July 2022 Honey Do List

2022 marks the seventh 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!  (Y'all, time really does fly!!)  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 month I wanted to go back to Washington state.  On our trip, we hijacked two of our friends in Kent and made them take us to Tacoma for a day on the town.  We visited the Chihuly Bridge as part of our day and this is just one of many cool installations on said bridge.  I bet you can all find some inspiration in this chaos of color and shape!

I feel like this photo captures one of the two looks that I think of as quintessential Chihuly.  I'm loving the riot of color in this cool ceiling installation... and yet, as you'll soon see, I tended mostly towards the reds and oranges again.  What is wrong with me?

Anyway, this month was pretty much all about the earrings for me.  You're shocked, right?  In honor and celebration of Chihuly's glass work it's also mostly about glass beads and components too.  It just seemed a fitting material for the inspiration.

First up, I made long, swingy pair of earrings with Firelily lampwork glass and beaded cocoons from the newest Saga Hus Creativity Pack.  A pretty simple design with some blackened findings.

Next up I did manage to mix in something other than red when I found some fun lampwork beads from Jeff Barber with a navy base with cream and red dots.  Not a huge departure color wise, but I was trying!  I feel like the texture of the melon drops is reminiscent of the stripe in some of the Chihuly glass.

Next up I went super wild with some enamels focused on shades of orange, lol.  I felt like the murrini on the charms by Blue Hare Art Wear were a good match for Eric's photo. I didn't want to go too over the top so just added some little brass drops from the bottom of each charm and kept it simple above with some Czech glass and plated hematite.

Oh look... I found some blue beads too!  This last pair of earrings feature another pair of charms from my recent Saga Hus Creativity Pack with some lovely, glowing lucite.  I used melon drops here to reflect the stripes again.

Believe it or not, I did manage to eke out a necklace before I ran out of time!  I love the riot of color in this lovely ceramic focal from Golem Design Studio and felt like it was perfect for the inspiration.  I made a chain tassel with coordinating little glass dangles at the ends and make links along the lower portion of the long chain with Czech glass and moon glow lucite.  I think this is a perfect fun necklace for summer!

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 at the beginning of August to see what Eric has in store for us next month! 

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Allegory Gallery October 2019 Design Challenges

I haven't been great about playing along with the design prompts that my friends Andrew and William have been putting out in their Allegory Gallery Design Challenge Facebook group.  Life's just been too busy to keep up with any extra projects.  I finally got back in the swing of things the last couple of weeks!  I actually managed to create something for four of the five prompts... not too shabby if you ask me!  Here we go....

Week 1: Use an artisan bead in a design

For some reason I've had bracelets on the brain.  I made a piece for this month's Honey Do List featuring a bead by Summer Wind Art and while digging for that I rediscovered a cute and colorful marigold bead by her that captured my imagination.  I paired the wood burned and hand painted bead with some bright Czech glass flowers on each side along with some glass and plated hematite rondelles.  The colors in this piece just make me happy!  I'm clearly not ready to let go of summery colors.

Week 2: Draw inspiration from an historic piece of jewelry

Ok, this may be stretching things a teeny tiny bit, but what the heck.  It's the closest thing that I've got and I made it this month.  At the Adornments Retreat in 2018 I stamped the word "dreamer" onto this cool, vintage feel bracelet bar.  The patina elements were already there but I did highlight the stamped message with additional patina paint.  The elaborate edges to the brass bracelet focal just make me think of something Victorian or something (I really don't know my period pieces very well) and had some fancy beads to pair with it!  I had some black and gold vintage German glass butterfly beads that were just perfect for gold tone of the metal with the black "antiquing."  I also had some cute little flower beads in the same black and gold finish.

Week 3: Celebrate Fall with an Autumn-inspired creation.

I bought a whole bunch of enameled leaves from Gardanne Beads last year and have just been hoarding them... you know, like I do.  Inspired by some necklaces that my friend Erin Prais-Hintz made last fall, I broke them out and managed to finish two necklaces.  The one on the left also has a fun round ceramic bead from Golem Design Studio, Czech glass, and brass.  The right side has an owl bead by Green Girl Studios, lampwork by Jeff Barber, and Czech glass on a mix of silver plated chain. 

