Art Headpins! An Art Jewelry Elements Challenge

The editors over at the Art Jewelry Elements blog have come up with another fun challenge this month... and it has to do with using art headpins!  What's an art headpin, you ask?  It's a headpin handcrafted by an artisan... something beyond just a balled end... something that has the potential to be the focus of a design... a show stopper.  Here's a great collage put together by Lesley Watt from the AJE team to show some examples of art headpins in designs and on their own:

Collage from Art Jewelry Elements blog

There's some great stuff out there in the jewelry making world for sure!  I have to admit that I've been a little bit timid (ok, terrified) to use my small collection of art headpins in my designs.  I mean, these are special, one of a kind pieces and if I screw it up, I don't get another chance.  When I'm using "normal" headpins, if I botch something it's not a huge deal.  I just cut the wire and start over.  Not so once the fancy pants headpins come into play!

For this challenge I picked a set of awesome, crusty looking headpins from Havana Beads.  I had been making some variations on a theme from the earrings that I just made for this month's We're All Ears challenge (you can see those HERE if you missed them) and got a wild hair to try something similar with this set of headpins and accent beads and some flame painted copper rings.  

My original intent was to use both the headpins and the spacers together, but when I started putting things together the earrings were just getting too big for my taste... in part because I felt the headpins needed the larger sized copper rings to look right.  I kept it simple and just added faceted amazonite rounds on either side of the headpins.

Remember those accent beads?  I couldn't let them languish alone without their friends so I whipped up a pair of earrings with them too.  No fancy art headpins here, but I wanted to share them anyway.

And while I didn't make this last pair for this challenge (they were for the June We're All Ears challenge from Earrings Everyday) they do represent my only other recent foray into using art headpins.  They feature lampwork glass strawberries from Thornburg Bead Studio.

I really had intended/hoped to do more designs and break out more of my art headpins, but a super busy schedule and some unexpected travel sort of threw a monkey wrench into my plans!  Never fear, there is a lot more headpin goodness to be seen out there since tons of other folks participated this month... hop around to see what everyone else came up with!

Guests:

Alison Herrington

Renetha Stanziano

Karin Grosset Grange

Gloria Allen

Deb Fortin

Cate van Alphen

Mona Arnott

Shai Williams

Sarajo Wentling

Kathy Lindemer

Solange Collin

Brooke Bock

Melissa Meman

Patricia Handschuh

Tammy Adams

Melissa Trudinger

AJE Team Members:

Caroline Dewison

Lesley Watt

Cathy Mendola

Jenny Davies-Reazor

Susan Kennedy

Laney Mead

Diana Ptaszynski

Lindsay Starr

Niky Sayers

Summertime!: Art Jewelry Elements June Challenge

The team over at the Art Jewelry Elements blog occasionally host themed challenges where anyone can play along... this is one of those months and the theme is Summertime!  They left it pretty open to interpretation, challenging us to make something inspired by what summertime means to you.   So, what says summer to me?  Here's a few things:  Long, sunny days; gin and tonics on the patio; trips to the beach (even though I haven't done that in summer since childhood); boat outings; bright colors; colorful butterflies and other insects; watermelon (even though I don't like to eat it).

Some summertime inspiration from the AJE team!

The first thing that came to my mind was sunny days... and I knew it was time to finally use one of my tiny collection of Jade Scott pendants that I've been jealously hoarding now that she stopped making jewelry components.  Even though the pendant is made of copper, its patina gives it more of the look of natural brass so I went that route.  I wire wrapped some lemon jade and dyed agate rounds along with a couple of Czech glass beads.          

On my recent trip to the Bead & Button show, I picked up a bunch of new beads from Golem Design Studio including some fun sunshine pattern lentil beads.  Let the sun shine in!  It's no secret that I love using Golem lentils in fun multi-strand bracelets based on a design by Lorelei Eurto, but with how many of them I just bought, I need to branch out in my design choices!  I ended up making a sunshiny necklace and bracelet that could be worn alone or as a set.

