Artfully Ornamental

5th Bead Soup Blog Party

2012-03-03T13:29:00.000-05:00

Welcome! Sorry for the late post, I clearly haven't figured out how to schedule a post.

Many thanks to Lori Anderson for again hosting the the 5th Bead Soup Blog Party! It's a major undertaking and Lori does a fabulous job coordinating all of it. My Bead Soup partner is Mary Govaars of MLH Designs. I LOVE the beads Mary sent to me. The three lampworked focal beads are by Sarah Moran of Z-Beads. Love, love, love! Mary also sent be a generous assortment of complimentary beads and a sterling clasp.

I used the sterling silver clasp in a bracelet that I created and shared the other day for the Challenge of Music blog hop. The clasp worked perfectly for this piece. After wearing the bracelet the other day, I love it. I wasn't sure about it initially, but I really do like it.

You can read more about this piece here if you're interested.

I knew what I wanted to do with these beads almost from the moment I received them. Putting it all together, though, was a bit of a challenge. To build the focal for this necklace I used raw copper flower components from my favorite bead store The Beadin' Path and some unique headpins I found on Etsy called Jelly Pins by Amber Hooper.

For the remainder of the necklace I used some of the complimentary beads that Mary sent to me and added some coral/orange, oval, vintage Japanese lampworked beads, copper and brass jump rings, two different vintage copper chains, a contemporary brass chain all from The Beadin' Path and a vintage brass clasp with a fuchsia rhinestone that was gifted to me by Heather Parker DeSimone (co-owner of The Beadin' Path) when I worked there. I really, really like this necklace. I wish I had better jewelry photography skills. Maybe someday.

As you can see, I wired the third focal bead as a link on the left side of the necklace. Love. The only thing I'll change with this is to find some smaller antiqued copper or brass jump rings to connect the two flower focals. I don't like the size of the rings I had on hand.

Thank you so much Mary! It was a joy to work with your ingredients! Now, time to get Hopping!

