That is really neat! I love your beadwork. - Marylee

Cute!!!!

I so love this great job I so want this hehehehe
Angie

So appropriate for the occasion!!! Love it! You did a wonderful job on it.

Very cute and festive.
Kathy

TX girls are not different, we are just proud of who we are....I stand and salute the TX Bling. LOL. What did you use to string the beads. I have some edges I saved from some vertical blinds that I am gona string some on. Anyways...it is great.
June, a TX girl living in So Cal.

Thanks everyone! This forum is so much fun and you help me get stuff finished so I can post. I had this in the works for way too long so thanks for being here.

Returning your salute twomonths! I've lived in other parts of the country and you generally don't see the stuff Texans do. Sounds like you have some ball chain saved, I would use it to string beer caps. You can hang them like rain chains or decorate a fence, but be careful as they get heavy. It would also look good with the large plastic beads available in great and glittery colors. I've posted a link to a beer cap snake for you.

My beads are on wire. I used a 22 gauge wire for the upright ones and a thinner wire from the dollar store for the springy ones. I used a crimp bead at the tip of each wire and glue to hold the different sections in place.

Since I used a cork I can change them around so I'm still playing with it. I used all glass beads which are heavier but plastic beads don't sparkle the same and won't last in our intense heat. The star is a plastic mirror star because glass stars weren't available locally and would have added about $30.00 to the cost of the project if I ordered them.

Here is a link that might be useful: Beer cap snake

rock oak deer.....you go girl in true Texas style! That is an awesome sparkler......got the grandson doing a small one for a fair project...not as clever as yours tho.....I REALLY like the Texas deco....as I am a fellow born and raised Texan. Checked out that beer snake....that is so cool....I can see the grandson wanting to that as a recycled article for a fair project....hammer and nail in a little boys hands would make him happy and keep him busy for a while! Have you ever done anything with beer pull tabs...as those are easier for me to get? Thanks for sharing pics of your creations.

Love double duty crafts...this one will work for July 4th as well! Love the sparkle of it~

Thanks all, I do plan to leave it out for the Fourth as well. I'd like to find an American flag base and use up the rest of the beads. Thinking totem topper now as it is a little wobbly on the stake.

oldcrafty - I haven't done anything with pull tabs since I was a kid making bracelets with them back when the tops weren't attached to the can. A quick google search didn't turn up much for boys except a few belts and this really cute snake linked below.

Here is a link that might be useful: Pull tab snake

Neat art work

Love it! We do weird stuff here in Wisconsin too. Lots of "primitive" art around here including sites with life size mosaiced figures or concrete sculptures done by people who were bored or like one farmer, who couldn't work the fields because he had a sprained ankle so he had to find something to do. The front yard of his farm became an art gallery of large mosaiced figures like the one below.

{{gwi:139030}}

I have seen the human figure bottle cap art (see link below for pictures). The snake is really neat too. We used to make curtains out of aluminum can tabs. Remember those?

Be sure to show us more of that Texas bling!

Here is a link that might be useful: Bottle Cap Art

Thanks y'all.

Luna, one of the things I enjoy on GW and this forum is seeing how different regions decorate their gardens. That's an amazing work of yard art there.

My Texas Garden - Thanks so much, looks like you are new here so I appreciate you checking in and posting. I also hope you'll come back soon and share with us.