We're Going on a Picnic!

 

You may be aware that myself and four of my bestest beading friends Anna Pierson, Monica Pena, Loralee Kolton, and Miranda Trebesch have been doing regular jewelry sales on Facebook as the Five Friends.  We are gearing up for our July show at the end of the month and our theme is going to be summer picnic.  I've been having so much fun designing new jewelry for this show that I just couldn't wait until then to share some of it with you all!

As I started thinking about the theme, my mind went to juicy watermelons (even though I don't enjoy eating it myself), fruit salad, ladybugs and other summer buggy friends, and, in case your picnic ends up lingering until dusk, fireflies!  

So... here's a sneaky peak at what I've been working on so far starting with some fun ladybug designs!

The first things I made were a couple of multi-strand bracelets with some Golem Design Studio focal beads.  These are so bright and fun... and who can resist the little Czech glass ladybug beads that decorate one strand in each bracelet.  I can't wait for a time that I can buy from Golem in person again... I need more ladybug beads to replenish my stash!  The design is from Lorelei Hill Eurto from a long ago bead magazine and one I revisit often.  

Next up, some ladybug earrings for your enjoyment.  I couldn't resist snagging a couple of pairs of cute enameled ladybug charms from C-Koop a while back and I'm finally using a pair!  I paired them with some vintage fluted acrylic beads and sliver plated accents for a fun look that doesn't get too heavy weight wise.

My second pair of earrings features more beady goodness from Golem Design Studio!  I paired them with blackened elements, red crystal, and some leaf charms.  

For when your picnic time stretches into dusk, let's switch gears from ladybugs to one of summer's other favorite insects... fireflies or, as I usually call them, lightning bugs!!  I finally relocated the box with my sweet collection of firefly jars that I ordered from Blue Hare Art Wear.  I have so many fond memories of running around the yard chasing lightning bugs and sometimes catching them in jars to try and keep... this just screams summer time to me.  

I just had to get at least one watermelon design finished for this blog post and the winner was a necklace featuring a long-hoarded Jade Scott pendant!  It's a sweet little piece of art so a daintier design was in order.  I strung it on a mix of Rose Quartz, Czech Glass, Peridot, and dyed Agate with brass chain and findings.  I'm pretty happy with how this one turned out.

I'm not done designing yet... we'll see what other summer picnic inspired creations come off my bead table in the next couple of weeks.  I know that the other ladies have some fun stuff up their collective sleeves as well!

If you're interested in these designs and other summery good stuff from the Five Friends, I hope you'll join us for our Facebook show starting July 28th.  You can find us over in the SagaHus Components group if you want to take part. (P.S. I really think you're going to want to be at this show!)

Saga Hus Creativity Pack Review

Have you heard about the new Saga Hus Creativity Pack subscriptions yet?  No?  Let me share my experience with the very first installment!  (Full disclosure, I'm a long-time customer and friend of Anna Pierson of Saga Hus.  I love her components and have often used them in my jewelry designs.  I wasn't asked to write this post or given any compensation... I signed up for her Creativity Pack subscription and simply wanted to share with everyone what I got and what I made!)

Here's how the Creativity Pack works:  The subscription pack contains between 60 and 75 dollars worth of components. Each pack will be different. Many of the components are limited or things she is testing. Every three months, for 45.00 including shipping, you will receive a package. You may cancel at any time up to the billing date.

Now onto what I found in my package!  Anna sent us a nice variety of cocoons, a pair of fun Japanese glass components, and a lovely matched pair of faux tin charms in a William Morris print...  Part of the appeal of the Creativity Packs for me is the variety.  When left to my own devices, I tend to buy the same colors over and over.  I just naturally gravitate toward certain colors and shapes... but it's nice, and even necessary, to have other choices available outside of my color comfort zone.  This first shipment did NOT disappoint in this respect.  Lots of color variety to play with! So for less than $45 (because shipping is included in the price) I got $70 worth of fun components.  I'd say that's a pretty good deal!

