December 2023 Honey Do List

2023 marks the eighth 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!  (Y'all, time really does fly!!)  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 recent bead tour of the Czech Republic we visited a Christmas ornament factory.  While this wasn't completely bead-related, it was all hand made glass.  I think all of us really enjoyed learning the process and seeing it done.  This picture is from the step after the glass was dipped in colored glazes and left to dry before the next step.  You have all sorts of shapes and colors to work with here!

It was so interesting to see how these glass ornaments have been made for over a hundred years!  So many cool shapes and lovely colors!  For this month's Honey Do List I went in a few different directions... I made a few different Christmas ornaments but I also played with some tiny Christmas ornaments that I bought at the Rautis factory and tour.     

For the last several years I've made batches of salt water etched Christmas ornaments.  Here are a few of this year's:

For us there's a tradition of Eric getting an ornament every year.  When he was a kid he got one each year from his grandmother.  She's been gone a long time but I continue the tradition.  This year, I made Eric a very special ornament... I present Krampus!!  I bought the fantastic focal by Diane Hawkey last year but it was too late to get something made in time for the holiday so I saved it for this year.

As I know that Eric's intention wasn't just for me to make ornaments that I was going to make anyway... I did grab a collection of mini ornaments that I bought during our trip to turn into earrings.  I only got two pairs made with everything that's been going on the last few weeks, but that's better than nothing!  

I'm not sure how delicate these little glass beads are so I'm probably just keeping these for my own enjoyment or maybe will give a pair away... not sure yet.  

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 January 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 December 2023 Honey Do List

2023 marks the eighth 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!  (Y'all, time really does fly!!)  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 recent bead tour of the Czech Republic we visited a Christmas ornament factory.  While this wasn't completely bead-related, it was all hand made glass.  I think all of us really enjoyed learning the process and seeing it done.  This picture is from the step after the glass was dipped in colored glazes and left to dry before the next step.  You have all sorts of shapes and colors to work with here!

The reveal date will be Wednesday, December 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 December 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! 

November 2023 Honey Do List

2023 marks the eighth 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!  (Y'all, time really does fly!!)  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:

Just a scoop!  On our recent trip to the Czech Republic to visit bead and glass factories galore...I took some pics of beads.  Lots of beads.  This one may be a little too easy of an inspiration, but there you go. Go blue!  Go glass!  Go crazy!

Ok, so the blues in Eric's inspiration photo aren't necessarily the tones I gravitate towards the most, but I wanted to stay true to the idea of a mix of beads in blue tones.  For starters I made a couple of multi-strand bracelets with Golem Design Studio ceramic lentils and a mix of Czech glass beads.  Both bracelets even feature some of the beads that I brought back from the Czech Republic!  

I wanted to make at least one more design for this challenge playing off of all those bright blues.  I decided that the most appropriate focal to play with was a lovely floral porcelain pendant from Artisticaos... lots of great blues in this one!  I cut open a mix of Czech glass beads that I bought at the Preciosa gift shop on our Czech trip as well used some of those as well as some other beads we bought on that trip.  I also picked through a couple of other blue bead mixes that I had floating around.  I'm really happy with the way this one turned out!

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 December 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 November 2023 Honey Do List

Sorry for our absence last month, but we were off having a grand, beady adventure in the Czech Republic that didn't really leave me with much time to create at home.  But we're back and full of excitement and inspiration.  I know Eric will have tons of great ideas for the Honey Do List for a good while to come.  

2023 marks the eighth 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!  (Y'all, time really does fly!!)  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:

Just a scoop!  On our recent trip to the Czech Republic to visit bead and glass factories galore...I took some pics of beads.  Lots of beads.  This one may be a little too easy of an inspiration, but there you go. Go blue!  Go glass!  Go crazy!

The reveal date will be Monday, November 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 November 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.  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! 

September 2023 Honey Do List

2023 marks the eighth 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!  (Y'all, time really does fly!!)  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:

Hey folks!  This month I decided to try something a little different for the challenge: fabrics!  On a recent trip to Denver we visited some old friends from my High School at their fabric shop, Treelotta, and I decided to take some pictures of the cool fabrics and colorful quilting supplies.  Here is one of the shots I took there.  Go for colors, or flowers, or both this month!

As soon as I saw this month's photo I knew one of the things I had to create with... another fabulous pendant by Sarah Kandell of Slate Studios Supply.  But first, in true Sj form, I made a pair of earrings!  Not cone flowers per se, but I still thought the fun little charms from Golem Design Studio would work for the challenge.  Also, I'm in making mode trying to get as much new jewelry made as possible before my first big Fall art show!  These were an unusual for me color but I just happened to have the perfect Czech glass beads in my stash to pair with them!

