Michelle's Snowflake Challenge

Normally, I'd do this tomorrow, but I'll be in church when the challenge starts, so I need to post this tonight (if there's a way to set it up to post later, I haven't figured it out, yet).

Michelle Mach set up a snowflake challenge near the end of last year with the reveal being tomorrow (January 15th).  I almost didn't get in on the challenge, to take some ceramic bead/pendents she had made by Michelle at Chinook Jewelry but I slid in juuuuust under the wire (as in, she was down to three kits when I found her blog! ~whew~)

Anyway, when I received my kit I was so excited I didn't even take time to photograph the beads as they came.  I simply sat down and immediately made my necklace and earring set.  It just came together.  I had some ribbon in my stash, along with some white glass tubes and some tiny red beads and it actually came together in about 30 minutes (usually takes me much longer what with all the fiddling around and redesigning).  So, here are my pics of the set I made.


Necklace strung on winter blue and brown
ribbon with white glass beads as accents on
the ribbon. Around the pendent are little red
beads to represent cranberries and crystals to
represent the iciness of Winter.



Close up of pendent with dangles



Close up of earrings. LOVE the
frosted drops! The blue flowers
just seemed to echo the snowflake
perfectly and the silver accents were
also reflective of Winter's iciness.



An extra set of earrings with some
beads from my stash and Michelle's kit.
I call it Winter to Spring since it's going
from icy to red hot.

   So, there are my designs from her challenge.  It was loads of fun and a lot of us got in on it.  Go see what everyone else has done and feel free to leave a comment for them!

Alice (Alice Dreaming)

Chris (beadjewelry.net)

Christa (Adventures of One Beady Woman)

Crystal (Here Bead Dragons)

Cynthia (Cynth's Blog)

Dawn (Morning Glory Beading)

Donetta (Simply Gorgeous)

Erin A.

Jennifer (JenniferJW)

Jennifer (Jewelry, Art and Life)

Kari W.

Kate (We Can Make That at Home)

Kay (Palm Coast Art)

Linda (Lindy's Designs)

Lisa C. (A Bead a Day)

Lisa (Inspired Adornments)

Mary (MLH Designs)

Michelle (Beads & Books)

Michelle B.

Millie (AMM Jewelry)

Norma (Moonlit Fantasies)

Pam (The Crazier Sister) **"We're all mad, here"

Rebecca J.

Renetha (Lamplight Crafts)

Rosemarie (Gem Rose Designs)

Shannon (Falling into the Sky)

Susan (Bead Inspired)

Therese (Therese's Treasures)

Therese (Domestic Goddess Enterprises)

Necklace for Glasses

Again I say, this is why I don't (normally) work my beads on a week night. I was creating some earrings and a commissioned lanyard Monday night (which sold, btw, in spite of the lousy pic she was shown... stoopid lighting!) and was up until midnight with my playing around.  So, I determined I would set myself a time limit for Tuesday night.
Right.
SO didn't work!
Started by making a bunch more earrings. (I'm getting very good at those! ~haha!~) and then thought, why not make a chain for holding my readers when I have to take them off so I don't lay them down and then waste five minutes (or more) looking for them!  Inspiration!
Because I didn't want them to be heavy and drag my glasses off my face, I turned to my wooden beads.  Now, I don't have a lot of those BUT!  I found some really cute ones at Michael's one day and bought them out.  They had a dragonfly etched into them!  (yes, I am the dragonfly queen around here!)  Then, I looked next to them and saw daisies!!  Saner Sister LOVES daisies so I had to buy a bunch of those!  But... they've been sitting forlornly in my stash for weeks and weeks, now, without me having any inspiration for their use.
Until Tuesday!
They would be PERFECT for my glasses chain!  Cute as a bug (get it? get it!?) and light as a daisy! (aw, c'mon, help me out here, folks!)  Anyway, just as this inspiration struck, I looked at the clock and realised it was 9:00pm! 
Okay (I tho't to myself), I can do this.  Get the design laid out and, maybe, wire up a few beads before shutting down for the night.
Did that work?
Oooohhh, noooo! 
You parents know that whine you get from your kids on a school morning when you're trying to roust them out of bed?  "Just a few more minutes, Mom!"  Yeah, that one.  It was sort of like that. 
Glance at the clock - 9:30... okay, I've done the design, I can do a few beads and then I'll quit.
Glance at the clock - 9:45... well, just a few more. I'll quit at 10:00 for sure!
Glance at the clock - 10:30... glance at the beads. Well, I'm 1/2 way done, might as well wire up all the beads!
I'll say this, I did manage to get the beads done and everything put away by 11:00, but still.... Oh, well.  Here's the chain as is right now.  I'm going to make a few changes; for one, I'm going to alternate daisy beads every other one and, for two, I'm going to make a pendent so that I can take the part that holds the chain to the glasses off and wear it as a necklace if I choose!  But, here's a few pics of what it is for the moment:

