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.  

Honey Do List: December 2016

This 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... we're calling it the Honey Do List.  I know that I'm not the only one who loves a good design challenge, so I'm inviting folks to play along!  

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

This month's challenge shot comes from a really cool special light exhibit by Bruce Munro at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum.  I happily toted my tripod around and took hundreds of pictures while poor Sj tried to stay warm.  This particular photo was a long exposure where I slowly moved the camera to give the impression of motion.  I think the colors and sparkle in this shot will lead to some cool jewelry inspiration!

As much as I love this picture and was truly captivated by the light exhibit (especially this particular installation), I wasn't sure at first where I might go with this challenge.  Lucky for me, some fun components made by Anna Pierson of Saga Hus caught my eye while I was scrolling through my Facebook feed.  Anna has been selling her fun components over on her SagaHus Components Facebook group and does a lot of interesting things with fibers, wire, and beads.  I grabbed a few sets that caught my eye and eagerly awaited my package.

As predicted, some of the goodies that I bought from Anna truly were just the thing I needed for this month!  (And yes, I know some folks will think I cheated by buying something just for it...)  I had hoped to get two pairs done, but settled for one since I was in a time crunch.  I loved the way she added the beads along the wire wrapped silk "cocoons" and thought they captured the magic and movement of the light installation (if not the color).  I messily wire wrapped some little faceted black briolettes to hang from the bottom.  I'm a little bit in love with these!

Next up, a shoulder dusting pair!  I bought these fun links ages ago and thought they would be perfect to reflect the long "stalks" of the lights in the photo.  I added some fun ruby red Czech glass dangles to represent the bulb part of the installation.  They are sort of an upside down rendition of the photo.

My third pair was a complete last minute addition to this little collection.  I was digging for the beads in the last pair and found some fun shaped beads that reminded me of the shape of the bulb part of the lights and was certainly the right color.  So I whipped up one last pair for your enjoyment!

An InLinkz Link-up

get the InLinkz code

We're All Ears: December 2016

For the last We're All Ears challenge of the year over on the Earrings Everyday blog, Erin has once again challenged us to bring some order to the chaos of our craftermath!  What is "craftermath" you ask?  It's all the leftovers that get strewn around, buried, or otherwise abandoned after a creative making frenzy.  Thus, this year she's calling our challenge the Leftover Transformation Game!  

Because of the way I tend to work, and the fact that I am forced to clear off at least my beading work table once a month for a social gathering we host, I'm actually moderately good about putting extra or unwanted beads away at the end of each project.  That really cuts down on the true craftermath.  Where I get myself into much more trouble is not putting things away in the first place!  If something doesn't have an easy to locate/clearly defined home, it tends to linger either on one of my beading "landing zones" or, more often, gets shoved into one of my bead hiding places when I have to "clean up."  Don't believe me?  Let me show you the evidence... it's pretty damning...  Warning, the following images depict graphic disorganization and are not intended for an anal retentive audience.

A good deal of what's in my bead hidey holes are more recent purchases (including two brand new shipments that I haven't even opened to check, destash and bargain bundles) but there are things in here that I've had for more than a year... maybe more than two years... and I just haven't used or found a home for them yet.  I've also got a few partially finished class projects and bead kits hidden away.  Super embarrassing, but we all know that creating is WAY more fun than putting things away.

Now I had absolutely no delusions that I'm going to be able to clean up all these hoarded goodies before the We're All Ears reveal (or ever!), but I gave it a good try and at least dug through for some low hanging earring-making fruit.  With two shows in early December, a holiday party at my house, and company in town, I didn't get all that far and I didn't find some of the things I was expecting/hoping to uncover for the challenge.  But this is what I came up with:

I clearly didn't have everything I needed in my little bins, but I pulled extra beads and findings to round out my designs based on the goodies I did unearth from my mess.  Here's what I managed to make... the other items will have to wait for another day to become something.

The first pair that I made started with a pair of beads from an orphan strand that I bought from Firelily Glass and embarrassingly lives in the box they were shipped in inside the bowels of my cabinet.  (Don't judge me... I know exactly where they are!)  I also grabbed a pair of painted bead caps that had been sitting around for a while then added some Czech glass and plated druzy beads to the mix.  These have just the right amount of sparkle for me!

