Art Bead Scene March Challenge

It’s time for spring, warmer days, flowers, sun, spring showers, birds and new nests, like this one!

 

Armed Bird's Nest in Acacia Bush, Chile by Marianne North, 1870, Oil On Paper

The artwork makes me want to create with birds or flowers or leaves or all of them and lots more yellow and green and blue and and and. I got a little over excited there. J

I loved the inspiration photo and thought I would be making something focusing on the yellow flowers and blue of the sky and distant mountains, fully expecting to use one of the many flower beads in my stash. Then I found one little Humblebeads bird, somehow buried beneath other polymer beads, that I had totally forgotten about

Mama Bird Necklace

That little bird inspired me to make a nest of copper wire that I very slightly darkened with liver of sulphur, just enough to take off the high shine and give depth to all the twists and turns. This mama bird made a very messy nest. Inside it are 3 faceted glass “egg” beads. I put mama bird on a copper spacer, perched as if she was sitting on a branch looking over her nest, and used dark green waxed linen to tie the pieces together

Next I added more waxed linen to the bottom of the nest and tied a variety of glass flowers and leaves to the dangles. The flowers and leaves bring out the blues, greens and pale browns in the art

  

Mama Bird Necklace

The necklace was coming together but I wasn’t quite happy with the composition until I realized a couple of things. I had made too large of a loop at the top of the nest making a gap between the bird and the nest. After trying to fit a wood bead in there, and not liking the look, I decided to just wrap a pale ivory organza ribbon around the loop several times. That took care of the first issue.

Now to deal with the 2^nd thing that didn’t feel right. My sweet little bird is a lovely shade of yellow with some fine details carved in. Despite the bright colour she just did not pop out, so I took artistic liberty and added some Gilders Paste, Iris Blue for the wings, tail feathers and around the eyes, and German Silver, in that lovely gold, for the beak and tail feathers. Now it feels better!

Similar to the last few items I created, these pieces will be going to the Dufferin County Museum where they will be for sale in the gift shop from April 3^rd until Sept 5^th

Please visit the Art Bead Scene blog for the blog reveal to see what everyone else made

Thanks for stopping by. Have a great day

Pretty Palettes March Challenge

The Pretty Palettes challenge for this month is inspired by this gorgeous photo of tulips taken last year in Molly Schaller’s front yard

March 2017 Pretty Palettes Inspiration

Such bright happy colours make everything feel so good don’t they? The goal of the monthly challenge is to get participants to purchase and try the great beads available in the Halcraft Bead Gallery collection available at Michaels. I have purchased many of their beads and they are good quality but one of my goals this year is to use beads that fit from my large stash before going and buying more. I was able to do so for this challenge

Last fall Denise Yezbak Moore posted this lovely necklace with the instructions to make it.

Endless Summer Fringe Necklace

At that time I had tried to make my own version, using colours very similar to this month’s colour palette but just could not get it to hang correctly. That failed attempt sat on my bench ever since. I would pick it up and look at it trying to figure out why and just put it back down. Well this month’s photo was the perfect kick to try again and this necklace came about

In the Tulip Field Necklace

I used glass rounds, brass wire, chain and clasp, a gold plated flower cap and cotton floss for the tassel. Matching earrings came together next

In the Tulip Field Earrings

I’m so happy with how well they work together

It was so much fun finally conquering that necklace I wanted to extend that feeling. Same as with the necklace I had some cheerful orange and yellow faceted glass beads sitting on my bench for months. They were there for so long I forgot why I had pulled them. I matched them with wood beads, more brass, a large rudraksha seed from India and two polymer clay flowers for this necklace

 

Spring Flowers Necklace

The rudraksha seed didn’t quite have the appeal I was looking for so I decided to add Gilders Paste in copper. Not quite thrilled with how that turned out I added more Gilders Paste, this time in African Bronze which added a nice olive green touch. It’s very subtle and can barely be seen in the photo but I’m happy with it.