Thanks for stopping by!  You can see how everyone else interpreted Summertime over on the AJE blog HERE.  Or use the links below.  Have a happy and safe Fourth of July weekend!

Guests

Rosantia Petkova
Melissa Trudinger

Alice Peterson

Tammy Adams

Shaiha's Ramblings

Betony Maiden
Sarajo Wentling

AJE team
Jen Cameron

Jenny Davies-Reazor

Niky Sayers

Caroline Dewison

Susan Kennedy
Lesley Watt

Buried Treasure! (Or Use Your Stash)

The editors over at the Art Jewelry Elements (AJE) blog have once again challenged their readers to dig into our stashes of art beads (buried treasure!!) and make something to start the year off right.  Needing to get back in the creative groove, I eagerly signed up to participate and went digging into my art beads!

 

I created some of the designs for Heather Powers' Muffin Tin Challenge (you can see my post on that HERE) and some in hopes of getting published.  No matter the push behind their creation, I've managed to make a tiny dent in my art bead stash this month and I'm excited to share my creations with you!  

First up, a necklace that I made for submission to the Summer issue of Jewelry Stringing magazine for their "Papaya" theme.  The pendant is one I bought from Round Rabbit back in January of 2013.  The "Flaming Tangerine" color called to me but then it arrived and was a little brighter than my normal comfort zone... and so it sat.  The color theme for the magazine inspired me to finally use this bright beauty and, as luck would have it, I had some great beads to pair with it... most of them left overs from other projects.  There's some glass from the Halcraft Pretty Palettes challenge I participated in, some tiny coral Swarovski pearls from a necklace re-do project for my friend Angie, plus some faceted carnelian and rose quartz beads that I had picked up on a whim, and some fun seed beads I bought during the Bead Cruise last year.  I finally got brave and used the 5mm deerskin leather lace I bought from Nunn Design a while back.  I used a technique from one of their tutorials to punch holes in the leather and then stitch the ends together with waxed Irish linen.  I'll definitely be trying that again!

Next up, two variations on a theme using the adorable starfish beads I got from Michelle McCarthy of Firefly Design Studio.  The one on the left was another magazine hopeful that didn't get picked.  It has both blue (coated) and yellow quartz as well as some natural sapphire faceted rounds.  The one on the right was made for Heather's muffin tin challenge and has a mix of wood, recycled glass, and impression jasper.  I love how these turned out and I wish I had snagged a few more of those starfish at Bead Fest!  I'm hoping she'll be at Bead & Button this year because I'm determined to at least get there for shopping this year. 

My last piece for today is a necklace featuring a ceramic key pendant from Jenny Davies-Reazor that was in my gift bag on the Bead Cruise.  This is another project that I had put in my muffin tin but didn't finish until today.  I mixed brass and blackened findings (although it's hard to tell from the picture) for my beaded links.  Most of the beads are Czech glass but there's also some prehnite mixed in on the right side.  I finished the back with some sari silk in just the right shade of greenish yellow.  This is one that I'm definitely going to have to wear test.  I need to make sure that the pendant stays balanced hanging from the brass key... I really hope so since I like the effect.

I've still got a few more muffin cups filled with art bead goodness that I hope to get to very soon.  I mean, I've already pulled together almost everything I need to finish those pieces so I should just do it and get them cleared out of my mental space.  

Be sure to stop by and check out what everyone else was inspired to unearth from their treasure chests!

AJE team:

Lesley Watt

Lindsay Starr

Caroline Dewison

Jennifer Cameron

Jenny Davies-Reazor

Susan Kennedy

Niky Sayers

Guests: 

Terri - Terrri’s Blooming ideas

Shai - Shai’s Ramblings

Melissa - Bead Recipes

Tammy - Paisley  Lizard

Sarajo - SJ Designs  (You are here)

Kathy - Bay Moon Designs

Karin - Ginko et Colquelicot

Lola - Bead Lola Bead

Samantha - Wescott Jewelry

Mona - Bijoux Gem

Suntsan

Art Jewelry Elements Component of the Month: Ravens!