1. Adlinah Kamsir (Singapore) and Hajer Waheed (Kingdom of Bahrain)

2. Adrienn Lukacs (Hungary) and Agata Grygiel (Poland)

3. Agi Kiss (Hungary) and Carolien Muller-Genger (the Netherlands)

4. Agnes Asztalos (Hungary) and B.R. Kuhlman

5. Alesha Conklin and Becki Mendivil

6. Alice Peterson and Carol Dillman

7. Alicia Marinache (Canada) and Dita Basu

8. Amanda Dittloff and Brandy Thomason McNair

9. Amanda Tibbetts and Andrea Trank

10. Amy Freeland and Kay Mallery

11. Andra Weber and Christine Murrow

12. Ann Sherwood and Diane Welte

13. Barbara Bechtel and Kerry Bogert

14. Barbara Lewis and Cat Pruitt

15. Bonnie Coursolle (Canada) and Fay Wolfenden (Canada)

16. Carmel McGinley (Australia) and Tracy Stillman (Australia)

17. Cassie Donlen and Deryn Mentock

18. Cathie Carroll and Janel Dudley

19. Cece Cormier and Morwyn Mullins

20. Charlene Jacka and Christina Hickman

21. Cheryl Brown (Canada) and Diana Ptaszynski

22. Christina Stofmeel (the Netherlands) and Eva Kovacs (Hungary)

23. Christine Damm and Deb Brooks

24. Cilla Watkins (Canada) and Elaine Robitaille (Canada)

25. Sabrina Straub (Switzerland) and Kathy Combs

26. Cindy Cima Edwards and Eleanor Burian-Mohr

27. Cory Celaya and Rhea Freitieg

28. Courtney Breul and Dana Hickey

29. Cynthia Abner and Jennifer Boreck

30. Cynthia Tucker and Jean Peter

31. Debbie Goering and Heidi Post

32. Dee Elgie (UK) and Joanne Lockwood (UK)

33. Dian Hierschel (Germany) and Eniko Fabian (Austria)

34. Diane Cook and Lyn Foley

35. Donna Bohler and Lisa Lodge

36. Donna Millard and Kiersten Giles

37. Doris Stumpf (Germany) and Eszter Czibulyas (Hungary)

38. Elisabeth Auld and Eva Sherman

39. Elke Leonhardt-Rath (Germany) and Marjolein Trewavas (UK)

40. Ema Kilroy and Laurie Keefe-Cecere

41. Erika Nooteboom (the Netherlands) and Giorgia Rossini (Italy)

42. Erin Grant and Jean Wells

43. Evelyn Duberry (Canada) and Gaea Cannaday

44. Genea Crivello-Knable and Heather Powers

45. Ginger Bishop (military, Okinawa) and Martina Nagele (Germany)

46. Heidi Kingman and Lori Greenberg

47. Helen Kemp and Lisa Wangeman

48. Helene Goldberg (Australia) and Karen Vincent

49. Jamie Hogsett and Jeannie Dukic

50. Jeanette Ryan and Jelveh Jaferian

51. Jennifer Cameron and Tania Spivey

52. Jennifer Justman and Kari Carrigan

53. Jennifer Tough and Lorelei Eurto

54. Joanna Matuszczyk (Poland) and Julianna Kis (Hungary)

55. Joanne Tinley (UK) and Michaela Pabeschitz (Austria)

56. Julie Anne Leggett and Kelley Fogle

57. Karen Hess and Linda Landig

58. Karyn Bonfiglio and Kathleen Lange Klik

59. Kashmira Patel and Kat White

60. Kat Barron Miller and Kelly Morgan

61. Kathy Lindemer and Rose Binoya

62. Krafty Max and Sandra Miller

63. Kristen Latimer and Pam Ferrari

64. Kristie Roeder and Lea Avroch

65. Kristina Johansson (Sweden) and Penny Neville (Canada)

66. Krisztina Erlaki-Toth (Hungary) and Nicole Keller (Germany)

67. Lara Lutrick and Lisa Suver

68. Laura DeMoya and Lisa Hanna

69. Libby Leuchtman and Melanie Brooks

70. Linda Koch and Rosemarie Cowit

71. Lisa Chapman and Menka Gupta

72. Lisa Liddy and Marion Simmons

73. Lori Anderson and Marcie Abney

74. Lori Bowring-Michaud and Mary Govaars

75. Lori Dorrington and Maria Rosa Sharrow

76. Lori Finney (Canada) and Marie-Noel Voyer-Cramp (Canada)

77. Lynn Bennett and Mandi Ainsworth

78. Marta Kaczerowska (Poland) and Milla Starchik (Canada)

79. Mary Harding and Shannon LeVart

80. Mary Jane Dodd and Stacey Curry

81. Melinda Orr and Molly Alexander

82. Melissa Meman and Michelle Escano-Caballaro

83. Michelle Jensen and Sandra Young (Canada)

84. Nan Emmett and Nicole Valentine-Rimmer (Canada)

85. Nancy Boylan and Suzette Bentley

86. Natasha Lutes and Patti Vanderbloemen

87. Pam Hurst and Rebekah Payne

88. Patty Miller and Sara Rhoades

89. Rebecca Anderson (UK) and Lori Anderson

90. Rebecca Sirevaag and Sharon Driscoll

91. Rochelle Brisson and Shannon Chomanczuk

92. Rosa Maria Cuevas (Mexico) and Tejae Floyde

93. Sabine Dittrich (Germany) and Sally Russick

94. Sandi Volpe and Sarah/Saturday Sequins

95. Shanti Johnson and Tracy Mok (Canada)

96. Skylar Brez and Theresa Buchle

97. Sonya Stille and Traci Zeller (Canada)

98. Stefanie Teufel (Germany) and Tania Hagen (New Zealand)

99. Stephanie LaRosa and Vonna Maslanka

100. Terri Wlaschin and Wendy Blum

Challenge of Music - Blog Hop

2012-02-29T06:28:00.001-05:00

The lovely Miss Erin Prais-Hintz of Tesori Trovati is hosting the Challenge of Music blog hop today. Erin is hosting quarterly design challenges for anyone who is looking for a jewelry design challenge. Boy did my piece challenge me, and not in a good way. Erin wrote this as part of her introduction to the challenge: "What song do you connect to so personally that every time it comes on the radio the beat moves you, the lyrics speak to your soul, and the harmonies make your heart sing? If you love music, this is the challenge for you! For the Challenge of Music, we will choose a song that speaks to each of us personally and translate that song into an accessory."

I love country music. There was a day, about 30ish years ago when I detested it. My husband is a plumber. He's a Project Manager now and oversees men out in the field, but back in the day he worked on commercial construction sites. They were either blaring head-banging metal music or country music. It seemed that every time I got into his truck or into my car after he used it, country music was on the radio. I immediately switched to my favorite top 40 station. However, after a period of time I would find myself switching to the country station (but if it was good weather and the windows were down - it was back to the top 40 when I'd hit a red light. Heaven forbid anyone would think I was listening to country!). Now, country is just about all I listen to. I do have a peripheral knowledge of what's going on in other genres from hearing my kids' music, and I switch it up every now and then. Country, however, has my heart. First (at almost 50), I understand the lyrics! Second, and most importantly - it speaks to my heart and soul. It's about real life. I love it.

