JEWELRY WITH THE MAGIC MERMAIDS

By Toni McCarthy

After being contacted by Shanti from Nirvana Beads in early March to again design some jewelry with the new mermaid beads, I have finished my project.  It has been fun, challenging, and inspiring.  I appreciate the opportunity to work with Nirvana, and I hope it leads to further chances to create lovely jewelry that people enjoy looking at and wearing.

I decided that earrings would be my style choice.  Each pair was constructed, auditioned, de-constructed at least once, and finalized, as I always do when designing jewelry.  Here are my final pieces:

Mermaids & Flowers:  Sand-colored beads, some with patina or wash, enhance these lovely crowned mermaids.

Turquoise & Honey Mermaids:  Such a beautiful color combination—the honey looks rustic and aged—just perfect for these mermaids just out of the water. 

On Top of the World:  Classic teal with a gold wash, some matte, some shiny.  So beautiful.

About Toni McCarthy:

I have been designing jewelry since 1995 when I started with a small box of glass beads, some inexpensive tools, and a spot to work in my sewing room that became, you guessed it, the beading room. I was still teaching high school English then, so I worked in my spare time. My first business name was "To Bead or Not to Bead" (clever, huh?), and I began doing small shows around the Portland OR/Vancouver WA area where I live. Well, things changed. I retired from teaching, converted the basement rec room into my studio, and chose a new business name ("BeadWares") which stuck till 2005 when my friend Liz Plam and decided to form "Beads & Threads" and do shows together. We teamed up on several shows through 2013,  but through 2018 I was solo on the show tour under that name. In the summer of 2019 I decided to design an on-line store website, and this is it: Toni McCarthy Designs www.tonimccarthy.com 

I still work at my home studio and make every single piece myself, take my own photographs, design my advertising materials, and manage my website. About my jewelry, each piece is OOAK--one of a kind, handmade by me, one bead and wire loop at a time. I pride myself on choosing only the most interesting materials to work with.

Visit my website! www.tonimccarthy.com