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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