Therese's Treasures: February 2013

Thursday, February 28, 2013

She Made/She Made February Reveal

Hi Y'all,

Well it is that time again, time to show y'all what I made with mine and Christine's February pick from our twin stashes. For those of you that are visiting this challenge for the first time let me fill you in. Back in July of 2011 I went to PA for my family reunion and I made arrangements to meet Christine while I was there. I gave Christine a box of goodies from my stash, where in I kept half of what I gave to her. Christine also gave me a gift where she also had half of what she gave to me. We decided on this monthly challenge where one of us would pick two or more items from the stash to create something with. Here is what I chose for us to work with this month.

A glass heart created by Juli Cannon of StudioJuls and some 10 mm Orange Fire Agate.

As my usual self I ponder on what I am going to make all month and the last week or so before the reveal I work on my pieces and finish the night before the reveal.

I love the glass heart, but it was not an easy item to make a design with, but as luck would have it a friend of mine gave me the perfect pink size 11 seed beads to go with this heart and I was able to pull a blue, green, and golden tan that matches perfectly to the golden tan in the heart, out of my stash of ever growing seed beads. So what stitch do you think I went for with four different colors of seed beads? Well my old favorite Twisted Herringbone of course.

Twisted Heart

You can not tell in the photo, but the clasp is a heart shaped toggle. I had two glass beads also made by Juli Cannon, that sort of matched the heart, so I added them for a little contrast. I used Czech glass pressed pink flower beads for the spacers between the glass beads and heart.

I wore this around the house tonight after finishing it and it wears very nicely not heavy, but yet you know it is there.

When I went on my beading retreat to Crestview, FL with my beading group the Beading Fairies the weekend of Feb 16-18 we went to a wire wrapping class at a bead/art shop in Niceville, FL called Artful Things. We had a wonderful time and the teacher was a very nice older lady named Helen that live locally. So I created the same style bracelet with the Orange Fire Agates and square 21 gauge copper wire.

This bracelet is very easy to make and works up in about 30 minutes.

Helen is going to be coming to Montgomery to our new bead store The Enchanted Bead to teach a wire wrapped bracelet class that is just a little more advanced then the above bracelet and I can not wait to take that class.

Well there you have it, now hop on over to Christine's blog and check out what she has made. I know that I can not wait to see what wonders she has created this month. Thank you for stopping by.

Happy beading Y'all,

Therese

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

My Bead Soup Has Arrived!

Hi Y'all,

My bead soup from my partner Penny of Cobblestone Lane has arrived. Here is what I received from Penny.

I love the colors that Penny sent and I have all kinds of ideas running around in my head, I just have to catch one and go for it.

Penny has also received what I sent to her, this is what I sent...

an assortment of gemstones and findings along with a glass heart from Juli Cannon of julsbeads blog, which was gifted to me by Pat Haight of The Wigglebutt blog in a past bead soup swap.

I enjoy getting gifts in fancy boxes, so I now go the extra mile by getting a paper box and covering it with decorative paper and packing the goodies inside and mail it off. So now the person receiving the gift has something extra to remember me by. Penny has informed me that she will be keeping her hair accessories in and also that the box matches her bedroom decor.

Well there you have it now I just need to get a soup brewing.

Happy beading Y'all,

Therese

Monday, February 25, 2013

Freeform Peyote Challenge/Choose Your Own Adventure Update

Hi Y'all,

I am feeling much better then I was on Saturday so I thought that I would update the Freeform Peyote Challenge with my finished bracelet.

After reading all of the very nice and supportive comments I received from all of y'all I made the decision to finish my bracelet. I am still not feeling 100 percent well but I worked on it a little bit at a time off and one through out the day and evening until it was done.

Before I show you the finished bracelet let me tell you a little about the beads I chose to work with. I went to Bello Modo and I ordered some seed beads and I also ordered a Czech seed bead mix Wildly Bohemian/Jungle Boogie.

Then I looked through all of my gemstones for a focal I selected several. I played around with them until I made my choice to go with the Picasso Jasper oblong bead. As normal I had other challenge pieces that I had to finish before I could start the freeform. Well I finished those and got the one I had to send off in the mail and as luck would have it I got sick but I worked at it anyway and this is what I posted for the challenge reveal.

I want to say thank you to all of you that commented giving me well wish and the encouragement to finish my bracelet, I would now like to present to you Acres Wild.

I am a Jethro Tull fan from way back and I was going to name this piece Bungle in the Jungle, because that is the song that kept going through my head as I was working on this piece. But today when I was looking through the songs I came across Acres Wild that describes my piece more so then Bungle in the Jungle.

You can listen to Jethro Tull's Acres Wild on You Tube.

Thank you once again to Karen Williams and Mandi Ainsworth for letting all of us play along in this freefrom challenge I am looking forward to doing freeform again I am coming to like this style of beading.

