Do I Have it? Mojo Challenge Week 2

Heather Powers over at Humblebeads is an accomplished jewelry designer, maker of the most beautiful beads and an author too.   I have been following her blog for a little while and when she started the 12 week Mojo Challenge, I was excited to participate. While I haven't had a problem finding my mojo,  I like the idea of being accountable for staying on top of my designing and making sure I create something for the sheer joy of creating.  I am using this challenge as a way to re-focus on the pleasure of my art.

It is week 2 of the challenge (my buggy earrings I posted last week was my entry for week 1) and this week's theme was bead soup.  No,  not a yummy bowl of pasta e fagioli or hearty vegetable, just bead soup.   A bead soup is when you pull together a group of beads that don't necessarily go together.  It is best when creating a bead soup personally, that you do it randomly.  Because if you start picking and choosing and matching colors, that isn't a soup.   You are designing.  So, to keep with the spirit of this exercise, I went over to my collection of beads and just pulled out a drawer.  

This is a picture of some of the beads on my bead board starting to come together into a design.  

What ingredients made up my soup?  Some pretty cherry "quartz" chips, green aventurine, rose jade, polymer clay beads (by Valarie Moore I believe), crystal pearls,  light blue crystals, and some amethyst beads.  After studying then for awhile, I was motivated to create a piece in honor of spring.

Cherry Blossom

Using the cherry "quartz", aventurine, rose jade and the poly clay beads, I was able to put together a necklace that reminds me of the cherry trees in bloom when I was a child.  We had two wonderful trees in our back yard and in the early spring, the view outside my sister's bedroom window would be a sea of pink.  I remember sitting on her window bench enjoying the view.  They were beautiful trees, and I am excited to capture that memory here in my design.  

I am enjoying this challenge, so check back next week for the next installment.  Until then,  may you have a cheerful week!