Adornments Retreat 2019

I'm sorry it's been so quiet on my blog so far this summer.  Since June1st, I've only been at home three weekends and one of those was spent with serious jet lag!  We're on the run again this coming weekend too.  Wowza.  No wonder our summers just fly by!

Anyway, I digress.  This past week and weekend was filled with travel to and tons of fun and learning at the Adornments Mixed Media Jewelry Retreat.  While it's all still fresh in my mind, I wanted to share my experiences and my projects with you all!

2019 marks the third year of Adornments and I've been lucky enough to attend every year so far.  Since it falls around my birthday (it's tomorrow!), I look at this as my birthday present to me.  Each year the schedule has worked out a bit differently.  Our instructors were Jess Lincoln from Vintaj, Heather Powers of Humblebeads fame, Erin Prais-Hintz our mad scientist, and Candie Cooper who is the queen of sparkle and special sauce!  This year participants could take four different half day classes over two days (Thursday and Friday).  We also had a round robin make and take session on Saturday where we got to a little project with each of the four instructors... so great if you didn't have a class with everyone!!

Our fabulous instructors: Candie, Jess, Heather, and Erin

My friend Alexa that I met through Heather's oh so awesome Bead Cruise flew into Minneapolis and rode with me this year.  It's always better to have a buddy to keep you company on a long drive!  Plus we'll be rooming together on the 2020 Bead Cruise so this was a great opportunity to get to know each other better before we room together for 8 nights!  We had a nice dinner in downtown Galena before settling into the Chestnut Mountain Resort for the week.

Wednesday:  Day 1 of the retreat was all about registration, housekeeping for the event, digging into our goody bags from all the generous sponsors, and the ever popular pendant exchange.  Each attendee is encouraged to make a pendant for the exchange and then it's a blind choice... you get called up one table at a time and just grab the package that speaks to you!  Here's what I made for the exchange with etched copper and the cute dragonfly that I received from Tammy N.

Another fun part of the first day is creating and dividing out a bead soup to be used for the design challenge.  How that works is each participant is asked to bring a 16 inch strand of beads (or it's equivalent).  Each table has it's own bowl and the folks sitting at that table throw their respective strands in, mix it around, and then divide it out.  On the last day of the retreat we reveal and vote on our favorite designs made from the bead soups.  More on that later!  Sadly, we were so eager to get started that we forgot to take a before picture of our table's bead soup.  Oops!!  At least you can see the palette below.  After dinner, we reconvened for a night of shopping with the instructors, beading, and socializing.  I came away with some nice goodies as always!

Thursday:  Day 2 dawned and we were all excited to get started with our first classes.  For me it was Heather's Faux Tin Charming Affair.  Yes, I know I've taken this a few times before, but it's always different images and projects... plus she and her awesome husband Jesse have tweaked and perfected the process over time, so you get the most up to date and best technique to take home!  This time we were more focused on charms and earring components... right in my happy place!  I'm often a little pokey in class but I did manage to get one pair of earrings completed and some textured copper pieces cut out.  Eventually I'll get the faux tin pieces cut out and everything filed and put together!

My afternoon class was Erin's Petri Dish Pendants.  I really enjoyed each and every one of my classes, but if I had to pick a favorite, this would totally be it!  Unlike many techniques, this one feels a bit like mad science.  You really have no idea exactly how the resin and alcohol inks will react with each other... it's just a leap of faith.  The only bad part is that you have to wait 24 hours for the resin to cure before you get to see how things turned out.  This is not a technique for those of you who want a reliable and repeatable design.  If you're willing to take a chance the results can be amazing.  Not everything turned out how I expected/hoped, but I still think that they are all attractive and fun!

On the left you can see how things looked from the back... this is the pre-cured picture.  The right is how they looked right after I peeled them off the tape.  So exciting to see the results!

Here's the glamor shot of my finished components.  One of my maple leaf pendants still needs a tiny bit of clean up, but it's way better than it was!

