Artisans Create Together Inspiration Challenge: May 2017

This month, the Facebook group Artisans Create Together has pulled together two gorgeous inspiration color challenges.  I couldn't pass up the opportunity to play along with both of them!  As luck would have it, I had some lovely earring components for each color palette.

First up, this amazing and vibrant color collage featuring bright blues, yellows, and greens!  I recently placed my first order with the talented Jana Bliznakova of Happy Fish Things and she sent some cute earring charms as a thank you gift that were just perfect for this challenge.  They are predominately turquoise and bright yellow, but the mixing of those two glazes gave some tiny bits of green along the leafy pattern in the charms.  I had two orphan glass beads that were a craft store purchases a million years ago that paired nicely and I added some yellow Czech glass beads and brass findings to complete the look.  

This second color palette was the one that initially drew my eye.  I love the mix of copper and turquoise... yummy!!  This time I went for a new pair of enameled charms by Gardanne as my starting point.  I did some fancy (for me at least!) wire wrapping with copper wire that I had patinated with liver of sulphur and coordinating Czech glass and added some orangey seed beads to jump rings for a fun touch.  I couldn't be happier with how these turned out!  

I didn't make this second pair specifically for this challenge (they were actually published in Stringing Magazine's Earring Gallery... created to go with a Southwest theme) but I thought that they were worth sharing since I never put them up on my blog.  These bold earrings feature lampwork glass by Firelily Glass and brass feathers that I painted with Vintaj paint patinas.  These still haven't found the right person go home with!

Thanks for checking out my latest earring creations!  I'm heading back to the bead board to see what else I can dream up!

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!

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 April 2016

Month after month, Erin Prais-Hintz continues coming up with such delightful new inspiration for the We're All Ears earring design challenge... and this time is no exception!  I eagerly await the first Friday of each month when she unveils what she has chosen for us.  This month is all about fiddlehead ferns.  There is so much to love and to be inspired by here... the spring green colors, the spirals of their curved fronds, the feathery leaves of the fully sprouted fern.  I love it all!  Here are some of the photos Erin shared to get us going:

Embed from Getty Images

Embed from Getty Images

Embed from Getty Images

Upon seeing these great images, I ran to my stash and started digging for the beads I would use.  I ended up approaching the challenge from several different directions focusing on the colors, the spirals, and the fern leaves themselves.  Here's what I came up with!   

First up are two pairs that are all about the various shades of green found in the wonderful world of ferns.  I had two pairs of green lampwork beads from a strand of Firelily Glass orphan beads... one in vibrant greens and one in more muted, earthy colors that reminded me of the second photo above.  I kept these pretty basic to focus on the colors and let the lampwork shine... although I did try my hand at wire-wrapping some seed bead embellishments on one pair.  I'm pretty pleased with the result of that experiment!  

This next pair is all about the spiral shape of the emerging fiddleheads and features a lovely pair of ammonite charms from Lesley Watt.  I snatched these little beauties up at BeadFest and am happy to finally be using them!  I love the rich depth of color that Lesley achieved with the glaze... it's just magic to me.  Playing off the range of colors in the charms, I used some yummy prehnite and Czech glass along with brass to complete the design.  I'm pretty smitten with these so they may be finding their way into my jewelry box!  

Last but not least, we see the full fern fronds appear with the polymer clay charms from Heather Powers of Humblebeads!  These were another Bead Fest purchase that I've been sitting on for a bit.  I chose silver and bright crystals to go with the vibrant green and white charms

I had hoped to break out my BigKick again and play with the fern frond DecoEmboss folder and my paints but I ran out of time for that.  This is a blog hop... check out what everyone else was inspired to create this month in celebration of ferns over on the Earrings Everyday blog HERE!

Inspired by Reading: A Wrinkle in Time

The latest book selection for the Inspired by Reading Book Club was A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L'Engle.  I've been eagerly awaiting this one since this book has a special place in my reading history.  I'm a little late getting my post up... more on why in a bit. 

Just two of the many covers that this book has had over the years.