Moving onto another item from the category of "I bought it a million years ago and never put it away," I present you with two pairs featuring some little square pewter charms.  I think what happened is that these were smaller than I had expected (I often struggle with sizing when shopping online) and they just got pushed to the side.  Needing to get things organized, and still not having a great place to store these charms, I had no choice but to make something with them.  I added some glass beads, and voila!  Simple and sweet... yet I think the long ones look kind of fancy!

Other goodies I uncovered in my mess of "to be put away" items were some enameled bird charm pairs by Gardanne that I bought at Bead & Button this summer.  I've used all the other charms I got then, but these have languished for awhile.  These two pairs of earrings are another slight variation on a theme... using the same rhinestone rondelles and chain but different colored beads and charms.  Hopefully these will quickly fly away to new homes!

Thanks for stopping by to see my earring creations.  I certainly didn't get through everything that I pulled out (or make nearly as much as some folks... check that out over on the Earrings Everyday blog HERE) but at least I was able to get a few new things done.  I'm going to keep that little container handy and continue to work through its contents as time allows.  For now, I've got a couple of other challenges and a few Christmas presents to make so I've got to go get busy!

Inspired by Reading: Sabriel

This month's selection for the Inspired by Reading Book Club is a book that has long been a favorite of mine:  Sabriel by Garth Nix.  I was more than happy to re-read (re-listen, actually... the audio books for this series are read by the deliciously talented Tim Curry!) this book for the umpteenth time.  I actually want to work my way back through the whole series while Sabriel is still fresh in my mind... but I digress!  

Cover artwork by Leo and Diane Dillon

While this book is written for the young adult market, it is definitely geared more towards the upper end of that age spectrum than some of Garth Nix's more recent books.  Seeing as the main character and the beloved father she is trying to save are both necromancers, there's plenty of darkness and death in this book.  Per my usual tendencies, I don't want to give too much away... you'll just have to trust me and give this one a try if you are looking for an engrossing fantasy novel to read!

When picking out the cover artwork to share in my post, I had to go in search of my favorite (and I believe the original) cover by famed artists and illustrators Leo and Diane Dillon.  This amazing team have done many of my favorite book covers... you can see many of their works arranged by the author or organization the artwork was created for HERE.  I adore the richness of detail that they bring to their book covers... and this one is no exception.

Due to a time crunch with upcoming holiday shows and other obligations and social plans on the calendar, I kept things pretty quick and simple this month for my creation.  I wish I had more time to delve more deeply here... but that's how things go sometimes.  I took my inspiration from Sabriel's garment that she takes on when she gets geared up at her father's house.  The traditional symbol and garb of the Abhorsen features silver keys on a field of blue.  I whipped up a quick pair of earrings using one of my Vintaj embossing folders with a pattern of keys (and gears... although I was able to pretty much avoid those in my placement of the rectangular blanks).  A coat of blue paint, a little buffing to bring out the silver under layer of the Arte Metal blanks, followed by a coating of silvery tinted glaze on the top and I was ready to attach some silver plated key charms!  Voila... Sabriel's earrings!

Thanks for checking out my latest book club creation!

December 2016 Inspiration for the Honey Do List

This 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... we're calling it the Honey Do List.  I know that I'm not the only one who loves a good design challenge, so I'm inviting folks to play along!  

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

This month's challenge shot comes from a really cool special light exhibit by Bruce Munro at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum.  I happily toted my tripod around and took hundreds of pictures while poor Sj tried to stay warm.  This particular photo was a long exposure where I slowly moved the camera to give the impression of motion.  I think the colors and sparkle in this shot will lead to some cool jewelry inspiration!

The reveal date will be Monday, December 19th.  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 December 19th 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 out 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!

If you want to know more about the Bruce Munro exhibit, check it out HERE.  If you're local, I really recommend getting tickets to see it while it's here.  It was fun and magical to wander through the Arboretum at night being mesmerized by the lights!

Art Elements November Component of the Month

It's been a little while since I've been chosen to receive the Component of the Month from the Art Elements (formerly the Art Jewelry Elements) Blog.  I was excited to learn that I would be one of the lucky ones to get to play with one of these amazing ceramic donuts from Kristie Roeder of Artisan Clay!  Kristie uses recycled glass that gets fused to her pieces during kiln firing and the results are amazing!  I didn't have a clear idea of what I might want to make when I entered, but I knew that I would figure it out once I had mine in my hot little hands.    

I got the one on the bottom left!