The contents of the first Saga Hus Creativity Pack

Now, if I'm honest, normally I'd just ogle these lovelies then pop them into my stash for later use.  Normally my process is to start with charms or a focal and then look for things to pair with them.  This time was different!  I had just gotten back from a two week vacation and absence from the bead table when my package arrived.  Perfect timing because I was in need of a creative kick start to get me going again!  As soon as I'd unwrapped everything, I started pulling beads and charms and got to work making.  Here's my initial round of picks: 

The awesome thing is that these all came together super quickly!  Just a short time at the bead table and I had six pairs of earrings ready to go!  Here are the finished earrings I whipped up:

L) Cotton cocoons with C-Koop Bead caps and silver plate, R) sari silk cocoons with Inviciti pewter charms

L) sari silk cocoons with Slate Studio ceramic charms, R) Boucle yarn cocoons with Soul Relica colored pewter charms

L) Japanese glass connectors with Inviciti colored pewter, R) Cotton cocoons with ceramics by unknown maker

Y'all all know that earrings are 100% my favorite thing to make and to wear... so it's no surprise that I made a bunch of earrings.  And matched pairs do tend to cry out to be made into ear bobs, lol.  But I did want to branch out a bit and make a necklace too.  Anna's larger sized cocoons make a wonderful and interesting addition to necklaces, so that's where I went next.  I had an enameled pendant by Blue Hare Art Wear in my stash that worked well with my remaining pair of cocoons... I played around and found some Czech glass beads that coordinated well and made beaded links.  Voila!  I think the black wire in the cocoons as well as the black eye pins bring out the black in the pendant and keep this from getting too sweet for my aesthetic. 

I still had the faux tin that I hadn't used in a design.  For some reason, as much as I love the pattern and colors of them, these gave me a bit of a fit deciding what I wanted to pair with them and if I wanted to add beads above or below the charms.  After much deliberation, I decided on some matte carnelian rounds with crystal rondelles and tiny Czech glass flowers dangling below the charms.  I got out my hole punch and pulled this last design together.  

And just like that, I had seven pairs of earrings and one necklace all finished and ready to find new homes!  I really needed the kick in my butt that this Creativity Pack gave me!  It was fun to turn things on their head and design from a different direction than normal too.  Bonus, now I don't have to put any of these new goodies away, which is a huge bonus as my bead table is big ol' disaster zone.  

I hope you enjoyed this little exploration of the new Saga Hus Creativity Pack subscription and my take on it.  I think if you like having a bit of a surprise, this is a great value and super fun to boot.  If you're interesting in more information or want to sign up, check it out HERE.  You can also find Anna's awesome components for sale individually during her sales on her SagHus Components Facebook group HERE.

 

Honey Do List October 2020

 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!  (And today marks the our 19th wedding anniversary!) 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:

For October I felt like we needed something creepy!  Here is a photo from Kutna Hora, a bizarre bone church we visited in the Czech Republic.  If you don't happen to have any skull or bone beads laying around, you could also just use the goal of something Halloween/spooky for this month's challenge. 

I can't wait to share what I've been up to this month!  I had a ton of fun... I hope you did too!

I honestly don't tend to have too many skulls in my bead stash, but I was totally captivated by the fun enameled sugar skull charms that Anne Gardanne had in a recent sale.  I couldn't resist and grabbed several pairs in different colors.  I started with the black and white pair... I had the fun striped German resin beads that were a perfect complement.  Some fun crystal rondelles and black Czech glass rounded out the design.  

At first I thought I was going to stop with the first pair... but then I got a shipment from Beads to Live By that included some fun new to me vintage German resin that just happened to coordinate with some of the other skulls.  I had no choice but to whip up the other four pairs!  

The top three will be for sale in our next Five Friends Festival sale over in the Sagahus Components Facebook group this coming Friday and Saturday if you're interested in these.  I haven't quite decided if I'm keeping one or both of the bottom pairs for myself.  Sometimes you have to treat yo'self!

Next up, I finally finished a project that I've had partially thought out for a year and a half.  I bought this amazing skull pendant by Michelle McCarthy of Firefly Design Studio (along with coordinating earring charms) at Bead & Button last year.  I made the earrings last year and decided to keep them for myself... so it only made sense that I would keep the matching necklace to make it a set.  I think that I just kept stalling on this one because I knew the wire wrapping of the Green Girl Studios skull was going to be a little tricky.  (P.S. I was right about that but it was worth it!)  