Week 4: Let's get spooky!  Design some Halloween jewelry.

I bought a skully ceramic set from Michelle McCarthy of Firefly Design Studio at Bead & Button this summer and now seemed like the perfect time to design with them.  I've only completed the earrings so far, but the pendant is still hanging out on my bead mat.  I paired the black and white skull charms with some vintage lucite from Allegory Gallery, pewter, and Czech glass.  These wouldn't play nice on a flat background so I used a Halloween decoration to hang them from!

Thanks for stopping by to see what I've been up to lately!  I hope you have a fun and spooky Halloween!  I think I'll be wearing my new skull earrings tomorrow!!

We're All Ears September 2019: Dotty

Dots, Dots, Dots!  This month's We're All Ears challenge is all about the mighty polka dot!  I didn't have a ton of extra time to play, but I did manage to whip up three pairs of earrings this month.  I grabbed a few pairs of spotted art beads and sat down to play last Saturday.  These will be for sale at the Art Wander Studio Tour at the end of the month.

First up, I finally played with some lampwork beads by local artist Jeff Barber that I've had for a while.  I loved the bright turquoise dots against the frosted clear/grey glass.  There's also a couple of black dots amidst the stringer work at the bottom of the beads.

I have a tendency to buy pretty much every earring sized bead that Golem Design Studio makes, so of course I had a couple with polka dots to play with!  These two are variations on a theme that I've done before with other beads from Golem.  I really like to let the ceramic pretties shine!  I just added a metal bead at the top and bottom then topped it off with a wrapped loop.  I then used size 11 seed beads and 26 gauge wire to embellish the arched ear wires.  Easy peasy!

This is a blog hop.  I hope you'll check out what everyone else was inspired to make over on the Earrings Everyday Blog HERE.  Have a fabulous weekend!  I'll be busy with a final push of shop prep for Art Wander!

Artisans Create Together Inspiration Challenge: November 2016

I'm really enjoying the Inspiration Photo Challenges that are hosted by the Facebook group Artisans Create Together!  This month brings two more lovely color palettes to spur us onto creativity... one warm and traditional for the holiday season, and one in cooler tones.  

I love the rich reds in the first Inspiration!  So yummy!  As soon as I saw it, I knew that I'd be digging into my collection of pendants from Tracee Dock of The Classic Bead.  I have a number of pieces from her in lovely shades of burgundy.  First up, a necklace that is similar to one I made back in February... why reinvent the wheel, right?  It turns out that "Bordeaux" Swarovski pearls are the perfect complement to this dark red glaze that Tracee uses!  I added in some Czech glass beads too to complete the look.

I also had fun with another of pendant from The Classic Bead... this one a large leaf in burgundy and cream.  This time I decided string some jasper coin beads that I bought at my first ever bead show back in 2008.

While lovely, this "Contemporary Harvest" palette was a little more outside my normal comfort zone.  I'm just not much of a purple/plum girl when it comes to jewelry making.  I did get a tiny bee in my bonnet (or maybe it was an owl!) when I was working on the Art Bead Scene challenge earlier in the month.  I decided that it was high time to use a little purple and grey lampwork bead by Jeff Barber along with an owl bead from Green Girl.  My husband was really pushing me to add beads along the long chain, but I just wanted to keep this one simple.  I did sneak some purple crystals into the leafy chain though!  

All of these designs will be available at my Holiday Open House on December 4th.  I hope to see some of you there!

Art Bead Scene: July 2016

This month's inspiration for the Art Bead Scene challenge is fitting for the month when we celebrate the Fourth of July as it depicts a display of fireworks!  The image depicts pleasure boats on the Sumida River, with Ryogoku Bridge in the center.  During summer and early fall, the Sumida River was the scene of a custom known as "taking in the cool of the evening."  Fireworks were a big part of the festivities.  You can read more about the artwork and the artist over on the ABS blog HERE.

 "Fireworks at Ryogoku (Ryogoku Hanabi)"

No. 98 from One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, 8th month of 1858. 

