Art Bead Scene Ornament Blog Hop

I have a group of friends that get together once or twice a month for lunch and an activity.  There are 5 of us, so we call ourselves the FAB 5.  We celebrate birthdays, take trips, etc.  I feel very fortunate to have a nice group of girlfriends.  And you know what's cool?  My Mom is in the group!  So our Christmas gift exchange is coming up and I happened to make each of them an ornament which is perfect for our blog hop!

I have a lace doily my Grandma crocheted and I pressed a corner of that into ceramic clay and used a 2" round cookie cutter to make the shape.  I wanted to use the word JOY on my ornament and hand stamped that next to the lace imprint.  I either put a hole or wire loop at the top.

Each of my friends have different themed Christmas trees.  Top left is mauve for my friend Jamie. She has a country themed tree.  Top right is for Gina.  Her tree is decked out in a burlap, out doorsy theme, so I used brown and distressed the white so it wouldn't be so bright.  Bottom left is red for my Mom, Sandy.  She has a very traditional tree as does my friend, Susan who gets a green ornament.  I felt they needed a bit of sparkle, so I sprayed them with a light coat of silver glitter spray.  I cheated with the ornament hangers.  They are from Hobby Lobby, but they have a handmade look.

I plan on decorating their Christmas packages with the ornament showing on the top.  But please don't let them in on my plan!  Lol  Please hop around and visit the blogs of all the participants and thank you to Heather Powers for being our blog hop hostess!

Welcome to Faery Blog Hop

I had a lot of fun coming up with my design ideas for this blog hop.  My friend, Betony Maiden is our hostess and she challenged us with the theme, "Welcome to Faery."  So my imagination ran to fairy tales, forests with wonderful creatures and colors of the rainbow.  I narrowed it down to an actual fairy ceramic necklace and an enchanted forest pottery bowl.  First the necklace:

I have an 11 month old Granddaughter named Summer who loves to hang out in my studio.  I have a black velvet mannequin where I display my newer favorite necklace designs.  I had a necklace with a roman coin theme for a blogging back in time challenge.  I loved it!  Well Summer decided to pull my mannequin over and there went my necklace into about 4 sections on my tile floor.  Needless to say, my studio is much more baby proofed!  So I gathered up what I could and put it in a dish for another time.  Well, I got out the dish and redesigned a new necklace with my handmade ceramic fairy pendant.  I love it, too!

 Here is a close up of the pendant I designed for the challenge:

I used 3 ply waxed linen to string my design.  I made a tassel under the pendant and incorporated roman glass, gold findings, more ceramic beads, manufactured sea glass and dyed agate gemstones.


I have been making a lot of functional pottery dishes over the last few months.  I live in Florida so I often have a sea life or tropical theme.  So for this challenge, I came up with an enchanted forest design.  I hand drew a curvy line across the bowl and cut out leaves and flowers to form a vine growing on the forest floor.  I used oxides to color the flowers and leaves and dipped the bowl in cream and green multi tone shiny glazes.  The bowl is food safe, but I think I will keep some treasures safely tucked away instead.

Please visit the blogs of the other participating designers:

. Betony Maiden
2. Tammy Adams  http://www.paisleylizard.com/
3. Michelle Ann McCarthy  http://www.fireflydesignstudio.blogspot.com/
4. Kelly Hosford Patterson   http://travelingsideshow.blogspot.com/
5. Robin Kae Reed
6. Kari Asbur

Beading Back in Time - 60's Baby!

For this chapter of the Beading Back in Time Design Challenge, we could choose any time period in history that inspired us.  I really had to think about this one.  My favorite time would be the 80's....the music, the hair, my teenage years, college, fashion, etc.   But as far as designing a piece of jewelry, nothing stood out for me.  One of my favorite sayings is Peace, Love and Happiness.  That takes me right to the 60's!  I was born in 1968 and I like peace signs...so that's how I decided on my theme!

