Art Elements Theme of the Month :: Blue

 

The September Art Elements Theme of the Month is much more wide open than usual... it's all about the color blue!  

I knew that it was finally time to stop hoarding my pair of gorgeous blue jay feather charms from Artisticaos.  What challenge could be more perfect??  At first I thought I'd be able to pair the porcelain feathers wth some new dark blue moonglow lucite... but the two things were just fighting each other too much.  I had to come up with something else lightweight.  A lovely pair of dark blue and grey streaked polymer clay rounds from Humblebeads ended up being just the thing to complete the design.

I had already made up the little moonglow lucite links so I was determined to find something in my stash to pair with them.  Luckily, I had some pretty charms from Golem Design Studio that fit the bill!  (If you aren't familiar with Golem, their ceramic beads and pendants are all carved and glazed by hand.  Amazing!)  

Lastly, a piece that I shared in progress last month for the Mandala theme... but it certainly fits the blue theme perfectly as well!  So here it is all done!  The beautiful cobalt cab is by Jenny Davies-Reazor.  This piece got a little too big for me to be a pendant... so I added a pin back to make it a brooch.

Thanks for stopping by to see what I've been up to.  I hope you like my little foray into the color blue this month.    

Honey Do List September 2020

2020 marks the fifth 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 2020!  (And today marks the our 19th wedding anniversary!) 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 flower is from a trip to Florida, ages before the COVID times stopped us from traveling.  I went low key on it to make the flower itself pop.  I like contrast of colors in this one and hopefully it will speak to folks. 

I really think this flower shot turned out pretty cool.  It also reminded me of the mandala-like "Star Flower" enamel pendants that I've been having so much fun making with the last couple of months.  Alas, I didn't have any of those that felt right for this colorway.  No worries, I have plenty of other beads to paw through!  

I was really feeling the earring making love this month and did all my Honey Do making early in the month with three pairs of earrings in one day.  They all focus on the purple, green, and (to some degree) the white from Eric's inspiration photo.

I think I'm proudest of the first pair of earrings which was inspired by a fun tutorial that my friend Cassandra Spicer did for her bead store's Facebook page.  (I haven't had the pleasure of visiting Beads to Live By in person yet, but I've done some serious shopping damage with Cassandra online!!)  Anyway, if you're interested, you can check out her video tutorial HERE.  

I took the idea from Cassandra's project and played around with it using some fun ceramic charms by Lesley Watt.  I had to be pretty careful with my wire wrapping since I was using ceramic instead of metal components, but I got it to all play nice in the end.  (Seriously, the first one was perfect on the first try... the second took 4 tries I think.)  The picture really doesn't do these justice.

Next up, a fun little gathering of beads... a mix of lampwork glass (artist unknown), lucite, and Czech glass on sterling silver.  The bright colors just make me happy here!  And I have to say that I was glad to get to use some new moonglow lucite... it may be my new beady love.  

Last but not least, I did a play on a design I've done a few times with different beads.  I had one last pair of purple, green, and white striped lentils from Golem Design Studio so I figured that I needed to get them out of their drawer!  I used beads from a lovely seed bead mix to decorate the arched ear wires.  

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

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Art Elements Theme of the Month :: Mandalas

 

I'm a bit late getting my blog post together, but I still wanted to share what I've been making.  The August Theme of the Month for Art Elements blog and Facebook group was mandalas.  I knew that I had some fun and colorful options in my stash.  I barely scratched the surface, but it just felt good to be creating.

First up, a couple of pairs of earrings featuring fabulous enameled components by Cathleen Zaring of Blue Hare Art Wear.  She calls this style "star flower" but they seemed very mandala like to me!  This first pair may have opened me up to splurging on a bunch of lucite beads.  The beauty of lucite is that you can go chunky without adding much weight.  The enameled charms have some heft to them, so large gemstones or glass would just get too heavy.  But I digress.  This pair has some fun lucite rounds and Czech glass in colors to complement the charms.  

The second pair I made has similar colors but in vastly different proportions.  A much brighter pair for sure!   These have some vintage plastic squared barrels (for lack of a better descriptor) topped with Czech glass.  Turquoise and orange is one of my favorite color combos... so yummy!

I managed to complete a necklace this month too!  Yay!  I love this amazing double sided polymer clay focal by Staci Louise Smith.  I've been holding onto this baby since 2014 when I went to Bead Fest.  I knew I had to design something with this for the mandala theme... spotting the perfect cocoon beads by my friend Anna Pierson of Sagahus Components sealed the deal.  I added in some Dzi agate rounds in a great green and rusty orange-brown as well as Czech glass in a few different shapes and finishes.  I'm especially smitten with the crusty texture on the green rounds.  It's tough to see in the pictures but, trust me, it's awesome!

Seriously, you have to love a reversible pendant!  Both sides are super cool.  Staci gets a real depth to her colors with her polymer creations.

Last, but not least, a work in progress for you.  I needed some calming zen action, so I pulled out my drawer of cabachons and found this lovely cobalt blue butterfly cab by Jenny Davies-Reazor.  The repeating butterfly motif gave it a mandala feeling that I continued on with the surrounding rows of beads.  I'm going to need a quick trip to the bead store for some seed beads to complete my design, but I'm well on the way to a completed project.  I'm thinking this one is going to grow up to be a brooch just because of the size... but we shall see.

Thanks for stopping by to see what I've been up to!  Have a wonderful long weekend my friends!

Inspiration for the September 2020 Honey Do List

 2020 marks the fifth 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 2020!  (And today marks the our 19th wedding anniversary!) 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 flower is from a trip to Florida, ages before the COVID times stopped us from traveling.  I went low key on it to make the flower itself pop.  I like contrast of colors in this one and hopefully it will speak to folks. 

The reveal date will be Monday, September 21st.  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 September 21st 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!

And to wrap things up, here's one of my favorite pictures from our wedding day.  Love you more today than ever, Eric!