Antiquities Traveler's Blogoversary Hop

Hi Y'all,

The time has come to celebrate Cynthia's, of Antiquity Travelers blog, 2nd Blogoversary.  Yes the wonderfully talented Cynthia is celebrating having her blog for two years.  Is it just me, or does it seem like she has been in the blogging world for a lot longer?  

A few months ago Cynthia contacted me and four other people, that she has been following since she had started her blog, and asked if I would like to join in a blog hop to celebrate her two year Blogoversary?  Of course I said yes.  A few weeks after saying yes I received a package in the mail and here is what was inside:

Cynthia sent some green matte size 8 seed beads, 4 mm Rose Quartz gem stone beads, some green with blue tints sari silk from Darn Good Yarn, and the focal piece a Tribal Tiki mask pendant made by Jana of Happy Fish shop on Etsy.

Here is what I make with the ingredients in my package:

As soon as I opened and saw what was in the package the ideas started to flow.  I knew I was going to make a beaded rope and defiantly use the silk.  My first attempt was using CRAW with just the green seed beads and also use the Rose Quartz beads, but I did not like the way it was turning out, so I ripped it apart and started over with Herringbone, again with just the green seed beads and Rose Quartz.  Yeah you guessed it, I did not like that either.  There was just too much green and the pendant has dark blue undertones.  I went to my seed bead stash and pulled out these dark blue Iris finished size 8 seeds and did a Herringbone Spiral tube.  Then I went to Hobby Lobby and picked up the green and blue size 10 mm round beads and these neat shaped stone beads, not sure what type of stone.  Pulled out some silver base metal findings and started putting the necklace together.  I knew I wanted to use the sari silk in the back, so I made a loop with the flex wire and tied the silk onto the loop and slid a cone over it to hide the knot.  On the pendant I wanted it to hang flat in stead of on it's side, so I took two decorative head pins and I used one to make a bail at the top and the other to fill in the hole at the bottom, so now my Tribal Tiki mask has a decorative pierced chin.  This necklace is very comfortable to wear with the silk tie in the back.

Thank you Cynthia for including me in on your Blogoversary Hop.

Now please go and see what the other participants have created with their Tribal Tiki mask pendant.

Janet Bocciardi          Honey from the Bee
Christine Altmiller      One Kiss Creations
Bobby Rafferty          Beadsong
Therese Frank           Therese's Treasures (you are here)
Alicia Marinache        All the Pretty Things
Cynthia Machata        Antiquity Travelers

A Time To Stitch 4 Challenge

Christine and I are ready for A Time To Stitch 4 and hope you are too!  

Netting will be the one stitch we all will do. 

This is just one suggested tutorial for the Net Stitch there are many more on You Tube.  Also you can find tutorials for Net Stitch in books, magazines, and in Etsy for a small purchase price. 

As for the other stitches, we are putting it in your hands.....you get to suggest a stitch, and the 3 most frequently suggested stitches will be what we will work on for this 4th challenge.   

The dates for this challenge are:

10/16-22 : Sign Ups and Suggestions

10/25 : Reveal of The Most Suggested Stitches that will join Netting for the Challenge 

1/15/14 :  A Time To Stitch 4 Hop Day 

The Rules of the Challenge are:

1. Everyone does Net Stitch

2. You need to pick one of the other 3 stitches.  But you can certainly do more if you'd like~we're not stopping ya! 

If you suggest a stitch, then you are also signed up for the Hop.  If you have no suggestions but want to participate, of course we will add you to the list.  

When you sign up and suggest, please provide your name, blog address, and e-mail address.  

You can sign up here or at One Kiss Creations.  

We cannot wait to hear your suggestions!  This is going to be a fun hop :-D  Thanks so much for supporting our other 3 ATTS Hops.  We really do enjoy doing these and learn a heck of a lot.  

Happy beading Y'all,

Therese

All the Pretty Things: Happy 2nd 'blogoversary'!

All the Pretty Things: Happy 2nd 'blogoversary'!: I can't really believe it: it's been 2 full years since I started this blog and what a wonderful two years they have been!! In num...

October Challenges

This October I will be participating in four challenges...

The first challenge will be revealed on October 23rd.  The wonderful and very talented Cynthia Machata of Antiquity Travelers blog  is celebrating her Blogoversary with a little challenge.  She sent out a package to five people of her choice I was one of her choices along with Christine Altmiller, Janet Bocciardi, Bobbie Rafferty, Alicia Marinache, and of course Cynthia kept one for herself.  Here is what I received from Cynthia...

