It's a Beadiful Creation: purse charm

Saturday, May 31, 2014

Ocean Blog Hop Reveal Day

The day is finally here. It is Ocean Blog Hop Reveal Day. I signed up back in the depth of winter and am getting to share it with you just before the official arrival of Summer.

Our organizer, Lisa Lodge, sent us each a kit with an assortment of beads. We were challenged to create jewelry that has an "Ocean" theme. I got a kit that included cultured sea glass, a clay fish by Shaterra and clay mermaid beads by Gaea.

Kit from Lisa

I bent the rules just a bit by doing a beaded box, But I already had the delicas pulled together for the wave box designed by Julia Pretl. So I made a few changes to the colours that Julia used so that the mermaid beads from Gaea would work as feet and a finial. I used the following colours 351/372/792/84/310.

Wave box, design by Julia Pretl

I secured the feet and finial with head pins, crystals and earring stoppers.

Gaea mermaid beads used for feet and finial

Now back to following the rules. I wanted to create a bracelet so that it would look like the fish was jumping out of the water. I orginally tried to rechart the wave from the box but that proved too difficult. I knew that there had to be a pattern out there for me to use.

I had seen some of Debbie von Tonder's wonderful cuff patterns on Facebook. So I went to her peyote pattern etsy store and found two possible patterns, Sea Curl and Under the Sea.

I decided to use the Under the Sea pattern with colors from the fish. The tail of the fish is attached to one end and a lobster claw clasp is on the other end. A couple of jump rings hang from the mouth to finish the design.

Under the Sea Cuff with Shaterra fish, designed by Debbie von Tonder

Another view of cuff

What to do with the white cultured sea glass beads. I added some other cultured sea glass that I had purchased during one of Lisa's destash events on Facebook. These soft green star fish and small round green beads are perfect. I used a small round magnetic closure.

Cultured Sea Glass Starfish Bracelet

I had one of the mermaid beads from Gaea left. I decided to make a purse charm with the addition of some chain and crystal starfishes from my stash.

Last Gaea bead with crystal stars

I am so glad that I was able to use all the beads in the kit. It was great to do another of Julia's boxes and try something different like Debbie's peyote cuff.

Thanks again to Lisa for organizing this great challenge.

Take some time to see what some of the others have done -

Our hostess: Lisa Lodge, A Grateful Artist

Christie Searle Murrow, Charis Designs Jewelry

Kim Dworak, Cianci Blue

Marybeth Rich, A Few Words from within the Pines

Karin Grosset Grange, Ginkgo et Coquelicot

Candida Elkins Castleberry, Spun Sugar Beadworks

Veralynne Malone, Designed by Vera

Monique Urquhart, A Half-Baked Notion

Katrina Taylor, I Wanna Go Out

Mary Ann Macri Jacobs, Trucksville Crafts

Jeanne Steck, Gems by Jeanne Marie

Ann Schroeder, Bead Love

Kathleen Breeding, 99 Bottles of Beads on the Wall

Marianne Baxter, Simply Seablime Jewelry

Terri Wlaschin, Dances in Fog

Margaret Pelech, TBD

Jo-Ann Woolverton, It's a Beadiful Creation

Kathy Zeigler Lindemer, Bay Moon Design

Heather Richter, Desert Jewelry Designs

Andrea Glick-Zenith, ZenithJade Creations

Happy Beading!

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.