Thursday night after dinner we had two fun presentations and a make and take hosted by Ron Rock from Swarovski and Jess from Vintaj.  Ron brought each of us a gorgeous (and hefty!) orchid pendant that we wire wrapped with a lovely Vintaj brass piece.  Heather shared an inspiring presentation all about the elements of design.  Lots of sparkly and art bead inspiration for sure!

My finished make and take pendant!  Isn't it amazing?

A couple of pages from one of the Swarovski inspiration books that they come out with twice a year when they announce new products.  These pages are hand crafted and just GORGEOUS!

Friday:  My morning class was Adding Images to EVERYTHING with Candie and it was super fun!  We did a quick project with an image under a glass dome and then got down to business with some fun translucent image transfer material.  Unfortunately it's not on the market anymore but I did buy a few sheets for future play!  I have some fun new pendants to create with plus more images to use when I get a chance to experiment some more.

For the afternoon I was back in Erin's classroom for her Quick Cure Clay Components class and more mad science!  Quick Cure Clay is a super new product on the scene from Ranger and the class was all about exploration and experimentation.  It's a really interesting material that cures quickly with just a heat gun as the catalyst.  It's strong and the cured product feels more like a ceramic than anything else that I can compare it to.  Even though Erin had a ton of different options for adding color to our creations, I chose to focus on making pieces since I had access to lots of textures and molds that I don't have at home.  I still have more clay in my package so after I do some more with this first batch color-wise I can expand on my experiments!

On the left, I'm set up and ready to start.  The right are my cured pieces.  The four flowers along the bottom have jump rings embedded in the back side so that I can use them as button clasps.

The last official night of the retreat is a crowd favorite... the Pajama Beading Party!  We get to be silly and wear fun pj's while we continue to work on projects and chat.  Pretty much eat, drink, bead, and be merry!  Another fun tradition is the Facebook Live beading challenge where Erin and Heather give each other a bead soup mix based on that year's palette and one of the other instructors provides a mystery component that must be included in both designs.  It's fast paced and good, silly fun that always results in some lovely new jewelry designs.  You can watch the replay, hosted by Candie Cooper HERE.

Heather and Erin working under the pressure for the Facebook Live Beading Challenge!

Saturday:  The last day of Adornments is always bittersweet.  I feel sad to be finishing things up and saying good bye to beady friends, yet by that time I'm also ready to be back home with my Sweetie and the kitties.  Similar to last year, the instructors planned a fun progressive make and take where we all got to do one charm project with each of the four instructors.  They divided us into groups and we rotated through all four stations.

Make & take charms:  Clockwise from top left the projects were by Candie Cooper, Heather Powers, Jess Lincoln, and Erin Prais-Hintz.  The pewter piece is from Vintaj and can be shaped in fun ways if you wish.  I haven't decided what I want to do yet so it's in its natural state!

After we did our round robin of charms it was time to vote on your favorite creation for the Bead Soup Design Challenge.  You could have knocked me over with a feather... I won second place and with it a $50 gift certificate to Rustic River Finds.  Jess's sweet mom Trish Italia owns this fabulous bead store right in downtown Galena.  I always find some really unique things that just have to come home with me there.  Trish also stocks a great selection of gifts and home decor items.  So fun to shop there every year!  Here's my winning entry:

h

entry was actually two necklaces that can be worn together or separately.  Both focals are polymer clay... the heart is by Erin (and I bought it the first night of the retreat) and the rounded square is by Heather and was in my goody bag.   

After lots of hugs and good byes to the folks hitting the road on Saturday afternoon most of us headed into downtown for lunch and shopping.  Monica, Alexa, and I enjoyed yummy white sangria and frozen fruit with our pizza lunch.

With our bellies now happy, we wandered down to Rustic River Finds to spend my gift certificate and more!!  Trish always provides a little make and take project for all the Adorners.  This year it was a sweet necklace.