Now, I cannot tell a lie... the piece that I received was a bit outside my color comfort zone.  If you've followed my jewelry journey, you probably already know that pinks and purples don't show up super often in my designs.  But getting outside our normal ruts is part of what makes it a challenge!  I was excited to get one with two loops instead of just one... that helped my ideas gel a bit.  Per my usual creating style, I began pulling out all manner of pink and purple beads that might play nice with the focal.  Slowly I narrowed things down and started to formulate a plan.

Possible beads for a couple of projects.

Before we get on to my finished piece, I have to apologize for the quality of my photos.  It's been grey and foggy here since I completed my necklace making good photos a big challenge!  I promise that it looks much better in person!  I started by wire-wrapping the wire loops on either end of my donut with small gauge pewter colored craft wire to visually bulk them up and add some texture.  (It's hard to see in my photos, but I like the effect it gives in person.)

I was torn between stringing and wire wrapped links, but went with stringing in the end.  I used a mix of vintage and modern glass beads, pewter, and lavender and cape amethyst beads for this long necklace.  I'm really happy with how the beaded dangles turned out too!  So much so that I think I'll whip up a pair of earrings to echo the flower bead unit in the middle.    

Thanks for stopping by to see what I've been up to.  Hop on over to the Art Elements blog to see what everyone else made this month with Kristie's other pieces HERE or use the links below!


Guest Designers:
Sarajo Wentling  (You are here)
Lola Surwillo
Beti Horvath
Kate Kemp
ArtE Team
Susan Kennedy
Lesley Watt
Claire Fabian
Jenny Davies-Reazor
Jen Cameron

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!

Simplicity

In an effort to get prepared for my upcoming holiday shows, I've been putting in a lot of time at my bead table.  While my favorite things to make are earrings and one of a kind necklaces with art beads, I want to make sure that I have a wide variety of styles and price points for everyone's gift giving needs!  I thought I'd share what I've been working on to fill the need for more simple styles today.

For this first series of necklaces I wanted to keep things super simple and let the gemstones shine.  Each necklace features one lovely gemstone pendant on either silver plated, copper plated, or brass chain and they are all about 20 inches long.  At under $30, I'm hoping that these will be popular with gift givers this holiday season!

I've also been playing with the idea of making chain tassels to go with colorful focal beads.  Here are two that I made this past week with almond shaped ceramic beads by Golem Design Studio.

I decided to revisit a best selling design too and whipped up a couple more large dragonfly necklaces with gemstones.  I've had these two painted for a while but finally got around to finishing the pieces.  I probably won't do more of these until spring unless I get a special order.

Lastly on the simplicity front, I'm working on making more embossed medallion necklaces.  Full disclosure, this picture is from the fall and all but one of this batch have sold but I'm making more this week!  I make these in 20 and 28 inch chain lengths.

Thanks for stopping by to check out my experiments with simplicity.  I hope that you all have a happy and safe Thanksgiving this year.  Let us embrace the simple things that mean so much!

Honey Do List: November 2016

This 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... we're calling it the Honey Do List.  I know that I'm not the only one who loves a good design challenge, so I'm inviting folks to play along!  

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

This month's challenge piece is an amazing sunrise just outside of our housing development.  I did some crazy photoshop action to turn it into a tiny world surrounded by Saturn-like rings.  I thought the effect was fun and the colors should lend themselves well to a jewelry making challenge.  Good luck!

I've always loved the colors and cloud patterns of sunrise and sunset... nature has the most amazing paintbox!  When Eric told me what he was up to with his Little Planets photo challenge, I was excited to see what he came up with and it did not disappoint.  While I'm more of a fan of natural, unadulterated photos, this effect was really cool.  I love the soft colors and the silhouettes of the tree limbs against the sky!

I was in an earring making mood for this challenge again this month!  I had some perfect beads in my stash in just the right colors.  First up, I grabbed a pair of Firelily lampwork glass beads from a strand of orphan beads I snagged a while back.  I felt like the magic colors of this borosilicate lampwork glass really reflected the colors of the photo... complete with black spots near the surface that remind me of the trees!  I really wanted the earrings to be a little bit longer so I added a jump ring between the beads and the ear wires... but that seemed too stark and boring so I added a few decorative jump rings with seed beads in two different colors and shapes on them.

