Art Elements Theme of the Month :: Spring

Each month the crew over at the Art Elements Blog take turns and offer up a general theme to get folks' creative juices going.  For March Niky Sayers chose the theme of "Spring."  Perfect timing as so many of us are officially over winter.  So I'm going to start out this post by apologizing for it's length.  What can I say... the thought of the coming Spring was very inspiring!

The very first thing I made, on the very first day of the month were these sweet rabbit earrings.  I drew on the idea of the good luck superstition where you say "rabbit, rabbit" upon waking on the first day of the new month.  I may not have said the words, but I made the rabbit rabbit earrings right away!  I paired the adorable enameled charms by Lindy's Designs with some resin opaline rounds and blackened findings.

Apparently, not only was this month about Spring, but on my bead table it was also about enameled elements!  I recently picked up some great bird and blooms charms/pendants from Blue Hare Art Wear that felt just perfect for some early Spring designs.  These necklaces are both all about the subtle first blush of the season...  more subtle colors instead of the bright riot of color to come.  

For this first necklace I cut the sweetness of the pale pinks and blues with black Czech glass beads that play off the black in the pendant design.  Vintage resin beads were the starting point of the design with glass and rose quartz added in to round things out.

The enameled pendant in this second necklace is a bit smaller than the first but I gave it some additional heft with a fun leafy link connector.  I played off the pinks and pale yellows in the pendant for the beaded links that are a combination of Czech glass and resin.  I can't say that I'm known for working with these sweet pastels, but I do love how these two designs turned out!

Per my usual chaotic designing style, after I finished this first batch of jewelry I grabbed a bunch of other art bead goodies to hang out on my bead table.  Spring had definitely sprung on my bead mat!  While several ideas were marinating at the back of my brain, I whipped up another pair of bunny earrings.  This time I used some little pale blue ceramic bunny charms from Michelle McCarthy of Firefly Design Studio.  I paired them with some coordinating Czech glass flowers and rondelles.  I also made a quick pair earrings with some cute floral charms from Golem Design Studio and coordinating silk cocoons by my friend Anna Pierson of SagaHus Components.

Keeping with the muted pastels I whipped up a sweet little bracelet with a Humblebeads house bead (as well as one of Heather's discs) and a mix of cultured & Czech glass, lucite, and brass findings.  Bracelets aren't always my thing, but I really am smitten with how this one turned out.  It was also the perfect use for some Czech glass melons I've had in my stash forever.  Score!

Next up, a necklace that I still haven't decided if I can part with yet as I switched my designing into shades of green.  I just love the wood pendant that was a collaboration between siblings Cynthia Thornton of Green Girl Studios and Andrew Thornton of Allegory Gallery.  (I'm sad I didn't grab more than one when they were offering these.)  There are so many sweet details in the design... my favorite being the tiny little snail on the right side.  This piece spoke to me of the first emerging leaves and sprouts and leaves of the season and I chose beads accordingly.  There's quite a bit of Czech glass along with freshwater and cultured pearls and a few moon glow lucite beads.

Continuing with shades of green, I finally made something with some little polymer clay leaves that I made in a workshop with Heather Powers a while back.  I had already made little wire bails for them but for some reason never finished whatever design that I had envisioned.  I decided that it was past time to get them completed.  I ended up pairing them with some rustic lampwork glass (maker unknown) along with Czech glass.  

Next up I went for a bit of a brighter green.  Spring makes me think birds and thus feathers.  I picked up this fun little set of ceramic beads from Michelle McCarthy of Firefly Design Studio at Bead & Button and fished them out for this prompt.  I made beaded links with the ceramic accent beads, some chunky Czech glass beads, as well as some filigree rounds.  

I just kept trucking through the pile of goodies I had pulled out to celebrate Spring (and, let's not pretend... I kept adding to the mess with more and more options too!)  I whipped up a couple more pairs of earrings to with some sweet spring charms I've been holding onto for way too long.   I paired some sweet daisy charms in polymer clay from Humblebeads with tiny lampwork beads, Czech glass, and brass (similar to the ones I used in this month's Honey Do List challenge.)  Next I used some faux tin charms by my friend Anna Pierson of SagaHus Components for a pair of earrings with purple moon glow lucite and copper accents.

 

With this next necklace I may finally be done with officially making for the Spring prompt.  We shall see.  At least I'll be done as far as my blog post goes!  Photos aren't doing it justice but I had to finally play with this luminous pendant from Humblebeads.  I picked beads that had a similar glow to them including a LOT of Czech glass with Mercury finish and some pale green resin rounds.  To go with the gold accents on the pendant I went with some gold filled and gold plated spacer beads and findings.

Phew!  That's a lot of new jewelry!  I hope you enjoyed these new Spring designs.  Here's to warmer (and longer!) days, blooming flowers, nesting birdies, and all the other special things that the new season will bring.