The Fresh Daily » Fresh Picks

Top Picks of October

Ali — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:28:13 +0000

Winter warmth by Carolinawren

New Fresh Pickers for October

Top 15 Favorited Picks

100% Chance of Rain by Chicky D aka Debra
Pinked!!! by Leigh D
Spa Delight by Alice t
Sister Goldenhair by Atomic Toad
Caelia by FaeryGoth Chick
First Impressions by Breezy Chick aka Bree
Wild Purple Asters by Mary S AKA Sweet Chick
Walk Softly by Cuban Queen Crazy Chick
Vintaj Venture en Bleu by Chicky ChaCha
Copper and Ice by L Soponis
Winter warmth by Carolinawren
out of my comfort zone by M mccallister mrs chick
Olympic Peninsula by Smoky Rose
Cinnamon Toast by Jane MS
Smoky Impressions by Luv2bead – Little Chick

100% Chance of Rain by Chicky D aka Debra

This group of favorite picks really showcases the use of subtle and warm tones. There are however a few that feature purples and blues. I always say that purple is my least favorite color, but oddly enough I was reading Vogue UK and found that they are saying the top colors for fashion this winter (2009/2010) are: Indigo (the more saturated and intense the color the better) and regal tones of violet, purple and inky grape. I guess I’ll have to embrace these colors, at least for this season…

These colors are gorgeous when used the right way. How would you use them? Let’s see some Fresh Picks!

They are all beautiful combinations. Which Fresh Pick would you be most interested in creating a piece of jewelry out of and what would you create? If you do, be sure to show us in the design gallery

Top 15 Favorited Designs from the Gallery

Waterfall of Pearls by Taylored Designs

I have to say the design gallery has never looked so good!

The designs you’re creating and sharing with the rest of us are really beautiful. There are some great textures, colors, and metal work – especially in the top 15 this month.

I do have one request, and I know it might seem cumbersome because everyone is getting so busy this time of year, but I’m going to ask it anyway. If you have a piece that requires more than basic stringing technique, would please add some instructions or tips applicable to your piece? I think that it would really help, because the pieces are gorgeous and inspiring but it would also help to teach people how to achieve the same coolness. Again, if you have time

Thanks everyone!

Autumn: My Favorite Season

Matt — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 16:37:22 +0000

Autumn Sunset

It’s that time of year again! Freshly harvested apples, changing colors of the leaves, apple cider, frosted pumpkin spice donuts, cider mills, corn mazes, caramel apples, weekends filled with football and nights filled with playoff baseball.

There’s also a smell in the air that I can’t quite put my finger on. Some would say it’s the smell of dying leaves, which is partly true, but I think it’s mostly nostalgia.

Some of my fondest memories take place in Autumn. My wife and I were married just last fall up in Mid-Michigan. It couldn’t have been a more picturesque weekend. The sun was shining, it was about 75 degrees, and the trees were dressed up in their full Autumn colors.

This year, for our first anniversary, we’re staying up in Northern Michigan for a long weekend of rest and relaxation. It’s a resort about 20 minutes south of Traverse City, the self-proclaimed cherry capital of the world! As cheesy as that sounds, it’s a neat little town that reminds me a lot of Ann Arbor. It has that “artisan” feel, but it’s quite a bit smaller and right on the water. Michigan’s wine country is just a drive down the Leelanau Peninsula and Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore is also close by.

In between naps, we might find time to play some golf or visit the newly renovated spa. Then, we’ll take the ski lift to the top of the mountain to listen to a couple of the live bands play and soak in the beautiful scenery. On a clear day, you can see the sunset on Lake Michigan! We’re certainly looking forward to creating more wonderful Autumn memories this year and all of the years to come.

Fall is most certainly my favorite time of the year. It seems to be a favorite among our Fresh Pickers, too! There are dozens of Fresh Picks inspired by the season. Just do a search for “Autumn” or “Fall” on the Search the Picks page to see what I mean. I’ve made a pick of my own called “Autumn Sunset” inspired by my vision of how I’ll be celebrating my first anniversary.

Do you have a favorite season? Let us know in the comments below.