This fabulous polymer clay pendant, which is the challenge piece, some size 8 seed beads, some 4 mm Rose Quartz beads, and some Sari Silk.

Next challenge is Jeannie K Dukic 8th Do Over Challenge reveal date October 26th.  To participate in this challenge you must agree to except an old piece of Jeannie's jewelry that she made, but for some reason she did not like or it did not sell and you pay the S&H cost for the piece, but you must use at least 50% of the piece in your design. If you chose not to participate after you received your piece from Jeannie then you will be charged for the cost of the piece you were sent.  

Here is the piece I received from Jeannie...

This is the first time I have participated in this challenge.

Next challenge is Christine's Rolling Blog Hop October 26th through December 9th.  Christine wanted to have a laid back blog hop so she asked a few of the people that she has gotten to know since she has been blogging if they would like to participate in a none pressured blog hop and that she would send us each a package with a secret challenge piece so of course we all said yes.  This is the list of participants:  Hope Smitherman, Bobbie Rafferty, Janet Bocciardi, Lisa Stukel, Cynthia Machata, Tanya Goodwin, Liz E. Erin Fickett-Rowland, Kim Hora, Maryanne Gross, Christine and myself.

Here is what I received from Christine...

The vintage spools are the secret challenge piece, that must be used, the rest is up to us if we want to use them in our designs.  I love the color scheme Christine sent to me, this picture does not show the beautiful iris and AB finishes on the seed beads.  I had to laugh when I read in the note that she apologized for sending me such a dark color palette.   I wrote her back and told her that I love the color palette and that it appeals to my dark mysterious side.  The stone pendant is Labradorite, the bars are polished Hematite, 8 mm and 4 mm beads are unpolished Hematite, the daggers are a beautiful AB Jet.  

Last but not least is mine and Christine's She Made/She Made one on one challenge reveal October 31st.  It is my turn to pick what we will be creating with and this is what I chose...

A resin rose pendant and 14 mm yellow Fire Agate. Christine's rose's color is turquoise.

I hope that you will come back and visit me on all of the reveal dates and of course I will be letting you know when I will be posting my finished design in the Rolling Blog Hop.

Happy beading Y'all,

Therese

She Made She Made September Reveal

Hi Y'all,

It has been a while since Christine and I did a She Made/She Made challenge, we decided to take the summer off, so let me refresh what this is all about.  In July of 2012 I went to Pennsylvania for a family reunion and Christine and I met in Carlisle, PA at the Rolling Bead store, then we had lunch it was a great day.  I gifted Christine with a box of goodies that I made up from my stash and she in turn gifted me with some goodies too.  Since we both kept half of what we gifted each other we decided to have a little challenge between the two of us making something from two item chosen from our gifted stashes.  So with out further ado here is what Christine chose for us to create with for September. 

She chose the Aventurine donuts from what I gifted to her and the orange Czech glass beads from what she gifted to me.  Here is what I made.

It took me a little while to grasp an idea of what I wanted to make with the beads that were chosen.  It was not until I took a little trip to Huntsville in north Alabama, and I went to a little bead shop called Mary's Antiques and Beads, and found the color enhanced Carnelian 4 and 8 mm beads, some 8 mm Aventurine beads, that I knew I wanted to do a Cellini spiral.  When I got home I went straight to my stash of seed beads and started pulling out all of the green and orange seed beads in sizes 15, 11, and 8.  As I was beading the spiral the colors reminded me of the rich oranges the oak tree leave turn in Autumn here in Alabama mixed in the the dark green of the evergreens, so I decided to name my piece Autumn in Alabama.

Thank you for stopping by to visit, now please be sure to go by Christine's blog and see what she created.

Happy beading Y'all,

Therese

Sequintastic September (A sequin-themed blog hop)

Back on July 27th, Sarah of Saturday Sequins blog put out the call to those that wanted to participate in her Sequintastic September challenge, here are the rules:

The challenge: 

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, will be to...

• Create an original work of art using sequins. What you create, and how many sequins you use, will be up to you!

• On the reveal date, share a photo of what you made.

• Then, visit the other participants and drool over all the amazing work.

Easy so I signed up and then I thought, what in the world was I going to make.  Then I remembered a bead embroidery cuff that I had started, perfect I could fill in the spaces with sequins. 

