The Creative Continuum of Seven Artist - April Challenge - Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds

Hi Y'all,

Well it is April 26th and this time around in the CC7A challenge it is my month.  Here is a small recap about this challenge...

Back in the latter months of 2013 Alicia Marinache of All the Pretty Things blog asked seven of her blog friends if we would like to participate in a challenge that would cover 7 months, of course we all said yes. So we were assigned months, we picked themes for our months, and shipped out packages with all sorts of little goodies to design with.

The theme I chose for my month is "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds". Why you ask? Well simple really, April's birthstone is a diamond and the Beatles's song "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" kept playing over and over in my head.  If you are not familiar with the song you can listen to it here. 

This is what I sent to my six other CC7A participants.

This is what I created with my package that I kept for myself.

I beaded around my cab with blue iris size 11 Delicas and size 15 round seed beads I had some black small roundels in my stash that I beaded around the cab. I brick stitched silver lined clear size 8 seed beads around the outer edge of the cab and added 3 mm blue crystals and picot with size 15 silver lined clear seed beads. The neck strap is done in CRAW with size 8 blue and down the front center I used clear 3mm bicones.  I did not have enough of the blue seed beads to keep going so on the ends I used the silver lined clear seed beads and made a toggle clasp with them as well.  To give the necklace more length and to use some of the other beads in the package and connected the cab to the neck strap.  I laid the cab on it's side to represent the line in the song "The girl with the kaleidoscope eyes"

Thank you Alicia for giving me April, this month holds a lot of sentimental value to me. Thank you to all of you for stopping by, now please go visit the other CC7A bunch.  Next month will be Alicia's month so be sure to come back to see what we have created with what Alicia sent to us.

1. Monique

2. Christine

3. Sally

4. Therese (you are here)

5. Alicia

6. Cynthia

7. Emma

Happy beading Y'all

CC7A April Reveal Reminder and ATTS 5 Participant List

Hi Y'all

This is a reminder that on April 26, 2014 will be the April reveal for The Creative Continuum of Seven Artists.  April is my month and my theme is "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds".  Here is what I sent to my six fellow Artists.

This is a picture of my set, I did not take pictures before I sent them out.  Everyone got one of my dichroic glass cabs, 12 or 14 mm stone lentil beads, small blue stone roundels, 8 mm  Opalite, and various sizes and shapes of clear glass beads.

Please come back on the 26th and see what myself, Alicia, Emma, Monique, Sally, Cynthia, and Christine have created for the April challenge of Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds!

 Now on to the participant list of A Time To Stitch 5

Christine and I had a nice turn out for our 5th time around for this challenge.  We enjoy presenting this challenge, because it is always a thrill to see all the different creations y'all do with the stitches suggested.  This time around we are asking that one chooses their favorite stitch and make three of the same pieces but changing something in each piece, either the color, size of bead or shape of bead, to see that with these slight changes the whole piece changes.

Here is the list of participants, without their blog links, that will come later.

1. Therese (Host)

2. Christine (Host)

3. Kim 

4. Janet

5. Maryanne

6. Lola

7. Dagi

8. Shirley

9. Alenka

10. LiliKrist

11. Amy

12. Crystie

13. Sally

14. Cynthia

15. Bobbie

16. Karin S.

17. LizE

18. Becky Pancake

19. Karin G.

20. Ana

21. Wendy

22. Mary H.

23 Jasvanti

Christine and I are so looking for to seeing what each of our participants and each other makes.

If you missed this go around, be on the look out for ATTS 6 to be announced in September for a reveal in January 2015.

Happy beading Y'all,

Therese

Shibori Ribbon Blog Hop - hosted by Tanya Goodwin

Hi Y'all,

Today is the reveal day for the Shibori Ribbon Blog Hop Challenge hosted by Tanya Goodwin of A Work In Progress blog.  Tanya was giving away five nine inch pieces of shibori ribbon for a challenge, but I missed out on the drawing, Tanya said if I had my own shibori ribbon  I could participate in the blog hop.

I have never done anything with shibori ribbon, but I have been drooling over all the beautiful designs and creations I have been seeing on Facebook and Pintrest.  I ordered some of the ribbon from AriaDesignStudio on Etsy with the full intentions of making a cuff, well that did not happen.  So I was so happy when Tanya included me in to her blog hop, because now I had to do something with the ribbon.

