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Saturday, December 7, 2013

I love clay blog hop

I sat down at my beading table last night to try and tidy it up. I was surprised to finded the beads and information sheet from Lisa for this blog hop that I had signed up for. Problem I did not remember that I was part of it. So it was time to get to work and create something with these beads by UK ceramic artist Grubbi.

Here are the beads that I got from Lisa when I signed up for this challenge.

What could I do last night to have it ready for today's deadline. The earth tones of the clay beads are not a palette that I normally work with. I look thru my collection of works in progress to see if there something that I could use for this challenge. I found a spiral rope worked with matte dark bronze beads, metallics cubes and delicas.

Finished off the rope and used a simple jump ring to hang the pendant.


To use some of the other beads I dug into the beads that I bought from Lisa during her destash event earlier in the fall. I love these turquoise hearts.

Combined with some of the metallic cubes used in the spiral rope and a few turquoise coloured lantern beads the clay beads make a wonderful bracelet to go with the necklace.

Here are the participants of the hop. Take the time to see what they have created with the clay beads that they were challenged to work with.


Our hostess:  Lisa Lodge, A Grateful Artist
Melissa Trudinger, Bead Recipes
Kathy Zeigler Lindemer, Bay Moon Design
Eleanor Burian Moore, The Charmed Life
Jo-Ann Woolverton, It's a Beadiful Creation
Chris Eisenberg, Wanderware
Carolyn Lawson, Carolyns Creations
Bonnie Coursolle, Jasper's Gems
Dolores Raml, Crafty D's Creations
Therese Frank, Therese's Treasures
Christine Stonefield, Sweet Girl Design
Carolyn Lawson, Carolyn's Creations
Mowse Doyle, Mowse Made This

Janine Lucas, Esfera Travel Blog
Karin Grosset Grange, Ginkgo et Coquelicot
Kelli Nelson, Zenith Jade Creations
Ann Schroeder, Bead Love
Jasvanti Patel, Jewelry by Jasvanti
Candida Castleberry, Sugar Spun Beadworks
Robin Reed, Artistry HCBD
Katrina Taylor, I Wanna Go Out

Thanks to Lisa for the challenge!

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Little Netted Snowflake


Yesterday in the latest issue of the Rypan Designs newsletter I offered free access to my snowflake pattern for a limited time. Here is a chance for my followers and readers to have the same access. Access to the pattern will be ending on Tuesday December 10 @ 9:00 pm EST.
Here is picture of the six pack of snowflakes that I gave to Maria last Christmas.
Enjoy the pattern. If you have any problems please let me know - jlwoolverton@yahoo.ca.


Happy Beading!

Saturday, November 16, 2013

Lampwork & Clay Blog Hop Reveal Day

Wow, the day has finally arrived. I signed up for this blog hop back at the beginning of June. Hosted by Lisa Lodge of Pine Ridge Treasure the challenge was to make something with the clay or lampwork beads that Lisa sent to you.

Here are the beads that I received back in mid-June. Here is my post about the arrival of the beads. These lovely lampwork beads are by Marcia Seever of ShaZazzGlass. I love the various shades of purple in the swirls. There is also a hint of green in the centre beads.

I had the beads pulled together for Julia Pretl's Springtime box. With a little tweaking of the colours I was able to work the centre lampwork bead into the design.
I used a headpin, Swarovski crystal and the lampwork bead to make the finial. A plastic earring stopper holds it in place.

Next challenge, what to do with the remaining 6 beads. Tried a few layouts for a bracelet with beads in my stash, but I didn't like any of them. I decided to play with some chain loops to make earrings. I like how the sizes work in the design.

Here are the earrings with their one of a kind box.


Once again I have worked both within my comfort zone and beyond when doing a challenge.

Here are all the other wonderful artisans participating in the hop.

Our hostess:  Lisa Lodge, A Grateful Artist
Mary Govaars, MLH Jewelry Designs
Melissa Trudinger, Bead Recipes
Kathy Zeigler Lindemer, Bay Moon Design
Laurie Vyselaar, Lefthand Jewelry
Annette Rivers, MamaOwl's Mess
Shaiha Williams,   Shaiha's Ramblings
Kay Thomerson, Kayz Kreationz
Karla Morgan, Texas Pepper Jams
Lori Jean Poppe, Lorillijean Creative Corner
Eleanor Burian Moore, The Charmed Life
Leah Mifflin Tees, My Beady Little Eyes
Terri Wlaschin, Dances in Fog
Sharyl McMillian-Nelson, Sharyl's Jewelry
Jo-Ann Woolverton, It's a Beadiful Creation  < you are here
Veralynne Malone, Designed by Vera
Linda Aspenson Bergstrom, TBD
Toltec  Jewels, Jewel School Friends
Judy Turner, Silver Rains
Gloria Allen, Gloria Allen Designs
Kathleen Douglas, Washoe Kat's
Connie Tipton, TBD
Christie Searle Murrow, Charis Designs Jewelry
Andrea Glick-Zenith, ZenithJade Creations
Michele Dotson, Star Jewels
Chris Eisenberg, Wanderware
Jennifer Clifford, TBD
Molly Alexander, Beautifully Broken Me
Carolyn Lawson, Carolyns Creations
Shirley Moore, Beads and Bread
Bonnie Coursolle, Jasper's Gems
Alice Craddick, Alice's Beads and Baubles

Thanks Lisa for hosting this wonderful Blog Hop.

Thursday, November 14, 2013

Return of the Iris Twist Vase

After being gone for over a year, my Iris Twist Vase has finally returned home.