Every night Monica and I opened our room for late night shenanigans and socializing.  Just hanging out and catching up with old friends and meeting new ones is one of the best parts of any retreats.  We always have some fun and silly times after hours in the "party room" but what happens in Galena stays in Galena!  ;)  Saturday night was our last hurrah and we probably stayed up a little past our bedtimes, but it was all worth it!  

I've come home with my creative batteries recharged and my heart full of gratitude and love for my beady tribe.  I don't get to see most of these awesome folks nearly often enough but I enjoy every moment when I do get to spend time in their company.  Until next year, Adornments!!

Art Bead Scene: June 2018

This month's Art Bead Scene inspiration artwork is Les Ibis by Jean Metzinger.  You can read more about the artist and the artwork over on the ABS blog HERE.  I have to admit that this style of art really isn't my thing... I think that it's both too abstract for my sensibilities at one end of the spectrum while being weirdly not abstract enough at the other.  Does that make any sense at all???  Oh, well... onto the jewelry!

Les Ibis by Jean Metzinger, 1907

Instead of digging through my art bead collection to see what might possibly work, I decided to capitalize on the fact that my friend Erin Prais-Hintz of Tesori Trovati sent the June installment of her Simple Truths Sampler Club out early.  Instead of putting all my new goodies away I chose to work with her pendant that was directly inspired by this piece of artwork!

The pendant I received was predominately peach and shades of green.  Actually, there's a fair amount of black in there too, but I wanted to keep the colors sweet and spring like.  I started with some chrysoprase ovals and some lovely peach moonstone star cut beads.  I found a few little clear green flower beads in the leftovers of a bead mix that added a nice contrast to the lighter colors.  I also used some vintage glass rondelles in pale green to use as spacers along with small seed beads.  Limited by the amounts of some of these beads that I had on hand, I finished off the back of the necklace with some brass ladder chain from Vintaj.

The really cool thing about Erin's pendant is that the back is just as lovely as the front... you can wear this necklace with either side facing out!

While this design may be a little more petite and sweet than what I tend to wear, I love how it turned out!  I'm also so thrilled when what I end up with lives up to the initial vision I have in my head and that totally happened this time.

Art Bead Scene: November 2017 Take Two

This month's Art Bead Scene challenge inspiration is a painting by French impressionist Armand Guillaumin.  You can read more about the artist and the challenge over on the ABS blog HERE.  I've been pretty smitten with this color palette and am glad that I managed to get back around to making one more design inspired by it before November disappears.

Title: Crozant, The Bouchardon Mill

By: Armand Guillaumin

Date: 1906

Medium: Oil on Canvas

One of the art beads that had originally caught my eye for this challenge is one of Erin Prais-Hintz's gorgeous pendants from her Papilio collection.  (If you haven't already figured this out, I'm really addicted to Erin's creations that she shares through her business, Tesori Trovati.)  This one is Papilio: Euselasia and is just an wonderful combination of soft colors.  And, speaking of soft, Erin finished the polymer clay to a satiny soft finish that you will not believe!

For this strung necklace I added a collection of beads in different materials including Czech glass, plated hematite, vintage plastic, and Swarovski pearls.  I had fun playing with a variety of shapes and finishes. 

I'm planning on whipping up some dangle earrings to go along with this one before my Holiday Open House on Sunday.  And with that said, I'd better get back to work!!

Adornments Retreat

Once again, I'm a little late to the party as far as sharing my recent creative adventures... but I'll stick with the better late than never theme!  For the Adornments Retreat, the creative forces behind Vintaj, the Art Bead Scene, and Now That's a Jig came together for an event not to be missed!  Three days of mixed media jewelry fun with Heather Powers, Jess Italia Lincoln, Erin Prias-Hintz, and Brenda Schweder at the Chestnut Mountain Resort in Galena, Illinois made for the perfect birthday weekend for me.  The only bad thing about the retreat is that I had to choose just two of the eight classes and I wish that I could have done them all!!  

