Honey Do List February 2021

2021 marks the sixth 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... The Honey Do List!  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:

This was a cool 8-bit looking mosaic in London, along with some random graffiti and chain-link fence.  We saw a lot of cool street art on this leg of our England trip (pre-Covid of course) and this one jumped out at me.  This was taken with my phone, so not as great quality as some of my shots, but still fitting for February!  

Honestly when I first saw Eric's inspiration for us this month I wasn't sure what I would have in me.  I had just made a bunch of Valentine's Day/Heart themed jewelry for a show my friends and did on Facebook the previous weekend.  I knew that I still had more hearts hiding in my stash (and, frankly buried on my bead table!) so I dug in and decided to get cracking right away!

First up, I went looking for some little heart shapes that Lisa Peters Russ had tucked in with one of my orders.  She gave me a fun red cork one and a grey fish leather one (that is the back of my pendant).  I wanted to do something bead embroidery wise with these but decided that the texture and fun metallic shiny bits showing through on the cork really didn't need any further embellishment.  The fabrics seemed too flimsy by themselves so I cut a smaller heart shape from a thin cardboard and glued in the middle of the two before sewing the brick stitch edge all around.  I think the way the edging beads look echoes the 8-bit style of the inspiration heart.  For added weight and interest I added a Czech glass teardrop dangle to the tip of the heart.  I kept it simple and just have plain chain at the back.

For the second necklace I played with a ceramic pendant with a flaming heart motif that I got in a mixed bead goody bag from Andrew Thornton in a destash.  (I don't know for sure who it's by... if you recognize the maker let me know!)  For as simple as my design actually is, it took a lot of playing with different beads and configurations to get it to where I was happy with it.  There's something about the teardrop beads flanking the pendant that makes me think of spread wings... especially when it's worn.  

Apparently I was in a necklace making mood this month because I made a third one!  I got this sweet swirly ceramic heart pendant from Michelle McCarthy of Firefly Design Studio in the mail just in time to make one more design.  For once I used the accent beads that came along with the pendant... adding in some Czech glass and satin finish German resin and brass accents.  

Now it's your turn!  Please add links to/photos of your own creations below.  I love seeing what everyone else is making too!  (I'm also really hoping that someone did something with the Jaws motif!) Check back on March 1st to see what Eric has in store for us next month!

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