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/