Usually, the Art Jewelry Elements blog offers up a specific Component of the Month for their editors and a few lucky guests to design with for their monthly challenge.  For October they shook things up a bit and are allowing anyone to participate... and it wasn't even limited to jewelry this time!  The theme for the month is the raven.  Karen Totten wrote a great introductory post about the facts and myths surrounding ravens (and how they differ from crows) that you can read HERE.  To keep the raven love going and further inspire us, Jenny Davies-Reazor just shared a post about the ravens of Celtic myth that you can check out HERE.

Common Raven, from "Into the Woods".

Eric and I both love ravens and have a few different art pieces in our house, so I had to play along... but first I had to find the perfect art bead to feature.  In digging through my mess of beads and supplies (good gravy but I need to block out some serious time to get my studio under control!!) I found a pendant that I had totally forgotten about from Kylie Parry.  I bought it in a destash bundle quite a while back and (hangs head in shame) it was still in the box she shipped to me.

As usual, I forgot to snap a picture before I began my design.  Sigh.

Technically, it's supposed to be a crow (at least as far as her listing goes) but I think he looks raven-y enough.  He's got the ruff of feathers around his neck anyway!

I used mostly gemstones (jasper and carved agate) as well as some Czech glass.  I also added a cool metal bead that I bought in Santa Fe a few years back that's a mix of copper and silver.  For now, the back is copper plated chain to match the other copper findings but I'm tempted to replace that with some black deerskin leather lace.  I'd love to hear your thoughts on that.

This is a blog hop.  Check out today's post on the Art Jewelry Elements blog to see what everyone else was inspired to make HERE.  Thanks for stopping by!

Art Jewelery Elements Use Your Stash Challenge

Each month one of the contributors over at the Art Jewelery Elements blog offers up some handmade beads or other components for their fellow contributors and a few lucky winners to design with and then share in a blog hop.  I've been lucky to be chosen a couple of times to win some of that beady goodness.  For January, they decided to switch things up a little with each contributor donating something of theirs form their own stash.  Even if you weren't chosen to win one of the components (and I wasn't, sad face) readers were encouraged to bust into their own bead stash and create using something from one of the AJE contributors.  As usual, I just couldn't pass up a good challenge so I decided to play along.

I had just made a necklace with one of Diana Ptaszynski's pendants in hopes that a magazine might want a closer look.  This was completed for Heather Powers' Muffin Tin Challenge, but I never showed the necklace in true color.  I had lots of fun playing with waxed Irish linen and a mix of gemstone rounds and brass beads.  I'm also happy to report that, for once in my life, I actually cut the linen cord long enough!

I got a really nice mix of Diana's components for Christmas when my sweet husband bought a couple of her destash bundles.  That's where the pendant above came from too!  I have a number of items in this same lovely glaze (copper patina might be what it's called).  I liked the way the colors in the stones worked with the necklace I had already made, that I wanted to play more with that combination.

Not leaving myself a ton of time, I thought a pair of coordinating earrings was in order.  I dug out these little discs and started to play with ways to wrap them using the same waxed Irish linen as in the necklace.  This is my first time using linen in earrings as more than just an accent, and I'm really happy with how they turned out!

Please check out what all the other participants made with their AJE stash items!

Here is the list of the participants - the team, winners and special guests! 

AJE team: 

Kristen Stephens 

Susan Kennedy 

Jenny Davies-Reazor

Lesley Watt    

Melissa  Meman

 Lindsay Starr 

Jennifer Cameron 

Caroline Dewison

Linda Landig

Guest Participants ( aka winners)

Lee - Strega Jewellry

Shai - Shai’s Ramblings

Samantha- Wescott Jewelry

Kathy - Bay Moon Designs

Nikki - Silver Nik nats

Melissa Trudinger

Becky Pancake

Yvette - Blue Kiln Beads

Karin - Ginko et Coquelicot

Bonus participants! 