With some of the beads left over and 2 more of the poly clay flowers I made these matching earrings

Spring Flowers Earrings

Even though I don’t think it’s necessary to make matched sets, I like how these both turned out

The same as the last few items I created these pieces will be going to the Dufferin County Museum where they will be for sale in the gift shop from April 3^rd until Sept 5^th

Please visit the Halcraft blog for the blog reveal to see what everyone else made

Thanks for stopping by. Have a great day

Honey Do List March Design Challenge

The challenge that Eric Wentling planned this month was to be about the Minnesota winter in what he calls the tundra. Then 60⁰F weather came along and melted most everything on him. A trip down to the river in Belle Plaine led him to discover these melting ice crystals tucked into the bank where they were sheltered from the sun and warmth

Photo courtesy of Eric Wentling

There’s only one thing that works for this inspiration photo and that’s quartz crystal, so I made these pendants

 

Crystal Cave Pendants

I saw these pendants in my mind months and months ago, long before they became reality. The brass and copper bails are a simple design that I made, cutting the metals, texturing them, applying liver of sulphur to add a patina, and adding the holes

Once that was done I added a protective coating of ProtectaClear. I’ve used this product before and it does an excellent job of protecting metals, so long as it’s applied under the right conditions. The metal must be spotlessly clean, with no oils from skin or other sources on the metal. Otherwise the protective coating will lift right off

The next day the ProtectaClear was dry and it was time to form the metal into the bail shape. That’s when I realized I forgot to anneal the metal pieces before sealing them. Uh Oh. Well I decided it was time to just go for it and form the bails. Thankfully I was able to do so with assistance from a pair of bail forming pliers

The neck cords were made with mousetail and waxed cotton with different end crimps and clasps. I varied the lengths for no special reason other than for fun

On this last pendant the photo shows how crooked the bead hole is. This wasn’t obvious when I bought the gemstone but sure stands out now. I am working on a different way to attach this stone to the bail, thinking of doing some sort of wire wrap around the stone to hold it securely and attaching it sideways. I’ll post about how that turns out

Two of these pendants will be going to the Dufferin County Museum where they will be for sale in the gift shop from April 3^rd until Sept 5^th

Please visit SJ Design  for the blog reveal to see what everyone else made

Thanks for stopping by. Have a great day

Bohemian Inspired Jewellery

Just over 3 weeks ago Michelle McCarthy from the Art Bead Scene team wrote about exploring Bohemian design, using the book Bohemian Inspired Jewelry by Lorelei Euro and Erin Siegel. Michelle received permission to use a design and interpret it in her own way. 

Buoyed by that success she invited readers to join along and try our hand at interpreting Lorelei’s necklace The Beach House

 

Lorelei Eurto’s The Beach House Necklace

The design is one I’ve seen previously used, most likely in Lorelei’s designs. I liked the idea of playing along but did not want to just make a copy. Instead I gave it my own spin

My design may not be quite so bohemian but I think it still fits in, with natural elements brought in by the 3 different types of Picasso Jasper, all in a natural grey colour, and the Bamboo Corral spacers dyed a bright red

With a Flash Necklace

Add to that the rustic stoneware flower from Lisa Peters, glazed red in a raku firing which allows the natural black clay to shine through

The flower was the inspiration for the pops of red which also show up in the strand of farfalle, or peanut, beads. The colour theme was maintained in the black and steel peanut beads, the black leather cording and the fasteners, a large antiqued silver plated lobster clasp and an aluminum hoop, originally a ring. I used red wire to wrap the leather cording and silver plated jump rings to tie everything together.

In planning the design I was looking at going monochromatic with just black and metallic steel colours, until I decided a pop of colour was called for. All in all this was a fun challenge with a design that came together well, though it took a longer to execute than I expected

This necklace will be going to the Dufferin County Museum where I will be one of several artisans featured in their gift shop from April 3^rd until Sept 5^th

Please visit the ABS site and keep an eye for the blog reveal in the next few days to see what everyone else made

Thanks for stopping by. Have a great day

We’re All Ears March Challenge

Owls: “They represent wisdom and truth with piercing eyes that are all-seeing, even in the darkest of nights. Silent, secret and majestic. As a personal totem they symbolize the capacity to see beyond deceit, a heightened intuition and are harbingers of life transitions and change”

The We’re All Ears inspiration for March is owls, majestic, glorious owls. The above quote came from the Earrings Everyday Inspiration blog post for the March challenge

My muse drew inspiration from these three owls

I can see a bit of each of them in the texture I used, the circles around the eyes in the first, the eyebrows in the middle one and the dots on the body of the third owl

I made this pair first. It just felt like the little fellow needed a nighttime setting, perched on a branch, a dark inky sky behind him with the moon peaking over his shoulder. I used guilders paste to layer colour over the different polymer clay colours, added sterling silver loops that are well secured between 2 layers of polymer and sterling silver ear wires

I didn’t like the round shape that I made originally and tried to turn them into an oval shape without an actual oval cutter. They didn’t quite come out right but kind of have a rustic look

 

Country Owls

Next I decided to make a simpler pair, using the original round shape for the background and impressing the little owl directly into the circle. Again I used a second layer for the back and sandwiched sterling silver loops between the 2 layers. Three different shades of guilders paste were applied. The outside part of the circle needed something more so I carefully applied a texture, trying to imitate the appearance of bark. It’s only when editing the photos that I noticed both are missing one eye. Ouch!

