Sunday, December 5, 2021

Muffin Tin Design Inspiration: Holiday 2021 Edition

 


From time to time I've participated in a muffin tin challenge or, in this case, a create along.  The idea is basically to get those creative juices going by taking a muffin tin or other container, and putting the elements for a jewelry piece in each cup so that you can easily grab and create!  Above you'll find my muffin tin the way it looked when I started.  I have to admit that in several cases working on one of my legitimate muffin tin projects took me off on tangential projects, but I'm going to keep this post to just what came out of my muffin cups!

As the timing for this was perfect for a holiday gift show that I'm about to do this coming weekend at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, a lot of what I put in my tin have a Christmas-y feel to them... or at least a festive winter theme.  (You can find out more about this December Gift Market HERE.)  This was great to get a nice chunk of new designs ready to go!  If these designs don't find new owners next weekend I'll add them to either Unearthed Arts or the Carver County Arts Consortium gift shop the following week.


This first chunk of designs is clearly all about the upcoming Christmas holiday!  The top three pairs all feature upcycled tin discs from my friend Anna Pierson of SagaHus.  The red and white striped acrylic beads in several of the designs are so much fun and make me think of peppermint candies... and now I want a candy cane!  On the bottom I have some fun holly leaves from Gardanne Beads that I paired with Czech glass "berries."  And then there are some holly leaf and berry ceramic charms from Golem Design Studio with red Italian glitter resin and Czech glass.  I hope that these help make a holly jolly Christmas for someone!


Next up a fun little pin with a gingerbread man charm by Blue Hare with acrylic and Czech glass dangles.  I had two of these little guys so when this first one sold I made a second that I haven't taken a picture of yet... he'll go with me this weekend.  The earrings are made with links from a broken bracelet a friend gave me a while back.  A fun way to repurpose!


This last set is more of a random assortment of earrings.  Half of them had been sitting in my muffin tin since the last time I attempted a muffin tin challenge.  Yay for finally getting something made with languishing components!  The top left pair are more charms from Blue Hare with luscious Czech glass and moon glow lucite.  On the right I've got some lovely moon and star charms from Soul Relica that I paired with faceted labradorite and crystal.  On the bottom I've got some ceramic peacock charms with polymer clay discs from Humblebeads, painted brass bead caps, and Czech glass.  And last but not least my very favorite pair from the whole inspiration challenge.... fabulous enameled charms from Gardanne paired with some amazing corrugated vintage brass beads.

Thanks for stopping by to see what I've been up to the last few weeks!  If you're local, maybe I'll see you Friday or Saturday at the Arboretuem!

Wednesday, November 10, 2021

October 2021 Honey Do List

Keeping to our normal schedule has continued to be a bit of a challenge... but only one day late on the reveal!   We had a ton of travel on the books already... and then my mom passed away unexpectedly.  It's been a month, y'all.  

As most of you know, 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: 


While in Chicago for our friend's wedding, I dragged my camera along and made Sj stop every 3 minutes in our wanderings to take pictures.  I was impressed with how much street art was around the city: murals, tags, etc.  I really liked this particular image painted on a wooden fence.  The colors and flowers should be a nice monthly challenge!

While I had tons of good stuff spread around my bead mat, I only managed to finish one piece of jewelry this time.  There's still a chance I'll circle back and get something else made, but I wanted to get this post up without any further delay.  

I had a few different ceramic components from Golem Design Studio that really fit the challenge this month.  Needing to also make more bracelets for a couple of upcoming shows, I started (and thus far, finished) with a multi-strand bracelet using one of the lentils as the focal.  


Editing to add one more design I managed to finish WAY late....


I had this partially laid out when I ran out of time.  It took a bit, but I did circle back to finish the necklace design to go with the bracelet I had already done.  Again, I've got a lovely ceramic pendant from Golem Design Studio.  I've strung it with a variety of Czech glass as well as some star cut matte quartz crystal.

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 soon to see what Eric has in store for us this month!  

Sorry for the short post.  Hopefully Eric will have a new inspiration photo by the end of the week... we'll see how that goes!  Thanks for bearing with us!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

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Monday, October 11, 2021

Inspiration for the October 2021 Honey Do List

Clearly we've been having a bit of an issue keeping to our normal schedule around here.  Better late than never though and we've pushed back the reveal date this time to compensate.  The biggest issue we're having is that Eric's computer is maxed out on storage and he has to make more room before he can download new pictures.  We need to get that figured out ASAP.  

As most of you know, 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: 


While in Chicago for our friend's wedding, I dragged my camera along and made Sj stop every 3 minutes in our wanderings to take pictures.  I was impressed with how much street art was around the city: murals, tags, etc.  I really liked this particular image painted on a wooden fence.  The colors and flowers should be a nice monthly challenge!