Even though I do own a copy of the book in my personal collection, I waited to borrow one from the public library because I wasn't convinced that my "vintage" copy would withstand me reading it.  It's a copy from my childhood and is pretty yellow and brittle, but it does have the cover I grew up with... the one on the right in the picture above.  I was oddly put off by the cover of my borrowed library copy... it was the one on the left above and was created by famous husband and wife illustrator team Leo and Diane Dillon.  I really enjoy much of their work and they're even responsible for some of my all time favorite book covers (you can see an archive of their work HERE) but I just found this cover slightly off-putting for some reason.  I'm not sure that I would have picked the story up as a kid if that had been the cover on the copy I found.  Maybe I'm just reacting because it's not the version with which I'm familiar.  If you're interested to see the other cover versions, click HERE.  Did anyone else have a reaction to the cover art for this one?  or another favorite that you went back to revisit? 

Ok, pushing past the cover art and onto the book itself!  A Wrinkle in Time was first published in 1962 and has been continuously in print ever since.  If you know anything about the publishing world, you know that this is a pretty amazing feat!  Part of that longevity can be attributed to the fact that Wrinkle won the prestigious Newbery Medal... but it's bigger than that since plenty of award winners have gone out of print.  I was curious to re-read the story to see how I responded to it as an adult.

I first read this book when I was in elementary school and an older cousin let me borrow a copy.  I was instantly hooked and had to speed through and read the two sequels that existed at that time (A Wind in the Door and A Swiftly Tilting Planet).  Unfortunately, for me at least, you can't go home again.  My adult re-read of Wrinkle left me disappointed to say the least.  I feel really guilty about my reactions... it feels like a betrayal of my youth services librarian roots or something.

Part of it is that Wrinkle falls into the same trap as many stories that are written as contemporary fiction... what was totally normal life in 1962 feels quite dated in 2016.  Genre fiction (with the exception of maybe mystery) can often get around this pitfall since they are set in another time and place... well defined and different from our own.  But it was more than that, the dialog just didn't work for me.  Yes, the slang was beyond outdated, but the dialog was generally clunky in my opinion.  I really don't mean to trash a children's classic... it made me sad that I just couldn't get immersed in a story that had so captivated me once upon a time.  I hope I'm just a weirdo and others still can find a connection here... I just didn't.  (Eric tried to read it but had to put it down for similar reasons and because he wanted to hold onto as much of his original reading experience as possible.) 

Because of my lackluster response to the book, I had a really hard time coming up with any sort of jewelry design based on it.  I really pushed myself to make something... anything... just because I wanted to reflect on my reactions to the book.  Here is what I ended up with:       

I finally settled on doing something to play off of the idea of the "Dark Thing" around the dark planet of Camazotz (and many others) as well as travel through outer space.  I started with a pair of lampwork beads by Firelily Glass that have darker tones to them and what feels like a alien sort of pattern to them (at least in my mind!)  I mixed in some dark black and grey Czech glass, brass, crystal, and some moon and star beads in brass tones. 

Art Bead Scene: February 2016

This inspiration for this month's Art Bead Scene challenge is a Vogue magazine cover from January 1925.  It features the Simultaneous Dress next to the Simultaneous Car by Sonia Delaunay as illustrated by George Lepape.  To read more about the Sonia Delaunay and her artwork, check out the ABS blog HERE.  

I have to admit that the color palette is a little too "America!" for my taste... It just feels like Fourth of July I guess.  On the other hand, I am intrigued by the chevron and triangle shapes in the dress and car.  Unfortunately, my bead stash doesn't really lend itself to sharp geometric patterns.  I'm more of a round girl I guess. 

I was thinking that this month might just be a simple pair of earrings with some lampwork beads but then I managed to find a carved ceramic lentil bead from Golem Design Studio that had some promise!  Even though it has a floral or leaf pattern, it'd got a geometric look to it that I think works.  As soon as I decided on the focal I knew I had to make a version of a bracelet that Lorelei Eurto shared in Bead Style magazine a while back.  (This is such a fun and versatile design and I've been itching to make some more of these guys!)

Lampwork beads from BeadyGirl Beads and Firelily Glass round out the art bead goodness in this bracelet.  Most of my smaller blue beads were a little too bright and red is the more dominate color in the inspiration piece, so there's a definite focus on the red in my bracelet.  I added in some plated steel seed beads and pewter rice shaped beads to pull in the chrome from the car.