I used mid fire buff ceramic clay to make a peace sign bead in lime green, a heart bead in pink and a smiley face in yellow.  I accented the color with a neutral oxide stain.  So that's my Peace, Love and Happiness brought to life!  I love to work with waxed linen, so I choose a beige color to blend with my clay beads.  I used an oversize black lobster claw clasp with a black piece of chain to adjust the length that features a fun pink accent at the end.  I followed the bracelet pattern designer Lorelei Eurto shared in Bead Style last year.....it's a perfect design to highlight my theme beads!

I used lime green glass disc beads along with black and pink seed beads on 4 pieces of waxed linen.  I think the colors represent Peace, Love and Happiness and that is what the world needs today!  Please visit the blogs of the other designers that can be found at www.phantasmcreation.blogspot.com 

Superstition Blog Hop Reveal

Happy Friday the 13th!  I am not a superstitious person normally.  So today I am going to wear my fun black cat necklace and walk under a ladder.  Just kidding....why risk it!  Lol

I was one of the lucky winners of our hostess, Tammy Adams of Paisley Lizard, focal black cat polymer clay pendant....so thank you for that!!!!  We could tell Tammy what direction we wanted the pendant hole or no hole at all.  I am really into tassels, so I chose a vertical hole.  She made the gray, black and silvery white backgrounds different as well.

Sorry I am not good at identifying gemstones, but I have all my beads stored by color.  So I reached into my black and gray drawers and found some great stuff!  The black gemstone barrel shaped beads were the perfect size and I loved these black and gray speckled gemstone chips.  I love to string with waxed linen.  It is strong and tying knots is easier than crimping, at least in my book!  I am a ceramic bead artist, so I always include some of my beads.  The 2 gun metal 10mm discs on the top and bottom of the cat pendant are my beads.  The tassel is made from rubber tubing cut into various lengths with the gemstone chips at the ends.  The tubes reminded me of the cats tail!  I used a large black lobster clay clasp to finish my necklace.  I hope you like it!

Please hop around to all the other designers blog posts to see what they designed with their black cat pendant!  And if you'd like to see more of my beads, please visit www.fireflydesignstudio.etsy.com

ammy Adams (Hostess) http://www.paisleylizard.com/blog/ Renee Hong  http://www.fineanddandyjewelry.blogspot.com Betony Maiden  http://beadwenches.blogspot.com/ Coral Law  http://abcoraldesign.blogspot.com/ Lee Koopman  http://stregajewellry.wordpress.com Jeanette Belmont  http://www.onecanvasatatime.com Shai Williams  http://www.ShaihasRamblings.com Beth McCord  http://ebbeadandmetalworks.blogspot.com/ Robin Lynne Showstack  http://heartsdesiresjewelryforyou.blogspot.com/ Lori Blanchard  https://alainnjewelry.wordpress.com/ Deb Fortin  http://www.mhotistudio.blogspot.ca Michelle McCarthy  http://www.fireflydesignstudio.blogspot.com Maria Rosa Sharrow  http://willowstreetshops.blogspot.com Kim Dworak  http://cianciblue.blogspot.com/ Divya N  http://www.jewelsofsayuri.com
	http://heartsdesiresjewelryforyou.blogspot.com/
Karin Grosset Grange  http://ginkgoetcoquelicot.blogspot.fr Mowse Doyle  http://mowsemadethis.blogspot.com/ Rebecca White  http://morganafeycreations.121hub.com/#sec-blog Shawneen Fagnani  http://blondespotpinkshoe.blogspot.com/ Catherine King  http://Catherines-musings.blogspot.com Brook Bock  http://artisticendeavor101.blogspot.com/ Kari Asbury  http://hippiechickjewelrydesign.com/blog Nan Smith  http://wirednan.blogspot.ca Carolyn Lawson  http://carolynscreationswa.blogspot.com Linda Anderson  http://fromTheBeadBoard.blogspot.com Ann Schroeder  http://www.beadlove.wordpress.com Melissa Trudinger  https://beadrecipes.wordpress.com/	http://www.jewelsofsayuri.com

Brave Angel Challenge Reveal

This is a special challenge hosted by Andrew Thornton of Allegory Gallery.  It is all about the fight against breast cancer....celebrating the women who have won the battle and never forgetting the women who lost the battle.  Pink is the color representing the hope of a cure one day soon.