Sarajo Wentling

Leah Curtis

Susan Delaney 

Karen Z
Christine Walker

AJE September Component of the Month Reveal

Every month the one of the contributors over on the Art Jewelry Elements blog gives away some sort of art bead or component for their fellows and a couple of lucky winners to design with.  I was lucky enough to be one of three guest chosen to receive one of Kristi Bowman's amazing Goddess Vessel pendants and I was over the moon when I found out the news.

These gorgeous pieces are made from copper and white copper.  I got the copper one in the middle and I love it!  And of course I forgot to take a picture of it before I started working on my project.

The first thing I thought of to pair with my vessel was a strand of cool triangular Petrified Green Opal (or possibly copper green opal) that I've been hoarding forever.  The pendant was hefty enough to stand up to the over sized stone (I knew I wanted to add just one.  Originally I thought I'd do an asymmetrical design with the large stone off to one side and balance with some other gemstones, but eventually scrapped that idea.  At my husbands suggestion, I decided to wire wrap the stone to the pendant for an even bigger focal!  Go big or go home, right?

I then wire wrapped a bunch of faceted petrified green opal stones along with a couple of copper pineapple beads to make the body of the necklace.  I'm still debating if I should have kept going and done another few sets of bead units, but I'm in a time crunch so the design will have to stand for now.  I love the colors in the stones and the rustic, earthy feel of the finished design.

This is a blog hop.  Check out what everyone else made this month!

Monthly Winners

SJ Designs Jewelry

Kari Asbury

Shirley Moore

AJE Team Members

Caroline Dewison

Diana Ptaszynski

Lesley Watt

Melissa Meman

Linda Landig

Kristen Stevens

Jenny Davies-Reazor
Sue Kennedy

AJE January Component of the Month Reveal

I was just tickled pink to find out on January 1st that I was one of the lucky winners of the January Component of the Month over on the Art Jewelry Elements blog.  What a great way to start the new year!

I was super excited to see what Jenny Davies-Reazor would be sending me.  Here's a picture she posted of her focals in process.  You can see all of her blog post over on the AJE blog HERE.

Here's the one I got.  I love the dark, denim blue with the lighter shades mixed in.  Believe it or not, this isn't a color I find myself using all that often so this was a good stretch for me.  The dictionary paper has a lovely aged look to it... I don't know if that's natural aging of the paper or something with the resin process Jenny used.  Either way, it gives it a nice antiqued effect that works perfectly with the frame design.

The word on my pendant is "vision."  Here's how the Oxford online dictionary defines it:

• The faculty or state of being able to see; the ability to think about or plan the future with imagination or wisdom; a mental image of what the future will or could be like; an experience of seeing someone or something in a dream or trance; a person or sight of unusual beauty.

While the word "vision" may not have actually inspired the design I came up with, it was on my mind while I was playing and creating.  I'm certainly grateful for the gift of being able to see... and when my eyes start to cross from too much "up close" work I worry about the day when clear sight is more elusive.  I have come to have a pretty clear vision for the future with regards to some aspects of my life... less so for others, but that's likely how it goes!  I'm hoping that my finished creation will be a sight of beauty to some people!  Ok, not exactly deep thoughts, but that's what I've got!  

I really wanted to keep the focus squarely on Jenny's gorgeous pendant but I didn't want my necklace to be too monochromatic.  (Those of you who follow me regularly, know that this is something that I often struggle with.)  I looked through my Pinterest board "Pretty Palettes" to get some ideas for mixing it up a bit.  What I found was that in the palettes I've collected, darker blues were often mixed in with oranges, yellows, or tans.  

After pulling some bead possibilities together I got started by making wire-wrapped connectors with some Lapis rounds that I've had forever on each side of the pendant.  I used Vintaj brass wire, chain, and other findings since I think that's such a perfect look for the vintage feel of the pendant.  I used a couple of blue beads (one ceramic, one lucite) from a destash grab bag that I bought from Andrew Thornton, and added in some Czech glass, a Vintaj filigree bead, and a nice little Red Creek Jasper rondelle.

This is a blog hop.  To head on over to Art Jewelry Elements blog and check out what everyone else created please click HERE.