I'm surprisingly pleased with how this piece came together... proof that it's good to get out of your comfort zone from time to time.  This baby is headed to Unearthed Arts later this week! 

Art Bead Scene: June 2015

This month's inspiration artwork for the Art Bead Scene challenge is a rich floral fantasy by Séraphine Louis.  So much vibrant color and movement in this one!  The color palette makes me think fall more than summer, but that's ok.  You can read more about the artwork and the artist HERE.

Feuilles, 1928

By Seraphine Louis

I always have great intentions of getting started on the ABS challenge as soon as the inspiration for the new month is revealed... it rarely works out that way and June was no different!  When I finally had time to sit down and design something, the first thing that popped out of my bead stash was a gorgeous enameled leaf by C-Koop Beads.  It's beautiful red-orange color (and the leaf shape of course!) were a perfect response to the artwork.  Despite the riot of color and motion in the painting, I wanted to keep my design fairly simple.

I originally had picked out one of the many orphan beads from Firelily Glass, but my husband (and color consultant!) immediately told me no.  He went to my art bead storage and fished out a set from Firelily that he had given me for Christmas two years ago and insisted that I use one of those.  As is often the case in matters of color, he was totally right so I switched out the beads.  The one he chose has more of the pale greens and some nice movement that mimics the painting.

I just picked out some Czech glass with a Picasso finish and some smaller, brighter red Czech glass rondelles (playing up the bright colors of the enameled leaf) to place along the chain, added in a filigree ring between my two art beads, and called it good.

We're All Ears: June 2015

I missed out on last month's We're All Ears Challenge but I'm back in action for June!  To kick off summer, Erin Prais-Hintz picked tide and rock pools to get our creative juices going.  Here are some awesome retro illustrations pictures that she shared with us and you can check out her original post HERE if you'd like to know more.

ILLUSTRATION BY HASHIME MURAYAMA

ILLUSTRATION BY THEO CARRERAS

I would love to say that I immediately starting working on my projects, but those of you who know me realize that that would almost never happen.  Eleventh hour panic designing is my specialty when it comes to challenges!  Hey, whatever works, right?

Anyway, I knew that I had lots of yummy sea life beads and charms... tons to choose from... so I started dragging things out to see what went best together best.

The first design to gel was this one with more of a prehistoric tide pool feel.  I've had these little ammonite shaped Czech glass beads languishing in my stash for a while.  I pulled a couple out and paired them with some dyed coral and copper plated "limpet" bead caps.

The second pair I made used some "sea glass" nuggets that I picked up last month in Asheville, NC and some sand dollar charms from Vintaj.  (For the record, I really wish they would bring these back in the smaller size, but whatever.)

Next up, I grabbed these fun textured ceramic charms from Jenny Davis-Reazor that I got in my Bead Cruise goody bag this year.  I thought they had a sort of coral-y feel to them.  I used the same dyed coral beads and limpet bead caps as in my first pair but in silver this time.

When digging for the coral beads, I unearthed these multi-colored Czech glass coin beads.  The color and the shape spoke to me for this challenge.  I kept it really simple... I just wire wrapped the beads and added some shell charms to the bottom.

I'd already more than made up for missing last month's challenge, but I wasn't done yet!  I picked out some Firelily borosilicate glass that had an undersea feel to them and paired them with some new brass fern pieces that reminded me of kelp or the white tendril-y thing at the top of the second inspiration picture.

Last but certainly not least, I decided to finally do something with these sweet little starfish charms that I bought from Heather Powers on the Bead Cruise this year.  The polymer clay Humblebeads are so lightweight making them a perfect complement to the weightier lampwork beads from Mermaid Glass.  I love, love, love how these turned out and might not be able to part with them!

Whew, that's it for me this month!  All these little ear bobs (except the Humblebeads starfish ones!) will find their way to Unearthed Arts for sale next week.  Make sure to check out what everyone else made too...

An InLinkz Link-up

January Art Bead Scene Challenge

This is officially the first design challenge for me in the new year.  I was super excited when I saw the inspiration for this month's Art Bead Scene challenge.  It's a gorgeous textile print done by Lois Mailou Jones in the twenties.  To read more about the artist and her artwork over on the ABS blog, CLICK HERE.

Textile Design for Cretonne, 1928? 

by Lois Mailou Jones

Tempera on Paper

Since it's been negative 20 degrees with wind chills of negative-I-don't-even-want-to-think-about-it, this tropical print was a breath of fresh, almost warm air.  (Seriously, when is Eric going to whisk me off to Hawaii in the dead of Minnesota winter?)  I immediately thought of the Woodland Leaf brass pendants by Vintaj as well as the smaller Woodland Leaf charms that I had in my stash.  An idea was hatching but I still needed to find my art bead or beads.

It didn't take me long to locate the perfect focal bead in my collection of orphaned lampwork beads from Firelily Glass.  I found one with a wonderful mix of orangey-red, purple, and hints of blue and yellow.  Yummy!  There are so many colors to work with in the artwork.  That gives tons of choices, but it also made it hard for me to get focused on where I wanted to take the design.  Looking to the focal bead I had chosen, I honed in on the purples, reds, and blues in the palette.

I love this bright cluster of little flowers!

I added in some other small lampwork beads from The Spacer Bead Shop and Beadygirl Beads, Czech glass, Mookaite, Rainbow Fire Agate, and lucite.  I used a variety of Vintaj brass bead caps and other findings to finish things off for a fun and colorful long necklace.

The colors look a little off in this one, but I wanted to show it hanging.

There are no art beads in these, but I also whipped up some little matching earrings with the Woodland Leaf charms and Czech glass flowers.

So much inspiration this month!  You can see what other folks have made in response to the artwork over on the ABS Flickr page HERE.  Enjoy!

P.S.  I just made a second design based on this artwork.  You can see it HERE.

November Art Bead Scene Challenge

When I first saw the inspirtion painting for this month's Art Bead Scene Challenge, "Basket of Apples" by Paul Cézanne, I wasn't really sold on playing along.  Thankfully, the cool proportional color palette that the talented Brandi Hussey did changed my mind!  You can find out more about the painting over on the ABS blog HERE. 

Basket of Apples by Paul Cézanne, 1893

Oddly enough, I didn't really realize how much of that pale aqua/turquoise color was in the painting until I saw this version of the palette.  I wanted to go with something that reflected the colors and feel of the picture without being too literal this time, but none of my art beads were speaking to me.  I had just snagged an orphan strand of gorgeous lampwork beads from Erin Davenport of Firelily Glass and one of those little lovelies looked like just the thing for a starting point.

Now at 14mm by 9mm, this bead on its own isn't too terribly large when it comes to focals.   I wanted to highlight the luminous quality of the borosilicate glass without overwhelming it.  Per my usual process, I started just grabbing beads that might work in a design and made my very patient husband take a look and listen to my thoughts.

While I can take credit for thinking about using the red recycled glass ring from Trinket Foundry somewhere in the design, it was Eric who thought it would be cool to put the lampwork bead in the center.  When he saw that the ring wasn't drilled he figured his idea was a bust, but I knew with a little bit of work, I could do some fancy wire wrapping and turn these two beads into a really cool focal.  Now what I needed was some time, lots of patience, and a whole lot of wire!

It wasn't at all easy but I did finally get the pendant wrapped reasonably well on my second try.  (On my first attempt I seriously underestimated the amount of wire I needed!)  It might not be the most refined wire wrapping job ever, but I was hoping for a more rustic look anyway.  I decided to go with a symmetrical design this time and made wire wrapped links with dragon blood jasper, China variscite, petrified green opal, and Czech glass for each side of the necklace.

My original design.

I was originally thinking that the pendant would go horizontal as shown in the picture above.  I just wasn't happy with the angles of how things set so it was back to the drawing board for a little reworking.

I switched the pendant's orientation and added in some little dangles off the bottom using Czech glass, turquoise, and little brass charms.  I also added some length to the chain now that it was no longer a choker style.  I'm happy with the overall effect and the colors in this piece.  My wire wrapping skills still have a ways to go, but I'm proud of myself for trying something totally new!

Take two.