The song I chose for the challenge was a no-brainer for me. I chose Live Like You Were Dying by Tim McGraw (lyrics here). This song came out in August of 2004. We lost our beautiful son T.J., our oldest, in May of 2004 - Mother's Day to be exact. You can read more about T.J. if you'd like to here. Here's the official video for the song:

"I was in my early 40's with a lot of life before me when a moment came that stopped me on a dime. I spent most of the next days looking a the x-rays, talking about options, talking about sweet time." I know these lyrics by heart and don't need to look them up. I was 42 when T.J. was injured; we spent days in the SCU (special care unit) with T.J. in a coma, with nineteen connections to different machines. He was taken for multiple x-rays, CAT scans, etc. We sat as a family and talked, and talked. Several years after T.J.'s death I was asked to speak as part of a presentation on teen death. My speech talks about the surviving family's perspective. It's something that teens don't think about when engaging in risky behavior. To be clear, T.J. didn't engage in risky behavior when he died, he was at work. I've given that speech several times now over the years. I begin my talk with these lines from the song. It's very powerful and life-changing for the students.

The video for this song is predominantly white, with Tim barefoot wearing jeans, a white shirt and a black cowboy hat. I wanted to capture that in my piece; easier to picture in my mind than create. I'm disappointed in how it turned out - in my head and with my original bead selection it came out much better. Now, there is a funny story that goes along with this as well. I'll write more about that below. So, without further adoo here is my piece inspired by Tim McGraw's Live Like You Were Dying (please excuse the pictures, I don't have the patience at the moment to edit):

So, really what I wanted was a two strand bracelet, with the strands separate from one another. I ended up with it still two stranded, but the strands are threaded through the sea glass on sterling silver SoftFlex. Why you ask? Well, I drilled the clear frosted sea glass chips and intended that strand to be separated by black seed beads. The second strand was going to be made of these lovely denim blue lucite heishi with a little bit of amethyst swirled through them, separated by Czech glass fire-polished rounds in a clear/amethyst/blue. However, in a bracelet the size of the lucite heishi and the sea glass chips separated the strands in a very awkward way. I think it would have worked in a necklace, just not the bracelet.

The focal I made from a SLK bezel filled with a picture I took at the beach of mussel shells that looks like a heart and sealed with ICE Resin (this caused me fits - I had a resin disaster on my hands last weekend - my fault). T.J. was an organ donor and his heart still beats keeping someone else alive and healthy. There is a piece of the inside of a mussel shell embeded on the reverse side (I forgot to take a picture of it). The exterior of the mussel shells are a bluish and the interior has that little bit of amethyst to it, like MOP.

This little charm is a Green Girl Studios charm that I bought at a bead show about 6 or 7 years ago. It is heart shaped and there is a daffodil on one side (you can see it in the first picture) and on the back is carved "Think of Me", fitting I think for remembering T.J. T would have been 27 yesterday (another reason it was a difficult week), he lives on in our hearts every minute of every day. Now, part of why I struggled with this piece was the construction, part because this is a difficult time of year for me and part (because I'm ready to move this post on to funny) is because of this:

This is Daisy. Daisy likes to lay on top of anything that is in this spot. The above picture happens to be of my daughter's art project. The other morning it was my beading board and three bead storage containers (with their lids off - do you see where this is going?).

6 a.m. crash, bang, boom and bellowing from my husband. This picture does not begin to encompass the true disaster. Three containers people - all of my sterling silver components (beads, crimps, clasps, earrings, bead caps, etc.) and some base metal findings. I'm not sure I can readily identify which are sterling and which are base metal, other than the fact that most of it is sterling. And prices? They were on little scraps of paper in each divided section - it's like confetti on the floor. Two of the containers had been picked up in this picture. The debris was EVERYWHERE in my dining room!

I had no spark left to work through the design issues with the bracelet after this. Yep, the bead board with the bracelet and all its components ended up on the floor too. It'll take me a flippin' year to sort it all out..... Anyhoo, hop along on this blog challenge. The participants are listed below. Thanks for visiting! Love deeper, Speak sweeter, Give forgiveness you've been denying.....

Erin Prais-Hintz
Marcie Abney
Christine Altmiller
Elisabeth Auld
LJ B
Lori Bowring Michaud (you are here)
Shannon Chomanczuk
Cece Cormier
Jenny Davies-Reazor
Malin de Koning
Beth Emery
Michelle Escano-Caballero
Erin Fickert-Rowland
Therese Frank
Amy Freeland
Tanya Goodwin
Stephani Gorman
Amy Grass
Beth Hemmila
Kristina Johansson
Jennifer Justman
Tari Kahrs
Susan Kennedy
Ema Kilroy
Kathleen Lange Klik
Kirsi Luostarinen
Paige Maxim
Beth McCord
Natalie McKenna
Alice Peterson
Cat Pruitt
Bobbie Rafferty
Johanna Rhodes
Cynthia Riggs
Sally Russick
Sarah Sequins
Amy Severino
Staci Smith
Kristen Stevens
Lola Surwillo
Stefanie Teufel
Sandi Volpe
Holly Westfall
Shaiha Williams

2012-02-28T05:00:00.075-05:00

IN MEMORIAM

IN LOVING MEMORY OF

T.J. Michaud

On His 27th Birthday, February 28

With each experience we are reborn.

