Art Elements Theme of the Month :: Spring

Each month the crew over at the Art Elements Blog take turns and offer up a general theme to get folks' creative juices going.  For March Niky Sayers chose the theme of "Spring."  Perfect timing as so many of us are officially over winter.  So I'm going to start out this post by apologizing for it's length.  What can I say... the thought of the coming Spring was very inspiring!

The very first thing I made, on the very first day of the month were these sweet rabbit earrings.  I drew on the idea of the good luck superstition where you say "rabbit, rabbit" upon waking on the first day of the new month.  I may not have said the words, but I made the rabbit rabbit earrings right away!  I paired the adorable enameled charms by Lindy's Designs with some resin opaline rounds and blackened findings.

Apparently, not only was this month about Spring, but on my bead table it was also about enameled elements!  I recently picked up some great bird and blooms charms/pendants from Blue Hare Art Wear that felt just perfect for some early Spring designs.  These necklaces are both all about the subtle first blush of the season...  more subtle colors instead of the bright riot of color to come.  

For this first necklace I cut the sweetness of the pale pinks and blues with black Czech glass beads that play off the black in the pendant design.  Vintage resin beads were the starting point of the design with glass and rose quartz added in to round things out.

The enameled pendant in this second necklace is a bit smaller than the first but I gave it some additional heft with a fun leafy link connector.  I played off the pinks and pale yellows in the pendant for the beaded links that are a combination of Czech glass and resin.  I can't say that I'm known for working with these sweet pastels, but I do love how these two designs turned out!

Per my usual chaotic designing style, after I finished this first batch of jewelry I grabbed a bunch of other art bead goodies to hang out on my bead table.  Spring had definitely sprung on my bead mat!  While several ideas were marinating at the back of my brain, I whipped up another pair of bunny earrings.  This time I used some little pale blue ceramic bunny charms from Michelle McCarthy of Firefly Design Studio.  I paired them with some coordinating Czech glass flowers and rondelles.  I also made a quick pair earrings with some cute floral charms from Golem Design Studio and coordinating silk cocoons by my friend Anna Pierson of SagaHus Components.

Keeping with the muted pastels I whipped up a sweet little bracelet with a Humblebeads house bead (as well as one of Heather's discs) and a mix of cultured & Czech glass, lucite, and brass findings.  Bracelets aren't always my thing, but I really am smitten with how this one turned out.  It was also the perfect use for some Czech glass melons I've had in my stash forever.  Score!

Next up, a necklace that I still haven't decided if I can part with yet as I switched my designing into shades of green.  I just love the wood pendant that was a collaboration between siblings Cynthia Thornton of Green Girl Studios and Andrew Thornton of Allegory Gallery.  (I'm sad I didn't grab more than one when they were offering these.)  There are so many sweet details in the design... my favorite being the tiny little snail on the right side.  This piece spoke to me of the first emerging leaves and sprouts and leaves of the season and I chose beads accordingly.  There's quite a bit of Czech glass along with freshwater and cultured pearls and a few moon glow lucite beads.

Continuing with shades of green, I finally made something with some little polymer clay leaves that I made in a workshop with Heather Powers a while back.  I had already made little wire bails for them but for some reason never finished whatever design that I had envisioned.  I decided that it was past time to get them completed.  I ended up pairing them with some rustic lampwork glass (maker unknown) along with Czech glass.  

Next up I went for a bit of a brighter green.  Spring makes me think birds and thus feathers.  I picked up this fun little set of ceramic beads from Michelle McCarthy of Firefly Design Studio at Bead & Button and fished them out for this prompt.  I made beaded links with the ceramic accent beads, some chunky Czech glass beads, as well as some filigree rounds.  

I just kept trucking through the pile of goodies I had pulled out to celebrate Spring (and, let's not pretend... I kept adding to the mess with more and more options too!)  I whipped up a couple more pairs of earrings to with some sweet spring charms I've been holding onto for way too long.   I paired some sweet daisy charms in polymer clay from Humblebeads with tiny lampwork beads, Czech glass, and brass (similar to the ones I used in this month's Honey Do List challenge.)  Next I used some faux tin charms by my friend Anna Pierson of SagaHus Components for a pair of earrings with purple moon glow lucite and copper accents.

 

With this next necklace I may finally be done with officially making for the Spring prompt.  We shall see.  At least I'll be done as far as my blog post goes!  Photos aren't doing it justice but I had to finally play with this luminous pendant from Humblebeads.  I picked beads that had a similar glow to them including a LOT of Czech glass with Mercury finish and some pale green resin rounds.  To go with the gold accents on the pendant I went with some gold filled and gold plated spacer beads and findings.

Phew!  That's a lot of new jewelry!  I hope you enjoyed these new Spring designs.  Here's to warmer (and longer!) days, blooming flowers, nesting birdies, and all the other special things that the new season will bring.

