Honey Do List: October 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:

Last month I took an insect photography class at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum so I figured one of those shots would be a good bet for this challenge.  The day of the course was insanely windy so taking pictures of moving insects atop briskly moving flowers was a challenge!  Luckily I got at least one decent shot of a Painted Lady butterfly...now take the idea and fly with it!

Just a few weeks ago we had Painted Lady butterflies all over the place.  I'd go for a walk and accidentally scare up droves of these little guys ahead of me.  I really like the picture that Eric got of the butterfly with its proboscis extending into the pale yellow flower.  It's pretty but not super showy with its wings closed.  This seemed like a good opportunity to use some of my more neutral toned butterfly components.

First up, I chose a pair of butterfly charms by Michelle McCarthy of Firefly Design Studio in a rich butterscotch and really dark brown.  I wire wrapped some Czech glass crullers with a nice Picasso finish with some topaz crystal rondelles and coordinating metallic fire polished round Czech glass.  The charms are so rustic so I liked the addition of a tiny bit of sparkle!

As luck would have it, I scored several butterfly inspired pieces from the talented and lovely Erin Prais-Hintz of Tesori Trovati in a special Art Bead Scene Lounge Facebook sale last month.  One of the sets of earring pairs was pretty perfect for this challenge.  Since they were pretty tiny little charms, I didn't want to add anything too large... but I also felt like it would be a cop out to just add ear wires!  I added some small plated hematite, Czech glass, and garnet beads separated by gold plated spacers to pull out some of the many colors in the petite charms.  These are long and skinny and absolutely elegant!

Another goody that I unearthed while looking for art beads for this month's various challenges was a wooden tile by Skye Jewels.  I bought several from Marie a few years ago in a destash including one with a yellow/orange butterfly.  I didn't have her drill most of them (including this rectangular tile) so I had to do some searching to find a filigree that would work wrapped around it.  I chose to string the necklace mostly with a mix of Czech glass and a few pearls with small sized hematite, garnet, and smoky quartz beads as spacers.

Lastly, as a sort of bonus, I made one more small pair of earrings with some teensy brass butterfly charms and some of the beads I had spread out on my bead mat for this challenge.  While not an exact match for the necklace, I think they coordinate pretty well and could easily be worn together.

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