I took a wonderful wire choker class from Staci Louise Smith at Bead Fest in August.  She is always encouraging her students to continue to use her design after the class is over, so I did just that for this challenge.  I used 16g silver plate wire to make the base of the choker.  There are 9 hand formed loops to dangle the beads from the kit off of.  I only altered 2 things this time...a second hole in Andrew's mystery component pendant and the multi tone pink ceramic spike that I made.

I am really happy with this statement piece.  It is 17" long, but with the fabulous middle focal dangle, that part hits at 24" long.  Put on a plain pink or white t-shirt, and get ready for the compliments to fly!  I will be auctioning this necklace to benefit the Breast Cancer Research Foundation next Tuesday and Wednesday in the Facebook Group, Art Beads.  I will be announcing that on my own Facebook page if you follow me there.  Please take a few minutes to hop around the other designers blogs to see their Brave Angel reveals. You can find the links at the bottom of Andrew's post at www.andrew-thornton.blogspot.com.   Michelle McCarthy from Firefly Design Studio

Danse Macabre Blog Hop

I am late on this reveal....so sorry to our hostess, Lee Koopman!   Danse Macabre is.... the Dance of Death, the dance we all must make through life on our way to the grave for we all must come to the same end, rich man, poor man, begger man, thief, priest and pope.  It’s the same end for everyone.  What we do with our lives is more important than what we have or acquire so we should all celebrate life by laughing at death and the fears of “things that go bump in the night”.   

I am late because of a fantastic weekend with my husband in Key West, Florida.  Key West is rich with the spirits of pirates and sunken treasure, with history of famous writers and politicians, with alcohol flowing in the streets (and it still does) all the way to a very haunted doll who is housed in a very secure glass vault.  The town celebrates Halloween with Fantasy Fest, a very grown up costume party or lack of costume as body paint usually does the trick!

I am a ceramic bead artist so I made the sugar skull pendant and three 12mm round black beads.  I wire wrapped red, white, black and clear seed beads on jangle findings.  These have so much movement and add fullness to my design.  I used red waxed linen to knot between the matte black crystals.  This 18" necklace closes with an antique silver toggle.  I can't wait to wear it!

 Please hop around to the other designers blogs to see what they made for their danse macabe!

Lee Koopman                           Strega Jewellry

Sam Waghorn                           Pale Moon Creations

Dini Bruinsma                            Angaza by Changes

Mowse Doyle                              Mouse Made This

Robin Showstack                        The Crazy Bead Hoarder

Amy Jorgensen                           Hoarders Corner

Nan Smith                                    Wired Nan

Tammy Adams                             Paisley Lizard

Catherine King                              Catherine’s Musings

Michelle McCarthy                         Firefly Designs Studio

Betony Maiden                             Beadwenches Blog

Becca White                                  Morgana Fey Creations

Kim Dworak                                   Cianci Blue

Tami Norris                                   Tamis Creative Spot

Inge Von Roos                               Inge’s Blog

Terry Jeanette Carter                    Tapping Flamingo

Deb Fortin                                       Mhoti Studio

Melissa Trudinger                           Bead Recipes

Warrior Stone Design Challenge

This challenge kit from our host, Andrew Thornton, is perfect for fall.  The beads

 included are warm shades of beige, brown and cream.  I love to pour the bead out onto 

my work table and sift and sort through all the treasures.  I began pairing up Czech glass, 

gemstones, glass pearls and crystals into earring sets.  I dug into my stash for some 

accent  pieces and I found some filigree leaves and ceramic round charms glazed a

 sandy beige.  Perfect!

This is my favorite pair.  I left the wire tail long, strung a crystal on it and curled it up for

 a fun accent.  I pressed it down on top of the stone to lay flat.