So... what would you make a glasses chain/necklace from?  Tell me your design?  Oh, and, don't forget to go here and read (and comment) about my Personal Challenge.  You really, really want to do that.  So far, there are two ladies who've earned their part and only three more will get to.  Will you be one of them? (but, follow the rules!

WEDNESDAY CHALLENGES

Mellisaover at Chinook Jewelry is doing a Wednesday challenge each week.  She's putting up a pic of one of the focal beads she's made and asked us to show her the beads, chain, cord, etc., that we'd use with it.  It's hard for me, not because I can't find anything, but because I want to go in SO many directions at once.  Having to narrow it down so the bead pics don't look like a TOTAL mess is hard.  But, okay.  Here are my choices.  It was harder to decide what to use for the focal to hang from, I had three items I was looking at (all will be pictured) but I think I'd end up going with the chain. 
This is Mellisa's pendent:

Cute, huh?

My choice of beads are:


These aren't as yellow as the beads on the right imply, they
are a lighter color that go well with the creamy yellow in
the pendant and would bring that color out, I think.

 

I decided these glass teal beads would be a good accent so
the creamy yellow wouldn't be overwhelming.



These are creamier in color than the monitor
shows (it's also possible the background
washed out some of it and made them whiter
than they are)  I like them for added interest
and to off-set the yellow glass beads juuuust a bit.

  

I liked the richness of this color ribbon for the
pendent to depend from, but....



....I also like this velvet cord (it's much
richer than the monitor shows)
 Again, buuuut......

 

...I finally settled on this as what I would
use to hang the pendant. Love the brushed
look and the way the chain echoes the shape
of the pendent. 

So, these are the beads and findings I envision to go with Mellisa's pendent bead. I went for simplicity because I want the beauty of the pendent to shine through.  I also think I'd make it a long necklace... maybe 12" to 14" in total.
So, what's your vision?

Weekend Slump - (sort of)

Well, I didn't do very much this weekend.  I was lazy.  I did do a few more earrings.  I read (in a blog or in one of my numerous jewelry magazines I buy ~ I should have stock in their companies by now!) about using items you can find in your local tool store, such as copper piping, and went to Lowe's a few weeks ago.  I've been playing with the copper pipes I bought ever since.  Got a new Dremel for Christmas (yes, copper gets hot when being drilled; no, you should not hold it with your bare fingers!) and stole a pipe cutter from my dad. (I guess I should say "borrowed", but he knows he's never getting it back ~ heeee! ~)  One of the pair of earrings I made are these and I liked 'em SO much that I decided to keep them. Selfish!  Oh, well, I'll make more pairs with the tubes and beads this week (and break the table top studio back out... yes, it's repaired but, as mentioned earlier, I was SO lazy this weekend!)  Oh, ALso!  I made this necklace last week.  I took an idea from Linda over at Objects & Elements and went a slightly different way with it. (see? this is what I love about stalki...er... following all you creative ladies! you can get great ideas from the crafts of others)

AND! I got to make the inner Pyro happy!  I used flame to darken the copper in the necklace.  I'm going to have to break down and buy a small hand-held torch.  Those candle lighter lighters don't do a great job (tho', if you're patient, and heat from underneath or aim the flame inside the tube, it works better... prettier colors... just sayin')

1"  long copper tubes that have been pounded
by the peen on my craft hammer. Winter blue
beads and a lighter blue crystal bead as accents.