AJE Earring Challenge Weeks 31 & 32

Happy Sunday everyone!  It's time once again for the latest installment of the Art Jewelry Elements Earring Challenge.  Participants are challenged with making one new pair of earrings each week that feature artisan made components.  

This time my two pairs are very much variations on a theme.  I bought two sets of these great porcelain petal earring pairs from Nancy Schindler of Round Rabbit.  I was a little nervous when I bought them due to their size.  I was worried that they would be too heavy for earrings, but decided that worse case scenario would be that I would have four pendants.  I need not have worried, when I opened my package of goodies from Nancy I was surprised by how light they were...hooray!

So often when I buy beads, I do so without any clear idea of how I will use them.  (I'm not the only one who does this, right??)  Well, not this time!  I knew exactly what I wanted to do with these lovely petals.  I saw in my minds eye little dangles with Vintaj brass foliage bead caps and Czech glass rondelles.  So, without further ado, here they are!

The first pair features some yummy raspberry colored glass beads.  It's a little hard to see the clear color in photos, but it works nicely with the crackle turquoise and red glazes on the porcelain.  I went for some contrast instead of my usual monochromatic leanings.

Week 31

Pair number two feature the petals in English blue and mango glaze.  Yummy!  This time I went for more of a straight match with some Pumpkin Sky Czech glass beads from Lima Beads.

Week 32

AJE Earring Challenge Weeks 27 & 28

It's that time again... the reveal for my next two pairs of earrings for the Art Jewelry Elements Earring Challenge!

In honor of my recent trip to Oregon, I'm showing off two pairs of earrings made with some of the beads I bought in Bend.  They are from Larissa Spafford Designs, a talented lampwork artist based right there in Bend.  I bought several sets of her beads, but for this week I'm doing two different designs from the same set of little dark red beads with silver paired with jet colored crystals.  I think that red, black, and silver are just yummy together!

First up, I paired the little dark ruby beauties with Vintaj arte metal Flourish Petal pieces that I highlighted with a sanding block to bring out the silver color in the raised portions.

Week 27

For the second pair, I dangled the lampwork and crystal units from gunmetal twisted spacers from TierraCast and Vintaj arte metal jump rings.

Week 28

Both of these pairs are in my Etsy shop.  You can check them out and see more photos HERE.

I have one more set of the red lampwork beads... which pair should I make another set of?  Or should I do something else entirely?  I'd love to get your thoughts!

AJE Component of the Month Reveal

Each month one of the contributors to the Art Jewelry Elements Blog gives away a component to the rest of the AJE team as well as to a few lucky winners.  This month I was lucky to be chosen to participate!  Jenny Davies-Reazor supplied us with cute little ceramic charm pairs... just perfect for earrings.  Imagine my surprise when I opened my package from Jenny and found not two, but three charms!  I'm so excited that I got two charms in turquoise and also a dark red charm.  These are some of my favorite colors and I actually love mixing turquoise and red.

Aren't they cute?  Love that Jenny sent a bonus bead!

Inspired by the color combination, I got a wild hair and decided to do a mismatched set of earrings... a first for me and my super symmetrical mind.  I also decided to practice my wire-wrapping skills some more.  I added an apple jasper bead above the turquoise charm and a china variscite bead and wrapped the whole thing with Vintaj Artisan Copper wire.  Voila!

Not wanting to leave out my second turquoise charm, I whipped up a simple charm necklace to go with the earrings.  I grabbed some ball chain and strung the charm, another piece of the apple jasper, turquoise colored Czech glass, and a blank that I stamped the word "dream" onto.

Thanks again to Jenny and the AJE team for giving folks the chance to play along each month!  To check out what everyone else created with their charms check out the AJE Blog HERE.

AJE Earring Challenge - Weeks 23 & 24

It's that time already once again... today is the reveal for weeks 22 and 23 of the Art Jewelry Elements earring challenge.  The challenge is to create and share one pair of earrings a week made with artisan components.  It's been great fun to challenge myself to  use some of the art beads in my stash as well as some things that I made myself. Another side effect of participating in this challenge is that I keep finding great new artisans that I want to purchase things from!

