Bead Soup Blog Party

Hello,   My reveal post for the 8th Annual Bead Soup Blog Party is here  Please stay awhile and read my more recent posts and thank you for stopping by.

May We're All Ears Challenge Reveal

Zigzag Nerite shells - Neritina Communis -
Atlantis Shell Company

A few month's ago, the Earrings Everyday blog started a monthly challenge where at the beginning of the month, they would post an inspiration object and then the participants had three weeks to create earrings based on that inspiration.  This month's piece were these beautiful Nerite shells.

When I first looked at them I thought I would create something sea or shell based.  However, I have been doing that a lot lately in my regular designs, and the main reason why I joined this series of challenges was to push myself outside my design box.  Using inspiration photos that I don't choose has really helped me to do that.  So,  I decided to focus on the colors in the picture and use those as my inspiration.  Here is my design:

Focusing on the red, white and tan colors in the shell I picked beads that reminded me of those colors.   I have very few red beads in my stash because I don't often work with that color, but I just love these crystal rondelles in velvet red (is that not a great color name?)  To add a bit of contrast the center crystal rondelle is slightly larger and is in a melon opal color ( I so love the color names!!)  I used a Vintaj brass connector because the lines on the shells inspired me to add something vertical to my design.  In the end, they came out very Art Deco looking and I really like them.   The ear wires aren't in the pictures but they are brass fish hook wires.

Here is another couple of looks:

Thank you so much for stopping by and please make sure to check out the others participating over at May We're All Ears

Jewelry Making Mojo Challenge Week 6

Ok, I admit it, I am behind on the Mojo Challenge.  Three weeks behind in fact.  But,  I got caught up in the Bead Soup Blog Party and that seemed to take all my time for the other challenges I had focused on.  I made a promise to myself that I would do as much of this challenge as possible, so I went back and finished the piece I had begun weeks ago to go with this week's theme.

Sarah's Rose

For this challenge, Heather encouraged us to find a song, poem or quote that inspired us and to then design a piece of jewelry from that inspiration.   If you know me, you know I am a very musical person.  My mother was a professional singer, and there was always music in my home.  I learned to play several instruments and I sung in choirs and choruses all the way through college.  Some of my friends say I think in song!  I often can pull song lyrics to fit any conversation and I am a great partner for trivia games!  

Knowing all that you would think this would have been an easy challenge for me.  But...it wasn't.  Why?  Because I have too many songs that inspire me!   I listen to music while I work on my jewelry designs.  I find it relaxing and it helps me focus on my work space.  So, I thought over some of the music that called me lately.  Jazz is a personal favorite genre, and one of the songs I have been listening to lately is Stacey Kent's So Many Stars.  You can find a video of the song here  The first stanza,  

"The dawn is filled with dreams

So many dreams, which one is mine?

One must be right for me

Which dream of all the dreams?"

Read more: Stacey Kent - So Many Stars Lyrics | MetroLyrics 
We all have dreams, and like I talked about in the Dreams Challenge a few posts ago, my jewelry work is a big part of my hopes and dreams.  Along with love, health and happiness.  We can all find our dreams, they are there for you just reach out and take them.  Here is my necklace, inspired by the song.

Sarah's Rose

I went with a jazz theme for my design.  I can imagine sitting in a dark jazz club, in some incredible dark purple dress and wearing this as my necklace.  If I really get lost in the image, its Chicago in the heart of the Jazz Age.  The focal is a black rose highlighted with clear crystals.  The glass beads are faceted black rose lampwork beads.  I love how the roses seem to float in the beads.  In between the roses are cube-shaped crystals in light rose.  These cube beads show up throughout the strands of the necklace as well.  I finished the necklace with crystal bicones in jet with an Aurora Borealis finish. 

I love this piece, it is classic and very feminine.  I enjoyed the challenge of getting to match a song to piece of jewelry very much, and I may explore that opportunity with other designs in the future.  I also enjoyed doing something in such a classic color like black, and adding just a bit of color for accent.  

Thanks for stopping by,  I will be back on Friday with this month's We're All Ears Earring Challenge and a birdhouse themed design challenge as well.  Until then, enjoy!

8th Annual Bead Soup Blog Party Big Reveal

Today is the big day!!  Time for the reveal of the 8th Annual Bead Soup Blog Party!  This has been such a fun experience I am a little sad to see it over.   I have been anxiously awaiting revealing the pieces I created, looking forward to hearing what you think.  But, I will miss the excitement of putting together a soup for my partner, waiting for my soup to arrive, chatting and getting to know everyone in the Facebook group and finally, working on creating pieces that I have just fallen in love with. 