Andrew's mystery component is made out of polymer clay, so I decided to drill a

second hole at the bottom so I could add another layer of beads.  Once I was happy

with the layout of the pendant, I decided a simple antique copper chain was all it

needed.  I wanted it to remain the star in the design!

Please visit Andrew's blog to see the reveal of all the participants designs with

the Warrior Stone Challenge!  www.andrew-thornton.blogspot.com

Dreaming Tree Design Challenge

I am in the process of putting the last minute touches on my ceramic

beads for Bead Fest in Philadelphia next week, so I was totally last

minute on designing for this months Dreaming Tree Design Challenge.

Whew!  I made it....

This is the beautiful color palette chosen by our challenge host, Andrew Thornton.

I love the subtle color combination of soft shades of purple and green.  The

mystery component pendant features a tree of life made by Andrew.  I hope he

doesn't mind that I got my power drill out and added another hole to it!

But first, my earring design:

 I am a Czech glass bead junkie, so the flower beads were screaming my name.

I paired them with 2 of my hand made 10mm ceramic grape purple round

beads, crystals and silver spacer beads.  I found these cool post earring findings

in my earring drawer.  I like that they didn't add any length to my already

quite dangly earrlings.  Now to my bracelet design with the tree of life focal:

I really like the way it turned out!  I used the waxed linen in the kit along

with an assortment of the smaller Czech glass and knotted in between the beads.

I made some dangles to give the bracelet some movement and used another one of my 

ceramic beads to form the clasp.  Fun and flirty!

If you'd like to see more of my ceramic beads, please visit my etsy shop at

www.fireflydesignstudio.etsy.com

Please hop around to all the challenge participants blogs to see what they designed!

Alison Herrington http://alisonadorns.blogspot.com/

Tammy Bowman http://innermusejewelry.blogspot.com

Gloria Allen http://www.wingsandbeads.blogspot.com

Ann Schroeder http://www.beadlove.wordpress.com

Dolores Raml http://craftydscreations.wordpress.com

Shaiha Williams http://www.shaihasramblings.com/

Andrew Thornton, Nancy Noyes-Ward, Laurel Ross, Cheryl Lee Tucker, Dawn Berkebile, and Melissa Wynne http://andrew-thornton.blogspot.com/

Beading Back Before Time - Early Civilization

When in Rome.....

I have a beautiful strand of ancient Roman glass and a fun ceramic Roman

coin impression, so I started with those pieces as my inspiration for early

civilization.  I went onto Pinterest to research what authentic Roman jewelry

looked like.  I discovered lots of turquoise and blue tones as well as gold, never

silver.  I normally pair blue tones up with silver, so that became my first challenge.

Next choosing the glaze I wanted to use to capture the perfect blue tone would be

important.  I went with blue lagoon which has a green under tone.  It also looked

great with the Roman glass.  I also made some ceramic accent pieces in the same glaze.

I used butterscotch colored wax linen for my stringing material.  The gemstones

are Aventurine and I used some manufactured sea glass as well.  I really like

how the ceramic tubes give the necklace some width and the fun tassel accent 

under the Roman coin is playful.  I used gold tone spacer beads, waffle discs,

chain and a large lobster claw clasp.

Here is a close up of the ceramic Roman coin that I made and here are the

coordinating earrings.  I made leaf charms for the earrings because of the pattern

I discovered with the constant use of leaf designs by the Romans.

Thank you for following along with my Beading Back Before Time Blog

challenges.  If you'd like to learn more about me and my ceramic beads, please

visit https://www.potterybeads.com and be sure to hop around to all the 

other blogs to see what other great jewelry designs of early civilizations.

We're All Ears Challenge - African Quilt Art

This months challenge is based on Primitive African Art and

story telling.  Stories can be told in many ways, and these folk

art patch work quilts tell a wonderful story of color and patterns.

This is the quilt I really was drawn to.  I love bright colors and the block

pattern is random and fun.  Even though the earrings that I created don't match

this quilt, the beads I chose to design with all reminded me of it.

