Here's this month's inspiration and what Eric had to say about it:
I haven't been out with the camera as much as I'd hoped recently. Looking for something to prolong the summer, I decided on posting these sunflower pictures. One of these was from the MN Landscape arboretum, while the other was a self-planted seed from our own bird feeder! I have plenty of shots of bees all over these things but wanted to stick with just the flower this time. Show me some last gasp of summer in jewelry form!
I had really hoped to make a few more things for this challenge but between going crazy for the sunflower themed We're All Ears challenge (see that HERE if you missed it) and my three day studio tour this past weekend, I kind of ran out of time. That being said, I'm super happy with the two necklaces that I did manage to make.
First up, a necklace with a lovely polymer clay sunflower pendant from Summer Wind Art that Eric gave me for Christmas a couple of years ago. I love the rich yet weathered effect that Ashley Bonney achieved for this focal... so yummy. I stumbled across a little container filled with a mix of Czech beads that I got when I bought a friend's bead stash a while back that were a perfect complement to the pendant. I wanted a few more beads for the necklace so I went digging for some cream Czech glass melon beads to play up the light tones of the pendant and some carnelian rounds to add a pop of color to the design.
Since I have an obsession with matching, and I still had some beads left over, I whipped up some cute little earrings. They aren't actually sunflowery at all, but they do go with the necklace anyway.
For my second necklace creation I went with a lot more COLOR! I had several Humblebeads by Heather Powers in my stash inspired by Van Gogh's Sunflowers. I knew I had to use at least one of them this month. The winning bead was this gorgeous Sunflowers bird that I won at the Adornments Retreat in July... so perfect! I paired him with a rustic ceramic stick from Diane Hawkey, a ceramic drop by Petra Carpreau of Scorched Earth, and some bright Czech glass. The copper wire that I used is some that I patinated myself. I love how this necklace came together and am even happier that it flew home with a very special lady during my show this weekend!
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Of course you knew I had to play along! I have so few yellow of anything, but that deep rich orange paired with Heather's marvelous Van Gogh inspired beads, is perfect. I hope to get more of those! Thanks for the great inspiration each month! Enjoy the day. Erin
ReplyDeleteBeautiful pieces! I just love that birdie necklace... and the beads that you used for your first necklace match the pendant so perfectly. (And, heh, what can I say, I'm obsessed with matching, too!) Thanks so much for letting me play along! :)
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