Its journey started last July when I took it to the Richmond Hills offices of Creativ Festival for judging as a semi-finalist in the Designer Style Challenge.

It was on display during last fall's 25th anniversary Creativ Festival show.

During the awards ceremony on the Saturday it got to walk down the catwalk.

I was awarded third place in the beadwork category. I won an amazing bag of Swarovski crystals.

After the show the sponsor of the beadwork category, Swarovski, got to take the three winning pieces for a year.

So for the past year my vase had been with the wonderful people from Swarovski. They returned it to the Creativ Festival staff at this year's fall show.
Today it was delivered by courier to my workplace and tonight it is will be back home with all of my beaded creations.

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Owl Puppet

In addition to my beading I also love doing paper crafts. Remember last year's origami vase and flowers.

Many of my paper craft project are for children's programs at the library. Today for preschool we had an owl themed storytime. I found pictures of this craft idea on Pinterest but there was no link to specific instructions.

So here is how the preschoolers and I made this fun owl puppet.
My sample puppet

Supplies
Paper bag
2 Paper muffin tin liners
black paper - cut into a triangle and 2 circle, with a wedge cutout
brown paper - cut into 2 oval, one of which you cut in half
Crayons or markers
glue stick
Supplies

Instructions

Glue black circles into the muffin liners. 

Glue triangle and muffin liners to paper bag.
 
Glue oval to front of paper bag. Add feather markings to brown oval for the owl chest.

Glue 2 oval halves to back of paper bag so they stick out like wings.

Here is the parliament of owls created by some of the preschoolers at storytime today.

Happy Crafting!!

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Autumn Challenge Reveal Day

The Autumn Design Challenge is hosted by Lesley Watt of Thea Elements and Caroline Dewison of Blueberri beads. They combined Lesley's metal clay components with Caroline's ceramic beads.

Here is what I got from Lesley and Caroline.

These are not components that I would normally work with, so let the challenge begin. I also decided that I was going to work with only what I had in my stash.

I wanted to hi-light the two metal components originally in a bracelet but it became a necklace. I found in my stash this beautiful ombre ribbon. The earth tone would work well with both the heart and the flower. I decided to do a Kumihimo braid with a cream rattail. At this point I decide to make a necklace and made another length of braid using a brown rattail.
Ribbon and rattail
 I am not super happy with the finishing, but I like that I can wear either the heart or the flower.

Braids with Heart
Braids with Flower
Using the ribbon and cream rattail I worked a basic macrame square knot and inserted some of Caroline's ceramic beads. The challenge for me with this project was finding a gold-tone closure. Found this toggle yesterday morning.
Macrame Bracelet

With the last two ceramic beads I made this purse charm with cream rattail and three gold rings.

Purse Charm
Here is a list of all the other participants. Take some time to hop around and see what wonderous things they made.

Jo-Ann Woolverton < you are here


A big thanks to Lesley and Caroline for sharing their wonder handmade items and challenging me to try something different.

Happy Beading!

Sunday, September 22, 2013

Summer Beading

It is the first day fall here in Weston. So I am going to take a look a back at some of the beading I did this summer. Some I have blogged about and some I have not.

Summer started with those three great classes with Jean Power, zinnias, frames and stars. Following the class I finished the zinnia and not just one star but 4.
Finished Zinnia

Finished Stars
In July I was part of the Bead Hoarder's Blog Hop. Using some of the beautiful beads I had been saving I made four different sets of jewellry. Here is my favourite, using beads by Jennifer Tough that I have had stashed in a little metal Swarovski box.
Bead Hoarder's Set
I took a great class at beadfx with Pamela Kearns. The shooting star pendant is from the book Crystal Play by Anna Elizabeth Draeger. In class I did one with jet & red coral Swarovski crystals and silver seed beads. 
First Shooting Star Pendant

I did a secod one later in the summer with green seed beads, green and yellow Swarovski crystals. It is not quite the look I was hoping for. I likely remake it with some brown seed beads to look like a wooden trellis for the flower-like cluster of crystals.

In August I posted about the piece I created with the polymer clay component by Alenka of Pepita Handmade. It was a fun challenge that push me to make something very different then usual!
Pepita Handmade necklace
The last challenge of the summer was the Cabochon Challenge. I loved this reversal pendant project from the August issue of Bead & Button by Amy Kohn made with Lunasoft cabs. I have been wearing the Red/Grey pendant and love being able to flip the piece during the day.

After blogging about Peyote stitch on the Rypan Designs' blog I decided to make a few projects from Diane Fitzgerald's Shaped Beadwork book. I love the Celtic Trefoil design. It was interesting to see this go from a long loose knot of 99 delicas to a beautiful Celtic Knot Trefoil pendant.

To finish my first one I used short lengths of chain and small Swarovski crystals.

The second one has just silver chain.

My third is accented with mauve Swarovski Pearls.
 I also started to play with the pointed ovals from Diane's book. I was looking to use them to create a flower brooch. I was inspired by this photo I found online a number of years ago.
 Here is one of the pointed ovals in progress.
Five ovals worked together in to a flower. I just need to figure a way to hold it together as a wearable brooch.
 
Here is the necklace that I made with the beads that my friend Maria got for me at Bead & Button show. The beautiful owl pendant is accent with ceramic, copper and wooden beads.
Owl necklace
 Back in July I purchased some amazing ceramic beads from Kathi Mohlman of Earth n Elements Pottery. The urchin beads I wanted to put them with the Sea Urchin beaded bead from Marcia DeCoster's Beaded Opulence book. I added some fire-polished beads and pearls.
Sea Urchin Necklace
I finished a few other projects for fall challenge reveals. Stay tuned to see some other fun projects.