Fresh Pick search update

Steve — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 16:12:12 +0000

Hello, Fresh Pickers! A while back, I gave you a preview of some work we’re doing here to organize our growing collection of Fresh Picks. While the work isn’t finished yet, we were able to release a small feature that we think will be very helpful in the meantime. As of today, you can search for Fresh Picks by typing in part (or all) of the name in the box on the Fresh Pick Search page. Here’s how it looks:

Searching by Fresh Pick name...

We hope you find this feature useful for when you remember a Fresh Pick’s name, but not when it was created! Here are a couple fun searches to try out:

Let us know in the comments if you find this feature useful!

Favorite Fresh Picks for Summer

Ali — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 03:18:51 +0000

Top 9 Fresh Picks (June 1-22):

*Laurel* by Valentine Chick
精衛 by D D Mystic Chick
A Mermaid’s Necklace by Cuban Queen Crazy Chick
Walk on the Beach by Smoky Rose
The Clouds in the Sky by Elaine aka Belly Chick
Summer Dreams by Fashion Chick aka SC
Droplets by Sandy S
Waiting for a sunny day by Wemai Coffee Chick
Beautiful Summer Evening by Allure of Gems by Julia
Starry Midnight by Southern Chick

What stands out with this set of favorites is how much blue, green and brown are being used.

*Laurel* – This is great, your pick definitely evokes images in my mind of the mountain laurel we had in our yard growing up. I like the combinations of pinks and greens — really rich. The silver green keishi pearls we are adding tomorrow would look great with this

精衛 – Kudos for creative inspiration! The Chinese ocean jasper looks great with the mystic blue… who knew? I like your description, it really helps imagine how these would all work together.

A Mermaid’s Necklace – As I’ve said so many times, I love green fluorite, I think because it reminds me of beach glass. Sticking with the “beachy/mermaid” feel, I think I would probably use Green Girl Pewter Starfish Toggle Clasp to finish the piece. I love how subtle this combination is.

I have been compiling a list over the past few months of things that make for great inspirations when designing and thought that it would be nice to share an abbreviated list with all of you:

Local Places
Novels
Audrey Hepburn (iconic)
Beach
Islands
Mermaids
Fairies
Flowers
Food – meals, vegetables, fruit, deserts (avoid meat for inspiration, it never feels quite right if I know my design came from a burger, ugh)
Cake Decorating Competitions (I sometimes find myself watching these on the Food Network)
Paintings (visit museums and galleries)
Photographs
Vacation
Tropical Paradise (dreams)
Historic Places
Sun/Moon/Stars
Nature

What is currently inspiring your designs?

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Favorite Fresh Pick Facts

Ali — Thu, 28 May 2009 18:39:38 +0000

The other day I was just sitting around with nothing to do (yeah, right!) and I started wondering about how often different items were used and which items were most popular to use in your Fresh Picks. We have compiled a very interesting set of winners… Check it out!

Favorite Gemstone Category to use in a Fresh Pick

	1st: Black Onyx
	2nd: Labradorite
	3rd: Coral

Most used gemstone bead in a Fresh Pick

White Opal Round 3.5-4mm

Most used non-gemstone bead in a Fresh Pick

Champagne Semi-Round 4.5-5mm

Most used names for a Fresh Pick

1st (used 9 times)	Under the Sea
2nd (all used 7 times)	Key to My Heart Purple Haze Royalty Serenity Warmth
3rd (all used 6 times)	African Safari Blue Moon Fruit Salad Indian Corn Mint Chocolate Chip Mother Earth Peacock Feathers Purple Passion Safari Twilight

Give a warm welcome to our new May Fresh Pickers

What you’ve all been waiting for . . . Top 10 Fresh Picks (May 10-24)

We’d love to hear from you. Why do you think the items above are so popular for use in Fresh Picks? Is it the color, the way the images turned out, or something else?

How do you feel about the idea of having a weekly Fresh Pick challenge at Lima Beads? Some Fresh Pickers have done this on their own in the past – I believe they called it a “chickie challenge” Since June is coming up, we thought it’d be cool to see Fresh Picks themed around wedding season.

Let us know what you think!

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Help! How should we organize Fresh Picks?

Steve — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 19:01:06 +0000

It’s hard to believe that over that past year, the community of Lima Beaders has designed over 6,000 Fresh Picks! These wonderful idea-generators are featured throughout the web site, but it’s growing harder every day to swim through the variety of concepts, colors, and combos that inspire us to create. So, we’re looking to get a little organized.