Owlz

I decided to keep the earrings for myself as past works and samples of my progress, or perhaps lack thereof, working in polymer clay

Please visit the blog reveal to see what everyone else made

Thanks for stopping by. Have a great day

Honey Do List February Design Challenge

Continuing my late participating in Sarajo Wentling Honey Do List challenge, here’s my February creations

The February inspiration was this artistic photo Eric took last summer in the Japanese Gardens in Portland

Photo courtesy of Eric Wentling

Nothing could top the bright attractive fuchsia coloured flowers in the foreground other than that single leaf sitting on the grass. The combination inspired this very literal translation into pendant form:

Blooming in the Square Pendant

The ceramic cube in that bright and cheerful purple glaze was created by Linda Landig and has stamped blue flowers on a 4 sides. Hanging from the cube is a glass flower topped with a silver plated one and a silver plated spacer.

Dangling from the flower are glass leaves in multiple colours, reflecting the variety of greens found in nature. Everything is attached with gunmetal wires and chain. I decided to bring more of the green colour to the top of the pendant and wrapped green organza ribbon around an otherwise plain bail. A gunmetal chain with silvertone clasp let the pendant swing freely

I decided to make a set and added earrings to match:

Blooming in the Square Earrings

The jewellery set is available in my store

Blooming in the Square Pendant and Earring Set

Please stop by Sarajo’s blog to see what she and everyone else has made

Thanks for stopping by. Have a great day

Muffin Tin Revisited

At the beginning of the year Heather Powers of Humblebeads fame sent out a challenge designed to kick start artisans into the New Year. Remember these?

 

Muffin Tin Group Photo

I was happy to get my little treasures made in time for the post. What didn’t happen then? Getting all the pieces into my store, available to purchase. I’m happy to say that’s now done, with links on the photos found in the original post. Or, you can go directly to the store from here.

Well, to be truthful almost everything is posted.

In the end I was not happy with my efforts for the lovely porcelain flower in the top right corner of the above photo. I’ve decided I will put that one back into the “to be redesigned” pile. When I finally get it to a point where I’m satisfied with the design I’ll post all about it.

Oh yes, that larger muffin tin I told you about in the January post? It’s still on my bench but there are definitely less items sitting inside waiting.

Thanks for stopping by. Wishing you a great day

Pretty Palettes: February 2017

I was running late with my design pieces for the February 2017 Pretty Palette Challenge. They weren’t finished on time for linking up but that’s okay. The inspiration for February was this pretty beach scene, taken by Molly Schaller a few year ago

Photo Courtesy of Molly Schaller

The idea of the challenge is to use some of the recommended beads, selected to fit the colour palette of the chosen inspiration. The blog is really meant to encourage folks to try out the Bead Gallery beads, available at Michaels Stores

I have made a decision to use beads from my large stash and though I try to use any of the Bead Gallery selections that fit, I don’t always have any, which was the case this month

What I did have were gemstone chips in several colours that fit perfectly with the colour theme – Aquamarine, Quartz dyed several shades of blue, Rhyolite and River Stone. Using these I was able to make several pieces. First up is this necklace:

 

Beach Cabana Necklace

The little chips which make me think of waves splashing against the sand on the beach, a crisp ocean view in the distance, are strung on beading wire. The little house makes a great beach cabana to which I attached a watery blue silk ribbon to wave in the breeze. More gemstones dangle on waxed linen in a tassel underneath the cabana, hanging from a copper bead cone shaped like a sunhat

With lots of the gemstone chips on hand I made these earrings to match:

On The Beach Earrings

The same gemstones, silk ribbon and copper accents were used in the earrings

Mixing 4 strands of gemstone chips means there are lots leftover. A bracelet with 3 full loops strung on grey steel memory wire came next. There were enough chips to make a smaller bracelet too, with 1 ½ loops

On The Beach Bracelet

While rummaging I also came across some sandblasted agate rounds in 2 sizes. With these I made a shorter necklace that layers nicely with the beach cabana necklace

 

Sand Stone Necklace Layered with the Beach Cabana Necklace

All of these pieces are available in my online store here. There’s also a direct link on the photos

Please visit the blog reveal to see what everyone else made

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day