Honey Do List March 2021

Happy Monday my beady friends!  It's reveal day for the Honey Do List!  2021 marks the sixth 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 still hard to believe we've been doing this that long.  I know that I'm not the only one who loves a good design challenge, and I love having folks play along with us!

Here's this month's inspiration and what Eric had to say about it:

With the past week's warm up to 40-50 degree days and the melting of the enormous snow pile in our yard, I'm feeling the call of what we Minnesotans call False Spring.  OK, I call it that.  I'm posting this heavily processed picture of lichen and tiny flowers from our England trip two years back, hoping that we soon will see real flowers here as well.  

The first thing I made for this month's challenge ended up being my favorite by a long shot!  I had a gorgeous hand painted wood-burned pendant by Summer Wind Art that I had been hoarding for too long that really captured the feeling of Eric's photo.  It turns out that the green in the pendant was a pretty great match for some vintage wood beads that I had just picked up.  From there I started just playing around with various beads in the colors in the pendant.  In addition to the wood there's a mix of Czech glass, moon glow lucite, and German resin in there with copper plated findings.   The colors and textures in this one just make me so happy!  I'm also pretty thrilled that the asymmetry came pretty easily for once!

Next up a little pair of earrings with some sweet daisy charms by my friend Heather Powers of Humblebeads.  Even though there isn't any purple in the photo, the flowers look a lot like the white ones there.  I paired the charms with Czech glass and moon glow lucite.

Moon glow lucite continues as a theme through my creations this month.  I've had these cute magenta dogwood flower charms from Humblebeads for a stupid amount of town but finally had the perfect beads to complement them.  The colors are vibrant like the ones in Eric's photo and the design is ultra light weight.  

Lastly I pulled together one more necklace... this time using a pendant (actually one of the smaller pieces from a 3 piece mini-collar set) and some small rounds that I got from Dakota Stones at an event or class.  The colors worked and with the mix of colors in the pendant I knew I had some accent beads in bronzite and dyed impression jasper that would play nice with it.  It may not be my normal style, but hey, sometimes it's good to branch out to something new!

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 April 1st to see what Eric has in store for us next month!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Allegory Gallery Design Challenge: Dark Rainbow Reveal

It's been absolutely ages since I've participated in one of Allegory Gallery's Design Challenges, but when they premiered the Dark Rainbow kit I had to snag one and play along!  I couldn't resist the dark iridescence going on in all the goodies!

Each Allegory Gallery Design Kit has tons of great beads to play with and there's always a Mystery Component that's a surprise.  Here's an up close look at the Mystery Component for this kit and some of the beads I was playing with to go with it!  

For once I started with a necklace (instead of the low hanging fruit of a quick pair of earrings!) and immediately zeroed in on the three strands of matte plated hematite rondelles in different sizes.  The bronze tones in those beads was just perfect for the pendant!  The clear rounds with an AB finish were another early pick for the necklace.  The pearly look to them brought out some of the subtle sheen in the clouds.  (My picture doesn't do the color shifting pigments justice!)  All the beads are from the kit with the exception of a few seed beads at the very back.  I picked a brass plated toggle clasp that mimicked the design around the top of the pendant.

Of course the second thing I made WAS a pair of earrings, lol.  With kits like this I usually start by pouring all the beads out and seeing what I have... grouping like things together and thinking about what things might play best together.  I set aside some matching bead pairs that didn't seem like they would work for my necklace idea as well as some coordinating beads right away but then circled back to them once I finished my first design.  All the beads other than the crystal rondelles came from the kit... so shiny!

Last, but not least I made a bracelet to round out my little mini collection.  I got the idea and some of the supplies for this from the Dakota Stones/Goody Beads presentation during the Great Bead Extravaganza.  I mostly used beads from the luxury bead blend as well as the same matte rondelles I used in my necklace.  I added in some purple peanut seed beads and some braided black leather.  The bracelet is strung on heavy duty memory wire to handle the weight of the bigger beads.  

Thanks for stopping by to see what I've been up to.  There are still a bunch of beads that I haven't even cut off the strands so there's more jewelry to be made from this fun kit when I have the time.  

Inspiration for the March 2021 Honey Do List

Happy Monday everyone!  And happy March!  2021 marks the sixth 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!  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:

With the past week's warm up to 40-50 degree days and the melting of the enormous snow pile in our yard, I'm feeling the call of what we Minnesotans call False Spring.  OK, I call it that.  I'm posting this heavily processed picture of lichen and tiny flowers from our England trip two years back, hoping that we soon will see real flowers here as well.  

The reveal date will be Monday, March 22nd.  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 March 22nd 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 :: Snowflakes

Fittingly enough for the crazy winter weather that has spread across most of the United States this month, Jennifer Cameron chose the theme of Snowflakes for the February Art Elements Theme of the Month.  Little did she know when she picked it...  While much of the country is getting rocked by the extreme weather, it's mostly just been bone chillingly cold here in Minnesota.  So, basically, business as usual!  

It's pretty hard to design for Spring when you are in the depths of winter (at least for me!) so this theme was perfect for where my head was at this month.  Maybe after this round of designs both me and the weather will have the heavy snow and crazy cold out of our systems!  A girl can dream.

I was lucky enough to snag some gorgeous snowflake cabs from the talented Lisa Peters Russ at the end of last year.  This challenge gave me the excuse to play with a couple of them before the spring thaw... and I'm so happy I did.  I'm also pretty proud of myself for taking on a more ambitious project right out of the gate!  

I started out with the big snowflake shield cab from Lisa (I had already glued that one and two smaller shield shapes down to backing) since I had an inkling of an idea for it.  Since the cab was sizable I wanted to play around with some vintage crystal components that I had picked up for just such an occasion.  It's hard to see in the picture but the large center element has two holes while the smaller side ones have just one center hole.  I used small clear silver lined seed beads to attach the crystal elements.  I played with a new to me technique for filling in the background at the top... a sort of random sewing down of one bead at a time.  As luck would have it, once I got the pendant all finished, I discovered that I had the perfect dyed silk ribbon to compliment it.  Such an easy and elegant solution for finishing the necklace!

Still on a bead embroidery kick, I completed a second smaller snowflake pendant.  I just love Lisa's pieces!  Since this cab was a smaller scale to begin with, I did an extra row of beads around the entire thing.  For a fun, frosty affect I did a picot edge around the pendant with a nice grey pearly colored size 15.  I'm still not sure how I will finish it into a necklace, but that's a problem for another day!

I was in the process of putting some new(ish) purchases away when I realized that the TierraCast charms I had gotten had a snowflake looking pattern on one side (the other is very much floral).  So I went digging through some other homeless supplies hanging out on (i.e. cluttering up) my bead table to whip up these sparkly snowflake earrings.  Hard to tell from the photo, but the bead caps are a snowflake pattern.

I still have some other snowflake goodies hanging out on my bead table, but the sun is out and I may opt for some tropical designs next!

Honey Do List February 2021

2021 marks the sixth 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!  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 was a cool 8-bit looking mosaic in London, along with some random graffiti and chain-link fence.  We saw a lot of cool street art on this leg of our England trip (pre-Covid of course) and this one jumped out at me.  This was taken with my phone, so not as great quality as some of my shots, but still fitting for February!  

Honestly when I first saw Eric's inspiration for us this month I wasn't sure what I would have in me.  I had just made a bunch of Valentine's Day/Heart themed jewelry for a show my friends and did on Facebook the previous weekend.  I knew that I still had more hearts hiding in my stash (and, frankly buried on my bead table!) so I dug in and decided to get cracking right away!

First up, I went looking for some little heart shapes that Lisa Peters Russ had tucked in with one of my orders.  She gave me a fun red cork one and a grey fish leather one (that is the back of my pendant).  I wanted to do something bead embroidery wise with these but decided that the texture and fun metallic shiny bits showing through on the cork really didn't need any further embellishment.  The fabrics seemed too flimsy by themselves so I cut a smaller heart shape from a thin cardboard and glued in the middle of the two before sewing the brick stitch edge all around.  I think the way the edging beads look echoes the 8-bit style of the inspiration heart.  For added weight and interest I added a Czech glass teardrop dangle to the tip of the heart.  I kept it simple and just have plain chain at the back.

For the second necklace I played with a ceramic pendant with a flaming heart motif that I got in a mixed bead goody bag from Andrew Thornton in a destash.  (I don't know for sure who it's by... if you recognize the maker let me know!)  For as simple as my design actually is, it took a lot of playing with different beads and configurations to get it to where I was happy with it.  There's something about the teardrop beads flanking the pendant that makes me think of spread wings... especially when it's worn.  

Apparently I was in a necklace making mood this month because I made a third one!  I got this sweet swirly ceramic heart pendant from Michelle McCarthy of Firefly Design Studio in the mail just in time to make one more design.  For once I used the accent beads that came along with the pendant... adding in some Czech glass and satin finish German resin and brass accents.  

Now it's your turn!  Please add links to/photos of your own creations below.  I love seeing what everyone else is making too!  (I'm also really hoping that someone did something with the Jaws motif!) Check back on March 1st to see what Eric has in store for us next month!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Inspiration for the February 2021 Honey Do List

2021 marks the sixth 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!  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 was a cool 8-bit looking mosaic in London, along with some random graffiti and chain-link fence.  We saw a lot of cool street art on this leg of our England trip (pre-Covid of course) and this one jumped out at me.  This was taken with my phone, so not as great quality as some of my shots, but still fitting for February!  

The reveal date will be Monday, February 22nd.  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 February 22nd 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