Closer look ~ can you see the hammer marks?
What they say is true, even if it's not pounding,
it's still theraputic to beat on something! :)



MY version of the necklace Linda created.
I'm also not as good with the metal as her...
yet!  Some day... Still liking this, tho'!



A closer look at the flowers I made. Yellow
crystals added to blue plastic flower forms
and all hooked to a jump ring and hooked
onto the end of the wire.

PERSONAL CHALLENGE

I saw something on a friend's Facebook page last night that inspired me to do this personal challenge.  I'm going to send a handmade gift to the first five (5) people who make a comment on this post.  The challenge to myself is that each item will be made as the comments are made. No sending off something I've made already. The gifts will be either a pair of earrings or a bracelet.

Here are the rules:
1) You can comment about anything in my Etsy store, on my Facebook page or any other post in my blog but it MUST be made to this post. If not, it won't count.
2) This will only run until January 31st.  (and, remember, it's only the 1st five who comment, I can't afford to do this for everyone) 
3) You may tell me what colors you like and I will try to incorporate them into the design.
4) You may tell me if you prefer elegant, playful, casual or funky and I will try to create in that element.

5) You won't know which piece of jewelry you're getting, you get to be surprised.

So, comment away, folks.  Let me hear what you have to say and I'll contact you for your mailing address for your gift.

Happy New Year!

Table-Top Studio Update!

We took my table-top studio set back to the camera store my Mom bought it from and found out it was just a little short in the back of the lamp itself (not the cord). The guy helping us said he had a technician that worked in the store who could very likely fix it if we wanted to try that route first. Well, I'm all for the simple solution. He promised to call us when it was done (this was about 10:30 yesterday morning).

No calls.
All afternoon.
SO bummed. :(

Then, today, I get a message from Mom that the camera store had called her.  MY STUDIO LAMP IS FIXED! YAY!!  They'll get it for me this afternoon and I can set up some shots again tonight.  Woo HOO! Yes!  We'll see how things go, now.  Hopefully I'll have some creative pics to share soon.

New Year, New Work

Okay, I've been working this last week on some more jewelry for my store and was finally able to take pictures.  Happily, I was able to use my new Canon Rebel camera for the pics and they look pretty good. Semi-happily I was able to set the items up in my table top studio. Sadly, only part of the studio was in working order (one of the lights refuses to work which means we're going to need to take it back and get a new one... which may need to be ordered... which means I won't get to use my studio for a while longer... sigh)

Oh, well.  It'll get here eventually.  Until then, here are some of the pics I took.  I'll work on some more this weekend and see what I can set up outside, around the house, etc.  You never know! :)

I kept these, but I'm going to make
another pair to go into my store.
Cute, eh?

~Earth Metal~
Now in my Etsy store

My first attempt to play with copper
tubing and some wire I had. Debating
whether to put this in the store or wait
until I've made a few more attempts at
any kind of wire/metal work.



~Forest Wisdom~
Again with the Autumn colors. This
is the necklace I restrung with the
cute little hooty-owl. Going into my
Etsy store soon, too.



I bought these from Lima Beads. I tho't
they made cuter earrings than they
did necklace or bracelet embellishments.

Set 2, this time with a
little blue dangle used from
Michelle Mach's snowflake
challenge box. Cute, eh?

Pearl Fans - simple pair
of earrings made with gray
and charcoal pearls.