Well inspiration did not come easily to me for this challenge, until the other day when I was on Facebook and I saw a simple design and I thought yeah I can do something like that.  So lucky for me I had this weekend off from work, because Tanya sent out an email with the reveal date reminder and I was thinking I had until the 16th.  So I got busy with my design and here is what it turned out to be.

I cut a 3 1/2 inch square out of bead backing and covered it with the ribbon.  I cinched the ribbon in the middle and fanned the ends out.  I had the Czech glass button for a few years now and thought it would be great as the focal in my piece.  I wanted to keep it simple so other then the bezel of seed beads around the button I used 4 mm fire polished Czech beads to embellish and then size 8 silver lined clear seed beads for the brick stitch around the out side of the piece and the bail. I had a silk ribbon string that matched my piece so I used it for the neck strap.

Things I learned from using the shibori ribbon: 

1- it snags very easily 

2- don't pull it to taunt if you want the pleats to show 

3- tack it down when you get the look that you want.  

It would have also helped if I had another hand to hold the ribbon in place while I tacked it down LOL!

Thank you Tanya for allowing me to participate in the blog hop it was fun playing with my ribbon, I will be using shibori ribbon again.

Now please go by and see what the others have done with their ribbon.

Tanya   (our host)

Maryanne

Alenka

Monique

Carolyn

Mary

Catherine

Christine

Sharyl

Therese  (you are here)

A Time To Stitch Five Sign Ups

Hi Y'all,

It is that time again for A Time To Stitch Challenge.  This is mine and Christine's fifth time bring you A Time To Stitch.  The sign ups are from today April 10th through April 17th,
Here is what we are purposing for this go around:

 You will be taking the same stitch of your own choosing and make three of the same pieces with it, just changing up the beads each time.  You will either change up the size, the color, the finish, or the shape.  

Example :  If I choose to make a peyote stitch bracelet, I will make one bracelet with size 15 seed beads, one with size 11 seed beads and one with size 8 seed beads.  OR I will make one in red, one in blue, and one in brown.  OR I will make one in red matte, one in red transparent, one on red iridescent.  OR I will make one in seed beads, one in cubes, and one in peanuts. 

The idea behind this Hop is to see how changing the bead can change the whole look of the piece, even using the same stitch.  It is fascinating how bead choices, more than stitch choices, change the piece.  Hopefully this little experiment will broaden all our repertoires!  

Sign Up today through next Thursday for this easy hop ~ work with a stitch you are comfortable with, and have a little light fun this Spring :-D  

So what do you say are you in for this super easy laid back challenge?  If so leave a comment either on my blog or Christine's, stating that you want to going in on the fun, and we will put you on the list.

Happy beading Y'all,

Therese

March's She Made She Made

Hi Y'all,

Today is the reveal for March She Made She Made with Christine.  This month Christine chose to use a clay butterfly and 4 mm Czech round bronze beads.  Christine's butter fly is from  Chinook Designs, and mine is from Marsha Neal Studio.  Thank you Christine for another great pick.

Here is what I designed.

When I think butterflies I think of flowers, so I connected my butterfly to six cute little daisies.  I used the bronze Czech beads in a Zig-Zag stitch to finish off the necklace.

Thank you for dropping by and be sure to go visit Christine's blog to see what she created this month.

Happy beading Y'all,
Therese

CC7A March Challenge - Contrast - Sally Russick

Hi Y'all,

Welcome to The Creative Continuum of Seven Artists March Challenge.  March is Sally Russick of The Studio Sublime blog's month and the theme that she chose is Contrast.

For those of you that are not familiar with this challenge I will recap.  Back in the latter months of 2013 Alicia Marinache of All the Pretty Things blog asked seven of her blog friends if we would like to participate in a challenge that would cover 7 months, of course we all said yes.  So we were assigned months, we picked themes for our months, and shipped out packages with all sorts of little goodies to design with.

Sally sent out various beads to each of us from the following list:

• Czech glass beads from Arte Bella Surplus 
• crystals from Bead Haven 
•  super duos from Twisted Sistah Beads 
•  and the beautiful copper clay components are handcrafted from the lovely Kristi Bowman Design

Here is what I received

I had already started my design when I remembered I did not take a picture of what I had received.

What is the definition of contrast in art?

