Tuesday, September 26, 2023

September 2023 Honey Do List

2023 marks the eighth 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!  (Y'all, time really does fly!!)  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 folks!  This month I decided to try something a little different for the challenge: fabrics!  On a recent trip to Denver we visited some old friends from my High School at their fabric shop, Treelotta, and I decided to take some pictures of the cool fabrics and colorful quilting supplies.  Here is one of the shots I took there.  Go for colors, or flowers, or both this month!

As soon as I saw this month's photo I knew one of the things I had to create with... another fabulous pendant by Sarah Kandell of Slate Studios Supply.  But first, in true Sj form, I made a pair of earrings!  Not cone flowers per se, but I still thought the fun little charms from Golem Design Studio would work for the challenge.  Also, I'm in making mode trying to get as much new jewelry made as possible before my first big Fall art show!  These were an unusual for me color but I just happened to have the perfect Czech glass beads in my stash to pair with them!


Now for my show-stopper necklace!  I've had this cone flower pendant pulled out from Sarah's other beads for more than a year but haven't gotten around to actually making something with it.  But now's the time!  I made links with Czech glass, carnelian, amazonite, and vintage brass with brass chain at the back.  I really love this bold piece and hope it finds it's perfect owner.


Since I was in show prep mode, I kept on making earrings with some other artisan charms.  A pair with some peachy pink flowers from Happy Fish paired with vintage brass and Czech glass rondelles.  


To keep the party going, I also whipped up a pair with some floral charms with gold accents that I picked up from Diane Hawkey at the Whole Bead Show in Milwaukee in June.  Fun pink acrylic beads with gold stripes were the perfect pairing with accents of Czech glass and brass to round things out.


Now it's your turn!  
Please add links to/photos of your own creations below.  I love seeing what everyone else is making too.  Just to let you know, we're going to be taking the month off in October as we head to the Czech Republic for some beady adventures.  We'll be back in November with a new challenge though!


You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Saturday, September 2, 2023

Inspiration for the September 2023 Honey Do List

2023 marks the eighth 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!  (Y'all, time really does fly!!)  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 folks!  This month I decided to try something a little different for the challenge: fabrics!  On a recent trip to Denver we visited some old friends from my High School at their fabric shop, Treelotta, and I decided to take some pictures of the cool fabrics and colorful quilting supplies.  Here is one of the shots I took there.  Go for colors, or flowers, or both this month!

The reveal date will be Monday, September 25th.  To make it super easy for you to participate and share your creations, I'll set up an Inlinkz link up so folks can add their blogs or links as they are ready.  Just stop by my blog starting on September 25th and join the fun!  I'll leave the link up open for a while... so you have plenty of time to add your links.  (Last month's is still open... check it our HERE.) No blog?  No worries!  Feel free to send me a picture of your creation and some brief comments and I'll happily share in my blog post.  You can reach me at sjdesignsjewelry@gmail.com  The more the merrier, so I hope you'll play along with me this month!