We see with new eyes,

We hear with new ears,

We touch with new hands,

And our hearts beat with a different rhythm.

With this rebirth, we become someone different.

It can be joy or sadness that recreates us,

But whatever it may be we start over.

You were reborn somewhere else.

You see with new eyes,

Touch with new hands,

And your heart beats a new rhythm.

With your rebirth, we were reborn.

We see the beauty,

We hear the joy,

We touch with kindness,

And our hearts beat a happy rhythm.

- Gabi

Happy birthday beautiful boy.

We love you and miss you every day.

Dad, Mom, Caiti, Matt and Gabi

2012-02-26T12:49:00.000-05:00

E-Course Giveaway

Have you wanted to learn to to torch-fire enamel onto metal (I do!)? Well, Barbara Lewis of Painting With Fire...Artwear is having a giveaway on her blog for her new e-course, how exciting is that! If you'd like the opportunity to win, hop on over to her blog and follow the instructions. Maybe you'll be the lucky one! Today is the last day to enter, the winner will be chosen on Monday, February 27.

Bead Soup Has Arrived!!

2012-02-05T09:36:00.000-05:00

I received my bead soup from Mary on Thursday. My. Oh. My! She sent me a luscious soup that has me dreaming of summer (while we've had a mild winter relatively speaking, with the wind chill it's 9 degrees here today - the sun is at least shining, thankfully)!

Look at those colors! I've spent a few minutes going through my personal stash and have pulled a few interesting things to go with them. I LOVE the focal I'm going to create! The three lampworked (torch fired, flameworked - pick a term) beads Mary sent me are GORGEOUS. They were made by Sarah Moran of z-beads. I have admired (coveted maybe?) Sarah's beads for a few years. They are beautiful - her color combinations and technical precision are AMAZING! I simply haven't been able to afford them. Don't get me wrong, they are worth every single penny - but with the raising of the children, kids in college, etc. they just haven't been in the budget (that aside, I have a rather large hoard of artisan beads that need to be dealt with).

Can I just say again that I love my beads? Thank you very much Mary! Below is the soup that I sent to Mary:

My picture is not spectacular. Mary has much better pics on her blog. Mary's soup includes mocha latte sari ribbon from Barbara Lewis of Painting With Fire, drilled sea glass fron me, lampworked chicklet beads from Jessie Harding of Burke Mountain Beads (I don't know if she's still making beads, the web address I have for her doesn't appear to be active), a bezel clasp from SLK's Industrial Chic line filled with sea glass bits and ICE Resin, and from The Beadin' Path (my favorite bead store) vintage willow green givre lucite rounds, vintage patterned copper rounds, vintage twisted copper love knots and a vintage raw brass bezel pendant filled with sea glass chips and ICE Resin. I can't wait to see what Mary makes with her ingredients. See you on March 3rd for the reveal (I'll have the list of all pairings on that day)!

5th Bead Soup Blog Party - Sneaky Peak

2012-02-02T12:07:00.000-05:00

Well hello! Work and life have taken over for the last month and a half. Whew! January is supposed to move at a bit slower pace than the holidays. It seems as though many people have felt that January flew by at an alarming rate!

The lovely Lori Anderson of Pretty Things is hosting her 5th Bead Soup Blog Party and I was very fortunate to have the Random Number Generator gods working in my favor - I was selected as a participant (only 200 this time around - much more manageable for Miss Lori)! Yay me! I was paired with the equally lovely Mary Govaars of MHL Designs! Below is a sneaky-peak of the soup I'm sending to Mary:

I'll reveal slightly less pixelated versions of the soup as the package gets closer and closer to Mary! Be sure to check back to see what soup ingredients Mary has sent to me!

Christmas Spirit

2011-12-11T08:56:00.000-05:00

I had so much fun with the ABS Ornament Blog Hop! It really put me in the Christmas spirit looking at all of the amazing art that was created for our Christmas trees. I received some lovely comments on my blog about my ornament. I was surprised at the number of Leos! I too am a Leo, July 27 (so are my husband and dad)! So, I decided to do a giveaway as I had an extra lion face. I placed Marie Cramp, Jewels by Ine, Diana P., and SueBeads names in a hat ('cause I'm all high tech) as they commented they they either were a Leo themselves or love a Leo, and had Hazel draw the winner. The winner is Diana of Suburban Girl Studio!

And, because I felt bad that I hadn't included everyone in the drawing because they weren't Leos and it is the season for giving and all - I did a second drawing with the names of the rest of the commenters! The winner of a surprise ornament is - Kathleen Lange Klik!