Galena is about a five and a half to six hour drive for me (depending on the traffic and construction), so I decided to head out a day early so as not to be stressed out about my arrival time on Thursday.  Luckily, my wonderful roommate Monica decided to join me earlier than she had originally planned.  We had dinner that first night with one of Monica's coworkers, got to watch an amazing rain storm roll through from the floor to ceiling windows at the restaurant, and had our GPS route us down a series of increasingly creepily named dirt roads to get home (Devil's Ladder, Irish Hollow, Cemetery)... Adventure!!  The nighttime rain cleared out and gave us a super muggy morning to explore the shops and restaurants of Main Street Galena before the retreat got going that afternoon.  (Galena is a seriously cute town if you ever get a chance to visit!)

Thursday afternoon kicked off the fun of the retreat proper.  We all gathered in our main meeting space to get our registration materials, name tags, and goodie bags.  This is always an exciting time at any retreat when you get to see old friends and meet new people... everyone is buzzing with anticipation of the fun to come!  After some introductory remarks from Heather and the other instructors, the group had the fun task of making and dividing out some bead soup!  

Before the retreat, we were given the following inspiration and asked to bring 16 inches of beads to go with the color palette.  We were also supposed to bring some sort of focal/pendant and any other beads and findings we might want to add to our personal bead soup portions.  The idea behind all of this is that each person was encouraged to make something made up of at least 60% of the bead soup and enter into a fun design contest to be held at the end of the retreat.  Each table made their own soup and it was fascinating to see the different mixes of beads we had around the room.  

My portion of our table's "soup" with the pendant I chose to use.

We broke for dinner on our own at the resort and then regrouped for a fun evening session afterwards.  Heather and Erin did a presentation about the Art Bead Scene blog and their monthly challenges as well as using art beads in your jewelry designs.  Fun and inspiring stuff!  One of the highlights of the evening was Heather and Erin doing a Chopped style competition where they gave each other a bead soup mix and a focal based on the July ABS challenge and then they had 20 minutes on the clock to make a design.  Nail biting jewelry making excitement!  To add to the challenge, Brenda gave them each a mystery component that they had to work into their designs.... and it was a plastic monkey with a sparkly crystal collar!!  Here are our lovely contestants and their designs at the end of the competition.  

While all those hi-jinx were going on, the rest of us looked on, mingled, and worked on our own beading projects.  I managed to get my Bead Soup competition piece completed that first night (probably a sign of the impending apocalypse!!).  Here's what I made:

This sweet pendant from Erin's Simple Truths Sampler Club was the perfect fit with my mix of pastel beads.  It is beautiful and had a lovely message on the back side that the wearer will keep close to her heart.

For day one, I chose Erin's INKsplorations class where we got to play with different alcohol inks and surfaces to put them on.  I probably didn't experiment enough but I think my brain just isn't great when it comes to really being freeform and just messing around.  I also stuck mostly to the Ranger alcohol inks since those are the ones readily available to me locally.  Before lunch we had time to experiment with the inks and substrates and Erin worked through lunch (naughty monkey!) to get all of our little masterpieces sealed for us so we could move onto the next step when we got back.  We spent the rest of the day cutting down small portions of our inked artworks and gluing them into bezels and adding in UV resin.  Now, resin is a tricky thing (at least for me!) and this class was no different.  I had some bubbling and what I think is the resin pulling away from the material underneath but I believe with some creative problem solving that I may be able to salvage these two.  While I had fun playing with the inks (and got some fun results along the way) I think this may be a little too freeform for me to want to pursue it too much... although I'm thinking about trying two part resin with it instead of the UV and see if it's any less frustrating for me.  Time will tell!

Day two for me was a polymer clay and metal play day with Heather in her Wings & Dreams class.  I really can't overstate how much fun I had in this class!  I never would have dreamed that I would enjoy polymer clay until I took my first class in that medium with Heather last fall.  I'm never going to be the genius artist that she is, but I really enjoy playing with it and learning new polymer techniques.  I was so busy making cute butterflies and flowers that I really didn't do a great job of documenting the day, but here are some pictures I took during and afterwards of my completed projects as well as some that are still works in progress.  I didn't realize this when I signed up for the class, but alcohol inks were a part of the coloring process for these cuties so I had all the supplies I needed to continue painting and playing when I got home!