(taken from About.com)

Definition:

(noun) - Contrast is a principle of art. When defining it, art experts refer to the arrangement of opposite elements (light vs. dark colors, rough vs. smooth textures, large vs. small shapes, etc.) in a piece so as to create visual interest, excitement and drama.

The colors white and black provide the greatest degree of contrast. Complementary colors also highly contrast with one another.

Contrasting colors are opposite each other on the color wheel, they are also known as complementary colors.

Now that you have an idea of what a contrast color is let me show you what I did with my contrasting color palette.

Juli Cannon of Studio Juls got a new cabochon mandrel and started making cabs.  I bought one and when the package came there was an extra one inside as a gift.  When I saw it I new it was perfect to go with the color palette that Sally sent to me.  I got stated on my project right away, you know when hot inspiration strikes you have to go with it before it goes cold.  I had also downloaded the Bead Me e-mag from iTunes with the Starburst Pendant tutorial that Tanya Goodwin of A Work In Progress blog created.  I kinda took one of her steps from the tutorial and used it in my piece.  I also liked the neck strap that she did with the super duo's and used that as well, thank you Tanya for also giving me inspiration.

I had several of the super duo's left so I started playing around and the above bracelet is the result.  I am in the process of writing up the tutorial for this bracelet, which is my very first tutorial.

I made a pair of matching earrings in the daisy pattern...

and with some of the remaining Czech beads.

Thank you Sally for the wonderful color palette that you sent I truly enjoyed working with it.  Also thank you Alicia for thinking up the challenge it is so much fun to create something each month with the palettes and themes that each of the CC7A participates have created.

Now please go and visit the others and see what they have created in this month's theme challenge and thank you for stopping by my blog.  The month of April is my month and the my theme is Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds.

1. Monique

2. Christine

3. Sally

4. Therese (you are here)

5. Alicia

6. Cynthia

7. Emma

Happy beading Y'all,

Therese

Special February She Made/She Made

 

 

Hi Y'all,

 

 

Wow it is the reveal date for the special February She Made/ She Made challenge.  The four months since I stumbled upon these interesting clay faces has gone by so fast.  So let me tell y'all where I stumbled onto these clay faces.  Back in October of 2013 I went to the Kentuck Arts Festival in North Port, AL.  I was walking around looking at all the wonderful booths of beautifully crafted items after visiting Bobbie's booth, when I saw these interesting clay sculptures done by Susan C Clayton.  I was captivated by her sculptures and as I was looking at her work I saw a basket full of the little clay faces, pictured above, so I picked out two of the faces, paid for them, then ran back to Bobbie's booth and gave her one of the faces.  She had a bewildered look on her face and I told her to hold onto the face I have an idea for a challenge.  I then thought it would be more fun to invite more people to join in so I went back to Susan's booth and picked out several more faces.    When I got home I took the above picture and emailed Christine and some  more of my talented beady friends and asked if they would like to participate in a special February She Made/She Made.  They all said that they would so I sent them each a face.

 

Now the task of making something with my face.  I mulled over the possibilities for a few months and then the light bulb went off in January of an idea of doing a Jazz theme.  A lot of things happened in my life in January and this month so I did not get the work on my project the way I would have liked.  I started my project several times and each time I did not like the way it was going, or should I say my muse did not like the way it was going.  I was wanting to go with muter shades and not so flashy colors, but my muse was not having it she is a Bling lover my muse is. 

 

Before I show you what my muse allowed me to make with my face, let me tell you a little bit about my favorite form of musical entertainment Jazz.

 

Did you know that Jazz was born in the United States?  It sprang from the roots of the Blues which was also born in the United States back in the 1800's by Southern Blacks to sing about the pain of lost love and injustice.  Some famous Jazz performers are Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillispie, Wynton Marsails, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn, Miles Davis (my favorite), just to name a few.  There is a wonderful film done for PBS by Ken Burns all about the history of Jazz you can see this through Hulu Plus.

 

Ok I am done stalling so here is what my muse allowed me to make with my clay face.  I call her my Jazz/ Blues Torch singer Lulu Belle.

 

I apologize for the bad picture it was late last night when I finished her and I do not have my photo tent at my new house yet.

 





 

 



Thank you for stopping by and now please go and visit the other participants in this challenge.

 

Therese  (you are here)

Christine

Bobbie

Hope

Shirley

Tanya

Cynthia

Alicia

 

 

Happy beading Y'all,

Therese