Well, after getting my butt kicked in Scarlett Lanson's Use the Muse 2 contest, I hope that this will be a better submission.  The Big Reveal is still several weeks away, but I can't resist showing a sneak peek of my project.  When I saw the triangle beads I knew it had to be a cuff bracelet since I've made a couple of other cuffs with them previously.  What I always forget is that I tell myself after each one that I'll never do another one because they take for-freaking-ever to do, and this one was no exception.  I quit keeping track, but I think I have a good 15-20 hours invested in this project.

The previous triangle cuffs I've made were in square stitch and on a loom, so this time I decided to try peyote stitch.  It worked equally as well, though at first I was worried it wouldn't be flexible enough.  Thankfully that wasn't the case.  I wasn't sure exactly how I would embellish the bracelet until I received the kit.  Once I saw the Muse, I knew the name of my piece straight away: Autumn Garden.  Usually naming pieces is a chore, but this was pretty obvious for me.  

Happily, I was also organizing a Fall Colors-themed challenge swap for some of my friends in the Beading Daily forums, and 2 people had included some Lucite leaves & flowers in their contributions which fit the theme of my bracelet just perfectly.  Sadly the flowers didn't work quite the way I wanted, but I had some beads left over from the kit so I made a matching pair of earrings to wear with it.  They weren't part of the contest submission, just for me.

The hardest part, aside from working my thread through the triangle beads to add embellishment, was the clasp.  My original thought was to use one of the oval copper pieces and make a toggle with it, but it was too small for the piece.  I ended up using my friend Kay Sommers' toggle clasp tutorial as inspiration for my own.  I tried to make a bit of a leaf shape for it, and the loop half is a bit of a funky shape.  You'll have to wait for the reveal to see that part.

Enjoy, and keep checking The Beader's Muse site over the next few weeks to see the Big Reveal of Round 3.  While you're waiting, look through the galleries of all the gorgeous entries from rounds 1 & 2.  With any luck there will be a round 4 to look forward to as well.

Continuing through the end of October is the ArtFire Jewelry Design and Supply Guild's fundraising effort for breast cancer research and abused womens' shelters.  While searching for great handmade Christmas gifts, please consider making a purchase from a participating studio and a portion of all sales will go to these 2 causes.  Alternately, you can make a cash donation on our blog and specify where you would like your money to go.  The list of studios is on our blog as well.

I am donating 25% of all my sales this month to breast cancer awareness.  This is studio-wide, not just in the breast cancer category.  We've received a few donations so far, but we could use some more help in order to make this a big success.

Welcome to the beginnings of my blog!  I haven't had the time to get this up and running as well as I'd like to but hopefully that will change.  I can tell it's the start of the holiday season because all of a sudden I have 1001 projects that I should have finished by now, but they're still sitting here staring at me.  I'm sure no one else has this problem...

I have Christmas presents to make, a pile of UFOs I need to get completed, and I need to replenish my pitiful earring supply for a bazaar next month.  Oh, and 2 competition pieces that are also due in November.  Thankfully the deadline was extended on one so I have a bit more time to do my best work.

So, please bear with me and I'll try to have some interesting content to publish in the near future.  Thanks for reading!