Honey Do List: April 2017

Last year, my husband Eric has decided to issue me a design challenge each month to get me out of my comfort zone and to help clear out my bead stash... and we're continuing the Honey Do List for 2017!  I know that I'm not the only one who loves a good design challenge, so I'm hoping folks will continue to play along!  

Here's this month's inspiration and what Eric had to say about it:

I had hoped for some more color in my shot for this month, but "spring" in Minnesota is still much later than southern climes.  So I worked a little red into this action shot of a cute Chickadee!  The birds are back, and next month should be much more vibrant with the colors of spring.

I have a special place in my heart for chickadees... they were one of my Mema's favorite birds.  I spent a ton of time at her house as a child since she lived two houses up the street from us.  She had two window sills that she would always put birdseed out on (it was a brick house with a decent sized ledge) so she could watch all the birds from her bedroom.  I love that our backyard feeders are regularly frequented by chickadees.

For my first design, I finally used a pendant by Earthenwood Studio that I've had in my stash since very early on in my beading life.  While there's no bird to be found in this necklace, the cream and dark brown viney floral reminded me of the plants that Eric's little chickadee is perched amongst.  True story, I've had one of the black Czech glass flowers stored alongside this pendant for a couple of years now, waiting for the right time to explore a design.  Well, that time is now!  I added some other flower and leaf beads in earth tones as well as some smaller glass beads for an asymmetrical design.  The strung side came out a little bit longer than the other so I chose to even things out by having the clasp connect to the end of the side with the bead links.

Still in an asymmetrical mood, I started playing with beads for a second necklace featuring a wooden pendant by Skye Jewels.  I'd almost forgotten about this sweet little chickadee pendant... I guess that's why I always go through all my art bead drawers!  Since there's no hole in the pendant, I found a brass filigree piece to wrap around the pendant.  Luckily I had one that worked and didn't cover up the bird.  This necklace was one of those rare instances where the beads just cried out to be included.  I knew I had some coppery/bronze maple leaf beads that would echo the leaves on the pendant nicely.  When grabbing those out of my bead box I noticed the container of small turquoise flower beads that turned out to be the perfect compliment.  To complete the design I used a fun leaf shaped brass clasp.  (Memo to self: buy more of these... you like them.)

Lastly, I wanted to play with the idea of the vines a little bit more.  I revisited the idea of having vine-like tendrils coming out of enameled bead caps from C-Koop Beads for fun earrings.  I really need to just sit down and make more of these in a variety of colors... I keep forgetting about them!

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