If you would like to see what everyone in this challenge has made click on Karen's name and it will take you to the challenge post with the list of participants.

Happy beading Y'all,

Therese

Saturday, February 23, 2013

Freeform Peyote Challenge Choose Your Own Adventure

Hi Y'all,

This is going to be a short and sweet post. I did not get my piece finished to be honest I got the crud after coming back home from my beading retreat with my Beading Fairies, so I have really not been up to doing much of anything at all.

Karen Williams of Baublicious blog and Mandy Ainsworth Bead Circle teamed up to have a freeform peyote challenge and I said what the heck why not I have never done freeform and have been wanting to give it a try. Well let me tell you it was not that easy for this OCD personality to accomplish, but I pushed through it and I completed one for another challenge here is the picture of that one.

And here is the picture of the one for this challenge a work in progress.

I am not going to say that when I finish this I will post a picture, because to be honest it may never get finished, but then it just might, I am not sure at this point.

Please go by and check out what everyone else has made or is making for this challenge. I will get around to everyone later.

Tammi Clapper

Happy beading Y'all,

Therese

Focusing on life 52 photos weeks 7 and 8

Hi Y'all,

I am combining both weeks 7 & 8, because I was out of town for week 7 and did not have a chance to get a post done before I left.

Week 7 our prompt was to take photo's of flowers. In Alabama where I live it was not hard to see flowers all around me. The Tulip Magnolia's are blooming along with other blooming trees and bushes. I was on my way to the store and realized that I have not taken a picture yet, even though my yard is full of blooming plants. So I was approaching an intersection and there on the corner was this beautiful Tulip Magnolia tree.

It was a beautiful day in the neighborhood, that day.

For week 8 I took the same photo as above and played with it in pic monkey and here is how my Monochromatic photo turned out.

First I turned it into a black and white then I played around with the Cinerama setting.

I apologize for the short post, but I am sick with the crud and it is taking all I have just to do this post and then do one more for the Freeform Challenge. If you want to see what everyone is taking photos of in Monochromatic fashion head on over to Sally Russick's blog and check them out.

Happy beading Y'all,

Therese

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Bead Soup for Patricia

Hi Y'all,

Well I finally got my bead soup put together and in the mail to my Bead Soup partner Patricia Mills aka Penny Lane of Cobblestone Lane blog. Patricia lives in Ontario, Canada out in the country so I hope her bead soup makes it through all the snow and ice to her in time to create something beautiful for our reveal on April 13th.

Patricia works with wire and gemstones to create beautiful pieces of wearable art. Here are a couple of examples of her work, borrowed from her blog...

A beautiful wire woven butterfly with an Agate for the focal, Czech crystals, and glass pearls. This is Patricia's version of Iza Malczyk butterfly tutorial.

A beautiful wire woven cuff done for her daughter as a Christmas gift. This is Patricia's version of Lisa Barth's tutorial.

Patricia's blog is brand new and I am her only follower right now go by her blog by clicking on the link above and show her some blogger's love.

Here is the teaser of the Bead Soup I sent to Patricia...

I hope Patricia will have lots of fun cooking up something good with these ingredients.

Here is the teaser of the Bead Soup Patricia sent to me...

Yummy I can not wait to get this in the mail and see just what all it contains. I love the colors of this Bead Soup mix.

Happy beading Y'all,

Therese

Friday, February 8, 2013

Focusing on Life 52 photos Week 6 Feel the Love

Hi Y'all,

It is week six of Sally Russick's Focusing on Life 52 photos challenge. This week's prompt was to photograph someone or something that says feel the love to you. Well I was going to go out to the Mall and people watch and maybe take a photo or two of couples in love or Mom's with their children or just friends having a good time, but I came down with a stomach bug and just did not have the time to go. So last night while I was watching a movie I looked over on my bed and low and behold love was looking me right in the face!

A STUMP FOR A TAIL

You can't buy loyalty, they say
I bought it though, the other day;
You can't buy friendship, tried and true,
Well just the same, I bought that too.
I made my bid, and on the spot
Bought love and faith and a whole job lot
Of happiness, so all in all
The purchase price was pretty small.
I bought a single trusting heart,
That gave devotion from the start.
If you think these things are not
for sale, Buy a brown-eyed puppy with
a stump for a tail.

--- author unknown ---

Chewy Junior is the best $150.00 I have ever spent. I bought him from my local Animal Shelter. He is a Chihuahua mix, I think the father is either a Jack Russell or a Beagle.

Thank you for stopping by now go on by Sally Russick's blog and check out what the other's found to feel the love.

Happy beading Y'all,

Therese

Thursday, February 7, 2013

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.

Happy beading Y'all,

Therese

Saturday, February 2, 2013

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

Friday, February 1, 2013

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