The Honey Do List: February 2016

In case you haven't heard, my sweet husband has thrown down the beady gauntlet this year and is issuing me a monthly design challenge... The Honey Do List!  Each month may be something totally different... stay tuned to see what he dreams up for me this year!  For February he's given me a little dose of spring with a color palette taken from one of his photos.

Here's what Eric had to say about this month's challenge:

I've finally been going through some of last summer's photos, getting a welcome burst of color in these white-washed snowy months.  I discovered this shot of a flower (no idea what kind it is) and really liked the greens and earth tones in it.  I figured Sarajo would surely have something in this color palette in her giant dragon's hoard of beads! 

I knew exactly which bead I would use as soon as I opened the files that Eric sent me.  There was no question in my mind at all that it had to be a large green and orange flower pendant that I bought from Tracee Dock of The Classic Bead.  This was one of my early purchases from Tracee that I made when we met her on a trip to Kansas City.

Starting to pull things together!

I wanted the necklace as a whole to be as big and bold as Tracee's pendant so I went digging for some chunkier beads in shades of green and orange.  Here's what I came up with:

I started my design with the wire wrapped side.  For some reason, that big luster green English cut glass bead just wanted to be on it's own instead of strung with other beads.  I built it out from there adding in carnelian rounds and some bright tangerine Czech glass to bring out the bright center of the flower pendant.  The large carnelian faceted rondelles that I pulled had to be strung due to a small hole size, so I played around with different combinations and patterns until I found something that pleased me.  There's no doubt that the finished product is a serious statement piece! 

On a whim I shared the challenge in a couple of Facebook Groups for jewelry makers.  I was thrilled to discover that other folks were excited by the challenge and wanted to play along with me!  Stop by and see what everyone else was inspired to make for this month's Honey Do List challenge!

Alison Adorns
Gloria Allen   
Terry Jeanette Carter
Jenny Kyrlach   
Kathy Lindemer 
Laurel Ross
Jeanne Marie Steck
Sarajo Wentling - You are here

I don't know if people will always be interested in joining in the Honey Do List challenge, but next month's just might get creative juices going!  (Eric has given me a sneak peek at his March challenge.)  Check back here on March 1st to find out what he has in store for me and to see if you want to play along next time!

AJE Earring Challenge Weeks 21 & 22

Just as I hinted in a previous post, this installment of the Art Jewelry Elements Earring Challenge will feature some of the lovelies that I bought from Tracee Dock of The Classic Bead when I was in Kansas City over Memorial Day weekend.  (Thanks again for having us over, Tracee!)

First up is a pair made with some of Tracee's ceramic flowers in a lovely olive green.  I had just bought a great strand of fairly pricey Czech glass from The Bead Monkey (my favorite local bead shop) when they were having a special event with great sale prices.  I was drawn to the unusual look of them with their Picasso finish that had been cut away along the circumference to reveal the chartreuse color inside.  I knew that these two things would compliment each other perfectly!  I did a little practicing of my wire working skills and voila!  I think that they are super fun and playful.

Week 21:  Ceramic flowers from The Creative Bead

Next, I used another delicious little pair from Tracee that have been dipped in chocolate brown glaze.  Don't they just look like little chocolate covered cookies?  I want to eat them up!  This time I added some China variscite rounds and used copper wire to wrap everything together.  I used some TierraCast niobium earrwires with bright copper accent beads to pull everything together.

Week 22:  Ceramic drops from The Creative Bead

I'm in love with both of these pairs... I'm happy to highlight the creations of a talented and sweet craftsperson and I'm proud of myself for stretching my wire working skills.

Both pairs of earrings are available for sale on Etsy, CLICK HERE to visit my shop.  There are more photos of each pair in the listings there.

The editors at AJE chose my second pair to feature on their website.  To check it out, CLICK HERE.  Thanks for stopping by, please check out all the other great designs for this week's reveal!

Kansas City Part Two: The Classic Bead

One of the things I was looking forward to the most on our trip to Kansas City was the possibility of meeting a talented bead artist that I have purchased from online, Tracee Dock of The Classic Bead.  I used one of her lovely pendants in my necklace for the April Art Bead Scene Challenge, you can see it HERE.  Tracee and I had emailed back and forth a couple of times and I shared my blog post using her bead, so I decided to ask if she had time to meet while we were in her neck of the woods.  To my delight, she said yes and we arranged a meeting time.

Saturday morning Eric and I made the drive down scenic Ward Parkway over to Tracee's house.  (As a side note, the houses along most of this drive were insane!  I'm talking giant estates and mansions with statuary and fountains in the median and on the corners of the cross streets.)  When we got there Tracee welcomed us into her lovely home (it sounds like she's been working hard renovating it and her daughter's new house!) and introduced us to her boyfriend Paul.  Soon after, her gorgeous kitty, Thompson followed us in to make our acquaintance as well.  I wish I had gotten a photo of him since he was such a pretty boy...sweet too.

Tracee and Sarajo... both wearing necklaces featuring Tracee's pendants.

We all hung out for a while talking and getting to know each other a bit...and then I got to go shopping!  Tracee had graciously pulled out tons of her work for me to go digging through.  There were so many great pieces but I knew I couldn't buy them all!  Lucky for me, Eric was willing to help me look through everything and we were both busy pulling things into the "maybe" pile.  It was so very hard to whittle that pile down to something reasonable but I finally did it.  Eric was good at keeping me focused and making decisions (likely because he was past ready to get on to the next brew pub on our list).

I was like a kid in a candy store!  So many lovely things to go digging through.

Participating in various design challenges has been helping me to start using (and stop hoarding) my art beads.  I was finally starting to make a very tiny dent in my mountain but I have now erased all progress on that front!  What's worse, is that the more blogs that I start following, the more talented artists I find, and the more art beads I end up buying.  A viscous cycle but oh so much fun!  I suppose that there are far worse addictions to have.  Here's a peek at the goodies that I brought home with me:

Bright flower pendants... so many gorgeous colors!

I think I picked up a great variety of things.

Some matched pairs for earrings.

I truly appreciate Tracee opening up her home (and her bead stash!) to me and allowing us to come over.  It was really fun meeting the artist behind the pendants I have been  drooling over and purchasing online.  I look forward to seeing what other designs she comes up with and will continue to keep an eye on her Etsy shop and Facebook page.

Gorgeous beads will always make me a very happy girl, but it is just so much more special when you get to meet and know the artisan who crafted them.  It just adds another emotional layer to the design process for me.  I can't wait to start working some of Tracee's lovely beads into some new designs!  Since I'm doing the AJE Earring Challenge, I think I know where I'll be starting...