Red Hot!

Katie’s Beading Blog
Check out Katie’s Red Hot faux coral necklace! It’s a punch of color with a summery feel.

Linda Augsburg at BeadStyle Magazine
Linda shares a red-hot card she created

Michelle is RED HOT!
Well, really, Margot is…

Savvy Crafter
Hotsie Totsie Plexi-glass Flower pendant over on Candie’s blog!

Strands of Beads
The heat is rising, and Melissa is making a Red Hot Firecracker necklace!

Swelldesigner a.k.a. Alexa Westerfield
The Swelldesigner gets red hot with a Hunka Hunka Burner Necklace!

Too Red Hot
Our own Michelle Zimmerman has been hard at work this month sculpting a devil of a project for your enjoyment.