The reveal date will be Monday, November 8th.  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 November 8th and join the fun!  I'll leave the link up open for a while... so you have plenty of time to add your links.  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

Monday, September 27, 2021

Honey Do List September 2021

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


I call this one "Unhinged."  This was a random shot in a small town in Southern Minnesota, as we ventured into an alleyway.  You never know where the inspiration will strike!  I love the colors of moss and lichen, as well as the textures of old wood.  Sorry about missing last month, but we are back!

As I was searching back through my blog for a pair of earrings that I made for an old We're All Ears challenge, I discovered that this isn't the first September that Eric has given us a lichen themed Honey Do!  September 2019 was lichen inspired too with some ferns thrown in!  I was super excited when I saw the photo Eric picked this time around as I love the old wood, lichen and moss, and the amazing old hinge.  Hopefully my designs do it justice!


The first thing that I grabbed were a pair of brass circle charms that had been given a splatter paint effect by an unknown artist.  (I got them as a freebie somewhere along the line so apologies for not having a name here!)  Over the last couple of years I've kept coming back and looking at them but never got so far as bringing them to my bead mat.  This time, I knew that I had the perfect beads to go with them... some fun patinated look acrylic melons.  I grabbed my supplies and whipped up this first pair of earrings before any moss could gather on my rolling stone of creativity!  


Next up, a colored pair of pewter charms from Inviciti caught my eye as feeling a little weathered and lichen-y. (I'm sure that's a word, right??)  I paired them with some coordinating Czech glass and a fun wavy spacer.  


I didn't want to leave the hinges out of my creative endeavors so I had to whip up one last pair of earrings with some rustic pewter charms from Inviciti that reminded me of the hinge shape.  This time I went with some fun clear acrylic beads with streaks of silver and black as well as crystal spacers and faceted pyrite.  

I had so many other ideas that I wanted to explore this month, but with prepping for me big 3 day show that was this past weekend, I just ran out of time to explore everything that I wanted to.  

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 in early October to see what Eric has in store for us next month!  Luckily we've been exploring a bit more with the camera in tow, so I'm guessing he'll have some fresh inspiration for us!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

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Monday, September 6, 2021

Inspiration for the September 2021 Honey Do List

Happy Labor Day to my friends here in the US!  After taking a little break in August, we're finally back with a new challenge this month... albeit a tiny bit late.  As most of you know, 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: 


I call this one "Unhinged."  This was a random shot in a small town in Southern Minnesota, as we ventured into an alleyway.  You never know where the inspiration will strike!  I love the colors of moss and lichen, as well as the textures of old wood.  Sorry about missing last month, but we are back!

The reveal date will be Monday, September 27th.  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 September 27th and join the fun!  I'll leave the link up open for a while... so you have plenty of time to add your links.  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

I'm off to the bead table now.  I haven't been spending nearly enough time there lately.  Wishing you all a happy and safe rest of this holiday weekend.

Monday, July 26, 2021

Honey Do List July 2021

Happy Monday!  Today's the day for the reveal of the July Honey Do List!  How are my creative peeps doing?  I feel like I slow down a bit.  I just want to enjoy the nice days we have while we have them in Minnesota.  I spend a lot more time on the deck and patio with a good book and a cold beverage.  I should take my bead embroidery out more, but that's just where my brain has been.  Anyway, I hope that some of you were inspired to create and play along with us this month!

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


Alright this month I went with a shot that is less about color and more about icons and motifs.  This was from our trip to Edinburgh, Scotland before the Covid days.  Everywhere in that city were amazing bits of architecture and little embellishments like this one.  Have a great month!

I'm going to admit right up front that I was not as prolific as I would have liked this month.  We've had a busier social calendar than I've gotten used to this past year and a half including a spree of activities around my birthday... also, as I mentioned above, I just have been feeling like sitting and reading outside.  

I did make a trio of earrings that are all variations on a theme.  The iron work made me think of various Vintaj filigree items in my stash.  I had a bag of little connectors hanging out in the mess on my bead table that became my jumping off place.  In looking for drops to hang from the bottom of the connectors I gravitated towards some teardrops in the reds and golds of the leaves in the photo.  


My last pair of earrings is actually the first idea that came to me but the last that I made.  I seriously just have to be in the right frame of mind to deal with wire-wrapping top drilled beads!  I wanted to play off the leaf shapes in the inspiration photo with the drops on this pair... it was an added bonus that I had some Czech glass leaves with a metallic burgundy color to them.


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 in early August to see what Eric has in store for us next month!  

