July Component of the Month: Nightmare Insomnia

I was going to do something different for component of the month, but I am DYING to see designs created with my Nightmare Insomnia series beads. I've sold several over the years, but have only seen a couple finished designs. I'm not sure if my darling customers are saving them for a special project that hasn't been thought of yet, are collecting them for that day down the road when they become so valuable because I am so famous (or infamous...) to sell on the secondary market, or if they are buying them up and throwing them in the garbage to rid the world of such hideousness. It could be any of these things...

I have been told these are not easy beads to work with. That's cool. They aren't always easy to make either, but I love to anyway.

 

My 10 year old daughter, who turns 11 in July, inspired this series. The first time I made one of these, it was 4 years ago in the midst of a particularly bad spell of nightmares for her. Every single night she would wake up screaming and end up crawling in bed with us, plastered against me...elbowing, kicking, tossing and turning. Plus I would be sweating because I was crammed in between her and hubs. This means I really wasn't getting much sleep.

 

One night, as I was torching, I was stewing about this particular issue, and suddenly my beads started growing these stylized spider end caps thingys on them before I realized what was going on. The next morning when I showed my lovely daughter, she responded with "that's really mean that you made those because of my nightmare, but also really cool."

 

I continue to make them even though she no longer wakes up screaming about spiders or crawls into bed with us.

 

How this challenge and blog hop will work (please read though everything first):

*some of my AJE teammates will be receiving a Nightmare Insomnia bead to design with.
*I will be giving away 5 Nightmare Insomnia beads to those that leave comments below.
*PLEASE LEAVE AN EMAIL ADDRESS IN YOUR COMMENT. I would like to be able to ship the same day I announce the winner of the free bead.
*Please do not ask for one if you don't think you can complete the challenge in time for the blog hop. It wouldn't be fair to those who would complete it in time.
*Winner of the 5 beads will be announced Thursday July 5.
*In addition, I will offer 5 beads at a discounted price of $25 each (regular price is $35) and free shipping within the United States.
*no 2 beads will be exactly the same.
*the bead you receive will be randomly chosen. I will wrap them in advance, mix them up in a bowl, and put them into the envelopes. Your bead may or may not be one of the beads I've shown in this blog post. This includes those who purchase their beads.

*The reveal date will be July 31st. I will have the blog hop post scheduled to publish at 5am est.

*A special note to customers who have previously purchase Nightmare Insomnia beads but haven't made anything with them or haven't shown me, now is the perfect time to show off what you can do with them. Email me: jennifer.glassaddictions@gmail.com that you want to participate in the blog hop reveal day and I will add a link to your blog for the hop. 

*Questions? Ask below. Or email me: jennifer.glassaddictions@gmail.com

ETA: Lori Anderson reminded me that one of my Nightmare Insomnia beads was used in her Bead Soup book (coming out in the fall and I can HARDLY stand the wait!)

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