Before I begin the reveal, I want to give a big shout out to our hostess, Lori Anderson at The Pretty Things Blog  She took on this Herculean task of partnering up almost 500 people as well as communicating with us all through the process.  She made me feel that I was just as important to this party being a newbie as anyone else and I always felt welcomed.  Everything she did would have been very difficult for anyone, but considering what she is going through in her life while doing all this is amazing.  Thank you Lori, for all you have done to make this happen.

If you remember,  a few weeks back I posted a sneak peak at my soup sent to me by my partner, Melissa Nehls Packer over at Melissas Cheap Frills  It was great to get to know her and to put a soup together that  I hoped would challenge her as well as work with other things in her stash.   She sent me the wonderful soup in the picture above and in the closer up photo here. 

I put my soup away for a few weeks while I worked on a few other projects I had on my list and started really focusing on it about three weeks ago.  At first, I really was overwhelmed.   I loved all the colors and the beads that Melissa had sent me.  Her handmade focal made me so very happy!  Why was I overwhelmed then?  Because I was afraid I couldn't do all these beads justice.  Or that other designers in the party would come take a peek at what I created and not think it measured up.  After talking to a few of my beady friends though, I realized that those were unfounded fears and took the jump to start creating.

Coming together on my work table

Here are a few shots of me working on putting the beads together.  There is a great up close shot of the handmade focal.  I so love that little bird.  My signature piece that contains the focal and the clasp, took quite a few of the main beads I was given.  They all just seemed to work together and I went outside my comfort zone to make it come alive. All together, I created three pieces.....here the come...3....2....1....

Tea Time Delight

I took the fantastic black floral barrel beads, crystal spacers, blue glass rounds and the larger of the two clasps Melissa sent me and put them together to create this necklace.  While I was studying the beads from the soup on my bead board, I kept feeling an Asian inspiration.  Peeking into my stash, I found these wonderful cherry "quartz" chips and my inspiration kicked into overdrive.  I love the way the pink and red hues in the glass chips picked out the flowers in the large beads. Adding the blue glass beads adds a nice contrast to the cherry chips, and I used two siam colored faceted rondelles to set the barrel beads off from the body of the necklace. 

Close Ups

When it all came together, I can imagine a woman having tea on a large balcony overlooking a beautiful tropical landscape.  Somehow, I always come back to my love of history and vintage, classic looks.

Here is a closer look at the focal Melissa made for me.  I fell in love with the wonderful little bird the minute I pulled it out of the packaging and I new I had to make a very special necklace for it.  The resulting piece is my signature piece for this blog party.  I was able to put together several different pieces that all highlighted the sweet bird, but I kept taking them apart again.  I really wanted this necklace to be different; to stretch me creatively and to definitely take me outside my design box.  After all, that was the whole idea of the party to begin with.  Melissa had sent along some beautiful beads in my soup, and they all just worked together so perfectly.  Here, let me show you.

Romantic Flight

While this necklace is outside of what I design in a lot of ways, it still has that classic, vintage touch that speaks very much of Forest of Jewels.  The main difference is I went asymmetrical.  I never do that!! But the large white floral bead along with the pink glass beads really deserved a lot of attention too.  I just didn't want to take anything away from the bird focal, so to make both aspects shine, I separated them and give them each their own special spot on the necklace.  

I used the aqua glass rounds that Melissa sent me as the transition part of the necklace.  I added aqua spacer beads and light rose crystal rondelles to capture the color of the bird in the focal.   The reminder of the necklace is made of clear crystals and glass pearls in pink and pistachio green.  Finally, I used the second clasp that was included in the soup. This piece would be perfect for a garden party or a summer wedding, and I can see the wearer in a soft pastel or white dress walking across a perfectly manicured lawn enjoying her special day.

But wait...there is more :)  Well just a little bit more.   I made earrings to match the necklace.

This photograph gives a really great look at the detail of the pink glass beads I was given.  They  are very lovely!  The earrings are made from components included in the necklace, clear crystal bicones, the pink glass beads, aqua crystal spacers and aqua glass beads.