Once I got the pendant where I was happy with it I was able to play with the rest of the design.  I knew I wanted to have a pair of black Saga Hus cocoon beads that I had Anna make for me in there.  I didn't have any more of the cool lucite beads that I had used in the earrings but I was able to pull in some of the metal spacers at least.  I added some striped black and white Czech glass and also some star cut matte crystal quartz bead links.  

Lastly, I whipped up one more fun pair of earrings.  I had recently gotten these super fun German resin beads with a bold black and white pattern.  There was something about them that reminded me of all the skulls stacked up at the Bone Church.  The fabulous thing is they pack a huge visual punch yet are ultra lightweight!  Dangling from the bottom are crackle crystal quartz with Swarovski crystal rondelles and Czech glass.  

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 November 1st to see what Eric has in store for us next month! 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Honey Do List August 2020

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:

So this one is an old picture, but fits the time of year...and the fact that Sarajo is spending her summer days raising a bunch of monarch butterflies from eggs and caterpillars!  So here is some brightness for your jewelry making pleasure.

I never thought I'd be a monarch mama, but here I am.  After my original round of caterpillars I thought I'd be done, but I kept finding more tiny caterpillars and eggs.  So here I am having released 13 butterflies so far with 1 more in chrysalis, and one more decent-sized caterpillar to go!  Guess with our summer plans getting shelved and being at home all the time, I needed something extra to distract me!  

Here are a couple of pictures of two of the six (!!) butterflies that I released this past weekend.  Aren't they just gorgeous?!?

I had the pleasure of meeting up for lunch and some shady bead deals with my good friend Anna Pierson of Saga Hus the other day.  It was so nice to get to hang out and catch up, and get a nice haul of lovely new cocoons to play with at the same time!  You'll see the fruits of that meeting in most of my designs this month.

The first thing that I made focused more on the colors of the flower blooms and stems in Eric's photo than the monarch itself.  I had snagged this pair of butterfly wing charms from Kristi Bowman when she first started making them.  I paired the charms with coordinating Czech glass and some copper plated flower bead caps.  Kristi's components literally have a glow about them that pictures don't do justice.  

Next up, a super quick earring pair that combines a fun dark maroon and gold set of Saga Hus cocoons with amazing faux tin charms by Humblebeads.  These are super duper light weight yet still pack a visual punch!  I love it when components from two talented friends come together like this.

Eric says that I have to keep this next pair.  I think I just might because they are super cute and go nicely with a sundress I have.  The ceramic charms are from the talented Sarah Kandell of Slate Studios.  Again, I've paired the charms with cocoons from Saga Hus but fancied up the design with some seed bead decorated jump rings for extra movement.  

I couldn't wrap up my creating for this month without making a necklace with an amazing monarch pendant from Humblebeads.  I wire wrapped a fun black and orange piece of Nepalese cane glass and some Czech glass rondelles to make a bail for the pendant.  I knew that I wanted to do beaded links for this design since I wanted to use some more great orange cocoons from Saga Hus.  The funky black glass beads were a gift from my friend Monica Pena of Mariposa Originals Jewelry... I'm kind of smitten with their unique shape!

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 to see what Eric has in store for us next month! 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

We're All Ears January 2020: Pantone Color of the Year

Each January, my friend Erin Prais-Hintz challenges us to make earrings using the recently announced color of the year for the We're All Ears challenge over on the Earrings Everyday blog.  I don't know about you, but this is the first time in ages that I've actually liked the Pantone Color of the Year!  Happy days are here again!  Not that I normally pay much attention to color trends and whatnot... I tend to just make what I want to make. 

I had a surprising amount of earring-appropriate blue beads in my stash to potentially play with this month... this picture doesn't even capture all the art beads!  As is often the case I had more options than I had time.

I have to admit that I wasn't really considering the different color palettes featuring Classic Blue.  Probably because I have a strong tendency toward more monochromatic designs!  I did pull together a couple of things that I think fit with specific color groupings though so I'll start there.

First up, a little take on the Ponder color palette.  I had some fun abstract enameled moth shapes from Gardanne that just needed to fly into a earring design.  The picture doesn't do them full justice, but there is some great color and texture on the solid side of the moths from the silver she used.  I decided to go for a slightly larger bead dangle than I might normally, but these faceted labradorite teardrops were too perfect to pass up.  The stone has some nice flashes of blue fire that was difficult to capture.