In addition to being able to search for Fresh Picks by name (think: “ocean” or “wedding”), we think it would be neat to allow you to browse through the picks by category. This brings up an interesting question, though: what categories do we use? Here are some interesting ideas we’ve had:

Seasons (Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall)
Holidays (The typical ones…)
Occasions (Weddings, Birthdays, Celebrations)
Nature (Flowers, Landscapes, Water)
Emotions (Happy, Sad, Thoughtful, Pride, Sympathy)
Animals (Pets, Cats, Dogs, The Wild)
Going Out (Food & Drink, Night Life)
Locations (Landmarks, Cities, Countries)
Pop Culture (Movies, Songs, Famous People)
People (Family, Friends, Myself)
And more…

What do YOU think?

Since you’re the designers, we want to know what you think! Love it? Hate it? Have any good ideas? We’d love to hear the different ways you think Fresh Picks could be organized so they’re easy & fun to browse. Let us know in the comments! And if you’re new to designing Fresh Picks, give it a try!

Garden of Fresh Picks

Ali — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 20:58:38 +0000

I was reading The Garden to Payton yesterday and for some reason I started thinking about Fresh Picks and how they are used.

The Garden by Shel Silverstein

(from Where the Sidewalk Ends pg 61)

Ol’ man Simon, planted a diamond,
Grew hisself a garden the likes of none.
Sprouts all growin’, comin’ up glowin’,
Fruit of jewels all shinin’ in the sun.
Colors of the rainbow,
See the sun and rain grow
Sapphires and rubies on ivory vines,
Grapes of jade, just
Ready for the squeezin’ into green jade wine.
Pure gold corn there,
Blowin’ in the warm air,
Ol’ crow nibblin’ on the amnythyst seeds.
In between the diamonds, ol’ man Simon
Crawls about pullin’ out platinum weeds.
Pink pearl berries,
All you can carry,
Put ‘em in a bushel and
Haul ‘em into town.
Up in the tree there’s
Opal nuts and gold pears–
Hurry quick, grab a stick
And shake some down.
Take a silver tater,
Emerald tomater,
Fresh plump coral melons
Hangin’ in reach.
Ol’ man Simon,
Diggin’ in his diamonds,
Stops and rests and dreams about
One…real…peach.

This past week, a lot of the picks have palettes centered around a color theme with a splash of this or that. Great job, I can’t wait to see how people use them (hint: check out my “Getting Some INK” Blog post)

Water Witch – Love the deep sea, mystical feel of this pick. Great choice in metals.

Luminous Laboradorite – So silky and calm. I want to wrap myself in a necklace made from the pieces in this pick. I like how you chose a stone as your inspiration.

sweet dreams princess – I don’t usually go for the pastels, but something about this pick drew me in. I think it’s because of all the quality stones you chose.

Your Top 10:

Water Witch by Cuban Queen
Luminous Laboradorite by Luv2bead
sweet dreams princess by M mccallister mrs chick
They’re Coming Too …… by A Golke
Saltwood by Mary F
Gavotte by CAS
Lemongrass Sage by kcdesigns AKA sporty
Silvery Moon by J Yee smart chick
Transition to Spring by Brenda
seaside starlight by chloe the congo

On behalf of the Lima Team I would like to thank all of you for making Fresh Picks such a beautiful garden.

We’d also like to welcome some first-timers. Please check out these new Fresh Pickers – great stuff:

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Water, Sunsets, Stars, the Woods and Raspberries

Ali — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 15:57:08 +0000

These are the latest “most popular” Fresh Picks.

Water, Sunsets, Stars, the Woods and Raspberries… Am I missing anything?

Top 10 Favorite Fresh Picks:

Flamingo Green by seashellsally
Bali by Gabrielle L
My Daughter the Mermaid by Cuban Queen
antique green by kcdesigns
Raspberry Delight by Luv2Bead
Fallen by CAS
Camping in the Woods by Ambo
Seaside Starlight by chloe the congo
Perky in Pink by A Golke
Haze Over Sea Waters… by Allure of Gems by Julia

Flamingo Green by seashellsally

Flamingo Green – The picture you uploaded is amazing. The peridot tumbled nuggets and the pistachio pearls caught my eye right away and the 2 rhodochrosite beads you chose are just the right amount of flamingo. I think you really captured the moment in the photo. Maybe a good project/fresh pick inspiration for everyone would be to follow suit and take a favorite moment captured in film and recreate it with beads. HMMMMM I feel a contest coming on.