Right after our day two classes, the entire group came back together for our Wrap Party where we got to see and vote on everyone's Bead Soup creations and officially say goodbye to the wonderful Adornments Retreat and our fabulous instructors.  The fun didn't really end there as many of us were staying over Saturday night.  After dinner Jess's mom, Trish Italia, opened up her lovely bead store Rustic River Finds in downtown Galena for us to do some more shopping.  (I forgot to mention that Friday night we had a private shopping event with our instructors and Trish at the retreat!)  Not that I needed anything, I found some treasures to treat myself with as a little birthday gift.    

Top: Our lovely instructors Brenda, Jess, Heather, & Erin; Bottom: Me with my two teachers and fellow participant Lin.

My birthday goodies!

If you're looking for a fun and inspirational jewelry making retreat, I highly recommend checking out the Adornments Retreat.  They're already starting to plan next year's event.  A huge THANK YOU to Heather, Jess, Erin, and Brenda for a wonderful weekend of jewelry adventures with a great group of folks.  Any time I can come together to share, learn, and laugh with my beady tribe is a blessing and a treasure I'll cherish.  

Honey Do List: June 2017

Last year, my husband Eric has decided to issue me a design challenge each month to get me out of my comfort zone and to help clear out my bead stash... and we're continuing the Honey Do List for 2017!  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:

This spring I've really been taking a lot of bird pictures and wanted to use one of these shots for this month's challenge.  I thought this rose-breasted grosbeak would be an interesting subject due to the stark black and white colors with a pop of bright red.  Try using this color combo for a piece!

It was so fun seeing this little guy at our friends' cabin... I had never seen a rose-breasted grosbeak before and he was so handsome!  I wasn't entirely sure what I was going to do with this inspiration immediately, but when I finally had time to peruse my art beads, I found a sweet little ceramic robin bead by Melanie Brooks of Earthenwood Studio that fit the bill.  The bird has loops on both the top and the bottom so I wire-wrapped some little Czech glass rondelles to a nest bead from Green Girl Studios to complete the pendant.  (If you haven't seen this little nest in person before, the back says "Home."  I just love that!)  

Unlike many of my recent designs, this time I decided on an asymmetrical design with beaded links.  I pulled together a collection of Czech glass and ceramic beads in reds and blacks along with some speckled white and grey brown ceramic beads that just happened to be called "Birch with Speckles."  How perfect is that for the birch bark our little grosbeak is perched upon?!?

I had grand plans of a second necklace with a more abstract response to the inspiration photo but didn't quite have the time to pull it together.  I've been hanging onto this "Fly Free" bird from Erin Prais-Hintz of Tesori Trovati for quite some time.  I think that part of my brain block on it has been trying to decide what to do with the two loops at the bottom on the branch.  The fuchsia stripe reminded me in a way of the red patch on the grosbeak's chest and I thought that the cream/white strip with the dark background works with the birds coloring too.  This little pile of beady goodies is as far as I've gotten so far, but I hope to turn it into something soon.  I'll keep you updated!  Got a great idea for the bottom of the pendant?  I'd love if you shared!

As a little P.S. to this post, we just saw a rose-breasted grosbeak at our backyard bird feeders this past weekend for the first time!  It was almost like he was reminding me to get to work on my project!

An InLinkz Link-up

get the InLinkz code

Art Bead Scene: February 2017

A new month has begun and that means a new challenge from the Art Bead Scene!  I'm absolutely in love with the rich colors of this month's inspiration, The Two Crowns by Sir Frank Dicksee.  You can read more about the painting and the artist on the ABS blog HERE.  I was immediately struck by the opulence... the golden armor, the lush flowers, the gowns... and that handsome horse!  So much to be inspired by here!

