Reveal Day - Into the Forest Blog Hop

Back in the summer when the snow, ice and cold of winter seemed so far away, I signed up for the Into the Forest blog hop hosted by Lisa Lodge of Pine Ridge Treasures. 20 artisans have each received from Lisa a kits with a variety of materials such as Czech glass, clay, lampwork, art beads/pendants, and seed beads.We have until today to make something inspired by the forest.

Late in the summer my kit arrived in the mail. I got a clay pendant by Shaterra, green fire-polished crystals, orange leaves and some silver-lined seed beads.

Into the Forest Kit

I of course put them on my beading table and for most of the fall these beads were just sat there. I found some additional fall coloured crystals that I added to the kit.

As winter arrived here in Weston I knew that I should get working of this project. I decided to use some wonderful copper discs and small rondelles.

Finished necklace

Detail of pendant

Take some time to hop around and see what amazing creations my fellow artisans have to share with us.

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

Christine Stonefield, Sweet Girl Design

Carolyn Lawson, Carolyn's Creations

Janine Lucas, Esfera Travel Blog

Jasvanti Patel, Jewelry by Jasvanti

Shaiha Williams,   Shaiha's Ramblings

Kay Thomerson, Kayz Kreationz

Karla Morgan, Texas Pepper Jams

Veralynne Malone, Designed by Vera

Toltec  Jewels, Jewel School Friends

Christie Searle Murrow, Charis Designs Jewelry

Molly Alexander, Beautifully Broken Me

Monique Urquhart, A Half-Baked Notion

Janet Bocciardi, Honey from the Bee

Dini Bruinsma, Angaza by Changes

Heather Richter, Desert Jewelry Designs

Christina Miles, Wings n Scales

Elizabeth Engriser, Bead Contagion

Alice Peterson, Alice Dreaming

Alicia Marinache, All the Pretty Things

Kay Mallery,TBD

Catherine Yvonne King, Catherine's Musings

Alice Craddick, Alice's Beads and Baubles

Ema Kilroy, Ema K Designs

Thanks to Lisa for once again challenging me work outside my comfort zone.

Happy Beading!

Poppy Vase - revised

Over the holiday season I decided to work on a variation of the Poppy Vase from Julia Pretl's website.  I did the original version back in early 2013. It was a gift for my friend Nora, as she started her new job.

Original version

Having completed an inventory of my delica I decided to do a vase with purple flowers. I also changed the background colour to a pale lavendar and the olive green in the leaf to a silver-lined lawn green.

Base of vase

Leaves almost done

Leaves done

Start of flowers

Flowers done and ready to start hem

Completed Vase

During the working of the hem in the original I broke two needles and many beads.  I was lucky that I only broke two beads early in this project.

Wishing everyone a happy, healthy and creative new year!

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!

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!

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

Karin King, The Sparkle Things Blog

Shaiha Williams,   Shaiha's Ramblings

Mimi Gardner, Baubles, Beads and Other Curiosities

Dee Alcalde, Agape Creations Jewelry

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

Kathleen Breeding, 99 Bottles of Beads on the Wall

Molly Alexander, Beautifully Broken Me

Loretta, Loretta's Boutique

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.

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.

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!!