I had this jasper stone bead that I bezeled and around it I sewed Rose Quartz chips.  I used Czech glass beads for the leaves and the other little flowers are made from pink fresh water pearls and black Czech glass roundels I sewed on the silver plated butterflies and that is as far as I got when I could not decide how I wanted to fill it in.  I was going to do a checker board back ground with pink and gray seed beads, but I did not like how that was looking so I ripped that out.  The sequins turned out to be the best solution.

 Now to find the right color sequins for my cuff.  Off to Joann's I go, because in my town there is not a whole lot of places to find sequins.  I was lucky because they had one pack of pale pink sequins left and I also chose a silver AB square sequins too.

Here is the result of adding all of the sequins to the background of this cuff.

I used the silver AB square sequins behind the round pink sequins to give a little extra bling factor.

I used silver lined clear seed beads size 8 for the edging and a five hole slide clasp

I am very pleased with how this piece turned out. 

Thank you Sarah for host another wonderful blog hop this year.  Thank you to y'all for stopping by and visiting my post.  Please hop on over to Saturday Sequins blog and see what the other participants created.

Happy beading Y'all,

Therese

Creating With Cabochons hosted by Sally Russick of The Studio Sublime

Hi Y'all,

Yes it is me, I am still around, I just took a break from beading and blogging for a little while.  I have been learning a few new skills to add to my jewelry making, one of which is fusing glass and shaping the fuse glass into cabochons.  So that is what I am going to show you for the Creating With Cabochons challenge, that the wonderfully talented Sally Russick with The Studio Sublime is hosting.  

When I first signed up for this challenge I had it in mind to make a collar using cabs and bead embroidery.  I have not given up on that idea, but it is just not going to happen for this challenge.  What I am going to show you is the process I took to make my cabs.

 Morning is a lady that is very talented in many areas of jewelry making and she has taken me on as an apprentice and fusing glass was my first lesson.  I learned how to cut glass with a glass cutter and how to break it apart once it is scored. I learned that stained glass is not the same as coe90 glass and they should not be mix, but I forgot that rule and mixed them anyway and found out that they do not like to stick to each other.  It is fun cutting up the glass and placing them on other pieces of glass and making little sandwiches of glass.  I lost all track of time when I was playing.

Glass ready to go into the kiln for the fusing process. 

Glass is fused and shapes drawn on the back.  This machine is used to cut off the excess glass to make it easier to sand into the drawn shape.

The excess glass cut away the scraps will be crushed to go into other projects.

Me sanding and shaping the cabs.

Cabs all sanded and shaped and ready to go back into the kiln for fire polishing.

Here is my lot of cabs.  This picture is of the first and second batch of cabs.

Although I did not make a piece of jewelry with any of these cabs, you will be seeing these in the future made into wearable pieces.

This is a piece that I did for a Facebook challenge.  So I decided that it would do a double duty for this challenge too.

Thank you for stopping by to visit, I hope you enjoyed your visit.  Now please go and visit the other blogs in this hop.

Your Host:  Sally Russick
D Lynne  Bowland
Alicia Marinache          
Lynn  Jobber          

Jenny Davies-Reazor           

 

Jo-Ann  Woolverton           

Marde Lowe          
Dawn Doucette          
Mary K McGraw          
Gloria Allen          

Cheri  Reed          
Sonya Stille          
Elizabeth Owens Dwy          
Veralynne   Malone          
Tania Hagen          
Lynsey  Brooks          
Christina Miles          
Holly  Westfall          
Kathy  Lindemer          
Patti Vanderbloemen          

Therese Frank          
Adrienne Berry          
Liz   E  
Tanty  Sri Hartanti          
Ginger Bishop
Renetha Stanziano          
Marlene  Cupo          
Sandi Volpe          
Sharyl McMillian-Nelson          
Niky  Sayers

Mischelle Fanucchi          
Tracy  Stillman          
Skylar Bre'z          
Ann Schroeder          
Paula Kramer
Jess Green          
Susan Kennedy          
Stacie  Florer          
Cathie  Carroll          
Susan F.  

Michelle Caballero      
Sabine Dittrich          
Kristina Johansson          
Kimberly Sturrup-Roberts          
Melissa  Meman          
Cheryl McCloud        
Michelle  Timms          
Cindy  Pack          
Ailsa  Cordner          
Lynda  Carson

Cynthia  Machata          
Julia  Harris          
Karin  Slaton
Ingrid  Anderson          
Karin Grosset Grange
Jasvanti Patel  
Inge  von Roos
Molly Alexander

Toltec Jewels