August 2023 Honey Do List

2023 marks the eighth 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's picture is another of the many street art pieces we saw in Asheville, NC earlier this summer.  I thought the luna moth would be a cool inspiration for jewelry: either moth beads, or the colors in the art.  Next month I'll do something different!

As soon as I saw Eric's photo for us this month I knew I had a few luna moth art beads that just had to come out to play!  Beyond the true lunas, I do have a fondness for moths and butterflies in general... so there was plenty for me to choose from for this challenge.

The first thing that I unearthed from my stash were these sweet faux tin charms from Humblebeads.  I'm 99% sure that I'll keep these for myself, but we shall see.  I made some little floral dangles with some pale green and yellow toned Czech glass and green crystals.  A quick, cute design to kick things off!

Not quite ready to tackle my statement necklace, I turned first to another set of earring charms, this time by Cathleen Zaring of Blue Hare.  Clearly these aren't luna moths, but still fun and fluttery creatures.  I grabbed some little vintage metal teardrops to dangle from the enameled charms along with some Swarovski crystals.

Having stalled long enough, it was time to tackle my necklace!  I love the matte glazes that Sarah Kandell of Slate Studios Supply used on this lovely, large luna moth.  She's just dreamy!  I didn't want supporting beads to be so shiny as to overshadow or compete with the focal.  Luckily I had some nice matte options in both Czech glass and vintage German resin in my stash.  My one real concession to shine are the cranberry colored moon glow lucite rounds.  They are a perfect match to the red in the dress and add a nice pop of color to the design.  I snuck in a little bit of blue fluorite and a Swarovski pearl as well.

To my great sadness, when trying to determine the correct length of the necklace for the dress, I discovered what I had already suspected... the dress is a little bit too small for my current weight.  Hopefully having this delightful new necklace will inspire me to get back to my fighting weight!  I can't wait to wear this necklace!

I thought I was done, but then I uncovered a delightful teapot and teacup pendant set from Jade Scott.  Again, not actually a luna moth, but the colors of the moth were perfect!  It was super fun looking for a fun mix of beads that pulled the various colors out of the resin pieces.  I ended up with a mix of Czech glass, German resin, and a single prehnite round.

One last necklace here... I really was productive this month!  The Vintaj brass pendant that I painted is technically a butterfly, but I feel like the colors worked so I'll take some creative license.  Since the pendant is fairly dainty, I wanted to keep things pretty simple.  Also, I like to be able to offer designs at a variety of price points when I have sales (and I have a big one coming up next month!)  I alternated peridot and blue fluorite rounds with little metallic seed beads in between and delicate (but sturdy!) brass chain at the back.

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 on September 1st (or maybe the 2nd since the 1st is our 22nd wedding anniversary!) to see what Eric dreams up for us next.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Inspiration for the August 2023 Honey Do List

2023 marks the eighth 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's picture is another of the many street art pieces we saw in Asheville, NC earlier this summer.  I thought the luna moth would be a cool inspiration for jewelry: either moth beads, or the colors in the art.  Next month I'll do something different!

I've already got some ideas... my big project really should be a gorgeous luna moth pendant from Sarah Candell that I've been holding onto for way to long.  Can't wait to have time to get started!

The reveal date will be Monday, August 28th.  To make it super easy for you to participate and share your creations, I'll set up an Inlinkz link up so folks can add their blogs or links as they are ready.  Just stop by my blog starting on August 28th and join the fun!  I'll leave the link up open for a while... so you have plenty of time to add your links.  (Last month's is still open... check it our HERE.) No blog?  No worries!  Feel free to send me a picture of your creation and some brief comments and I'll happily share in my blog post.  You can reach me at sjdesignsjewelry@gmail.com  The more the merrier, so I hope you'll play along with me this month! 

Art Elements Theme of the Month: Luna Moths

Image from The Spruce.

Luna moths have always been one of my favorite winged insects, so I was thrilled when Jen Cameron picked them as the Art Elements Theme of the Month for March.  I remember my dad finding and showing me one as a small child, and I've been enchanted by them ever since!

Before jumping into share what I made this month, I just have to share a necklace that I made back in 2014 for myself with my coveted luna moth set by Kerri Fuhr.  I probably should pull this one out and take better photos... but you get the idea!  I should also go through my jewelry box and get things more organized so that I can find and wear my favorites more often, but that's an endeavor for another day.  