I have absolutely loved working on my designs and it was a pleasure to get to know so many talented jewelry artisans throughout this experience.  Again, I want to thank Lori and Melissa for all they did.  I hope that there will be more blog hops hosted by Lori in the future.  I would love to participate.  Thank you for stopping by and taking a peek at my designs.   There are over 460 other participants, so please, over the next few days stop by their blogs and see what they designed.   You can find them all listed here:

8th Annual Bead Soup Blog Party Participation List

Breaking News!!!! What is going on with Forest of Jewels?

Happy Wednesday!  I hope everyone's week has been going well so far and for those of you who got a visit from the Easter bunny, you are enjoying your treats!  I wanted to post today to do a little catch up on what I have been up to lately.  

First, The Jewelry Mojo Challenge is back this week and I am supposed to create a piece based on a song or poem that inspires me.  If you know me well, you know about my deep love of music.  I have been thinking about songs, now I just need to sit down and pick one!  I will be working on this challenge over the weekend, so check back to see what I come up with.

One of the other new things I have been involved with, is that I was accepted as a member of The Artisan Group.   They are a group of handmade artists (anything from jewelry, to body products and even the cutest doggie bow ties) who participate in celebrity gifting as well as working with stylists to get items worn by stars on TV shows.   They are very well received and have products on shows like Cedar Cove, The Vampire Diaries and Hart of Dixie.  They have also had gifting opportunities (think swag bags)  for the Emmy awards and Fashion week.   I am very excited about this opportunity and am looking forward to growing my business this way.   Everyone seems really nice too, which is always a bonus.

I belong to a bead swap group, BeadSwapUSA,  and have been lucky to participate in some great swaps.  This month's bead swap was based on the Design Seeds Palette below.

Design Seeds Adore Brights

My partner, Sondra,  sent me a wonderful collection of beads!  There is crackle glass, seed beads, small glass beads, metal connectors and these great tear drops perfect for a pair of earrings, just to name a few!  I am looking forward to working with these great beads.

Finally,  I want to remind everyone that this year's Bead Soup Blog Party has its big reveal on May 3rd.  There are 500 people participating this year and I am really looking forward to seeing all the wonderful designs.  After a bit of a creative block, I am now working full steam on my pieces for the hop.   I have three pieces on my work space right now, and I am hoping to have a forth finished in time for the reveal in 10 days.  Here are a few sneak peek shots of the beads on my work space.  Make sure to check back May 3, 2014 for the big reveal!!

April We're All Ears Challenge

It is the third Friday of the month,  so that means it is time to reveal the April We're All Ears design!  Each month over at Earrings Everyday, a new inspiration photo is posted.  Those participating then have 3 weeks to design earrings from some aspect of the inspiration piece.  Today is reveal day!  

Here was this month's inspiration:

www.potterybarn.com

This month, Erin felt called to the great collection at Pottery Barn and asked us to design something from this table setting.  She was inspired by the colors, shapes and textures in the picture, and I agree, it makes for a wonderful place setting.  Since the main colors in my dining room are that exact same green, I felt that this setting would be at home in my own dining room (that is if I cleared all the jewelry supplies off the dining room table).  

I found my inspiration not in the colors or even that sweet little bird, however.  I originally wanted to create something that reminded me of the olives or the little golden berries so I went looking through my bead stash for just the right beads.  But when I got there, my mind went off in a completely different direction.  I started thinking about the dinner party the table was set for, who would be there and what the host would be serving.  While creating the party in my mind, I decided to create earrings that I would wear to this special evening.  

I am so in love with my design.  Dangling from the floral connectors are tiny bicone crystals in citrine and they are my homage to those little golden berries in the picture.  The larger crystal rondelles are actually two different shades.  The top beads are half-tone silver and the  bottom ones are smoky quartz.  

I find these earrings have a great vintage feel and would look beautiful with an ivory silk blouse.  Picture that dinner party with me; good food, good friends...an evening to make memories. 

Thank you for stopping by and I hope you have enjoyed my creation.  Make sure to check out the Earrings Everyday blog to see everyone else's designs from this month's inspiration.  

The Color of Dreams Blog Hop Reveal

Back in February, Rita over at Toltec Jewels announced that she would be hosting a Blog Hop based on dreams.  She asked the participants to reflect on their dreams.  What one is coming true right now?  Or what has been your biggest dream?  Or, if we could be or do anything, what would that be?  This particular Hop is a bit different than those I had participated in the past.  Usually we are given an inspiration color or event to use to design our pieces on.  This time Rita was asking us to focus on something personal and design from that.  I thought it would be an interesting challenge.  After all, I love to design, so why not design from the heart?