The first thing that I always do when I see the artwork for a new month's challenge is to go open all the drawers in my main art bead storage and see what I have that might fit the bill.  I have to admit that there wasn't a whole lot that jumped out at me, but I did have one lovely lampwork glass bead from local artist Jeff Barber that had some promise.  The colors were spot on with cream, bluish grey, and orange tones all shining through.  The orange part even feels like the rectangles in the inspiration artwork!

Once I had my starting point, it became a fairly quick process to find other beads and to pull everything into a cohesive design.  I realized that I had some Golem Design Studio beads that reminded me a bit of the burst pattern of large fireworks.  I had them in both dark red and white on chocolate clay.  With the colors in the lampwork (and the inspiration artwork) I decided the white version looked best.  Normally, I would  have wire wrapped the lampwork bead and used it as a pendant, but once I found the Golem ceramics, I went off in a totally different direction!  I added some large hole coppery colored pearls and rose quartz beads that looked more white to string with the art beads along blue waxed Irish linen.  To continue with the orange and copper look of the necklace, I finished the back with copper plated chain and a sunburst pattern copper plated clasp.

Since I bought a possibly ridiculous amount of this size Golem ceramic beads, I'm thrilled to have a new design idea for using them.  I think you'll see some variations on this from me in the near future!

Art Bead Scene: May 2016

This month's inspiration for the Art Bead Scene challenge is "On a Shaker Theme" by Charles Sheeler.  Overall, it's a bit more modern and angular than what I am usually drawn to, but I do like the color palette.  For some reason, the white of the buildings coupled with the blue tones makes me think of the Greek isles... but that's neither here nor there!  You can read more about the artwork and the artist over on the ABS blog HERE.

"On a Shaker Theme", 1956

by Charles Sheeler

oil on canvas

I decided that this challenge was a perfect time to pull out one of the remaining little house beads by Tracee Dock of The Classic Bead that I've had squirreled away for ages.  The one I picked has nice cream and grey tones to it with some subtle blue undertones.  I grabbed a set of lampwork glass by local glass artist Jeff Barber to pull in the blues and found several wooden beads to round things out.

I used a mix of blue and brown waxed Irish linen to knot the necklace.  I'd hoped to use two strands of each, but I couldn't quite get them all through the house bead or the oblong wooden bead.  I ended up using a doubled over length of blue linen and managed to tie on one strand of brown.  The round wooden beads have been in my stash since my first year of beading so it's nice to see them finally find their way into a design.  (Although per my usual neurosis, I'm sad that they are almost gone now!)  I used a larger round link chain to finish off the back of the necklace... I usually save this chain for bracelets, but I like the balance here.

New Earring Monday '15: Weeks 13 & 14

Hello, and welcome back to my newest installment of New Earring Monday!  I'm posting a little later than usual this week... but it's still Monday!  Apologies for my photos... I was seriously fighting both time and the light.

This time around it's going to be the Twin Cities Bead Bazaar edition.  A couple of weeks ago, my friend and fellow jewelry designer Marcia and I went to this local bead show where we had a ton of fun and bought ridiculous amounts of fun new beads and supplies.  It's not a huge show, it's held in a gymnasium at a community center, but there are always plenty of treasures to be found!  (By the way, you can check out Marcia's website HERE... she creates great stuff!)

You might be thinking, well that's great, but what does that have to do with earrings?  Well, this week's post features earrings that I made with some of the great art beads I bought at the show!  

First up a pair of earrings featuring lovely lampwork from Jeff Barber.  I was drawn to the colors and patterns in this little pair.  They give off a sort of Monet feel to me that I loved.  They feel springy, but still subdued.  I added some little pewter flower petal spacers (also from the bead show) and some blue Czech glass.

My second pair features a cool set of little flowers from Tanya McGuire.  Pictures really don't do them justice... they are an amazing grey black with some iridescence.  They look almost oily, but in a really good way!  (I used a bigger version of one of these guys in red for the February Art Bead Scene Challenge.  You can check that out HERE if you missed it.)  I wire wrapped them with some fun silver plated "pringle" spacers from and plated hematite from the bead show and added a little bit of chain with faceted hematite and some silver plated charms for movement.

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