And, to add to the oh-so-funny list, I just hopped over Kathleen's blog to copy her URL and saw that she did the very same thing. Guess who the winner was?? Miss Diana, you are a lucky girl!

Thanks again to Heather Powers of ABS for hosting this fun hop!

Art Bead Scene Ornament Blog Hop - Reveal!

2011-12-04T21:18:00.034-05:00

Heather Powers of Art Bead Scene (as well as Humblebeads and Earrings Everyday) is hosting the second annual Art Bead Scene Ornament Blog Hop! Thanks Heather! Today is reveal day! Now, in a perfect world (I do NOT live in perfect), the perfect NEWLY created ornament that is in my head would be posted. As usual, life gets in the way (and a special family ornament crafting session to make ornaments for our oldest daughter’s first tree away from home). Thankfully, I've created enough Christmas ornaments over the last few years that I had one to post. So, for you folks who don't want the back-story, I'll post the picture right off. If you want to know how I got started with ornaments, and where I want to go with them, grab a cuppa', and keep reading. I have the gift (that's not what my family calls it) of gab. ;) Scroll to the bottom of the post for the list of participating bloggers and check out their artful creations!

This is a lion face I made for my daughter Gabrielle when she was in high school a couple of years ago. She went to an all-girls Catholic high school and was proudly a Lion. Then she went to college and was a Wheaton Lyon. This is a handpainted, stained glass ornament soldered with a lead free solder that contains sterling silver. It's made using the copper foil method of stained glass made famous by Tiffany. The first lion face I made for her looked like a bear she said. :( (It really does.)

I began, early in our marriage, picking up one beautiful handcrafted ornament for our tree each year. When our kids were little I would periodically buy them ornaments; not every year because we didn't always have the money. They then started creating Christmas ornaments in pre-school and elementary school and we added those to our tree. Soon, the tree became full of beautiful, special ornaments (our oldest daughter just took her box with her to her first apartment and has a lovely very first Christmas tree).

I've always had a craft or three going on but had never made ornaments for our tree or our kids until I saw a beautiful tree on the cover of Victoria Magazine years ago. It was a tree (and interior spread) decorated with ornaments by Wells Jenkins of Wells Ware. I. Fell. In. LOVE. I, however, could not afford them, as beautiful as they were. So, I had to figure out how they were made. I took a stained glass class that following year and learned how to cut and solder (though my soldering still needs work in my opinion), and figured out how to make them. The next fall I snuck into my parent's and in-law's homes, stole old family photos (copied and replaced them), and worked with our grandmothers to gather special photos. I made both sets of parents 13 or 14 ornaments each that year. It was, I think, the best gift (other than our children) we've ever given them. There were tears. It made my year. I was even able to get a photo of one set of my father-in-law's grandparents that he didn't know existed (the photo that is). Score!

Anyhoo, I continued working with glass through that winter and one day in March, my youngest daughter Gabrielle asked me if I would make her friend Annie a pin as part of her birthday present. Gabrielle was 6 1/2 at the time. I asked what kind of pin, she said a stained glass pin. I asked her if she just wanted me to glue a pin back to a piece of glass. She said no. She picked out a small curved triangular piece of pink/white wispy and asked me to paint a bird and a birdhouse on it (I did a little bit of decorative painting back then). I told her I thought the paint (acrylics) would scratch off. She thought about it a minute and said, "Well, if you use the boys' model paint it will stick. It sticks to everything you don't want it to." True that. Well, I made it, it was adorable, and we pinned it to her birthday card. That was the beginning of me painting on glass. The first ornament came a few short years after that when I was coaching one of her sports teams and made them for the girls at the end of the season.

As we were raising the kids, working, coaching - you know, life. I didn't have time for a lot of creating. So, still, there weren't a lot of ornaments created by me as they were growing. After we lost our beautiful TJ, we realigned. I have spent more time creating, but not enough. Work and life seem to get in the way still, but I'm trying to realign again. I have created some really unique ornaments over the last few years and there are many more (and other components) in my head and sketchbook. I want to bring them to fruition, to create the life I want to live - working from my studio, in jeans and a t-shirt, music playing and the studio door wide open (well, when it's not winter). It needs to become my priority, now that the kids are grown. I can make it happen, I just have to begin the journey and take one step at a time. "Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you have imagined." -Thoreau

I know, it’s a book. Thanks for indulging me! Now, hop on over to check out the beautiful ornaments created by these lovely artists!

Life in the Lyon's Den

Artfully Ornamental (you are here)

Gem Rose Designs

Jewels by Ine

BeeTree by M.E.

Islandgirl's Insights

Art Bead Scene
Jeannie's Blog

Challenge of Color Giveaway Winners!