Without further ado, here are my contributions for this time...  both pairs feature lampwork from the talented Tanya McGuire.  I just ordered some new beads from her, but these babies have been languishing in one of my boxes of beads for way too long!  You can check out her Etsy shop HERE.

First up, a fairly simple pair with gorgeous purple and teal lampwork beads.  So that the glass could shine, I just added some teal colored Swarovski crystals and made wire wrapped loops on sterling silver balled headpins.  This purple was really hard to capture accurately, but I think I finally got it.  

Week 23 - Purple Haze Earrings

For my second pair this reveal, I'm getting a little bit fancier.  I got adventurous and decided to try out the multi-faced texturing hammer that I bought last year and haven't used (does any body sense a theme with me??).  I took some Vintaj natural brass altered blank rectangles that had a little loop on one end, cut off the loop, filed the rough edges down, and punched new holes in each end.  After that, I pulled out the bench block and hammered some texture onto the pieces.  I doubled the brass pieces over to make a cool three dimensional shape to hang beneath the lovely blue and creamy yellow lampwork beads.

Week 24

The purple pair is for sale in my Etsy shop, HERE.   Hope everyone is having a marvelous weekend!

Please take a look at all the other great designs if you get the chance!

AJE Earring Challenge Weeks 19 & 20

First off, happy Memorial Day!  I hope that everyone is enjoying a happy and safe holiday weekend.  I'm getting this posted a little later than usual since Eric and I have been out of town for the weekend.  Much more about that will appear here and on my hubby's beer blog, JABlog soon.

It's time for another installment of the Art Jewelry Elements Earring Challenge!  This week I focused on artisan beads made by other artists instead of my hand painted pieces.  I'm trying to mix it up!

First up are my Denim Dreams earrings featuring porcelain discs by Marsha Neal.  I love the denim blue and brown glazes she used and the little swirly raised pattern!  I paired them with brass findings from Vintaj, gorgeous Czech glass from Lima Beads (really, the pictures do not do those beads justice!), and small spacer beads from TierraCast.

Week 19

Next, I've got a pair with some cute little polka-dotted lampwork beads from Tanya McGuire.  They look like candy to me!  I kept it pretty simple and just added some small Swarovski crystals and wire wrapped them on copper headpins.  I hung the bead units off of some new copper-plated arched earwires from Nunn Design.  I love turquoise and copper (ok, I'm also a fan of turquoise and sterling silver, but copper is far more economical these days!) and think these just feel like summer.  Simple, quick, and cute!

Week 20

One pair is up in my Etsy shop and the other will be as soon as it's bright enough for me to take some better pictures.  Thanks for stopping by!

Art Jewelry Elements Earring Challenge Weeks 15 and 16

This is my second reveal for the AJE Earring Challenge.  Participants are to make a pair of earrings every week using at least one handmade component.

For this reveal I'm featuring two pairs of earrings with Vintaj metal blanks that I embossed and painted myself.  I talked about the process for making these little lovelies earlier in the week.  If you missed it, you can check out that post HERE.

The first pair features a motif that I've been enamored with lately...bees!  The upper part of the new India Archway DecoEmboss folder reminded me of honeycomb so I positioned the brass blanks in that area to create the design on these earrings.

Naturally, I chose to paint them in shades of yellow.  I punched a hole in each blank and riveted bee charms to the rectangles for the finished product.  I actually made a second pair with the bees hanging from the bottom of the rectangles, but I like this set a little better.

Week 15:  Embossed and painted brass by me.

Next up is a pair I made with the new Celtic Weave DecoEmboss folder.  The pattern reminds me of the Man in the Maze motif that I first became acquainted with from my childhood friends the Bilbro family.  I punched extra holes in the bottom of the circular brass blanks so that I could add some extra dangles for extra pizazz and movement.  I used the new Lapis and Emerald patinas which made a great teal color in the middle that I just love.

Week 16:  More embossed and painted brass by me.

I'm sure that you'll seeing more earrings from me using these techniques as the earring challenge continues.  I have such fun playing with different designs and paint colors... the possibilities are endless!