The Two Crowns

Sir Frank Dicksee

1900

Oil On Canvas

As I looked through my art beads, the first thing that jumped out at me was a pendant that the very talented Erin Prais-Hintz of Tesori Trovati made for a previous Art Bead Scene challenge (September 2014 to be exact).  The pendant, filled with tons of tiny polymer clay roses, is set in a antiqued brass bezel with the type of bail that I think works best when strung.  I decided to start by looking at my collection of seed beads to see if I could pull off a multi-strand necklace (despite knowing how frustrating I find the process of getting all the strands to the right length... I guess I'm a glutton for punishment!).  I started with a nice seed bead mix from Glass Garden Beads (I love their mixes but wish they did them in larger sizes and not just the size 11s) in shades of cream and rose.  As perfect as the colors of this mix was for the challenge and the pendant, I knew the necklace needed more to give it visual interest and oomph.  My next selection was a tube of berry colored luster peanut beads.  I chose the third strand, a hex cut metallic bead, to even things out and keep the berry strand from being overwhelming.  There's some subtle but nice iridescence to that strand that I think pulls it all together.

Now, my plan clearly called for a LOT of stringing of seed beads.  In the past I've always accomplished this by stringing the beads by hand one at a time.  For this project I decided it was time to experiment with my new bead spinner.  (I had bought it to make the projects from Heather Powers' Festive Forest Workshop that I bought in December and never got around to trying... this year I'll make it happen!!)  Getting the hang of using the spinner with beading wire was a little tricky, but I do think it saved me a decent amount of time even with the steep learning curve.  If nothing else, it helped cure me of my obsessive desire to string things "just right" with the perfect mix of colors.  I just let it go and see what jumped onto my wire!  I finished off the strands with some ornate brass cones from Vintaj that echo the details in the painting.  I used a brass lobster claw clasp and a little bit of textured chain to give the wearer some adjustability in length.  

I also had a tiny little rose charm from Erin in my stash... this one in a silver colored bezel.  I thought that this would be the perfect time to try making some new memory wire bracelets since I already had my bead spinner out.  The last time I made a bracelet like this I did it by hand, bead by bead.  Oh my goodness... the bead spinner was so much better and faster!!  (Want to get a little video tutorial in doing this?  Heather Powers posted one to her Facebook page for Humblebeads and you can find it HERE.  It's called "Bead Table Wednesday" and is 30:06 minutes long.)

I ended up combining a bead mix from Funky Hannah's with the leftovers from a mixed tube of size 6 seed beads in turquoise and teal that I had sitting around.  (I wanted to pull in the colors of the lady's gown from the bottom center of the painting.)  I was pretty happy with the resulting mix of colors, shapes, and textures.  While I had everything out, I made two bracelets with the mix... one with Erin' rose charm and some other little pink glass and crystal dangles and one with a silver plated flower charm and two Czech glass flowers.  These could easily be worn together or separately.

Thanks for stopping by to see what I've been up to lately.  I'm so excited by my new bead spinner that I want to see what other things I can make with it!  I'll be sure to share whatever I end up making.

Art Bead Scene November 2015

This month's Art Bead Scene challenge inspiration is a lovely muted fall floral silk screened by Marguerite Zorach.  I find the colors quite striking and have a number of art beads in my stash that would work well this month... this could be another month of multiple entries for me depending on how my month goes.  You can find out more about the artwork and the artist over on the ABS blog HERE.

Autumn flowers

by Marguerite Zorach

I've been a member of the Simple Truths Sampler Club that Erin Prais-Hintz offers through her company Tesori Trovati for quite some time now.  For the last couple of years, Erin has committed to making something inspired by the Art Bead Scene monthly challenge for the club each month.  Sadly, many of her little treasures are languishing in my art bead cabinet (mostly because I want to keep them all for myself!) but that is not the fate of this month's offering!  (By the way, Erin does currently have spots in the Sampler Club... find out more about it HERE.)