My Bead

Rita kindly sent one polymer clay bead to each participant to use in their design.  These lovely beads are made by a local Floridian, Patricia Handschuh over at The Color of Dreams Boutique  When mine arrived, I was absolutely in love with it. It was almost like she knew I dreamed of gardens full of flowers. :)  I love the delicate purple hue as well.

When I first started thinking about what to design, I spent some time making a list of my dreams.  Those that had come true, like falling in love and becoming a mom were quickly added to the list.  I also thought about places I long to travel, like England and Italy.  But there were other dreams, like the one that I am currently working on coming true; a successful jewelry business where I get to spend my time doing something I truly love.

I settled on that dream, because it is starting to bloom.  I love spending my time creating, gathering inspiration from the nature around me, photographs I see and even stories I read.  As my business grows, my dream will open into a beautiful flower, just like the one I was given. So how did I interpret this dream in my design?  Let's take a peek.

I wanted very much to work with components I had never worked with before.  Since this is all about capturing my dream, one part of that is opening myself up for new experiences.  I accomplished that by using macrame. The hemp cord is in a blend of pink, orange, and purple (matching many of the colors in Patricia's shop).  I used the clay bead towards the bottom of my piece to symbolize that my dream is just beginning to bloom.

At the center of the necklace, is a metal cage, that contains two sparkly crystal rondelles.  Those are my dreams; each little sparkle ready to become a new design. I then added crystal rondelles in teal and violet followed by metal charms that are stamped with "dreams." Next, I used metal hearts with clear crystals to represent all that I love.  Finally, a bit of pink chain completes the piece because, I can't leave behind my love of pink and the soft femininity I love to bring to my designs.

Here is one more look:

It has been so much fun participating in this Blog Hop!  There are lots of participants, so please take a moment to stop by their blogs to see their designs!

Honorary Artist: Patricia Handschuh
Patricia's blog:            The Color of Dreams        
Patricias Etsy:             The Color of Dreams
Hostess: TJ                Jewel School Friends
Kay Thomerson           KayzKreationz
Audrey Belanger          Toki No Hourousha

Alicia Marinache          All the Pretty Things
Terry Carter                TappingFlamingo
Lori Schneider             Bead Addict
Jenny Kyrlach             Wonder and Whimsy
Asri Wahyuingsih         Asri's Beadwork
Dini Bruinsma              Angaza by Changes
Karla Morgan              Texas Pepper Jams
Debbie Rasmussen        A Little of This, A Little of That
Veralynne Malone          Designed by Vera
Kathy Stemke               Vintage Memories Jewelry Design
Mowse Doyle               Mowse Made This
Heather Richter             Desert Jewelry Designs
Lori Poppe                   Adventures in Creativity with LorilliJean
Jayne Capps                Mama's Got To Doodle
Andrea Glick                Zenith Jade Creations
Kathleen Breeding         99 Bottles of Beads on the Wall
Becky Pancake             Becky Pancake Bead Designs
Karin Martinez              Fairies Market
Miranda Ackerley          Mirandack
Penny Houghton           Smelly Nelly
Carolyn Lawson           Carolyn's Creations
Chris Eisenberg            Wanderware
Christie Murrow          Charis Designs Jewelry
Monique Urquhart        A Half-Baked Notion
Eve Shelby                  Raindrop Creations Jewelry by Evelyn
Cryss Thain                 Here Bead Dragons
Jasvanti Patel               Jewelry By Jasvanti
Nan Smith                   NanMade Handmade Jewelry
Sue Kennedy               SueBeads
Jean Yates                   Snap Out of It, Jean! There's Beading to be Done!
Debbie Rogers             Debbies Treasures
Marybeth Rich             A Few Words From Within the Pines  (you are here)
Shirley Moore              Beads and Bread
Shaia Williams             Shaiha's Ramblings
Kathy Lindemer           Bay Moon Design
Linda Anderson           From the Bead Board
Judy Turner               Silver Rains
Gloria Allen                Gloria Allen Designs
Regina Wood              Ginas-Design
Robin Reed                Artistry HCBD
Mary Goovars            MLH Jewelry Designs
Marlene Cupo             Amazing Designs
CJ Bauschka              4 His Glory Creations
Robin Showstack        The Crazy Bead Hoarder
Cynthia O'Toole          Sparkles and Sweets
Jael Thorp                 Jael's Art Jewels

Renetha Stanziano      Lamplight Crafts