Lace Beads or Tentacle Beads

My tentacle/lace beads are available in my etsy shop--teal and purple versions at this point.

Nature's Doughnuts and Organic Nuggets Glass Beads

New lampwork beads, in natural shapes and colors.
A set of matte-finished nuggets and rounds, with stone-like veins of silvered glass.
And two little sets of doughnut beads -- the loveliest little ring-beads -- in jade greens, fossil browns, golden wheat, terra cottas, tiger eye, and coral reds.

Someone needs to make some beautifully organic jewelry with these.  Available right now, in my etsy shop.

The Caprock

If we drive north towards Tucumcari, NM, we are crossing the relatively level High Plains region, or Llano Estacado.  In December the fields are golden and uniform and dotted with cholla cacti and a few black cattle.  And then suddenly there is a narrow band of pines and junipers, and a steep drop of about 1000 feet in elevation.  And then the plains continue on again, flat and monotonous, for as far as the eye can see.  This is the Caprock Escarpment.

We spent this past Saturday walking around amongst the trees, rocks, and arroyos of the Caprock.  The escarpment is composed of caliche (hardened deposit of calcium carbonate) and the exposed rock cracks and fractures in blocks or sheets.  About halfway down the escarpment at our location there were big oyster fossils.  It is always fun to find evidence of sea creatures on mountains and in the deserts.

Nice photo of dry seeds lying in the little cup of an open prickly pear fruit, back-lit by the low winter sun.

Latest Custom Beads

Since these beads, made by Special Order, won't be leaving a pictorial record in my etsy shop, i would like to show them here, as eye candy for the bead enthusiast. :-)

First a big batch of colorful band o silver beads (of which half were etched before shipping).

A well-fed squirrel.

A skull with flowers and a lady bug (a real beetle happened by while i was photographing the bead so i couldn't resist putting him in the pic).

And a pair of personalized pendant beads.

As usual, if you would like something similar for yourself, plz contact me through my shop and we'll set something up.