Inspired by Winter - hosted by Sally Russick

Hi Y'all,

Sally Russick of The Studio Sublime put out the call for those that wanted to join in on a little challenge of Inspired by Winter.  The rules are as follows (copied from Sally's blog)

the challenge:

Let’s get out of the winter rut!

Let’s create a beautiful piece of jewelry inspired by Winter!

The beautiful shimmer of new fallen snow.

The muted colors of nature as it awaits Spring.

The yummy browns of that hot cocoa you slowly sip to warm your bones.

The deep greens of the evergreens.

and the bright red berries from the holly bushes.

Get Inspired!

Reveal your creation on

thursday, february 7th, 2013

with a little photo or description of what part of Winter inspired your color palette and design!

Well when I signed up for the challenge I thought ok this is going to be easy, I even had something in mind that I wanted to create with, but as time went by I started to think "wait what I want to use does not represent winter where I live."  For those of you that do not know I live in Central Alabama and it rarely snows or get's icy here in the winter and if it does it only lasts a few days.  The item I had originally wanted to create with was a ceramic snowflake charm, but as I just said that would not represent my region.  So I looked through my stash and I found a polymer clay piece that I had won in a giveaway from and very nice and talented person by the name of Alenka of Pepita Handmade blog.  The polymer clay piece was perfect to represent winter in Central Alabama.  Here is what I made with the piece.

I felt this piece was perfect cause of the colors of the fronds stamped on the clay.  These are the colors of winter in my part of the United States.  I had these apple green picasso  size 8 seed beads that match so I made the bezel using Cubic Right Angle Weave (CRAW) and then brick stitched around it all with size 6 gold iris seed beads, added a bail and hung my pendant on a snake chain. 

Thank you for stopping by now please go and see what the other participants have created.

Sally  Russick

Patti Vanderbloemen

Shelly Buettner

Therese Frank 

Donna Bradley

Jo Tinley

Karin Slaton

Rochelle Brisson

Renetha Stanziano

Tanya Goodwin

Jenny Davies Reazor

Cynthia Machata

Lola Surwillo

Veralynne Malone

Mary Lamoray

Lynsey Brooks

Mary K  McGraw

Ailsa Cordner

Staci Smith

Rana Wilson

Karin King

Beth Emery

Pam Farren

Jess Green

Susan F.

Happy beading Y'all,

Therese

Lucite and Clay Blog Hop hosted by Lisa Lodge

Hi Y'all,

Way back in September of 2012 Lisa Lodge of Grateful Artist blog put out the call for those that wanted to participate in the Lucite and Clay blog hop.  All you had to do is sign up and tell Lisa which you would like to work with polymer clay components or Lucite components and for a small fee she sent us our packets.

I chose to work with polymer clay components and here is what Lisa sent to me:

The polymer clay bead is designed by Patricia Handschuh of The Color of Dreams.

The rules were simple you had to use the chosen component (clay or Lucite) in your design and all or as many of the added components as you liked.  In my design I used all of the beads except for the four pink petals.  So would you like to see what I created?  Huh what is that?  You said yes.  Well ok if you really want to see it here it is:

I decided to try my hand at free form peyote so here is my first free form peyote piece done with the pretty polymer clay bead and the Lucite flowers and Czech crystals.

I also added some pink shell beads I had in my stash along with some green round crystals in 6 and 4 mm sizes.  I used size 8 & 6 seed beads, size 4 cube beads, size 10 triangle beads to make the base free form.

Please go by and check out what the other participants did with their bead packet.

Isolina Perez, Isolina Perez

Jennifer Reno, Musings of a Crafty Jenny 

Tracy Stillman, Tracy Stillman Designs

Charlene Jacka, Clay Space

Therese Frank, Therese's Treasures

Kay Thomerson, Kayz Kreationz

Ashleigh Kleinhans Becker, Sela Designs Jewelry

Mary Govaars, MLH Jewelry Designs

Alice McCarthy, Northwoods Creative Studio

Rebecca Sirevaag, Becca's Place

Toltec Jewels, Jewel School Friends

Emma Todd, A Polymer Penchant

Kathy Lindemer, Bay Moon Design

Annia Failde, AnniamAe

Happy beading Y'all,

Therese

Focusing on Life 52 Photos - Week 5 - Capture Our Heart

Hi Y'all,

It is week five of Focusing on Life 52 Photos challenge hosted by Sally Russick of Studio Sublime blog.  Week five's prompt is capture out hearts.  We were to go out and look for hearts and capture them with our cameras.  I found a heart it was on my co-workers computer desk top.

and some more on my favorite coffee mug.

Please go by Sally's Studio Sublime blog and see more captured hearts.

Happy beading Y'all,

Therese 

She Made/She Made January Reveal

Hi Y'all,

It's time to show y'all what I made with the items that Christine of One Kiss Creations blog picked out of our stash for us to create with.  Here is what she picked for us to create with this month...

(borrowed from Christine's blog)

Red blister pearls that I gave to Christine and vintage acrylic beads that Christine gave to me. First let me show you what I made with the vintage acrylic beads.