To play off the the silhouettes of the trees, I picked out a pair of Green Girl pewter dragonfly wings (at least that what's what they look like to me!) and paired them with some sweet Humblebeads disks.   I guess the lacy outlines of the wings, remind me of the way the bare tree branches intertwine.  I added some black and magenta Czech glass beads nestled into a leafy little bead cap on the top.

An InLinkz Link-up

get the InLinkz code

We're All Ears: November 2016

Miss Erin always finds the most delicious things to inspire our earring making... this month that is true both literally and figuratively!  She found a fascinating video of hand crank candy machines from the 1800s that a Tallahassee, Florida candy company has restored and put back into use.  So cool!  And I love the company's name: Public Displays of Confection!

A big ol' pile of the Victorian Nectar Drops

I was inspired by the color of the Victorian Nectar Drops, the cool vintage machinery, and the idea of the pressed shapes achieved through this candy making process.  I ended up with three pairs of earrings this month!

First up a pair that is all about the golden amber color of the Nectar drops!  I thought the Czech glass looked a little like the shapes that rolled out of that machine.

Next is another pair that features beads with a cool pattern that I could imagine being used with drop candies.  The color is darker and less true to the inspiration, but I used gold plated and filled findings to bring in the amber tones.

My last pair is also my favorite.  I'm finally making use of some enameled gears made by C-Koop Beads that I've been hoarding forever.  I wanted to tap into how cool that machinery is and the gears are my way of representing that.  I added some yellow vintage glass beads (thank you, Allegory Gallery!) that remind me of gum drops to the bottom of the gears.  And of course, I used brass findings because the brass rollers in the machine!

I hope you enjoyed the candy-inspired ear candy I made this month!  These will be at my Holiday Open House on December 4th.  You can check out what everyone else was inspired to make over at Earrings Everyday HERE.

New Fall Jewelry

The creative bug has bitten me hard lately with the desire to make fall-inspired jewelry!  I've been busy playing with beads both new and old... and trying to take some breaks to actually put things away and organize so I don't have so many pretties getting lost in the chaos of my studio!

As I'm gearing up for two holiday shows the first full week of December, I thought this would be a good time to share a few of the goodies I've been working on.  I plan on having all of these at my Holiday Open House on Sunday, December 4th (check out the Facebook Event HERE) and, if they are still around, the Minnesota Women's Art Festival on Saturday, December 10th.

Let me start out with some little birdie necklaces that are just dripping with art bead goodness!  I just got a few of the amazing new bird beads from Heather Powers of Humblebeads and couldn't wait to make something with them.  I've always loved Heather's solid color birds, but these are truly swoon-worthy with the rich and colorful designs she's added in using her magical abilities.  Using some design tips that Heather shared, I sat down to play with my new goodies and make some stacked necklaces.  Both necklaces are on long chain with twigs by Diane Hawkey.  The one on the left features a leaf by Tracee Dock of The Classic Bead and the one on the right has an oak leaf made by Michelle McCarthy of Firefly Design Studio.

Next up, let's continue on with the Humblebeads theme.  I whipped up a little pair of owl charms (love these little hoots!!) made by Heather by adding some matte sunset dumortierite, Czech glass, and brass.  The pair on the right features some awesome rusty, crusty polymer clay daggers made by Heather's talented husband Jess Contreras (aka Mr. Humblebeads!)

In the process of trying to get my beads organized and (a little bit more) under control, I found some pairs of little oak leaves made from dyed coconut leaves that I picked up from Allegory Gallery a couple of years ago.  Now I'm wishing that I had grabbed more of them because these earrings turned out so cute!  They are colorful and super light.  I'm so tempted to keep the orange pair, but I'll let them out into the world to find a happy new home!

Thanks for stopping by to check out my newest jewelry designs.  Now I'm going back to my bead table to get back to work creating more designs for my upcoming shows!

Art Bead Scene: November 2016

I'm kind of smitten with this month's Art Bead Scene challenge inspiration.  Who doesn't love owls?!?  This Art Deco style owl by Lee Lawrie is located on the door to the reading room on the fifth floor of the John Adams Building of the Library of Congress in Washington D.C.  You can read more about the artist and the artwork over on the ABS blog HERE.  As a librarian who has travelled to D.C. a number of times, I'm embarrassed to say that I've never visited the Library of Congress... I'm going to have to rectify that situation on my next trip!

