Saturday, December 14, 2013

3rd Annual Handmade Ornament Swap & Hop - Hosted by Sally Russick

Displaying Holiday Hop_edited-1.jpg

Merry Christmas Y'all,

It is time for me to show you the ornament that I received from Veralynne Malone of Designed by Vera .

First just let me say a few things about my swap partner Veralynne.  She is a very talented lady that lives in the mostly sunny state of Florida my neighbor to the southeast of Alabama.  I first became familiar with Veralynne when Sally did the Black and White challenge you can read about it here.   Veralynne also participated in Sally's Cabochon challenge and this was the first time she did a beaded bezel and in my opinion she did a wonderful job for being her first time.  You can read about her adventure with a beaded bezel here.  Veralynne was also in Jeannie's Do Over challenge where she did another beaded bezel.  I must say she did another wonderful job.  I believe she is getting hooked you can read about it here.

So I bet you want to see what Veralynne created for my tree. Well okay here it is...


   Veralynne started out with a beautiful frosty glass ornament and covered it in a crocheted lace and toped it with a pine cone decoration and at the bottom she hung a manger scene that yes, she beaded a bezel around.  I love the ornament and can not wait till the tree is up so I can hang it where I can see it everyday.

Thank you so much Veralynne for the beautiful ornament.  Thank you Sally for yet another wonderful blog hop to where I was able to make a new friend.

Now hop on over to see what the other participant partners made and received.


List of Holiday Ornament Swappers



Happy beading Y'all,
Therese

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Rolling Blog Hop - Hosted by Christine of One Kiss Creations

A Rolling Blog Hop

Hi Y'all,

A short while back, Christine of On Kiss Creations blog asked some creative and inspiring women if they would like to participate in a loose kind of blog hop, I was one of those women.  Instead of everyone posting on the same day, we would post as we got our projects done, with an end of November deadline. As you can see I did not meet that deadline, but Christine is a very polite and understanding person and allowed me and Erin a little more time.  She sent each of us a package containing vintage wooden spools like you see on the above badge (badge compliments of Hope's wonderful photography and Janet's tweaking...thanks ladies~it looks great!) and a few more goodies, that we could use or not, but the spools must be used.  Christine found the spools while antiquing in New Jersey.

Here is what I received from Christine...


In my design I used the large spool, the matte finished gray beads, the 1.5 mm cube beads, the blue iris and hematite size 11 delicas, and the Labradorite bead. 

I would like to dedicate this blog post to my Great Grandma Emma Prosser, Grandma Francis Prosser, Grandma Veronica Neuhalfen, and my Mom Alice Neuhalfen Prosser. All of these women have influenced me in one way or an other in my love of creating. 

As far back as I can remember my Mom has always sewed.  My first memories of this is when I was 5 years old sitting under the table with my dolls and picking up my Mom's material scraps as she cut out patterns. I would take the larger pieces wrap them around the doll's body and take a thin strip of material and use it as a belt.  At that age I still could not tie a bow, but I could tie a knot.When I got a little older my Mom would let me use scissors and a darning needle with embroidery floss. She showed me how to do a baste stitch and that was all it took I was hooked, and a crafter was born! 

My Mom's Mom, Grandma Veronica Neuhalfen, was a quilter.  I can remember sitting around a quilt wrack in the living room in her farm house, as a little girl watching about five or six women with little tiny needles, talking and rocking their hands up and down while they made tiny little stitches.  When I got into my young adult years I started making quilts, although I never got the hang of quilting by hand, I used the sewing machine.

When my Dad did his tour in Veit Nam we lived in his home town in Pennsylvania.  My Great Grandma Emma Prosser live up on the side of Hickory Mountain and I would go to her house all the time and sit on a little stool by her old Singer sewing machine.  She would sew and tell me stories of her life when she was a young girl.  I was so amazed with her sewing machine, because it was not like my Mom's Singer, her's was an old trundle machine.  She also did not use patterns she would take my measurements and make me little outfits.  I am so grateful that I had that time with my Great Grandma Emma.  When my Dad returned from Veit Nam we went to Germany and while we were in Germany my Great Grandma Emma passed away.