I've participated in several moth themed challenges over the last couple of years, so I was actually worried that I wouldn't have any luna moth appropriate beads left.  Happily, I was wrong!  See?

First up, I finally got around to using a lovely luna moth ceramic pendant by Tracey Seder Donoughe that Eric bought for me at Bead and Button two years ago.  I happened to have a little container of Czech glass beads that I got from a friend who is going through her late aunt's bead stash sitting sitting next to my little corral of art beads.  I did a double take and realized that those beads looked gorgeous with the pendant... such luck!!  I added in a couple of other styles of glass beads from my stash as well as some brass findings to round out this long necklace design.

I already had a bunch of beads for a necklace design with Andrew Thornton's sweet little pendant but I got distracted when I rediscovered all the little moths that Eric and I made in Heather Powers' metal sketches class at Allegory Gallery a few years ago.  We hammered steel wire on top of the copper to get the patterns and then added Swelligant patinas for the fun (but unpredictable!) color.  I found two that were really close in size and coloring and knew I had to whip up some earrings!  I made some fun cultured sea glass teardrops dangles, added ear wires, and voila!  I might have to keep these for me... we shall see.

So, after a brief earring diversion, I returned to the pile of beads surrounding Andrew's pendant.  I have to admit that I really had a tough time getting started on this one for some reason but I pushed through for a sweet strung necklace design.  I used a mix of Czech glass, freshwater pearls, and agate in various shades of green plus a little bit of cream.

As luck would have it, I got a package from my friend Erin Prais-Hintz of Tesori Trovati with a treasure trove of beady goodness for my Simple Truths subscription including a fabulous moth pendant!  While the moth was actually created for the Art Bead Scene Art Journey One, the one that I received was perfect for this challenge!  I couldn't bear to set it aside... I just had to make something with it immediately.

I love the saturated colors in this fun, stylized moth... it just feels like Spring to me.  I picked through my hoard of Czech glass and crystal... finding lots of beads that worked with the pendant.  This is a bold piece that's sure to make a statement!

This is a blog hop!  I hope you'll check out what everyone else made for this fun challenge!

Guests:

Tammy

Beth and Evie

Alysen

Rozantia

Sarajo - You are Here

Karin

Sarah

Divya

Colette

Art Elements Team:

Niky

Caroline

Cathy

Jenny

Lesley

Marsha

Lindsay

Claire

Jen

Luna Moth Challenge Reveal

I haven't gotten in on too many of the Allegory Gallery design challenges since Andrew started them back up, but when I saw the Luna Moth kit I had to pounce!  Here are some of the goodies from the kit... not including the mystery component.

I didn't leave myself nearly as much time to create as I meant to/should have, so this week has been a bit of a scramble to take better stock of the kit's contents (so many goodies hidden in the luxury bead blend!) and pull some creations together.

Per my usual leanings, the first things that gelled for me were some earrings.  Two of them used the wooden beads and a mix of elements from the kit and my own stash.  The white pearls in the pair on the right remind me of little cocoons!  I also grabbed some of the smallest pearls from the blend and made a little dangle for the bottoms of some divine Czech glass rectangles that I picked up at Allegory Gallery during Creative Camp last weekend.  (You can read about my exploits at Camp HERE.)

The next things that I pulled together was a necklace using one of the moths we made in Heather Powers' Luna Moth Metal Sketch class at Creative Camp.  (Full disclosure: this is one of the ones that Eric made!  Didn't he do a great job?)  To add some visual weight and physical weight to the pendant, I chose a gemstone from the kit (new jade?) and wire wrapped it with a lovely green Swarovski pearl and some copper plated components.  Once again, I mixed beads from the kit with some from my own stash using a combination of brass and copper findings.

I'm kind of terrible about hoarding the mystery components from Andrew's kits because I want them for myself!  This time I was determined to actually use the gorgeous luna moth pendant that Andrew made for us... as you can see, I didn't quite get finished but I wanted to share the general direction I'm headed in anyways.  I don't often work with gold tones but he green and gold sheen of the pendant cried out for it so I went for a gold plated jump ring.  Eventually the necklace will have a gold plated twig clasp too.  I've used a ton of beads from the kit this time and added in some great pearls I found on our trip to Portland.  I'll be sure to share the completed design as soon as I get it finished!

I still have tons of great stuff left over from this kit and more ideas rolling around my head than I had time to make.  Maybe sometime soon I will do a follow up blog post with creations pulled together from all of the various design challenge kits I have.