Owl above door to center reading room on fifth floor of the 

Library of Congress’s John Adams Building, Washington, D.C., 1930's

by Lee Lawrie

I don't know if anyone else had this response, but this owl immediately made me think of Bubo the Owl from the 1981 classic movie Clash of the Titans.  (Tell me I'm not alone!)

Bubo!

But I digress... Onto what this owl art inspired me to make this month!  I knew I had a number of artisan made owl beads, pendants, and charms in my collection... but since I have things mostly arranged by color, I didn't realize just how many that I had accumulated until I started pulling things out to make some design decisions.  I counted 4 different Green Girl pewter owls alone!  

First up, I had to make use of one of those Green Girl pieces.  (I'm doing something with another one but that will be for a different challenge... stay tuned!)  In keeping with the color palette of the inspiration artwork, I paired it with a lovely lentil bead from Humblebeads that includes a mix of gold, copper, and dark grey-browns.  To give the long chain visual interest, I wire wrapped pyrite and gold colored druzy links.  I think the finished product is perfect for fall!

I wish these pics were sharper... They look great in my photo editor!

I decided to use a porcelain owl pendant by Andrew Thornton for a second necklace this month.  The colors don't really relate to the inspiration, but the owl was too cute not to use... and the copper and teal color combo just makes me happy.  I loved how this new chain looks with the pendant and wanted to give it a chance to shine so I went asymmetrical this time.  I made wrapped links using turquoise, bronzite, Czech glass, and Swarovski pearls on one side and simply added some Czech glass dangles to the chain on the other.

Thanks for stopping by and checking out my newest hoot owls!

Artisans Create Together Inspiration Challenge: October 2016

There's a new group on Facebook called Artisans Create Together that I just learned about and I was thrilled to discover that they do a monthly inspiration challenge (actually they do two, as you'll see below!)  And you know how I adore a challenge!

Fall is without a doubt my favorite season and I enjoy all the luscious colors that come with it.  While I enjoyed both of the October Inspiration color palettes, I found this group too late to get much completed by their deadline.  The combination of turquoise (or teal) with orange has long been a favorite for fall... or anytime really... so I had to start there.  In fact, I had so little time for this challenge that despite pulling tons of turquoise and orange beads and focals onto my bead mat, I only managed to complete and photograph one set of earrings before the deadline.  Here is that first pair:

Enameled leaves by Gardanne, Carnelian, & Czech Glass

As you can see below, my table was still covered in an embarrassment of beady riches arranged into half thought out projects.  I couldn't just walk away and waste all that effort... and I certainly didn't want to have to put all those beads away!  What choice did I have but to keep on creating with one of my favorite color combinations??  I had to share with you the rest of the goodies that I made.

Yup, this is pretty much how I always work.  I'm incapable of working on just one thing at a time!

It made sense to start by continuing with the little earrings that I had started (but not finished) for the challenge.  Once I added my favorite Czech glass flowers above an orange pair of Gardanne enameled oak leaves, I knew that it was a design that had potential without the charms too!  Before I knew it I had whipped up these three pairs of earrings:

With some things cleared off my mat, it was time to move on to some necklaces!  First up, a necklace featuring one of the polymer clay pendants that I made from my very own mold at the Inspired by Nature Retreat.  (You can read more about my exploits at the retreat HERE.)  Lots of Czech glass and a little bit of copper make up this little number!  I'm looking forward to using the rest of my creations from this project at the retreat!

Next up, I moved onto a gorgeous birch leaf pendant by the talented Mary Harding that I've had squirreled away for a while.  This piece had a brighter, more yellow-toned orange that just made me happy.  For this necklace, my brain wanted to go asymmetrical and I went along with it!  Once again I used a variety of Czech glass beads in turquoise and orange tones but added in some carnelian and vintage plastic as well.  I had fun playing with the leaf motif from the pendant... adding in some Czech glass maple leaf beads and a brass beech leaf charm.  This one is hard to let go of... I adore the finished product!

Lastly, I wanted to make something with a Vintaj brass pendant that I had painted a little while ago.  When I started adding color I was planning to stick to shades of orange but on a whim I dabbed on a bit of turquoise making it perfect for this challenge!  Since I had been doing a lot of stringing, I decided to switch things up and make beaded links for this one in a collection of Czech beads.

Thanks for stopping by and checking out my little collection of turquoise and orange jewelry!  I'll be taking most of these designs into Unearthed Arts this week so there will be some pops of orange in my display just in time for the annual D.E.A.R. Hunting event this Saturday!