After returning from Germany and moving to Alabama back in 1970, I would go spend the summers in Pennsylvania with Grandma Francis Prosser, my Dad's Mom.  My Grandma Prosser crocheted and knitted.  I would love to watch her hands move so fast and the item she was making just appear in front of your eyes, it was so fascinating to me.  I would pull here pattern books out and look at them.  In one of the books there was a camisole that I fell in love with and I just had to have it, so I asked her if she would make it for me and she said well I could but I'm not, you are going to make it.  I was wide eyed and told her that I could not do it, she said sure you can I will teach you.  So my very first crocheting project was done with a size 00 needle and thread. Oh and no I never finished the project, but I never forgot the lessons I was taught, and went on to making many many afghans. 

I am so thankful to have and had all these amazing and talented women in my life to teach and nourish my natural abilities.

Here is what I created with one of the spools that Christine sent...


I have been wanting to etch metal, so I finely tried it.  I found a stamp that said smile.  Why smile, well because when I think back on those memories from above, they make me smile.  I measured the spool and cut a piece of copper sheeting to fit around the spool. Stamped it with StazOn ink using the smile stamp and a stamp with little hearts around the edges of the copper.  


I took the etched piece of copper over to my friend Morning's shop and used the torch to anneal the copper, so it would bend around the spool then I punched holes in the back and riveted the ends together.  I wanted the word smile to stand out so I used some blue patina ink to highlight the word and hearts.   I used the Zig Zag stitch in the tassel to represent the Zig Zag stitching from my Mom's sewing machine the best stitch to use with knit material.


The spool is hanging on my very first Viking knit it is not that good, but I thought it tied into my theme of this necklace.  I also used yarn to do a Kumihimo braid to represent the yarn crafts that my Grandma Prosser did. 

Well there you have it my creation "Smile".

Thank you Christine for your generosity and friendship.  This challenge really pushed me to do something different then what I would normally do. 

Here is the list of women that have already posted.

Janet  ~  Hope  ~  Tanya  ~  Maryanne  ~  Bobbie  ~  Cynthia  ~  Lisa  ~  Liz  ~  Kim  ~  Cynthia again  ~ Karin

Erin is the last to post and will be doing so soon.

Happy beading Y'all,
Therese

Saturday, December 7, 2013

I Love Clay Blog Hop Hosted by Lisa Lodge

Join the Fun!

Hi Y'all,

Well it is time to reveal what I made with the beautiful clay components Lisa of Grateful Artist blog sent to me.  Here is a picture of what she sent to me a few months ago.


I lost the sheet that Lisa sent with the clay components, so I can not tell you who created these lovely clay components, but I do know the pendant was not made by the same person that made the beads.

I thought that the pendant was so pretty when I opened the package a few months back and how the beads matched it so well I was surprised when I read that they were by different artists.  I knew what I wanted to do and it involved CRAW, but as the date got closer to the reveal I had a change of mind and started a Herringbone rope.  I just was not feeling the rope, so I did a Kumihimo rope, did not like that one either.  I was walking by my bead table and noticed that the pendant was laying by some Tiger's Eye gemstones and I thought, yes that is perfect.  I also pulled out some Lapis as a contrast color and here is what I created.


The Tiger's Eye has the same tones of brown and golden tan as the pendant, and the rich blue of the Lapis compliments the brown well. I am really pleased with the results.

Thank you Lisa for hosting such great challenges they really make you think hard before creating something with the beautiful components that you send.

Please go and see what the other participants in the I Love Clay Blog Hop.

Your hostess:  Lisa Lodge, A Grateful Artist

Melissa Trudinger, Bead Recipes
Kathy Zeigler Lindemer, Bay Moon Design
Eleanor Burian Moore, The Charmed Life
Jo-Ann Woolverton, It's a Beadiful Creation
Chris Eisenberg, Wanderware
Carolyn Lawson, Carolyns Creations
Bonnie Coursolle, Jasper's Gems
Dolores Raml, Crafty D's Creations
Therese Frank, Therese's Treasures
Christine Stonefield, Sweet Girl Design
Carolyn Lawson, Carolyn's Creations
Mowse Doyle, Mowse Made This 
Janine Lucas, Esfera Travel Blog
Karin Grosset Grange, Ginkgo et Coquelicot
Kelli Nelson, Zenith Jade Creations
Ann Schroeder, Bead Love
Jasvanti Patel, Jewelry by Jasvanti
Candida Castleberry, Sugar Spun Beadworks
Robin Reed, Artistry HCBD
Katrina Taylor, I Wanna Go Out

Happy beading Y'all,
Therese