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Sunday, July 4, 2021

Inspiration for the July 2021 Honey Do List

Happy Fourth of July to my friends here in the US!  Sorry for being so late again.  I blame Eric, but he did have a busy and stressful week at work last week so maybe we can him some slack.  As most of you know, 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:


Alright this month I went with a shot that is less about color and more about icons and motifs.  This was from our trip to Edinburgh, Scotland before the Covid days.  Everywhere in that city were amazing bits of architecture and little embellishments like this one.  Have a great month!

The reveal date will be Monday, July 26th.  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 July 26th 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

I'm off to the bead table now.  I haven't been spending nearly enough time there lately.  Wishing you all a happy and safe rest of this holiday weekend.

Wednesday, June 30, 2021

Honey Do List June 2021

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


Your inspiration for the month (sorry so late!) are these rare Minnesotan Yellow Lady Slippers from our trip up north last week.  These also mark the first time I've used my camera for anything other than taking pictures of my painted miniatures in the past year.  I'm a little rusty, but it felt good to get back to making some art!  Now it's your turn!

I really had grand plans of being slightly more productive for this month's Honey Do, but life got a little busy with all sorts of things including a fabulous visit from my niece and her partner from Seattle.  Sometimes that's just how it goes!  Luckily I got one pair of earrings made early in the month.  

The color palette for this month's lady slipper photo inspiration was a bit challenging for me (sorry, MN Gophers fans... the maroon and gold doesn't do too much for me!)  I had just gotten a nice selection of one of a kind Inviciti charms from a de-stash event including one pair that was just what I needed for this challenge.  I paired the charms with some honey shimmer Czech glass leaves and deep burgundy crystals.  


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 in early July to see what Eric has in store for us next month!  

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Tuesday, June 8, 2021

Inspiration for the June 2021 Honey Do List

We're super late this month, but the good news is that Eric actually got the chance to take some new photos over a very long Memorial Day holiday trip!  Yay!  As most of you know, 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:


Your inspiration for the month (sorry so late!) are these rare Minnesotan Yellow Lady Slippers from our trip up north last week.  These also mark the first time I've used my camera for anything other than taking pictures of my painted miniatures in the past year.  I'm a little rusty, but it felt good to get back to making some art!  Now it's your turn!
 
The reveal date will be Monday, June 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 June 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

Monday, May 24, 2021

Honey Do List May 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 month I went back in time to an amazing trip Sarajo and I took to Portland.  This enormous thistle (or artichoke) was in the beautiful yard of our temporary home.  I had no idea that artichokes could be so amazing, spiky, and downright ancient looking!  So here is a fun challenge for you: colors, shapes, flowers...

These artichoke flowers were truly amazing... and really prehistoric looking.  The AirB&B had a cool garden that was so private.  I kept wanting to look for the dinosaurs hanging out with these crazy plants!  

The colors in Eric's photo were really inspiring for me and were the main focus of this pair of earrings.  The green of these polymer clay matchstick charms from Humblebeads as well as their leafy pattern was pretty perfect for this challenge.  For the flowers on top of the charms I went with the lightest colors from the bloom... the cream and palest pinks.  Copper wire and copper colored niobium ear wires complete the look.


Next up I made a gemstone filled bracelet featuring a lovely flower link in fine pewter by Green Girl Studios.  While I know that the link isn't meant to be an artichoke or thistle, it has a similar spiky shape to the petals.  I took some liberties with the colors here, going with paler more muted shades.  I strung faceted Ametrine, rose quartz, aventurine, and cool prehnite barrels on one side of the focal and amethyst and rose quartz nugget links on the other.  I'm pretty happy with the overall effect of this one!


I had a couple of other designs partially thought out but I ran out of time.  We'll see if I circle back to them or not, lol.  

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 in early June to see what Eric has in store for us next month!  (I'm pretty sure we'll be late because we're going up North for a few days... but hopefully that will get Eric super inspired!)

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Sunday, May 2, 2021

Inspiration for the May 2021 Honey Do List

We're a day late again... we were too busy enjoying a gorgeous sunny day in the low 80's for Eric to spend time deciding on a new inspiration photo for us yesterday!  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 month I went back in time to an amazing trip Sarajo and I took to Portland.  This enormous thistle (or artichoke) was in the beautiful yard of our temporary home.  I had no idea that artichokes could be so amazing, spiky, and downright ancient looking!  So here is a fun challenge for you: colors, shapes, flowers...

The reveal date will be Monday, May 24th.  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 May 24th 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

Monday, April 26, 2021

Honey Do List April 2021

Happy Monday, everyone!  It's reveal day for the Honey Do List!  Who else is excited??  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:

Hey everyone!  Here is a little tongue-in-cheek challenge for the Easter month.  I took this picture in Pacific City, Oregon several years ago.  Our hotel sold bags of rabbit chow to guests and we had to try this out.  Soon Sj had "wild" black rabbits eating out of her hands.  Welcome to Spring and have a great month!

