Sweet Honey

Since Andrew Thornton started up his monthly challenge kits again through his wonderful store, Allegory Gallery,  I've only managed to play along once until now.  I've had bees on the brain lately so I couldn't pass up his Sweet Honey kit!  I'm fascinated by these amazing little insects and a sucker for the delicious honey they make.

Here's the bulk of what each participant got to play with...  What's missing is the AMAZING mystery component that Andrew made.

In addition to the challenge kit, I also recently bought some lovely polymer clay honey bee beads from Heather Powers of Humblebeads.  I knew I had to play with some of those for this challenge.  I'd also been playing with some riveted and letter stamped pieces with a bee theme, so I had lots of things to choose from when I sat down to start creating!

The very first thing that I made combined some of the amber colored glass cube beads with an earring charm pair from Heather.  I also added in some coated hematite from Dakota Stones.

Next up was a bracelet using ideas and techniques that I pulled together from a class and a tutorial from Erin Siegel.  You can see the free tutorial that inspired me HERE.  I used a lot more from the design kit this time... I added the brown waxed linen, some extra seed beads, and a new TierraCast button that's supposed to be a flower, but it has a honeycomb feel to it.

I decided to make a second bracelet and try my hand at memory wire for the first time.  I figured it would be a good use of a lot of items from the luxury bead mix and some of the seed beads that were in the kit.  I used some Vintaj/Ranger black paint to "antique" the little bee hive and tiny bee charms that were included.  I liked the effect which make them a little less shiny.

I couldn't end things without doing at lest one necklace!  I made the pendant with a copper blank and bee connector from Vintaj... and my newest letter stamping set.  The teardrop shaped glass bead was one of the first things that caught my eye when I started digging into my kit when it arrived.  I picked out a few more glass beads to wire wrap and put everything together with a mix of brass and copper.

For an added bonus, here's the other bee bracelet that I made... not from the design kit, but along the same themes.  I had such fun stamping the copper bracelet blank and riveting that little honey bee onto it!  I added in some faceted yellow jade coins and a little citrine dangle at the clasp.

I hope you've enjoyed my little tribute to the honey bee... I had such fun making these pieces, all of which are currently available at Unearthed Arts in Waconia.  I've got several other designs using this kit in various stages of planning but just ran out of creation time.

I hope you'll check out the links below to see what everyone else made with this delicious design kit!

Carole Carlson

Alison Herrington

Shaiha Williams

Ann Schroeder

Christina Hickman

Dolores Raml

Cheri Reed

Sarajo Wentling (you are here)

Karin Grosset Grange

Gloria Allen

Andrew Thornton, Kate Enniss-Reid, and Sandi Bass