Honey Do List November 2019

This is the fourth 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... it's the Honey Do List 2019!  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:

These are really cool windows from Edinburgh Castle.  I liked the geometric shapes of the multi-colored background glass, as well as the more defined patterns and images on the coats-of-arms.  I made Sarajo put up three of these so you can have more options!


Did you know that my first art interest was actually stained glass?  When I was in high school, my boyfriend's mom took me under her very talented wing and taught me some of the basics.  I only ever made a few sun catchers, but I discovered my love of all things glass!  Before I took my first jewelry making class, I had actually been looking for a stained glass class that worked with my schedule and never found one.  Anyway, my long time love of stained glass made me pretty excited for this month's Honey Do List challenge!

I was a little worried that I wouldn't be able to make something for all three of the windows, but I pulled out a third design at the final hour!

I think that this first window is my favorite of the three that Eric chose for us... maybe I'm just a sucker for flowers!  I didn't have any flower beads or charms in the golden yellow of the window, but I did have some ceramic charms from Golem Design Studio in a similar shape in shades of blue and a very dark brown that's almost black.  Keeping with the blue, white, and black color scheme, I found a perfect pair of little sari silk cocoons from my friend Anna Pierson of Saga Hus.  Antiqued silver plated jump rings and black niobium ear wires with sterling decorations pulled this pair of earrings together.

Next up is actually the last piece I made for this challenge... a necklace featuring a shell pendant by Michelle McCarthy of Firefly Design Studio.  The shell was just the perfect shape for the inspiration window!  My strung design is a fairly monochromatic palette but variety of shapes and textures of Czech glass beads keeps it interesting.

Last but not least, I have one last pair of earrings to show you!  I was gifted a lovely pair of enameled crescent moons by Gardanne Beads at a retreat last summer.  I kept these earrings super simple and just added some little Czech glass and sari silk charms from Saga Hus to the bottom of the moons.  Voila!

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 December 1st to see what Eric has in store for us next month!  Hope you all have a very happy (and yummy!) Thanksgiving!!

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Inspiration for the November 2019 Honey Do List

This is the fourth 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... it's the Honey Do List 2019!  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:

These are really cool windows from Edinburgh Castle.  I liked the geometric shapes of the multi-colored background glass, as well as the more defined patterns and images on the coats-of-arms.  I made Sarajo put up three of these so you can have more options!

The reveal date will be Monday, November 25th.  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 as they are ready.  Just stop by my blog starting on November 25th 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!

Honey Do List: November 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:

I haven't really taken many pictures in the past month, so I took this chance to delve deep into older photos for something lost in the archives.  This is a really cool old stained glass window in the Schlitz Brewery building in Milwaukee, Wisconsin that really struck my fancy.  The colors and shapes should be a fun change from my usual naturalistic photos. 

Even though these colors aren't necessarily in my normal wheelhouse, I got pretty excited about this month's challenge.  It probably doesn't hurt that I love stained glass!  Anyway, I pretty much immediately started pulling together some possible beads to play with.  Here's a sample of what I gathered up:

The first art beads that jumped out at me were a set of lampwork beads that I bought last month at the Twin Cities Bead Bazaar from Donna Millard.  (If I'm honest, I probably would have skipped the show this time but I wanted to see Donna's work in person.)  Anyway, I immediately pictured a set in my mind's eye using the really cool, almost tribal beads in black and cream... so that's what I did... sort of.

I love all the circles in Eric's inspiration photo and I wanted to keep playing with that shape beyond the lampwork focal bead.  Luckily, I had a nice selection of coin beads to choose from in yellows and grey.  (I ended up choosing some vintage glass, Labradorite, and faceted Yellow Jade.)  To continue with the circle theme, I also picked a cone with some swirly circles to round out the pendant focal I built up.  I mixed up Vintaj Arte Metal and silver plated findings and chain to complete the design.

A closer (and better!) look at the focal and tassel.

Next, I intended to make a bracelet... this is where my plan went a little off the rails.  I wire wrapped one of Donna's lampwork beads with some Czech glass and little "pringle" spacers.  (Ok, I don't know what they're actually called, but that's my name for them!)  Unfortunately, the resulting bead unit was a little too long for my bracelet focal but I'd already gone through the work of cleaning, hammering, and sealing the steel wire for the link so I didn't want to tear it apart.  Never fear, the set had three beads so this one quickly became a second necklace!  I dangled some little beads and a small black key charm from the bottom and put it on a long length of chain.  Voila!

Back at the drawing board for my bracelet design, I tried again for a steel wire wrapped focal bead unit.  This time I kept it really simple with just Donna's bead and the little pringle spacers.  Much better!  I then made a chain of wire wrapped beads including faceted pyrite, Czech glass, and the black lampwork beads that came with the set.  This bracelet is a little on the petite side size wise, but I could always add more links if a customer needed more length.  

Last, but not least, I also whipped up a little pair of coordinating earrings to complete my new Honey Do List set.  I picked out a little pair of grey cocoon beads from my friend Anna Pierson of Saga Hus.  I had the same pearlescent yellowy-ivory Czech glass rondelles in a slightly larger size than what I used in the necklaces that made great dangles for these little ear bobs.

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Art Bead Scene: December 2016

The inspiration for this month's Art Bead Scene challenge is a stained glass window by Marc Chagall that was created as a gift to the Art Institute of Chicago.  American Windows was created to commemorate the American Bicentennial and features imagery that honors the arts and America's independent spirit.  You can read more about the artwork and the artist on the ABS blog HERE.

America Windows, 1977, By Marc Chagall, Art Institute of Chicago

Here's a close up of the third panel:  

Stained glass was one of my first creative loves so this challenge definitely struck a nerve for me.  My high school boyfriend's mom, the very talented Cindy Hallman, took me under her wing and taught me the basics of stained glass.  I never made anything more complicated than a couple of sun catchers, but I loved it.  My love of glass in all its forms may have started before this time, but learning about the art of stained glass truly gave me a new appreciation.  

You may not know this about me and my artistic journey, but I was actually actively searching for a stained glass class or workshop to renew my education in this art form long before I even thought about trying jewelry.  I was working full time at the library in the far Western suburbs of Minneapolis and the only classes I was finding were in Northeast Minneapolis.  The logistics just weren't in my favor for stained glass which left me open to the idea of trying a basic jewelry making class.  The rest is history!  

Enough of that detour!  Back to this month's artwork and what it inspired me to create!  I love the cobalt blues and the other pops of bright colors.  I decided that it was finally time to pull out one of the lovely two-holed pendants that I picked up from White Clover Kiln at BeadFest last year.  Even though it's floral, I felt that the design somewhat echoes some of the shapes in the window.  I created links with a variety of Czech glass beads and some matte denim lapis rounds.       

Thanks for stopping by to see what I've been up to post-Christmas!  You can stop by the Art Bead Scene blog HERE to see what everyone else was inspired to create this month.