Honey Do List September 2019

This is the fourth 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 2019!  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 with a little less color and a little more pattern and texture.  Both of these shots were from the Holy Island of Lindisfarne in England.  These are ornate Celtic crosses that I just love for the beautiful Celtic patterns.  The first shot includes the ruins of the old Monastery, and the second has the more modern church as a background. Try to come up with something Celtic, crosses, or ever patterns from the church windows or brickwork.  Go crazy!


When approaching a new challenge, I often will opt to start with a fairly quick and easy project first.  That way, if life gets too crazy, I still have something completed come reveal day!  My first project falls into that category for sure.  I remembered that Eric had given me a couple of buttons with a Celtic knot work design a while back... the hardest part was finding them in my messy studio!  I made a quick little bracelet with one of the buttons, grey speckled seed beads, and black leather.  Cute and quick!

When Eric gave me this month's challenge, the first thing that came to mind was to use some stamps I borrowed from a friend to make some etched copper pieces.  I dug out the Celtic set that was in the giant bin of stamps my friend loaned me (I should probably to check to see if she wants them back yet!) and got to work.  

I etched several pieces of copper filled with a variety of designs that I thought would work for earrings, necklaces, and even Christmas ornaments!  After etching and antiquing those sheets, I got out my sheers and started cutting out some designs.  I ended up with three finished necklaces and one bracelet.  I also have the two ornaments cut out and filed, but haven't finished those up yet.  

I kept all the pieces super simple to let the etched focals shine.  The center necklace features a Celtic hound design.  I wanted to add a little visual oomph to the pendant so I ended up shaping it into a nice curve.  The other two necklaces are variations on a theme.  They use the same base etched design but cut out differently.  I started with the one on the left where I tried to cut along the scallops of the design.  For the one on the right, I kept the lines smooth for easier cutting and filing.  (Can I tell you how much I hate filing??)  Both versions have Swarovski crystal dangles.

I'm really digging the bracelet I made.  Again, the work was all in the bracelet component so I wanted that to be the focus of the design.  I just added a nice copper plated chain and lobster claw clasp after I curved the oval piece.  Voila!

All of my pieces from this challenge will be on sale at the Art Wander this weekend.  My house is Studio K if you're in the area and want to visit!

I had hoped to make some earrings, maybe even try my hand at soldiering some posts, but I didn't quite get that far.  Fingers crossed that some of those get done before the Art Wander starts on Friday!  (That's probably what I'll work on today.)

But wait, there's more!  My friend Roberta Szymanowski made a couple of pieces that she asked me to share here.  Here's what she made and what she had to say about each of them!

This is a prototype bracelet using Fimo's very new leather effect clay in gray. I patinated it with Vintaj Nouveau Silver and added emerald accents with FolkArt Color Shift in Emerald. Sealed with Vintaj glaze patina. 1.5mm dark grey metallic leather sliding adjustable closure with natural copper beads. Inside of bracelet is lined with genuine leather.

I'm confident of the durability of the clay since artisans area making handbags from it, but I'm not yet confident of the durability of the finish on it. Hence, prototype.

Since the inspiration has considerably more weathered detail and texture than color, I attempted to replicate the ancient feel in my clay cross. Additional texture is provided by the recycled sari silk but contrasted by the beauty of the Conamarra marble (Ireland's national treasure!) and the Vesuvanite beads. All other elements are sterling. A simple knot ties at the back.

Story behind this piece: I imagine the cross being an ancient family heirloom over time converted perhaps into a rosary. Only a small segment remains, the rest lost to time and memory. It's now held together by a precious piece of silk.

Gorgeous pieces, Roberta!  I'm so glad you played along with us this time!  

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

Inspiration for the September 2019 Honey Do List

First off, let me just give a very special Happy Anniversary shout out to my Honey, Eric!  Today we celebrate 18 years of marriage... and we've been together for 22 years.  Time sure does fly!

This is the fourth 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 2019!  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 with a little less color and a little more pattern and texture.  Both of these shots were from the Holy Island of Lindisfarne in England.  These are ornate Celtic crosses that I just love for the beautiful Celtic patterns.  The first shot includes the ruins of the old Monastery, and the second has the more modern church as a background. Try to come up with something Celtic, crosses, or ever patterns from the church windows or brickwork.  Go crazy!

