Art Elements Use Your Stash 2018

January is a great time to get a fresh start... to get organized... to refocus your energy and direction for a new year.  To help get us all off on the right foot this year, the editors over at the Art Elements blog have brought back their Use Your Stash challenge after taking a year off.  The idea is to dig into your art bead stash and create some new designs.  Well, I certainly have a big ol' stash to rummage through, and plenty of things that have been languishing for way too long.  Challenge accepted!  Here's a picture of some of the goodies that I gathered:

I was one of the lucky recipients of a prize beads from the Art Elements editors, Laney Mead of Izzybeads!  Laney sent me one of her cute little lampwork critters and a pair of carrot beads from her stash with coordinating spacers.  I'll start by sharing what I made with my prize stash.  :)

I initially thought about stringing the critter on leather with some coordinating beads, but I just didn't have the right leather in my stash.  (Memo to self:  get on that leather cord order ASAP!)  I ended up making beaded links instead.  I had some stripy glass beads in my stash that coordinated with the focal and the spacer beads from the carrots that I used here.  Pretty simple design, but I wanted Laney's whimsical critter to be the focus.

For some crazy reason, when I saw that the carrot beads had holes that went top to bottom, the idea of knotting them onto brown waxed linen popped into my head and wouldn't leave me alone!  My thought was that this technique would mimic roots at the bottom... like the carrots were pulled right from the garden!  Too weird?  I don't care... I think they are super cute!

I really have been trying to make a dent in my art bead horde... not so much because I think I have too many, but more to make room so I can justify new purchases.  Hey, at least I'm honest!!  As I was digging around for other challenges this month, I had the Use Your Stash idea in the back of my mind and kept pulling things out for possible beady play.  Several oversized beads ended up in that little collection so that's where I started playing with my personal stash!  Why have so many large baubles been languishing in my stash?  My design aesthetic just tends to veer away from big, chunky designs.  How about you... is bigger better?  or just bigger?

First up, a set of big ol' polymer clay beads made by Erin Prais-Hintz of Tesori Trovati for her Simple Truths Sampler Club.  They were inspired by a Picasso painting that was for the May 2017 Art Bead Scene challenge so they haven't been hanging around all that long in the grand scheme of things.  Something just clicked in my little brain and I went digging for some crazy oversize wooden beads that I've had forever.  (Seriously, I bought them in my first ever online bead order back in February 2008!)  I don't know what I was thinking... except that I wasn't and I had no clue about bead sizes at that point.  These wood beads are GIANT at 31 x 21 mm.  After almost 10 years, I've finally found a design to use them in!  I strung all of these big beads together on blue waxed Irish linen along with some brass spacers to anchor the large holes in the wooden beads.  Brass chain finishes out this chunky design that would feel right at home around the neck of Wilma Flintstone or Betty Rubble!

Next up, a variation on a theme... this time using a set of polymer clay beads from Artybecca that I won as a door prize on the 2014 Bead Cruise.  These guys, and their wooden counterparts, are a MUCH smaller size than the last neckclace!  Once again, I just knotted them on waxed Irish linen with brass chain at the back.

As always seems to be the case with me, I didn't make nearly as much as I'd hoped to for this challenge (if only I'd had one more day!!!), but I am proud that I dug deep and tackled some things that have been gathering dust for too long.  Hopefully I'll keep the momentum going and finish up some more designs that I had envisioned.

This is a blog hop!  Stop by and see what everyone else has been up to this month.  I can't wait to see what goodies everyone found in their personal stashes!

Guests:

Kelly Rodgers

Sarajo Wentling  - You Are Here!  

Samantha Wescott

Kathy Lindemer

Patty Miller

Linda Landig

Renetha Stanziano

Art Elements:

Jenny Davies-Reazor

Jen Cameron

Claire Fabian

Sue Kennedy

Niky Sayers

Lindsay Starr

Honey Do List: January 2018

This marks the beginning of the third year that my husband Eric has been giving me a design challenge each month to get me out of my comfort zone and to help clear out my bead stash... Welcome to the Honey Do List 2018!  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:

After last month's fairly monochromatic challenge I wanted to find something a little more colorful.  I took this shot of a lorakeet at the National Aviary in Pittsburgh a few years back when Sj and I took a trip to visit Andrew and William in Ligonier for some jewelry making classes.  For a few dollars more you could hold a cup of nectar and the lorakeets would land on you and drink their fill.  This bird was actually perched on Sj's arm!  While taking this shot, another adventurous lorakeet decided to take a poo on my shoulder...resulting in much amusement all around.

For my first design, I'm playing a little bit fast and loose with the color scheme... but it does feature an adorable bird pendant from Cathleen Zaring of Blue Hare Art Wear!  The cute little legs were made by Anna Pierson of Saga Hus and I picked them up in the same shopping event on Facebook.  I obviously added a bunch of turquoise beads to the mix along with bright greens.  I wanted to string this one, but I didn't want a symmetrical pattern.  I wanted it to be a bit more visually interesting... I hope the mix of Czech and recycled glass worked!

