Monday, December 30, 2019

Honey Do List December 2019

This is the fourth 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... it's the Honey Do List 2019!  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 with us!

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




I decided to get a little arty with this month's shot.  I like the deep colors in it as well as the statue and architecture.  I took this in our hotel in Milwaukee this past summer for Bead and Button.  Good luck with this one...I'm looking forward to seeing some fun interpretations!

I'm going to be real honest here... this one had me kind of stumped for a while.  I'm hoping some of you guys had quicker flashes of inspiration!  Luckily, some of my leftovers from the faux tin portion of Heather Powers' Inspired by Nature Retreat from this November were still floating near the surface of my beady mess and I realized that some of the William Morris patterns reminded me of the rug that is reflected in the crystal ball in Eric's photo.

Whenever I go to a jewelry making class or retreat, I always end up coming home with extra bits and bobs and unfinished projects.  I had several pieces of faux tin that I hadn't yet cut into or filed that were going to be great for some earrings.  First up, some little faux tin rectangles to which I added brass filigree teardrops.  The ear wires on these are niobium in a nice bronze finish that plays nicely with brass.



Next up, I punched some circles out of our practice sheet of faux tin that is actually an aluminum product.  Because of that, these are super lightweight!  This first pair combines my faux tin discs with some hammered brass rings from Vintaj for some fun and flirty dangles.




For the second pair I used some fun charms from Anna Bronze that I had sort of forgotten I had.  (Amazing things happen when you start trying to clean up!)  The ear wires on these are the bright Vintaj Vogue brass.   




Another thing that I brought back from the fall retreat was a not quite finished faux tin pendant in the same William Morris pattern.  I had cut and filed the piece but hadn't yet attached it to the hammered wire frame that I had made using the Now That's a Jig!  There's no time like the present, so I finished the pendant up and started to plot my necklace design.

I had several different shapes of Czech glass in ivory with a Mercury glass finish to choose from that have a nice creamy, pale yellow color perfect for the faux tin.  I chose some English cut grey/brown beads to round out the design.  There's a subtle mix of copper and brass in this one that I really love.



Now it's your turn!  Please add links to/photos of your own creations below.  I love seeing what everyone else is making too!  Check back on January 3rd (slight delay since we're taking a mini trip for New Year's Eve) to see what Eric has in store for us next month!  Wishing you all a happy and healthy New Year!!


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2 comments:

  1. did you edit yourself out of the reflection?

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  2. You did GREAT with this inspiration! I had/have an idea for it, but haven't had a moment to gather the things I need to make it happen. You've got the link open for a few weeks longer, so I'm hoping to get on it before it closes. But, it looks like the next few weeks could possibly be kinda crazy. I'm hoping not, but we'll see.
    Anyway...enough about me...Happy New Year to you two!!

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