Art Elements Theme of the Month June 2018: Sunflowers

I'm really loving the new Art Elements Theme of the Month challenge!  It's great that anyone can play along with a project in any medium.  This month's prompt came from Sue Kennedy and she chose sunflowers!

As is often my way, I started off by making a pair of earrings.  (Seriously... I do this all the time figuring that earrings are relatively quick and easy and then at least I'll have something done for a challenge no matter what.)  Anyway, I digress.  I decided to use a pair of Humblebeads sunflower cane polymer clay discs as my starting point.  (Heather Powers has done several different versions of sunflower discs... this one actually has some sun and leaf canes in the mix too but you can't see it in my picture.)  I made little dangle bead units using topaz Czech glass flowers and turquoise rondelles along with brass accents and hung them from a yummy pair of sari silk cocoons by Anna Pierson of Saga Hus.

Next up, a necklace!  My sweet husband bought me a nice selection of polymer clay beads from Summer Wind Art including an oval daisy pendant.  There is definitely a sunflower sensibility about the pendant so I decided to run with it for this challenge!  I strung it with a bunch of different Czech glass beads, a few vintage glass beads, and some faceted yellow jade.  I quite like the asymmetry of this one even if the colors feel more fall like.

I made a second necklace that features a sunflower connector from Green Girl Studios.  I guess that I could have gone with a more fanciful color palette for this one (and since I still have another one of the fine pewter pieces I may yet do that) but I had the perfect sunflower colored tiny Czech glass flowers that called out to be used here.  Lots of orange and yellow glass flower links and dangles make up this design!

I didn't make these next two designs for this challenge specifically, but I thought that they were worth sharing again anyway!  The first is a necklace that I made for my husband's April Honey Do List challenge featuring a Humblebeads sunflowers lentil.  The earrings have some awesome Golem Design Studio charms and more Humblebeads discs.

Thanks for stopping by!  This is a blog hop.  Check out what everyone else was inspired to make!

Guests

Alysen

Anita

Cat

Divya

Jill

Kathy

Linda

Linda

Mischelle

Norma

Raven

Sarajo - You are Here!

Tammy

AE Team

Caroline

Cathy

Claire

Jenny

Laney

Lesley

Sue

Honey Do List: September 2017

Last 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... and we're continuing the Honey Do List for 2017!  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!

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

I haven't been out with the camera as much as I'd hoped recently.  Looking for something to prolong the summer, I decided on posting these sunflower pictures.  One of these was from the MN Landscape arboretum, while the other was a self-planted seed from our own bird feeder!  I have plenty of shots of bees all over these things but wanted to stick with just the flower this time.  Show me some last gasp of summer in jewelry form!

I had really hoped to make a few more things for this challenge but between going crazy for the sunflower themed We're All Ears challenge (see that HERE if you missed it) and my three day studio tour this past weekend, I kind of ran out of time.  That being said, I'm super happy with the two necklaces that I did manage to make.  

First up, a necklace with a lovely polymer clay sunflower pendant from Summer Wind Art that Eric gave me for Christmas a couple of years ago.  I love the rich yet weathered effect that Ashley Bonney achieved for this focal... so yummy.  I stumbled across a little container filled with a mix of Czech beads that I got when I bought a friend's bead stash a while back that were a perfect complement to the pendant.  I wanted a few more beads for the necklace so I went digging for some cream Czech glass melon beads to play up the light tones of the pendant and some carnelian rounds to add a pop of color to the design. 

Since I have an obsession with matching, and I still had some beads left over, I whipped up some cute little earrings.  They aren't actually sunflowery at all, but they do go with the necklace anyway.

For my second necklace creation I went with a lot more COLOR!  I had several Humblebeads by Heather Powers in my stash inspired by Van Gogh's Sunflowers.  I knew I had to use at least one of them this month.  The winning bead was this gorgeous Sunflowers bird that I won at the Adornments Retreat in July... so perfect!  I paired him with a rustic ceramic stick from Diane Hawkey, a ceramic drop by Petra Carpreau of Scorched Earth, and some bright Czech glass.  The copper wire that I used is some that I patinated myself.  I love how this necklace came together and am even happier that it flew home with a very special lady during my show this weekend!

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We're All Ears: September 2017

I have to laugh because Erin and Eric were on the same inspiration wavelength this month...  I was literally sitting down to read the We're All Ears inspiration post when Eric emailed me pictures of sunflowers that he took for the September Honey Do List!  (You can see the post with all the information on how to play along HERE if you're interested... I hope you'll play along with us!)  What a perfect flower to inspire us during the fading days of summer as we start to feel the first nip of autumn in the air. 

Photo credit :: via Unsplash :: Becca Romine :: Ciprian Lipenschi :: Nick Nice :: Thomas Smith :: 

Marko Blazevic :: Jenni Peterson :: Lucas Silva Pinheiro Santos :: Papaver Rhoeas :: Marjorie Bertrand

Here's a little peek at some of the sunflower-y beads in my stash.  Since I was looking down the barrel of dueling sunflower challenges, I figured that it was only fair for me to use the earring-friendly beads for the We're All Ears challenge.  Eric will have to be happy with some sunflower inspired necklace creations.  :)

The first thing I made was a total no brainer for me.  I had picked up some flower charms from Golem Design Studio at Bead & Button this year and one of them was perfect sunflower colors!  I had already used one pair for last month's Honey Do List, so I already had a basic design/style in mind so there was no reason not to get to work!  Since I was on a roll, I went ahead and whipped up earrings with the other two remaining colorways.  I had lovely coordinating Humblebeads disks that were perfect for all three pairs (probably because I pretty much bought a set of every color that Heather Powers had at B&B!!).

Since I was still in painting mode trying to get some of my fan favorite designs finished for my next show that's approaching way too rapidly, I decided to add some paint to a few sunflower charms (or maybe some are really daisies) for a fun effect!  The unpainted pair was a last minute addition when I realized that the Czech glass I had in mind didn't match the painted sunflowers.  I had all the stuff out, so why not?

Lastly, I revisited my Golem collection... and this time fished out some fun polka dotted lentil beads.  These are certainly my least literal interpretation, but I thought the colors were spot on for sunflowers.

So that's it for me this time.  Check back with me on Monday, September 25th to see what other sunflower designs I come up with for the Honey Do List challenge.  I hope you'll consider playing along with us!

Check out the Earrings Everyday blog HERE to see what other sunflower earrings folks dreamed up!

Inspiration for the Honey Do List: September 2017

Last 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... and we're continuing the Honey Do List for 2017!  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!  

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

I haven't been out with the camera as much as I'd hoped recently.  Looking for something to prolong the summer, I decided on posting these sunflower pictures.  One of these was from the MN Landscape arboretum, while the other was a self-planted seed from our own bird feeder!  I have plenty of shots of bees all over these things but wanted to stick with just the flower this time.  Show me some last gasp of summer in jewelry form!

The reveal date will be Monday, September 25th.  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 September 25th 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 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!

P.S. Apparently great minds think alike... the inspiration for the We're All Ears challenge on the Earrings Everyday blog is sunflowers this month too!  Check that out HERE and get double mileage for any sunflower inspired earrings you come up with!