2011-12-03T12:51:00.000-05:00

Good afternoon folks! We have winners! Thank you all for commenting about the necklace I made for the Challenge of Color Blog Hop hosted by the lovely Miss Erin Prais-Hintz of Tesori Trovati! I haven't yet had the opportunity to respond to each of you, but I will this weekend. I haven't even had time to visit the blogs of the other 53 participants yet, but I'm hoping to snuggle in tonight with a fire in the fireplace and do just that!

So, we have two winners one a Challenge participant and one a commenter who did not participate in the challenge.

It was a very tech-savvy method of picking the Challenge participant ;) . That is my husband Tim's (lovingly referred to as Hazel) hand selecting the winner. Aaannnnndddd the winner is:

Jenni Connolly of Jenni's Beads in Australia! Congratulations Jenni, I'll send along an email for your mailing address!

The winner of the non-Challenge commenter was much easier as there was only one. The winner is Jeannie! Jeanne, if you'd send me an email with your contact information I'll send your ornament along (I don't see an email for you).

Thank you all again for commenting and playing along with me and Erin!

The 2011 Challenge of Color Blog Hop

2011-11-30T06:58:00.000-05:00

Well, what is one to do when the very lovely and inspirational Miss Erin Prais-Hintz of Tesori Trovati and the Treasures Found blog issues an invitation to challenge one's self? One says, "Count me in Miss Erin!" Of course, what better way is there to challenge one's self than by waiting until the verylastminute when one has had three weeks to complete said challenge? Seriously, I need to reassess my priorities and give myself more time to be creative.
Anyhoo, this is the second year Erin has hosted this challenge. She offers twelve colors for participants to choose from; I chose blue. I very, very seldom create with blue. I don't know why I don't, I like blue. The blue color palette Erin chose for me is Sharpened Blue. She has partnered with Jessica Colaluca of Design Seeds to use her wonderful color palettes. Be sure to hop on over to Jessica's Design Seeds blog to spark your creativity with her beautiful palettes.

Sharpened Blue

So, without further ado, here is my necklace inspired by the Sharpened Blue palette:

The vast majority of components I used I already had, and because my studio is such a disaster at the moment, almost everything I needed was on my desk already. I only added the large blue, dyed jade chip beads and the blue ceramic rounds. My peachy colors have a tad more pink to them than the color chips, but I think it's ok. I made the pendant a few months ago with pottery and glass shards I've collected at the beach, along with some sanded grout and resin. It was my first experiment with resin (Ice Resin to be exact). I had been intimidated for years by the prospect of using resin, but the Ice Resin is a dream. The only problem I had was that a bit of blue from the shard at the bottom of the pendant bled and tinted some of the resin a little bit. I think that would have happend with any resin.

Because I was a Last Minute Lori in the creation of this necklace, it's not exactly as I'd like it to be. I am going to change out a couple of components (yep, as much as I love Swarovski, the padparascha crystals need to go; I may replace them with the darker opal beads in the picture below, we'll see) and that's why I haven't attached the clasp yet, but overall I'm happy with it. Thank you for hosting this creative challenge Miss Erin!

So, to thank you for stopping by my little space in the blogosphere on this blog hop I'm going to have a giveaway! Leave a comment and tell me what your least favorite color to work with or wear is and why. Leave your comment by 6 a.m. on Saturday, December 3 and I'll select two commenters to win a handpainted, stained glass Christmas ornament created by moi! One ornament will go to a challenge participant who leaves a comment and one ornament will go to a commenter who did not participate in the challenge. It will be a surprise, but I think you'll like it (most everyone who receives one from me loves them!)! Please make sure there is a way for me to contact you so that I may get your address if you're a winner! I think I'm beginning to feel the Christmas Spirit!

Be sure to check out all of the participant blogs to see their creations, happy hopping!

