I had a bead-shopping budget set that was meant to last into the fall season of this year. Well, it’s been exhausted. I really have to stop making little trips to Namdaemun market convincing myself that I am juuuuust going to pick up one strand of beads. :-) The good news is that I have been diligently making new things with new acquisitions. The bad news is that the speed with which my bead stash grows has to be at least 30 times faster than the speed of my beads getting used up. All the more reason for having a sale in July I suppose. :-)

Shown here are some of my latest earring designs. I was delighted to find that vibrant colors are dominant on them, which I think is a nice contrast to my new collection of necklaces and bracelets most of which had a rather subdued feel in their color schemes.

My “hugger” earrings with London blue topaz. London blue topaz is my favorite shade of blue topaz — tons of brilliant sparkles on these stones.

A rare find! Excellent apple-green colored chrysoprase stones in an unusual long briolette cut. They are wire-wrapped in my “coil-wrap” style.

Two unusual stones combined: tanzanite and moss amethyst. Both are a first for me. Moss amethyst has a clear base with beautiful purple “needles” embedded inside.

Well, a pair of earrings does not get much sweeter than this. :-) Pink tourmaline clusters sit atop blue chalcedony squares.

The turquoise stones are more of thin saucer-slash-chips rather than rondelles. They look lovely bunched up, dangling from oxidized silver chain.

Two Thai silver tubes are put together to form a marquise shape, with ruby briolettes dangling below. Most ruby beads are dyed these days (completely natural ones are rather expensive, of course), and I picked these stones for their pretty shade of fuchsia pink.

Blue chalcedony and pink coral make such an effortless match. The blue chalcedony drops used in this designs are rated AAA+, and it shows through in their exceptional cut and color.

Yellow opal briolettes dangle from cascading white coral rounds. I am finding that two opaque stones make a wonderful match.