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/

Bead Swap

Hi folks! Lori Anderson of Bead Soup Blog Party fame had suggested a bead swap in our facebook Bead Soup Cafe a little while ago. Folks who were interested tossed their names into the proverbial hat and Lori matched us up. No specific requirements for the swap were set by Lori and there's no "reveal" date as with the BSBP.

Lori paired me up with Mary Govaars. Mary happened to be my partner for the last Bead Soup Blog Hop. Shhhh! Don't tell Lori we were paired up again, LOL! Mary and I spoke via email and neither of us had particular preferences for types of beads or colors. It's fun that way, I think. The picture above is the "soup" I sent to Mary (appearing a bit bright as the morning sun was streaming through my dining room windows, the red is really not that orange).

The lampworked beads are boro beads by Kristan Child of Redside Designs. They're bluish, greenish, rusty-red with a little bit of bronzy-gold. Love them. I've been hoarding them for quite a while (and kept a few for myself). I paired them with some vintage copper chain in a sort of twisty link, amazonite rounds, kyanite rondelels, copperish pearls and some vintage rusty-red moonglow lucite saucers - all from The Beadin' Path.

I made the stacked clasp using a vintage copper 3-petal flower component from The Beadin' Path, one of the coordinating lampworked beads, a Swarovski marguerite in vitrail (I think), a copper balled end headpin and single ball hook. How did I make the clasp you ask? Well, I'm taking The Art of Closure e-course from the lovely and very talented Deryn Mentock of Something Sublime. It's the only clasp I've made so far (and there are so many, along with loads of tips and tricks from Deryn), and I still have some work to do (practice, practice, practice) but I'm happy with it. I hope Mary is too!

This is the soup Mary sent to me! It includes vintage pieces - LOVE! There are some vintage pink and white givre glass beads. Love the shape of them. Vintage white beads which I believe are lucite, and rose quartz rounds.

A vintage brass-toned pendant with a pale, pearly pink center:

 There is a half strand of tourmaline (one of my favorites)!

And a set of lampworked beads in white, pink and black by Laurie Hyatt of Heavenly Gifts:

I have several thoughts swirling through my head about these beads and the pendant. I actually have a couple of lampworked beads (very expensive ones) that I've been hoarding for years by Julie Wong of Uglibeads (I don't think she's lampworking any more. A shame, these beads are beauties - such detail.) that would go great with this soup. I'm also thinking that I need to haul out my torch-fired enameling supplies that I've had for a year plus and haven't used yet. Stay tuned!

Bead Soup Has Arrived!!

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)!