The millefori glass beads look like mini quilts to me.  I made two heavily textured

ceramic round beads to pull the green out of the glass.  I used 24g silver tone wire

to loosely wrap around the beads and hold them tight.

Don't these lamp work beads also look like little quilts?  The artist is unknown.....

I pulled the purple tone out of the glass and made two 10mm hand rolled spacer

beads, crystal and silver spacers.  20g wire is loosely wrapped around the top beads.

These hand made paper beads are very colorful, like the quilt.  I twirled the

bottoms of 20g wire to make a head pin and simply strung every thing together

for a fun and happy pair of earrings.

This challenge was a bit more of a challenge for me than the beachy vibe 

last month.  But that's why I enjoy participating...to get me out of my norm

and try new things.  If you'd like to see more of my ceramic beads, please

visit www.potterybeads.com  Thank you!

Art Bead Scene....Beneath the Sea Challenge

I am one of the new team members for Art Bead Scene....and I

couldn't be more honored or excited!  This months challenge revolves

around a painting that is over 350 years old and it is all about goodies from

Beneath the Sea.

I picked out the honey and brown tones and made a batch of sea shells out of

ceramic clay.  I made some connectors to keep the flow of the necklace moving.

I also used a few of my new crescent roll up beads, a 16g wire swirl accent seed beads,

 antique bronze chain, a fun fish lobster claw clasp and wax linen.  The earrings are wire

 wrapped with 24g antique bronze wire and seed bead accents.

Here is a close up picture of the earrings

I hope you like my design!  I plan on taking it to a gallery that is on

Captiva Island, near Fort Myers, Florida.  A lucky lady will scoop up

this treasure set from Beneath the Sea!

If you'd like to learn more about me and my ceramic beads, please visit

www.potterybeads.com

We're All Ears Tide Pool Earring Challenge

The ocean is my favorite jewelry design theme.  I live in Florida, but don't visit
the beach as often as I should.  This is my first Earring Everyday blog hop, so
I just couldn't resist exploring tide pools and what it means for earring design.

This first pair highlights my new ceramic starfish beads.  I paired them with artisan made
lampwork, swarovski crystals and antique bronze findings.  The headpins are from
Havana Beads and the discs are from HMB Designs.

This pair features a another new ceramic design....earring hoops.  This pair is
glazed with shades of teal and copper.  I paired them with lampwork beads that
I received in a swap, so the artist is unknown.  I finished them with swarovski
crystal and antique copper findings.

Last but not least, my ceramic nautilus shell and mini sand dollar charms are paired
with swarovski crystal dangles, silver beads and fun silver earring wires.

If you'd like to see more of my ceramic beads, please visit www.fireflydesignstudio.etsy.com
or on Face Book visit www.facebook.com/groups/CeramicArtBeadMarket/

To see what other wonderful designers came up with for this blog hop challenge,
please visit www.earrings-everyday.blogspot.com

Splendid Procession Design Challenge

Aren't these colors luxurious?  I always love receiving my challenge kit from

our host, Andrew Thornton.  He puts wonderful goodies together for us to be

inspired.  I immediately was drawn to the mystery component, a polymer clay

butterfly wing made by Andrew.  Here it is!

And this is what else was included

I am addicted to wax linen, so I pulled that out of the kit right away for my stringing

material.  And that large pink flower was calling my name.  I still am super busy in my

ceramic bead studio from being away to Bead and Button, so I knew I would only have

time to make 1 piece, so I would design a necklace, of course!  I really loved the gem

stone chip mix, but the wax linen was too thick for the bead holes.  So plan B....green

seed beaded chain with wax linen knotted "spacers".  I always, OK 95% of the time,

have to add at least one of my handmade ceramic beads to the design.  I glazed a green

8mm spacer bead for the middle of the flower and made a white and pink porcelain toggle

with a handmade toggle bar, for the clasp.  Here it is!

