January 2024 Honey Do List

2024 marks the ninth 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!  Thanks to all of you who have participated over the years... it means a lot to both of us!

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

This month I wanted to continue doing pictures from our amazing bead trip to the Czech Republic this Fall.  Here is the outrageous astronomical clock from Prague, which was under construction last time we visited.  So cool to see it in person and get to take pictures of this wonder of human technology and art.  There should be plenty of inspiration here: from clocks to astrological signs.  Good luck!

My creative efforts this month were heavily focused on one art bead maker... my friend Jenny Davies-Reazor!  What can I say... I had two pendants that really fit into the idea of the moon and other heavenly bodies and then some earring charms that worked well color wise!  

I've had this fun crescent shaped polymer clay pendant from Jenny in my stash for quite a while... it's nice to finally get it out into the world to be enjoyed!  The crescent moon and stars on the focal just felt right here.  I made bead links and a little dangle for the pendant with some fun shaped new beads that I got while visiting the Czech Republic last year.  Actually all the beads except the green little "o" or spacer beads were purchased at Rutkovsky during that trip.  

This second necklace is also strung entirely with beads from our trip!  Fun to get to put those to use for this particular challenge for sure.  This pendant is also by Jenny... a lovely gemstone cabochon encased in polymer clay and featuring the phases of the moon.  The blue wash on the pendant is also a nice nod to all the blues in the Astronomical Clock too.  

These first earrings also feature some fun polymer clay charms from Jenny.  Sensing a trend yet??  I felt like both the color and the patterns of the charms work well for this challenge.  I paired them with some fun shaped moon glow lucite, some dyed agate, and copper plated findings.  Ear wires here are niobium.

My second pair of earrings are all about the stars!  Stars on the adorable beaded links by my friend Anna Pierson of Saga Hus Components and Greek bronze star charms.  These were simple to pull together but a lot of fun.  

Well, there you have it!  Considering I was in the throes of Valentine's Day gift creating, I'm pretty happy that I was able to make four things this month.  Now it's your turn!  Please add links to/photos of your own creations below.  I love seeing what everyone else is making too.  Not ready yet?  No problem, I'll leave the link up open until late next month.  Check back on February 1st to see what Eric has in store for us next!  I know he's got tons of new photos he's been going through.  

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Inspiration for the January 2024 Honey Do List

Happy New Year my beady friends!  Sorry for the delay but there's been a lot going on around here with the holidays and recovering from them.  Can y'all believe that it's 2024??  Where does the time go?

2024 marks the ninth 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!  Thanks to all of you who have participated over the years... it means a lot to both of us!

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

This month I wanted to continue doing pictures from our amazing bead trip to the Czech Republic this Fall.  Here is the outrageous astronomical clock from Prague, which was under construction last time we visited.  So cool to see it in person and get to take pictures of this wonder of human technology and art.  There should be plenty of inspiration here: from clocks to astrological signs.  Good luck!

The reveal date will be Monday, January 29th.  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 January 29th 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.  You can check it out 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! 

Inspiration for the March 2020 Honey Do List

2020 marks the fifth 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 2020!  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 is an oldie, from our trip to Prague summers years ago.  This is the huge ornate door to the German Consulate and I really loved the metal work and colors in it.  Not pictured are the many cameras around the door, and I had some reservations about getting close and taking this shot...luckily no German guards bearing submachine guns came storming out of the gates after me!  

The reveal date will be Monday, March 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 March 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!

Honey Do List January 2019

Can you believe that we're starting 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:

On our trip to Prague I took a lot of architectural pictures!  Most of these look great but just didn't grab me for being a good subject for jewelry work.  Then I came a across this interior shot of an Art Nouveau building and had my inspiration!  The color palette is limited but bright, and the shapes and designs should give some good options. 

I loved this particular gallery it's glorious glass skylight was breathtaking!  That being said, Eric had given me a bit of a challenge and I was a little slow to wrap my head around a design direction.  Yellow isn't necessarily a color I create with often... and my design tendencies run more toward the organic than the geometric.

Lucky for me, I did have a pair of black and white geometric patterned lentil beads from Golem Design Studio in my stash.  While they are a more random pattern than the glass of the gallery, I think they still work here.  Plus their round shape echoes the round center of the skylight.  I paired them with some AB finished yellow glass beads and blackened findings.

Another fortuitous beady event was that I got a package from my friends at Allegory Gallery that included some lovely faceted vintage plastic beads in a nice light yellow color.  I added some brass bead caps and small Czech glass beads in a matching color and dangled them on long Vintaj brass ear wires.

Apparently once I started playing with yellow earring ideas, I had a hard time stopping!  I made one last pair of earrings, this time using some faux tin charms that I made at the Inspired by Nature Retreat two years ago when Heather Powers first taught her faux tin process.  I won a sheet of Klimt images, and here's the only part of that set that has seen the light of day so far!  I made little dangles with the same yellow teardrop beads from my first pair of earrings and some tiny Czech glass flower beads.  

An InLinkz Link-up

get the InLinkz code

Inspiration for the Honey Do List January 2019

Sorry for the delayed start this month... we've been a bit busy with some other things like planning a big trip to the UK for this summer.  Better late than never!!

Can you believe that we're starting 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:

On our trip to Prague I took a lot of architectural pictures!  Most of these look great but just didn't grab me for being a good subject for jewelry work.  Then I came a across this interior shot of an Art Nouveau building and had my inspiration!  The color palette is limited but bright, and the shapes and designs should give some good options.  Enjoy!

This shot was from the Koruna Palace passageway... you'd never guess from looking at the buildings from the street that all this is inside there.  I wish that we had of had more time to explore the passageways and arcades of Prague.  Next time!!  

The reveal date will be Monday, January 21st.  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 January 21st 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!