Feeding all those black bunnies in Pacific City was so much fun!  What a great memory from a fun trip.  I honestly didn't believe the lady at the hotel when she told us if we shook the bag of food that the rabbits would come running... but she was totally right!

Anyways, seeing at the Art Elements theme for April is also rabbit/hare focused, it's a good thing that I had a decent amount of interesting art beads to choose from that could work for either challenge.  


Clockwise from top left: White Swan Studio, Lesley Watt, Jess Contreras, Round Rabbit, Andrew Thornton, Andrew Thornton

I haven't gotten as much made as I had hoped this month, but I still have a few more days to get some more designs finished for Art Elements.  I've got partial ideas for two of the remaining pendants... so we'll see how quickly things come together.  For now, let me show you the two necklaces that I did create!

I kicked things off with a lovely hare pendant by Lesley Watt that I've been hoarding (along with two of it's cousins if I'm honest) forever.  I strung an asymmetrical design that features some lovely matte Czech glass rounds, matte cuprite, cultured sea glass, and Vintage German resin.  To pull in the color of the pendant's flower charm, I added a few dark red touches... Czech glass flowers and rondelles as well as some deep colored faceted garnets.


Next up, I veered a little bit from realistic bunnies into the wonderful and weird world of the jackalope!  The adorable little polymer clay pendant is by the multi-talented Andrew Thornton.  To give it more heft, I wire-wrapped a fun striped Czech glass bead with some brass nuggets.  Still in a stringing mood, I used a combination of matte jade, bronzite, agate, wood, and Czech glass.  


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

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Sunday, April 4, 2021

Inspiration for the April 2021 Honey Do List

Welcome (a little late) to April and finally some warmer weather here in Minnesota!  And a very Happy Easter to those of you who celebrate it!  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:


Hey everyone!  Here is a little tongue-in-cheek challenge for the Easter month.  I took this picture in Pacific City, Oregon several years ago.  Our hotel sold bags of rabbit chow to guests and we had to try this out.  Soon Sj had "wild" black rabbits eating out of her hands.  Welcome to Spring and have a great month!

Apparently Eric was in sync with the editors over at the Art Elements blog who also chose rabbits/hares as their theme of the month.  So if you're doing that challenge, feel free to play along with us here too!

The reveal date will be Monday, April 26th.  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 April 26th 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

Thursday, April 1, 2021

Allegory Gallery Design Challenge: Fairy Garden Reveal

Happy April!  It's not an April Fool's joke that today's the day for the Allegory Gallery Fairy Garden design challenge kit!  After a very long hiatus from their design challenges this is the second kit in a row that I couldn't resist grabbing.


I was really smitten with Ann Schroeder's use of the lentil beads from the Dark Rainbow kit last month and that inspired my first necklace design a bit.  (You can see Ann's designs on her blog HERE.)  When I saw Andrew Thornton's mystery component I immediately knew that those lentils would work with this kit just as well!  I started playing around with different combinations of the larger beads from the kit and eventually came up with a design that I was happy with.  Almost every bead in this design was from the kit... the only exceptions were the lentils, seed bead spacers, and two other Czech glass beads.  

Of course, every time I get a kit like this I immediately look for cool bead pairs with earrings in mind.  Here are the ear bobs I whipped up this time!  I couldn't be more smitten with the cute little pale purple lady bugs in the pair on the left.  It felt like a no-brainer to pair them with the purple flower beads for some fun dangles.  The middle pair was super quick... I just attached the crystal teardrops to some fun Art Deco style connectors.  The pair on the right started with the green flowers.  I built a little dangle with them and some of the other small beads from the mix and then found a perfect pair of disk beads from Humblebeads to go with it.  

I never really know how to deal with dagger and petal shaped beads.  Since there was a nice little collection of them in the bead blend I challenged myself to play with them for once.  I strung them on a piece of wire with seed beads in between for a delicate little focal bib.  


I was about ready to move along and put away the rest of the kit away for the moment to move onto some things that I needed to deal with this week.... but then I took another look at some of the larger beads from the luxury bead blend included with the kit.  I started playing around with them and came up with a pleasing arrangement... now to find a focal to go with it.  Now I don't know about you, but this is 100% the opposite of how I normally design.  I came up with a few fun contenders but in the end chose a sweet polymer clay moth from Humblebeads.  I added a little bit of leafy chain underneath the pendant for a fun effect.  This may be my favorite piece this time around!  I may still need to adjust the length a bit but at least I could get a picture.  (Memo to myself... this is why prefer open link chain.)


Thanks for stopping by to see my latest creations!  


Monday, March 29, 2021

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.

Monday, March 22, 2021

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!

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