This month Sampler Club members got a tiny peak at the November artwork a couple of days early since she sent them out with the October selections.  Because I had such early access to her pendant, I knew I wanted to make something with it before attempting anything else.  Here's the pendant that I received... she calls them "Love, Autumn."

It's hard to tell in my photo, but there is a fabulous pearlescence to the pendant that helped drive my bead selection for this project.  I really wanted to break out of my normal design mode and play with a mix of bead shapes and colors... all in a (gasp) asymmetrical design.  I chose a mix of mostly Czech glass beads that pulled out the various colors from the pendant and the painting that inspired it.  I was fortunate to have some plated hematite beads that echoed the pearly blue in the pendant with their metallic sheen.  To round things out I also threw in some brass beads and gemstones (red wood lace stone?).  Originally, I was thinking I'd use waxed linen for my stringing material, but it was quickly apparent to me that I would be better off using beading wire. 

Without further ado, here is my finished necklace!  I'm pleased as punch with how this one turned out.  How do you think I did?

The Simple Truth About Why I Love the Simple Truths Sampler Club

The first time I saw any of Erin Prais-Hintz's work it was in a beading magazine (Stringing? Bead Style?) when I was still pretty new to jewelry making.  They had done a little piece on her Simple Truths Sampler Club and I was intrigued by both the club and her lovely creations.  Here's the idea in a nutshell: each month Erin makes an limited edition piece just for the Sampler Club.  It's usually a pendant but sometimes a set of beads (as you will see in my photos below.)  You can choose from a 3, 6, 9 or 12 month subscription... and the longer your subscription is for the more you save!  If she has open spots in the club she will often add any extras to her shop, but there are only 20 members at a time.   

When Erin first started her Simple Truths line her creations all had a similar style and feel to them... many of them including words or sayings... "simple truths."  I love that as time has gone on, Erin has used the sampler club as a way to stretch her own creativity and experiment with new techniques all while staying true to her artistic vision.  Currently each month's special creation is Erin's inspired response to the monthly challenge artwork over on the Art Bead Scene blog where she is an editor.  (If you aren't familiar with that challenge, you can check out all the details for this month HERE.)  

Each month is a delightful surprise... her creations are a joy to create with!  You'll see some of my designs featuring Simple Truths throughout the rest of this post.

January 2014

May 2014

Rewinding back to my personal experience with Simple Truths... I SO wanted to join up right then and there when I read that article, but I couldn't quite justify the cost at that time.  I was only making jewelry for myself and hadn't yet become the art bead addict that I am today.  The article did introduce me to Erin's blog Treasures Found and she became one of the bloggers that I regularly followed.  I continued to drool over each new piece that Erin shared and would look often at her shop, but never pulled the trigger to sign up.  

All that changed when my sweet husband had the winning bid for a 6 month subscription during a charity fundraising blog hop... What a wonderful surprise for me!  I enjoyed my monthly works of art so much that he extended my subscription for another 6 months as a Christmas present.  Best Husband Ever!  I just signed up for another year of Simple Truths and couldn't be happier... I know I will continue to me more in awe of Erin's talents with each month's design.  She hasn't disappointed yet!

April 2014?

March 2015

May 2015

I'll be honest, the only problem that I have with the Simple Truths Sampler Club is that I want to keep them all for myself.  Don't laugh, this is a real problem!  Erin's creations are so lovely and special that I don't want to give them up so they sometimes end up languishing in my hoard of art beads for far too long.  I don't know about other folks who sell some of the jewelry they make, but if I know something will be for me to keep then I have a tendency to push it to the bottom of my to-do list in favor of more profitable projects.  Here are just two of my pretties that are just waiting for me to give them some design attention.

If you love art beads and the thrill of getting a surprise in your mail box each month, Simple Truths might just be for you.  If you do decide to give your self the best gift ever and sign up, put my name down as referring you and we will BOTH get an extra month on our subscriptions.  How cool is that?  You can see the different club options and sign up HERE.

Thanks for stopping by today.  In Erin's words "Enjoy the day!"