My next pair features some fabulous polymer clay charms by our gracious hostess Erin Prais-Hintz of Tesori Trovati.  With the fun metallic foil accents and the super dark blue, these were perfect to go with the Desert Twilight palette.  I chose metallic coppery English cut Czech glass beads and some bright blue dyed agate for the dangles.

The last two pairs that I made for this month focus just on the Classic Blue itself!  I had a couple of fun spiral swirl beads from Marsha Neal that decided to come out to play.  I just added some small dark navy Czech glass beads and a bead cap at the bottom and a little silver toned bead at the top.  These are on sterling ear wires.

Next up, I salvaged some faux tin pieces from this past fall's Inspired by Nature Retreat.  The colors were perfect, but the original rectangles were a little flawed on one end.  No problem!  I just trimmed them down smaller and then got busy filing the edges down.  After punching holes at top and bottom I just wire wrapped some adorable little Czech glass flowers with crystal centers on the bottom.  Tiny, simple, and cute!

Not made specifically for this challenge, but still celebrating the 2020 Color of the Year, here's a few more.  These were all made at the end of December for the Art Bead Scene Art Journey #9 challenge.

From left to right:  polymer clay charms by Humblebeads and cocoon beads by Saga Hus; ceramic charms by Artisticaos, polymer clay discs by Humblebeads, and dyed agate; porcelain charms by Kiyoi Design.

Hope you all have a fabulous weekend!  As this posts, I'm at the tail end of what I hope will be another fabulous Disney World vacation.  I'll catch you on the flip side!  For now, pop on over to the Earrings Everyday blog to see what everyone else was inspired to make HERE. 

Honey Do List November 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:

These are really cool windows from Edinburgh Castle.  I liked the geometric shapes of the multi-colored background glass, as well as the more defined patterns and images on the coats-of-arms.  I made Sarajo put up three of these so you can have more options!


Did you know that my first art interest was actually stained glass?  When I was in high school, my boyfriend's mom took me under her very talented wing and taught me some of the basics.  I only ever made a few sun catchers, but I discovered my love of all things glass!  Before I took my first jewelry making class, I had actually been looking for a stained glass class that worked with my schedule and never found one.  Anyway, my long time love of stained glass made me pretty excited for this month's Honey Do List challenge!

I was a little worried that I wouldn't be able to make something for all three of the windows, but I pulled out a third design at the final hour!

I think that this first window is my favorite of the three that Eric chose for us... maybe I'm just a sucker for flowers!  I didn't have any flower beads or charms in the golden yellow of the window, but I did have some ceramic charms from Golem Design Studio in a similar shape in shades of blue and a very dark brown that's almost black.  Keeping with the blue, white, and black color scheme, I found a perfect pair of little sari silk cocoons from my friend Anna Pierson of Saga Hus.  Antiqued silver plated jump rings and black niobium ear wires with sterling decorations pulled this pair of earrings together.

Next up is actually the last piece I made for this challenge... a necklace featuring a shell pendant by Michelle McCarthy of Firefly Design Studio.  The shell was just the perfect shape for the inspiration window!  My strung design is a fairly monochromatic palette but variety of shapes and textures of Czech glass beads keeps it interesting.

Last but not least, I have one last pair of earrings to show you!  I was gifted a lovely pair of enameled crescent moons by Gardanne Beads at a retreat last summer.  I kept these earrings super simple and just added some little Czech glass and sari silk charms from Saga Hus to the bottom of the moons.  Voila!

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 December 1st to see what Eric has in store for us next month!  Hope you all have a very happy (and yummy!) Thanksgiving!!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Honey Do List March 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:

With more and more snow around us, I struggled to find something with color for this month's challenge.  I discovered this picture I took of a mural inside Breakside Brewery in Portland last year and felt I had color, shape, and texture all for your inspiration pleasure!  Have at it!