Next, I stayed with the added turquoise but did add in the orange!  The pendant is something that I made back in 2012 when I went to the Vintaj Two Day Workshop in Galena.  I used their patina paints on the brass blank then used a rubber stamp over the paint.  The glossy finish comes from using the UTEE (Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel) in a Melting Pot.  I made links with Czech and recycled glass beads that coordinate with the pendant and had fun with flower beads and brass bead caps for the little dangle at the bottom.

Next, I turned my focus to the gorgeous greens of the lorakeet's feathers.  I had this lovely "Heal" pendant made by Andrew Thornton.  (You can find this one and many more of Andrew's pendants HERE in the Allegory Gallery Etsy shop.)  I chose recycled glass rounds, Czech glass in shades of green and gold, and dyed agate rondelles.  The seed beads I used as spacers are a fun green/gold that I've never had a good use before now!  Yay for justification for random purchases of the past!

Last, but not least I did make a pair of earrings!  These bright leaf charms by Kristi Bowman were actually the first art beads that I thought of for this challenge albeit the last thing I made.  I think that I psyched myself out about the wire wrapping that I wanted to do.  I'm pretty pleased with the end result!  This is definitely the design that's the most true to the photo with the bright orange and green.  The lorakeet also has some darker blue/purple on its head that are reflected in the gorgeous leaves.  I think that now that I've successfully made this pair, I need to pull out some of my other goodies from Kristi while I'm feeling confident!

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Art Bead Scene: January 2018 Take Two

Despite spending waaaay too much of my free time wrangling, playing with, and cuddling our three new kittens (now 13 weeks old!), I managed to find time to make one more piece for this month's Art Bead Scene challenge.  The artwork is Spring by Scottish painter Frances MacDonald. You can read more about the artwork and the artist on the ABS blog HERE.  In case you missed my first post for this challenge, you can see it HERE.

I had pulled out a lot of good stuff when I made my first round of designs for this month, including a lovely focal made by Lesley Watt.  I even got as far as pulling together a bunch of beads to possibly use with it but it all got shoved to the side when I needed to work on some other things.  Here you can see some of what I had pulled together and get a closer look at the pendant.   

Happily, I got back to it, turned this fun collection of beads into a necklace, and can now share with you all!  I ended up with a slightly asymmetrical design using mostly links made with Czech and vintage German glass beads.  I also had some fun flower shaped pewter beads that mimicked the flowers in Lesley's focal quite nicely.  It's hard to tell in my photos, but I love that the pendant is a mix of shiny (the flowers) and matte (the leaves).  I kind of wish that I had some matte beads in the right colors that I could have worked in, but I had to settle for the small touches of matte antique silver beads and findings to echo that element. 

Thanks for stopping by to see this second attempt at the Art Bead Challenge!  Now I've get back to the other goodies on my bead board that I'll be sharing next week.

Turning Something Old into Something New!

I just wanted to do a quick post about a fun project that I just finished for a friend as a gift to her mother... turning a piece of antique lamp fringe into a necklace!  The fringe was found in my friend's great-grandmother's button box that had come down to her possession.  Her mom loved to play with the fringe as a child... thus the idea was born to turn what was left of that lamp into a special piece of jewelry.  My friend Karen came to me with this small length of fringe, much of it with broken beads, to see what we might be able to do. 

I started by cutting off enough of the fringe strands to start making a tassel... which was the basic part of our idea for the necklace.  The original fringe was strung on cotton thread which obviously needed to be re-done.  I'm not really a seed beader so I used the skills in my personal toolbox to restring the strands on beading wire.  It was some trial and error to decide how many beaded strands to include in the tassel.  The beading wire makes the strands a little stiff, so I added in a few strands of chain with beads from the fringe at the ends to add more movement.  There's also one of the small black beads at the top of the tassel too.

Once the tassel was finished, I turned my attention to the rest of the necklace.  I assessed what I had left and came up with a design that incorporated a few of the long tube beads that were undamaged as well as the small black, pink, and green beads that are almost an English cut.  Unfortunately, the tube beads were just too brittle and I had to exclude them from my final design.  In place of those intended links I added some little black and gold vintage Czech glass beads that I bought at a local bead show a few years ago.

I hope my friend's mom is happy with the finished necklace and the thought behind it!  It's always fun to be entrusted with a special custom piece of jewelry. 

We're All Ears: January 2018 :: Ultra Violet

To kick off 2018, the We're All Ears challenge from the Earrings Everyday blog is all about Pantone's Color of the Year: Ultra Violet.  For a not so purple girl, I sure have been making a lot of purple jewelry the last two months!   ;)

I found a decent amount in my stash of beads (and art beads!) that worked for this month's challenge.  I decided to just go for it while I had the purple out on my work table and see how many I could get done in an afternoon while wrangling my tools and beads away from our three new (and VERY active) kittens.

