Saturday, March 15, 2014

Spring Fever Design Challenge & BSBP 8

Well hello! Holy cow, this is only the 18th time I've blogged in the past 14+ months. That's really sad. Sigh. I've got to work on changing this, well a lot of things. Let's start with the positive shall we?
A couple of weeks ago Lesley Watt of THEA Elements, The Gossiping Goddess and THEA jewellery as well as Claire Braunbarth of Smitten Beads and Caroline Dewison of Blueberri Beads put out a call for participants for their Spring Fever Design Challenge and I had my name pulled out of the proverbial hat! YAY me! We've all had enough of this winter, correct? I know I certainly have - I really don't have any desire for another gray day, or another flake of snow. We've had quite enough already. I'm ready for walks on the beach in my shirtsleeves and flip flops, thankyouverymuch! My beautiful components arrived earlier this week:
AMAZING, aren't they - each and every little piece! Now, I will say the peach will be a little bit of a design challenge for me - and that's a good thing! Usually if I use a bit of peach, it's peach with a tad bit of pink to it. My oldest daughter has fallen in love with Caroline's bird beads - she can't have them though, they're mine! Please stop back on reveal day - Wednesday, April 16 to see what I and the other 25 artists created with all of these lovely bits and bobs - they're all similar, but different!

Also coming up is the 8th annual Bead Soup Blog Party. Reveal day is Saturday, May 3. What a fun day (heck, week is more like it) that will be - I believe there are approximately 500 participants. The very  lovely Lori Anderson (and her husband Rick, and several very hard-working helpers) of Pretty Things created this wonderful event for us folks who love beads and love to create with them.

I've been paired with Kelly Hosford Patterson of PyxeeStyx and The Traveling Sideshow. To say that Kelly is an incredibly talented mixed media artist is a total understatement. She is a fiber/couture and jewelry artist - she creates her own fabrics folks! Kelly works with wire and metals, she enamels - honestly, I don't think there's a medium she couldn't tackle if she hasn't already tried it. Here are some amazing things Kelly has created, I mean seriously folks (photos all by Kelly):
I'm inspired and I can't wait to work with her. We're just getting to know one another and we're shipping our soup to each other a little bit after everyone else, but it will be so worth it. Stay tuned to see what we send and receive!

Monday, March 3, 2014

AJE Component of the Month - Fluttering Hearts!

Well welcome to my little corner of the internet! I'm so very excited to have been selected to participate in the Art Jewelry Elements February component of the month challenge! I couldn't wait to get my hands on one of the beautiful hearts Melissa created - it's gorgeous!
I had a thought in my head when I saw the original post, but I had to wait to receive my heart to see if it would work. I've altered my heart Melissa, I hope you don't mind!
The heart in hand motif has a lot of meaning for me, especially at this time of year. So, that's what I wanted to work on. I'm really happy with how my focal turned out. I balled up a couple of pieces of silver wire, colored them with alcohol ink and inserted them into the holes on the heart. I then used ICE Resin to attach the heart to the painted, stained glass hand pendant I created.
I used more alcohol ink on washers from the hardware store and connected them with jump rings (I'm short a couple of large ones so the necklace is not quite finished yet. I also added a Basha bead that I had received in a mix from a prior challenge with Andrew Thornton. The colors were a perfect match for this piece (though I may move it down to the lower washer location - not sure).
I finished it with a sterling heart lobster clasp and some short lengths of chain - and done!

Thanks so much to the folks at AJE for the opportunity to play along! Please take a peek at what the other artists did with their components:

Guests...
Lori Bowring Michaud (you are here)
Kathy Lindemer
Kim Bender 

AJE Team...
Melissa Meman
Jenny Davies-Reazor
Rebekah Payne
Caroline Dewison
Kristen Stevens
Keirsten Giles
Sue Kennedy