1	Norma Turvey	Teal	Color Crave
2	Jeannie Dukic	Green	Mineral Tones
3	Mary McGraw	Teal	Embellished Hues
4	Jo Tinley	Red	Decadent Tones
5	Rebecca Anderson	Pink	Tulip Tones
6	Kristi Jaro	Red	Temple Entrance
7	Stephani Gorman	Green	Dew Tones
8	Melissa Meman	Green	Fruit Star
9	Kathleen Lange Klik	Teal	Silk Hues
10	Cynthia Riggs	Red	Autumn Comfort
11	Heidi Post	Teal	Flora Bright
12	Cece Cormier	Teal	Merino Teal
13	Amy Freeland	Gray	Cultured Tones
14	Alice Peterson	Blue	Island Play
15	Rose Noble	Gray	Autumn Stacked
16	Kristina Johansson	Yellow	Sunny Flower
17	Kirsi Luostarinen	Teal	Dragon Hues
18	Tari Kahrs	Orange	Citrus Tones
19	Mallory Hoffman	Purple	Petaled Dark
20	Molly Alexander	Brown	Peppered Tones
21	Regina Santerre	Red	Frosted Berry
22	Emanda Johnson	Teal	Color Purl
23	Amy Severino	Orange	Winged Tones
24	Bobbie Rafferty	Teal	Lime Hues
25	Tanya Goodwin	Gray	Pecked Tones
26	Lisa Lodge	Blue	Nocturnal Tones
27	Hope Smitherman	Blue	Bloom Tones
28	Linda Landig	Green	Cacti Dark
29	Ambra Gostoli	Teal	Perched Autumn
30	Lori Bowring-Michaud	Blue	Sharpened Blue
31	Pippa Chandler	Teal	Hungarian Hues
32	Keirsten Giles	Purple	Mineral Brights
33	Jennifer Justman	Blue	Autumn Rays
34	Sandy Richardson	Purple	Moroccan Brights
35	CJ Bauschka	Teal	Teal Air
36	Shaiha Williams	Teal	Sushi Hues
37	Kay Thomerson	Purple	Autumn Spectrum
38	Sally Russick	Purple	Golden Gate Tones
39	Cilla Watkins	Purple	Autumn Infused
40	Shirley Moore	Purple	Frozen Heather
41	Jenni Connolly	Gray	Paw Tones
42	Tamara Soper	Green	Field Tones
43	Sharyl McMillian-Nelson	Blue	Nested Blues
44	Jen Velasquez	Pink	Sweetened Tints
45	Maria Grimes	Red	Bright Bloom
46	Elisabeth Auld	Gray	Petaled Tints
47	Susan Kennedy	Pink	Zinnia Tones
48	Shannon Chomanczuk	Gray	Autumn Leaf
49	Holly Westfall	Yellow	Sprinkled Tones
50	Patty Gasparino	Red	Color Carton
51	Angela Little	Pink	Singapore Brights
52	Lizzie Zawinski	Green	Budding Hues
53	Kristen Stevens	Pink	Scooped Tones
54	Dawn Doucette	Brown	Jarred Tones

Andrew Thornton's September Readers' Challenge

2011-10-12T07:35:00.002-04:00

This month's challenge hosted by Andrew was FUN! Purple/lavender are not colors I typically work with. I had a blast with this. Andrew is a master at combining interesting, colorful ingredients. I wish I lived nearby to him, I'd love to sit and have a conversation about creating over a mug of coffee or cup of tea (maybe he'll visit Maine some time).

Andrew created a luscious, luxury bead blend in shades of purple that also included some red-purple. In addition to the bead blend he included Swarovski crystals, vintage Miriam Haskell beads, purple Soft Flex beading wire, a dichroic bead, a Humblebeads small pussy willow charm from Heather Powers, two enameled flowers from Sarah of C-Koop Beads, a a "grow" connector from Heather Wynn-Millican of Swoondimples.

And, if this all wasn't enough, he included a mystery component and a length of silver plated chain. The mystery component, a handcrafted floral copper coin accented with gilders paste, created by Andrew himself.

Unfortunately, it took me a while to get to it. September is a complete BEAR at work (notice how gently I worded that Sarah ;) ) and I had committed to Andrew's challenge, Diana Ptaszynski of Suburan Girl Studio's Art Bead Earring Swap (loved it!), and Lori Anderson's Bead Soup Blog Party (fab! - Lori is amazing in my book). Can you say overextended? Thankfully for me, Andrew has had twso reaveal dates for the September challenge due to an unfortunate postal issue. He graciously let me extend my reveal to the second date. So, without further ado, my necklace (I'm not inventive enough to come up with names for my pieces):

The stacked focal of this piece incorporates two vintage copper flowers from my favorite bead store The Beadin' Path. The center of the focal is the larger of the two enameled flowers. I painted one of the copper flowers with enamel paint and wired them together. Ideally, I think I'd like to create a ball end copper headpin for the center. We'll see if I get to that or not. There's also a flaw that needs fixing. When I was punching the holes for stringing, one of the petals slipped and the hole was mis-punched, to salvage the flower I placed it at the bottom. Now that I've used ICE Resin, I'm going to use it to fill that little hole and use some copper leaf to repair it.

I added some oval brass links, vintage tortoise colored Czech glass two-hole connectors and red-purple dyed jasper coins from The Beadin' Path, a few other beads from various sources, and an enameled copper toggle. I am not sure the source of the toggle, I think I bought it at a bead show some time ago, but I can't be certain. It might be a C-koop, I'm just not sure.