Here's a close up of the clasp and pendant:

The trick to getting the flower to lay flat is to bend your wire (I like 20g) in half
and put the middle point through the back of the flower and small bead.  Bring it up about
 an inch and bend it 90 degrees with your pliers.  I then use my fingers to swirl the wire
 over  the  bead hole.  At the back of the flower you have the two wire tails.  Take one
down  to attach the pendant and take one up to attach to your design.  Hope that makes sense!

I really enjoyed this challenge and I am really happy with the way my necklace turned out.

I hope you like it, too!  Please hop around the following designers blogs to see what

they designed with this lovely bead mix.  And if you'd like to see more of my ceramic

bead creations, you can visit my etsy shop at www.fireflydesignstudio.etsy.com

Shaiha. http://www.shaihasramblings.com/

Alison Herrington http://alisonadorns.blogspot.com/

Tammy Bowman http://innermusejewelry.blogspot.com/

Marybeth Rich http://forestofjewels.blogspot.com/

Ann Schroeder http://www.beadlove.wordpress.com

Andrew Thornton, Laurel Ross, Nancy Noyes-Ward, Kathleen Enniss-Reid, Lisa Mendum, and Debbie Rogers http://andrew-thornton.blogspot.com/

Bead Peeps Swap N Hop Reveal

I had the pleasure of being paired up with Dolores Raml of Crafty D's Creations.

She is a multi talented creator in many craft mediums.  I really had fun going through

all the wonderful things that she included in my swap design kit.  This is what I received:

Here is a close up of the clasp...a bird sitting in a nest!

And the pendant I received was created by Dolores from a spoon!  How cool is that?

Any time you can recycle something is great, but to make it into so beautiful is amazing.

Here is a close up picture of the pendant:

I

I used everything included in my design kit except for the dove charm, 4 lamp work beads

and a few spacer beads.  I added from my stash the waxed linen stringing material, antique

silver chain and earring wires.  This is my finished design:

 

And a close up shot of the earrings:

I plan on gifting this jewelry set to my Mom for Mother's Day because she loved the spoon

pendant so much.  Please visit Dolores's blog at www.craftydscreations.wordpress.com

to see what she created with the ceramic bead goodies that I sent to her!  Also, a big

THANK YOU to Linda Anderson for organizing our swap this year.

 

 



Beading Back Before Time - Early Human

Last time it was all about fossils for me - this time it is all about dinosaurs!
Cave men and women did not have to fear my friendly dino....

 

When I was in Tucson this year, my booth neighbor, Michelle Davis from

Tangible Light Studio, made the cutest lamp work dinosaurs.  There

was my inspiration for the second installment of the Beading Back Before Time

design challenges!  And in green, too....(one of my favorite colors)

I made two 12mm hand rolled ceramic beads and glazed them lime green to accent the

dinosaurs spots.  I used cats eye beads, crystals, silver spacer balls, waxed linen, silk,

closed rings and a lobster claw clasp.  Since the dinosaur bead hole was vertical, I made

a tassel under him with 3 strands of waxed linen.  What a fun necklace!

 

Here is a close up shot of the dinosaur.  He is even smiling!  If you'd like to see more

of  Michelle's lamp work beads, her website is www.tangible-light.com and if

you'd like to see more of my ceramic beads, check out my etsy site at

www.fireflydesignstudio.etsy.com.  Please hop around and check out some other

cool Early Human jewelry designs!

Lindsay Starr, Phantasm Creations: http://phantasmcreation.blogspot.com/…/beading-back-in-time…
Sherri Stokey, Knot Just Macrame: http://www.knotjustmacrame.com/…/beading-back-in-time-revea…
...

Susan Kennedy, Sue Beads: http://suebeads.blogspot.com/…/beading-back-in-time-blog-ho…
Stephanie Sanner Haussler, Pixybug Designs: http://www.pixybugdesigns.blogspot.com/ (not post specific link)
Jean Wells: http://jeanawells.indiemade.com/…/beading-back-time-install…
Jenny Davies-Reazor, http://www.jdaviesreazor.com/…/beading_back_time_blog_hop_r…