The reveal date will be Monday, September 23rd.  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 August 23rd 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!

Inspired by Reading: The Silver Witch

Wow, I actually read the August book club selection a whole month ahead!  (Ok, only because I didn't re-read the July selection, but still.  Bonus points for being ahead of the game!)  Anyway, this month the Inspired by Reading Book Club read The Silver Witch by Paula Brackston.  Pretty much all of this author's titles have "witch" in the title so I was a little concerned that I would be dropping in on the middle of a series.  Not to worry, all of her books with the exception of her newest book Return of the Witch are stand alone titles.  I liked this one enough that I'm tempted to check out her other books sometime soon.

Anyway, back to the book at hand!  As I'm truly terrible at summing books up, here's part of what the book jacket has to say:

A year after her husband's sudden death, ceramic artist Tilda Fordwells finally moves into the secluded Welsh cottage that was to me their new home.  She hopes that the tranquil surroundings will help ease her grief, and lessen her disturbing visions of Mat's death.  Instead, the lake in the valley below her cottage seems to spark something dormant in her - a sensitivity, and a power of some sort....

On this same lake in Celtic times lived Seren, a witch and a shaman.  She was respected but feared, kept separate from the community for her strange looks.  When a vision came to her of the Prince amid a nest of vipers she warned of betrayal from one of his own.  Prince Brynach both loved and revered her, but could not believe someone close to him wished him harm, even as the danger grew.

As the story unfolds, Tilda's powers become stronger and more apparent and we begin to see the connections between Tilda and Seren.  Her grief also begins to fade as she finds new friends, new inspiration for her work, and a potential new relationship.  Unfortunately for Tilda, it also becomes more apparent that there is an ancient danger lurking that threatens her and those she cares for and she must figure out how to protect the life she is building.

For my designs this month I drew inspiration from a couple of different directions... the basic Celtic symbolism, the anfac, and the hare.

I loved the idea of the anfac, or water horse, that was the mystic protector of the lake.  There wasn't a really clear description of what the anfac looked like (at least not that I remember!) but I found a pendant from my Bead & Button purchases from Green Girl Studios with a dragon on the front and a Celtic inspired design on the back.  Score!  Whenever I think of the mystical, I think of gemstones... especially those with shimmer or fire to them.  For this necklace I pulled together some Labradorite pebbles with tons of great fire, some silvery peacock freshwater pearls, and some small garnet rondelles.  I love the resulting mix of silver/grey and deep red!

Next up, I've got two variations on a theme with necklaces featuring a Celtic knot work designed pendant in two different colorways.  Originally, I was just going to make the blue one, but things fell together for the green version as I was making decisions for the blue one.  Who am I to argue with inspiration??  The blue version feels wintery to me with the silver toned wire and findings and cool tones of the beads I found.  This seemed most appropriate since most of the book takes place in the winter and the colors also fit in nicely with the book cover that I had.  The beads are aquamarine, Czech glass, and some glass that I got from one of Andrew's destash events.  For the green version I used copper and a combination of Czech glass, more destash glass (from the same lot!), and some Celtic patterned copper beads... the bead dangling from the pendant is chrysoprase.

Finally, I chose a pendant featuring a lovely hare from White Swan Illuminations that I picked up at Allegory Gallery during their Creative Camp last month.  I didn't realize what a great find for book club I had until I was back home and got to the part when Seren changes into a hare to warn her prince and then, later, you realize that the hare that Thistle had been frolicking with wasn't a normal animal at all.  Anyway, as I was attempting to put some of my new treasures away I realized that the pendant looked really great with the vintage plastic bead mix that was in our Creative Camp goody bags... surely a sign that this necklace needed to happen!  I cherry picked most of the green beads out of the mix along with some creamy ones and two dark orange beads to make up the bulk of the necklace.  To round things out I added a few small Czech glass rounds, small gemstone beads (some sort of agate or jasper maybe?), and bronze seed beads.

I may have gone a little nuts this month, but I'm in major production mode for a big show I have coming up in September.  At this point I'm trying my best to follow through on any and all ideas that I have to ensure that I have plenty of finished jewelry for the Art Wander.  So, enough chit chat... I'd better get back to work!