Lorelei Eurto/Keirsten Giles Cone Challenge!!

O.K., late to the party. I thought I had the scheduled post worked out, guess not. Anyhoo,

Good morning! Welcome to the Cone Challenge!! Keirsten Giles of The Cerebral Dilettante and Lorelei Eurto have teamed up for a wonderful challenge using copper cones handcrafted by Keirsten. She sent 6 different sets of cones to Lorelei for the challenge. Lorelei kept a set to participate with and she randomly selected 5 of her readers to participate as well. Lucky, lucky me! Above is a picture of the etched, patinated cones I received. How lovely!

When I saw Lorelei's post about the challenge, I knew right away what I'd make if I were selected. Now, conceptualizing and creating are sometimes two different things. As Sally Jean Alexander says "embrace the imperfection". I have a lot to embrace with this first piece, but I love it regardless.

I turned the big 5-OH last Friday. I have been contemplating this event for the past year. I haven't looked at it with dread like I did turning 40, but I've been doing a lot of reminiscing - wishing I'd done some things differently and glad I've done some things the way I have. So, when I saw the cones I thought they'd make a cute party hat. I am not a mixed-media artist, I think that's clear in this piece. I also have lovely handwriting, I'm complimented on it regularly - you wouldn't know that from this piece. I apparently need lines. Anyway, I'm embracing the imperfection:

It says, "She decided to live her life with the glass half full so that when the calendar turned to 50, the lines on her face were more from laughter than crying.....". That's me, I think I was either 1 or 2, I'm thinking 2. I sawed the back off the cone and made it into a party hat. I added a piece of a fluffy chenille stem to the bottom of it and a sparkly pom-pom to the top, and edged the wooden piece with black and white glass tiles. The little balloon is a piece my daughter Gabrielle soldered and enameled in her metalsmithing class last fall. I thought it looked like a little balloon.

What did I do with the piece, which was actually 2 pieces because of the seam, that I sawed off the back? Well, I did what any bead lover would do, I made 2 copper beads. Just like making crescent rolls.

I need to file the sharp tips.

The next piece I have titled "Flotsam and Jetsam". Beachcombing is my favorite pastime and I wanted to make a beachy talisman with the other cone. So, I made a tassel focal with the second cone and added one of the two copper beads I made to it. The tassel also includes a lampworked disc and drop, some stones, Swarovski crystal, drilled sea glass, lucite beads from the Beadin' Path, some Czech glass, and metal charms - all dangling on waxed linen cord and embroidery thread. It's wired with copper wire, lucite spacers and a triangle bead. I've connected to a bronzy toggle. Pardon the cruddy pics:

The remainder of the necklace is made with MOP donuts from Michael's, copper jump rings, vintage copper chain from the Beadin' Path, a delightful little copper shell clasp from Joanne Tinley of Daisychain Extra and some wonderful enameled filigree beads from my Pantone Spring 2012 bead swap with Keri Lee Sereika of Pink Lemonade. I LOVE this necklace! It's twisting just a tiny bit around the clasp, so I need to tweak it, but I love it.

Thanks so much for stopping by! Please stop by the other participants blogs to see their lovely creations!

Lorelei Eurto: http://www.lorelei1141.blogspot.com/

The Crazier Sister http://crazycreativecorner.blogspot.com/

BeadBug http://www.CopperGlassAndRecycledTrash.blogspot.com/

Yay!Jewelry http://yayjewelry.blogspot.com/

Jen Judd http://jenjuddrocks.blogspot.com/