Bali by Gabrielle L

Bali – Sandy beaches and gorgeous waters for miles and miles… This pick makes me close my eyes and try to wish myself there like in the movie Jumper. Great Vintaj pieces, very beachy. I love how you used the Chinese ocean jasper to pull the browns and blue-greens together. My favorite stone in this pick is the Oregon snakeskin agate and the Peruvian blue opal (ok I guess that makes it my favorite stones — I’m a beader, I can’t resist )

My Daughter the Mermaid by Cuban Queen

My Daughter the Mermaid – This is such a sweet pick. I hope Alicia had a beautiful birthday.

Your choices in blues and greens make this look just like water. I love the use of the green fluorite rondelle 16mm. Green Girl is the perfect fit for this fresh pick. I just love how the mermaid ring has design on the front and back so it doesn’t matter if it flips. The fancy swirl bead caps add to that “under the sea” vibe.

What does everyone think? Anyone have design ideas for any of these?

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An Earthy Palette

Ali — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 19:09:14 +0000

Top 10 most visited Fresh Picks:

Illuminated Forest by Cuban Queen

Illuminated Forest – Bright zesty green paired with golden hues, so vibrant and sparkly, shimmering and springy. I like your selection of tiger eye for the gold gemstone, not usually a stone I would pick for a piece of jewelry, but I think you made me have a change of heart. The gold pieces that you added to this pick are great showstoppers. I can see something made of this combination worn at The Oscars. Love it!

seaside by kcdesigns

Seaside – How I wish I were there. This reminds me of going to the New England coast as a child. This pick conveys relaxation, trees (but not tropical trees)…the calm before the storm. I love the combination of green fluorite, green snakeskin jasper and stormy blue fresh water pearls. The antique jasper and Vintaj pieces you chose really set off the green tones. Beautiful job kcdesigns!

Chocolate Mint by A Golke

Chocolate Mint – My favorite flavor ice cream and hot chocolate. The minty green stones you chose are perfect, I’m especially crazy for the prasiolite and chrysoprase . . . yummy. Your choice to use the new jade and soocho jade hollow carved round with vines and swirls evokes an image in my mind of the 2 flavors swirling together. I think that we will be stopping at the grocery store on our way home from work tonight

What does everyone think?

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Favorite Fresh Picks – Feb. 11, 2009

Ali — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 20:45:08 +0000

Lots of green this time! Check out the top 10 most visited Fresh Picks from the past 2 weeks below. We’ve added the number of comments for each Fresh Pick to the list. Click on them to check out the conversation! Also, don’t forget to vote for your favorite.

These are the most visited Fresh Picks from the past 2 weeks:

Sea Spray by kcdesigns (8 comments)
Archipelago by Jennifer A (23 comments)
Fresh Kiwi by Luv2bead (4 comments)
Go Green! By Bella Claire (4 comments)
Lotus by Sara (5 comments)
Lime Time by A Golke (2 comments)
A Whir of Dragonfly Wings by CAS (1 comment)
Imbolc by Cuban Queen (3 comments)
Take me to Aruba by Anna C (0 comments)
Down By the Sea by JewelsbyJill (4 comments)

Sea Spray by kcdesigns

Sea Spray by kcdesigns – I love how you chose to mix up the pattern, transparency, and shape/size of stones rather than the color. Our green fluorite and variscite are 2 of my favs for spring. They remind me of a vacation at the beach, which is probably why everyone is so drawn to this pick. The Vintaj pieces that you chose are the perfect complement for this combination. I think if I were to make a necklace or bracelet with this fresh pick I would need to add some biwa pearls for “spray”.

Archipelago by Jennifer A

Archipelago by Jennifer A - This makes me think of a storm while out to sea. The blues and browns you combined, they make for a great deep-sea effect. I could just eat the chrysocolla diamond. The pink chocolate pearls really make the brass and copper work well together.

Fresh Kiwi by Luv2Bead

Fresh Kiwi by Luv2bead - Great shades of green. This is exactly what I see when I slice a kiwi. Why are kiwis so small? I could probably eat one in like 4 bites (minus the fuzzy skin). I love the cz onyx “seeds” – bicones 4mm & 6mm. They give just the right amount of sparkle.

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