I'm also in process with both a bracelet and earrings. This weekend is my weekend to finish unfinished projects (REALLY!). I'm going to finish this bracelet and earrings and my necklace from the BSBP. Come back next week to see! I need a clasp for this bracelet, I need to paint on the sea glass pieces and the vintage Czech glass pendant, drill the sea glass and change out the copper jump rings for brass. From Andrew's kit I've used the "grow" connector from Heather Winn-Millican, dichroic bead, his beautiful handcrafted mystery component coin and the small pussy willow pendant from Heather Powers. I really, really like it (I'll like it even better when I finish it!).

Please excuse the pictures. I should have taken them over the weekend while it was sunny, but I forgot. So you get early A.M. pictures on a cloudy day. One of these days I'll set up my light box. That's anothe story.

Thanks again for creating this challenge Andrew! Now, grab a cuppa' and visit the blogs of the other participants and check this link on Andrew's blog for his piece and a few others he posted on the first reveal day:

Lorelei Eurto

Sally Russick
Tara Linda
Paula Kramer
Melinda Orr
Beth Emery
Tracy Stillman
Heather Goldsmith
Lori Bowring Michaud
Rebecca Anderson
Debbie Price
Patty Gasparino

Have a great day!

Art Bead Earring Swap Reveal!

2011-10-05T08:07:00.003-04:00

Good day to you! Today is reveal day for the Art Bead Earring Swap hosted by the lovely and talented Diana Ptaszynski of Suburban Girl Studio! Diana paired me with the very talented ceramic bead artist, Diane Hawkey. Diane was extremely generous and gifted me with two pairs of earrings, thank you so much Diane!

First up is a pair of LOVE hearts with sterling silver earwires. Adorable, and I can't wait to wear them! Diane is very well known in the beading world for her word beads. These beads have a shiny red glaze and the white banner and black words have a matte finish.

Next up is a pair of amber, crackle finish heart beads on brass earwires from Vintaj.

I wore these earrings to work the other day. They coordinate nicely with a necklace I finished over the weekend for Andrew Thornton's September Readers Challenge, which I'll be revealing on Wednesday, October 12 (check back!). This pair has a shiny amber glaze with a slight crackle finish on the beads and I think you can make out a floral and leaf embossing on the beads. Lovely!

Again, I am a very lucky girl! Thank you Diane!

Below is a picture Diane took of the earrings I sent to her (the peril of a daughter taking a photography class this semester is that I don't have my camera available whenever I want it!).

For these earrings, I used sterling silver bezel connectors from Rio Grande. I placed sealed scrapbook paper that looks like sand in the back, then teeny tiny pieces of sea glass in shades of brown, green and cobalt and filled them with ICE Resin. I then wired brown seaglass chips, cobalt dyed MOP chips, apatite, peridot and a stone I'm not sure about chips to the bottom connector with sterling ball end headpins and finished them with sterling earwires. I had intended to have all of the dangles be seaglass, however, my Dremel decided to give me fits and only the brown got drilled. This was my first time using resin and I was a wreck (I also made a few other pieces I'll show another day). The ICE Resin is worth every penny, it's FABULOUS! I had NO air bubbles. I can't wait to use it again.

I collected the seaglass at my favorite little hometown beach, Willard Beach. My Uncle Chick (his nickname) was the lifeguard there for 38 years. It's the beach my parents met at and they fell in love there (my dad worked summers for my uncle). I spent many a summer afternoon there with my children when they were growing up. It's a little gem of a beach. Most of the glass I collect there is smallish and usually brown, green or clear, but I love it!

Thanks again Diana for hosting this swap, and thanks for partnering me with Diane! Below are links to the rest of the participants:

Diana Ptaszynski http://www.suburbangirlstudio.com/

Jenny Davies-Reazor http://www.jdaviesreazor.com/blog

Marie-Noel Voyer-Cramp http://www.skyejewels.blogspot.com/

Lisa Petrillo http://www.lucidmoonstudio.com/

Patty Chaban Gasparino http://www.mylifeunderthebus.typepad.com/

Susan Kennedy http://www.suebeads.blogspot.com/

Shannon Iko Chomanczuk http://www.formysweetdaughter.blogspot.com/

Cilla Watkins http://www.tellyourgirlfriends.com/

Diane Hawkey http://www.dianehawkey.blogspot.com/

Pam Ferrari http://www.ferrarioriginalsyahoocom.blogspot.com/

Lori Bowring Michaud http://www.artfullyornamental.blogspot.com/ (you are here)

Stacey M. Curry http://www.starhitchedwagon.blogspot.com/

Linda Landig http://www.lindasbeadblog.com/

Norma Turvey http://www.moonlitfantaseas.blogspot.com/

Melinda Orr http://www.orrtec.blogspot.com/

Holly Westfall http://www.silverrosedesigns.blogspot.com/

Rosemarie Cowit http://www.gemrosedesigns.blogspot.com/

Staci L. Smith http://www.stacilouise.blogspot.com/

Sarah Elder http://www.mysocalledjunkylife.blogspot.com/