These beads have a very pretty star burst design on the top and bottom of the beads it reminded me of the center of a flower.  So I was thinking how can I make these look like flowers and still make a piece of jewelry with them.  It did not take me long to think of Kristen Steven's Pop Out Pearls pattern, which can be found here.  I had to modify the pattern to fit around the 10 mm beads which as you can see turned out just right.  I was going to make the bracelet, but as I was making the components I thought how neat they would look as the focal for a necklace.  

I played around with the lay out of the components until I came up with this design.  The neck straps are Russian Spiral.  Kristen was telling me how she had done a Russian Spiral using twin beads and I tried and tried to do it myself, but I just could not envision how it was done and got very frustrated and decided to just do a regular Russian Spiral.  I had several of the bronze Czech fire polished 4 mm beads left so I did an inch on each side with them for a little bit of detailing in the ropes. I am very pleased with how this one turned out and I still have enough of the vintage beads left to do a pair of earrings to go with the necklace.

Next the red pearl that I gave to Christine.  Oh my did I have a time with these!  I started three different designs and had to tear them out, because they were just not working the pearls just did not want to be sewn into a design, so I strung them up.  

I had these crystal roundels, one string is clear AB x 2 that I used as the side neck straps, another one is clear AB, that I alternated with red AB crystal roundels.  The pearls I strung with clear crystal 4 mm rounds. I twisted the pearl strand with the roundel strand and crimped each end to keep them from untwisting. I used a Sterling Silver plated heart toggle clasp to complete the necklace.  This photo does not show the Bling that this necklace has.  It catches the light and is almost blinding.

If you have not already please go by Christine's blog and see what she has created using the vintage beads and the red blister pearls.

Happy beading Y'all

Therese

Focusing on Life 52 Photos - Week 4 Create Art

Hi Y'all,

First I would like to say thank you to all of you that left comments on last two week's of Focusing on Life blog posts.  I appreciate all of your comments and I apologize to you for not responding back.  I will try to do better in the future.  

It is week four of Focusing on Life 52 photos created by Sally Russick of The Studio Sublime blog.  This weeks prompt is Create Art.   Well I went a route away from jewelry making although I kept the Bling factor.  I recently bought a hot fix crystal tool and some hot fix crystals to Bling up some shoes for a friend of mine, but she still has not decided on one of the hundred or so pairs of shoes that she owns to Bling.  So I decided to use some of the crystals I bought to Bling up my Kindle cover.

First I drew a flower on the cover, then I started adhering the crystals.

When I got around to the fifth petal I ran out of the pink crystals.  I will be going back to Michael's this weekend and getting more hot fix crystals to finish my flower.  I had fun using the hot fix tool and will be Bling up a lot more items in the future.   I used pic monkey to edit my photos this week.  My cover is the pink color in the first photo, not the orange in the second photo.

Please go on over to Sally's blog to see what every one else has created in week four of Focusing on Life 52 photos challenge.

Happy beading Y'all,

Therese

Focusing on Life - Week 3 Time To Relax

Hi Y'all,

It is week three of Focusing on Life and this weeks prompt is a time to relax.   So here is how I relax.

After being here all day...

My co-worker Angle

I like to come home and do this...

My bead table set up for my next project She made/She made.

It is funny, but really to me working with seed beads is the best stress buster, besides sex, that I have found to do.  I am 53 and single, my son is 29 and on his own, so I really do not have anything else to do when I get home from work then bead for a little while.  

Please go by Sally Russick blog and check out what she and everyone else participating in Focusing on Life does when they get a chance to relax.

Happy beading Y'all,

Therese

Focusing on Life 52 photo - Words

Hi Y'all,

Today is week two of Focusing on Life 52 photos challenge created by Sally Russick of The Studio Sublime blog.  Each Saturday we will get a prompt, you take a photograph that represents the prompt, then on the following Saturday you write a blog post about the photograph that is your representation of the prompt.

This Saturday's prompt was to take a photograph that represents the word that you chose for yourself this year.  My word is...

Adj.	1.	serene - not agitated; without losing self-possession; "spoke in a calm voice"; "remained calm throughout the uproar"; "he remained serene in the midst of turbulence"; "a serene expression on her face"; "she became more tranquil"; "tranquil life in the country" calm, tranquil, unagitated composed - serenely self-possessed and free from agitation especially in times of stress; "the performer seemed completely composed as she stepped onto the stage"; "I felt calm and more composed than I had in a long time"
	2.	serene - completely clear and fine; "serene skies and a bright blue sea" clear - free from clouds or mist or haze; "on a clear day"

(The sky here when I took the photograph, 1-11-13, was not quit clear from clouds, but it is still a beautiful blue with a few wispy clouds.)

Last year my word was Awake.  I chose awake, because I was going to take each day with my eyes and mind open to my surroundings and my beading.  I would remind myself of my word often and it helped me become a more aware person and less self centered.  It also allowed me to open myself up to new possibilities in my beading and to realize that seed beading was where my heart belonged.  So by being awake in 2012 it brings me into feeling serene in 2013 more self assured, calm, and tranquil.  Definition 1 of the word serene applies to my chosen profession of being a Police Communication Officer, it is very important to keep one's head in an emergency and when you are trying to get information out of a person that is freaking out on the other end of the phone line. 

Thank you for visiting and please go and visit the others that are taking part in Focusing on Life.

Happy beading Y'all,

Therese