Now for my show-stopper necklace!  I've had this cone flower pendant pulled out from Sarah's other beads for more than a year but haven't gotten around to actually making something with it.  But now's the time!  I made links with Czech glass, carnelian, amazonite, and vintage brass with brass chain at the back.  I really love this bold piece and hope it finds it's perfect owner.

Since I was in show prep mode, I kept on making earrings with some other artisan charms.  A pair with some peachy pink flowers from Happy Fish paired with vintage brass and Czech glass rondelles.  

To keep the party going, I also whipped up a pair with some floral charms with gold accents that I picked up from Diane Hawkey at the Whole Bead Show in Milwaukee in June.  Fun pink acrylic beads with gold stripes were the perfect pairing with accents of Czech glass and brass to round things out.

Now it's your turn!  Please add links to/photos of your own creations below.  I love seeing what everyone else is making too.  Just to let you know, we're going to be taking the month off in October as we head to the Czech Republic for some beady adventures.  We'll be back in November with a new challenge though!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Inspiration for the September 2023 Honey Do List

2023 marks the eighth 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!  (Y'all, time really does fly!!)  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:

Hey folks!  This month I decided to try something a little different for the challenge: fabrics!  On a recent trip to Denver we visited some old friends from my High School at their fabric shop, Treelotta, and I decided to take some pictures of the cool fabrics and colorful quilting supplies.  Here is one of the shots I took there.  Go for colors, or flowers, or both this month!

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 or links 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 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! 

August 2023 Honey Do List

2023 marks the eighth 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!  (Y'all, time really does fly!!)  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's picture is another of the many street art pieces we saw in Asheville, NC earlier this summer.  I thought the luna moth would be a cool inspiration for jewelry: either moth beads, or the colors in the art.  Next month I'll do something different!

As soon as I saw Eric's photo for us this month I knew I had a few luna moth art beads that just had to come out to play!  Beyond the true lunas, I do have a fondness for moths and butterflies in general... so there was plenty for me to choose from for this challenge.

The first thing that I unearthed from my stash were these sweet faux tin charms from Humblebeads.  I'm 99% sure that I'll keep these for myself, but we shall see.  I made some little floral dangles with some pale green and yellow toned Czech glass and green crystals.  A quick, cute design to kick things off!

Not quite ready to tackle my statement necklace, I turned first to another set of earring charms, this time by Cathleen Zaring of Blue Hare.  Clearly these aren't luna moths, but still fun and fluttery creatures.  I grabbed some little vintage metal teardrops to dangle from the enameled charms along with some Swarovski crystals.

Having stalled long enough, it was time to tackle my necklace!  I love the matte glazes that Sarah Kandell of Slate Studios Supply used on this lovely, large luna moth.  She's just dreamy!  I didn't want supporting beads to be so shiny as to overshadow or compete with the focal.  Luckily I had some nice matte options in both Czech glass and vintage German resin in my stash.  My one real concession to shine are the cranberry colored moon glow lucite rounds.  They are a perfect match to the red in the dress and add a nice pop of color to the design.  I snuck in a little bit of blue fluorite and a Swarovski pearl as well.

To my great sadness, when trying to determine the correct length of the necklace for the dress, I discovered what I had already suspected... the dress is a little bit too small for my current weight.  Hopefully having this delightful new necklace will inspire me to get back to my fighting weight!  I can't wait to wear this necklace!

I thought I was done, but then I uncovered a delightful teapot and teacup pendant set from Jade Scott.  Again, not actually a luna moth, but the colors of the moth were perfect!  It was super fun looking for a fun mix of beads that pulled the various colors out of the resin pieces.  I ended up with a mix of Czech glass, German resin, and a single prehnite round.

One last necklace here... I really was productive this month!  The Vintaj brass pendant that I painted is technically a butterfly, but I feel like the colors worked so I'll take some creative license.  Since the pendant is fairly dainty, I wanted to keep things pretty simple.  Also, I like to be able to offer designs at a variety of price points when I have sales (and I have a big one coming up next month!)  I alternated peridot and blue fluorite rounds with little metallic seed beads in between and delicate (but sturdy!) brass chain at the back.

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 (or maybe the 2nd since the 1st is our 22nd wedding anniversary!) to see what Eric dreams up for us next.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter