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!

Click here to enter

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.

Honey Do List August 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've chosen a wall from Nunney Castle in England as your muse.  I love the patterns, shapes, and colors of the lichen, with a little pop of green from the fern.  Hopefully this will point you in an interesting direction for inspiration!

When Eric gave me this month's photo, I knew that I had to use at least one of the pendants that I made at the Adornments Retreat in Erin Prais-Hintz's Petri Dish class.  I had one where the colors and blotchy patterns were just perfect for lichen.  Hooray!!  I paired this pendant (one of my favorites from that class) with lots of yummy Czech glass beads.  Picasso finish beads with their mottled colors felt like a perfect pairing!  I added a few Amazonite rounds to pick up the blue in the pendant.

Next up, a lichen inspired pair of earrings!  There's something about the organic look of these awesome chandelier connectors by Happy Fish Things that made me think of lichen.  The yellow and brown colors work nicely with Eric's photo (the backs are a lovely rich brown too) and they also have great texture.  I added dangles made up of crystal and pearl as a nice counterpoint to the rustic nature of the ceramics.  I think these will be really fun to wear!

I had already made a couple of fun bracelets based on a tutorial from Heather Powers, but as I was finally taking photos of them I realized that some of them worked for the Honey Do List.  Voila!  The flower shaped ceramic button is from Lisa Peters Russ and the others are from Marsha Neal.  I snagged all of them at Bead & Button.  The glazes on the ceramics and the Picasso finish on the seed beads both echo the lichen even if the colors aren't 100% perfect in some of them.  I've just added a couple of these bracelets to the Arts Consortium of Carver County gallery in Victoria, MN and Unearthed Arts in Waconia, MN.

Happy to have some solid lichen representation, I moved on to focus a little bit on that intrepid fern growing from the rock.  It's so amazing how life always finds a way!  I've had a little bag filled with components to make a pair of earrings set aside.  I have no idea why I never got around to actually making them other than that they are for me!  Anyway, I had some silver leafy components from Candice Wakumoto and fun little lampwork beads by Jennifer Ionta.

Next up, another foray into my pile of abandoned projects!  When I was looking for something else in an art bead drawer, I rediscovered a fern patterned and filigree wrapped pendant that I made ages ago in 2012 when I attended a Vintaj Two Day Workshop in Galena, Illinois.  (Seriously, I can't believe it was that long ago!)  Again, not exactly sure why this one was still waiting to become a piece of jewelry, but I'm glad it was.  I had gotten out a bunch of beads that I was considering, but then a light bulb went on in my brain.  What if I made a piece on my Now That's a Jig! to connect the pendant and chain?  I tried a couple of different versions before I decided for sure.  Once I had a shape that I liked, I hammered it for strength and texture and then wire wrapped coils around the component on each side.  To let the pendant shine, I just used unadorned Vintaj brass chain... completely ignoring all of those bead that I'd pulled!  

Ok, this last necklace features a polymer clay focal that I made at Heather Powers' Inspired by Nature Retreat in 2016.  (Seriously, what's up with me, ferns, and unfinished projects?!?)  To create this piece we made a custom mix of polymer clay colors that we rolled out into a sheet and pressed actual fern fronds into.  After baking we used acrylic paint to bring out the fern patterns.  It was a super fun class!  Anyway, after lingering for almost 4 years, I used Heather's "Metal Sketches" technique to decorate the back side of the copper piece I cut to go behind the polymer clay house shape.  (And I totally forgot to get a picture of the back side when I had light!  Doh! Thus the background that doesn't match the others.)  I riveted the polymer clay to the finished back and then wrapped a little brass fern piece around the top.  Since the fern piece was brass, I decided to do a mix of brass and copper plated findings in the yoke of the necklace.    

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 September 1st (our 18th wedding anniversary) 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 August 2019 Honey Do List

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've chosen a wall from Nunney Castle in England as your muse.  I love the patterns, shapes, and colors of the lichen, with a little pop of green from the fern.  Hopefully this will point you in an interesting direction for inspiration!


The reveal date will be Monday, August 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 August 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!