First up, I pulled out a pair of U-shaped silk wrapped cocoons from Anna Pierson at Saga Hus.  I have a few of this shape and have been intimidated about using them effectively in a design.  I decided that the rich, dark purple of this pair was worth getting over my issues!  It's hard to tell in this picture, but the crystals I added are a pale purple.

Next, I decided to play with some small striped lentil beads from Golem Design Studio.  I almost used these for the Art Bead Scene challenge, but ended up setting them aside.  I let the ceramics pretty much shine here and didn't add too much to them.  I'm still considering adding some small seed beads along the arched ear wires for an extra impact... we'll see if I come back to that or not.

Rounding out the art bead selections for this challenge is this pair featuring some polymer clay charms by Miss Erin herself of Tesori Trovati!  I added some lovely blue-purple English cut Czech glass beads, layered brass bead caps and tiny green glass bead to top it off.

I couldn't stop there because I found some other fun purple beads in my stash!  I got a fun strand of large purple lucite beads as a prize from Allegory Gallery that were a no brainer for this color.  These beads are much bigger than I'd normally go for in earrings, but they are so light!  I kept it really simple letting the fun swirls in the purple shine through.  (They sort of remind me of bowling balls!  I'm a weirdo!)  They swing freely from the long arched ear wires from Nunn Design. 

This last pair is maybe more "Radiant Orchid" than "Ultra Violet," but I'm including it anyway.  It's got a mix of purples at any rate and I was in a using up odds and ends sort of mood when I was making all of these.  These include more lucite from Allegory Gallery.  I made the dangles with dark purple bronzed teardrops and medium purple rondelles.

Head on over to the Earrings Everyday blog HERE to see what Ultra Violet inspired everyone else to make!

Art Bead Scene: January 2018

A new year and it's time for new challenges!  The Art Bead Scene is ringing in the new year with a little dose of Pantone's color of the year: Ultra Violet!  The artwork is Spring by Scottish painter Frances MacDonald. You can read more about the artwork and the artist on the ABS blog HERE.

Probably the most perfect art bead in my collection for this challenge was a pendant by Nancy Adams that I picked up in the days of frenzied buying every time there was a Round Rabbit shop update.  The purple, cream, and grey plus the lovely detailed floral center were all a natural fit.  The shiny purple glaze has some blue undertones to it so I chose some Czech glass with similar coloring.  To get the darker Ultra Violet in there I chose some faceted amethyst rounds and popped some cream Czech glass flowers and melon shaped rounds to pull in the lighter tones of the pendant's center and the artwork as well.  Green just didn't seem to fit with my design for this one... I don't feel bad taking some liberties with choosing what part of the color palette on which to focus.

I also made a set that is definitely a bit brighter than the inspiration artwork, but I'm sharing it anyway.  I got these fun charms and pendant by Joan Miller from a destash event with Andrew Thornton of Allegory Gallery.  I started by making the earrings... in truth I've had the charms and the silk cocoons from Anna Pierson of Saga Hus sitting together for a while since I almost made something for a different challenge with them.  (Fun fact, these earrings were my first piece of jewelry made in 2018 and the first thing I made with the new kittens rampaging around!)  I pulled more pastel colored beads for this necklace to match the pendant's tones.  Green Aventurine and frosty looking blue recycled glass rounds contrast with the star cut amethysts.  I'm pretty happy with how this one came together. 

As is often the case, I'd initially pulled more beads than this to play with.  If time allows, I'll circle back for at least one more design before the end of the month.  And who knows... if I get around to it, maybe I'll even do something other than stringing!! 

Inspiration for the Honey Do List January 2018

This marks the beginning of the third year that my husband Eric has been giving me a design challenge each month to get me out of my comfort zone and to help clear out my bead stash... Welcome to the Honey Do List 2018!  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!  

Sorry for the slight delay in getting this out to you all... we've been crazy busy around here with a variety of things including three brand new nine week old kittens.  Bring on the furry chaos!

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

After last month's fairly monochromatic challenge I wanted to find something a little more colorful.  I took this shot of a lorakeet at the National Aviary in Pittsburgh a few years back when Sj and I took a trip to visit Andrew and William in Ligonier for some jewelry making classes.  For a few dollars more you could hold a cup of nectar and the lorakeets would land on you and drink their fill.  This bird was actually perched on Sj's arm!  While taking this shot, another adventurous lorakeet decided to take a poo on my shoulder...resulting in much amusement all around.

The reveal date will be Monday, January 29th.  To make it super easy for you to participate and share your creations, I'll set up an Inlinkz link up so folks can add their blogs as they are ready.  Just stop by my blog starting on January 29th and join the fun!  I'll leave the link up open for a while... so you have plenty of time to add your links.  (Last month's is still open... check it out HERE.)  No blog?  No worries!  Feel free to send me a picture of your creation and some brief comments and I'll happily share in my blog post.  You can reach me at sjdesignsjewelry@gmail.com  The more the merrier, so I hope you'll play along with me this month!

P.S. Here's a pic of Eric sporting his "prize" for getting pooped on!