As luck would have it, the same day that Eric gave me this inspiration photo I had a torch enameling class scheduled with Sara Lukkonen of C-Koop.  She had some millefiori for us to try out and I managed to make a pendant that perfectly echoed the mural's design!  Since I wasn't really sure what things would end up looking like, I'm pretty pleased with the results I got.  I knew that I was going to be in big trouble with the hubby if I didn't make something with this little guy, but not surprisingly, the pendant had some flaws from trying to get it off the welding mandrel.  I ended up working some magic to hide the flaws with my messy wrapped bail and a copper spacer.   

This one is probably for me since it's my first real enameling attempt.  I strung the pendant with tons of Czech glass, fire crackle agate, star cut carnelian, and yellow jade.  Lots of yummy colors that I pulled from the pendant design as well as the inspiration piece!

Seeing as my bead purchases tend more toward the organic than the geometric, I was worried about having things that would work in my bead hoard.  Luckily I did find a few goodies!  First up, a pair of earrings with some fun charms by Diane Hawkey that I paired with some sari silk cocoons from my friend Anna Pierson of Saga Hus.  

I also still had a couple of fun and bright focal beads from Golem Design Studio that featured a series of bulls eye shapes in various colors.  (I made a different tassel necklace with one of these back in March 2017 but with a plain chain and beads decorating the chain tassel ends.)  

When I was looking for the cocoons for my first pair of earrings, I discovered some other fun goodies from Saga Hus that felt right for the challenge. Anna wrapped some fun millefiori glass beads with fibers and wire for bright and cheerful links.  I added some Czech glass dangles in coordinating colors and used niobium ear wires with bright copper accents. 

Still thinking about how the patterns in millefiori glass echoed the mural, I grabbed some little coins in orange, white and clear.  I added some teardrop shaped beads on jump rings as a fun dangle for these playful ear bobs!

Now it's your turn!  Please add your links to your own creations below.  I love seeing what everyone else is making too.  Please check back March 1st to see what Eric has in store for us next month!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

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We're All Ears: January 2019: Color of the Year

The January prompt for the We're All Ears Challenge over on the Earrings Everyday blog is always a celebration of Pantone's Color of the Year.  For 2019, that means Living Coral!!

Here's what the fine folks at Pantone have to say about their choice:

Vibrant, yet mellow PANTONE 16-1546 Living Coral embraces us with warmth and nourishment to provide comfort and buoyancy in our continually shifting environment.

In reaction to the onslaught of digital technology and social media increasingly embedding into daily life, we are seeking authentic and immersive experiences that enable connection and intimacy. Sociable and spirited, the engaging nature of PANTONE 16-1546 Living Coral welcomes and encourages lighthearted activity. Symbolizing our innate need for optimism and joyful pursuits, PANTONE 16-1546 Living Coral embodies our desire for playful expression.

Representing the fusion of modern life, PANTONE Living Coral is a nurturing color that appears in our natural surroundings and at the same time, displays a lively presence within social media.

As has been the case for most of the years since I've started paying attention to such things, Pantone's choice for Color of the Year has not exactly knocked my socks off!  The peachy-pink of Living Coral is not a color that I'm likely to gravitate too, especially as a main color.  I like it far better as a small accent with other colors, especially blues.  That leads me to the added irony that the color palettes that I ended up using were the ones without blues and greens!  

I'm not 100% sure which of the above palettes fit my designs best, Shimmering Sunset or Sympatico.  Maybe the truth is that they are a bit of a mix of the two.  But anyways... onto the earrings!!  

First up, a jazzy pair with tons of movement!  I wanted to break out of my normal design rut when it comes to earring charms... instead of just doing a stack of beads wire-wrapped above the charm, I wanted something a bit more interesting and out of my comfort zone.  The charms are by Heather Powers of Humblebeads and have some of the more orange tones in addition to the coral.  I used some fun flame colored copper rings and attached seed bead decorated jump rings, groups of coral colored Swarovski pearls, and of course the charms!  These are definitely statement earrings!!

My second pair of earrings is more of my normal style.  I had the perfect little cocoon beads from my friend Anna Pierson of Saga Hus in pale yellow with touches of a coral pattern.  They are on copper wire, so that was fortunate too.  I made some dainty dangles in peachy crystal and more of those coral Swarovski pearls on copper headpins.

This may be the extent of my embrace of the 2019 Color of the Year, lol.  I'm excited to hop on over to the Earrings Everyday blog HERE to see what everyone else was inspired to create!