Beading Back in Time - a blog hop challenge!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!  I hope you all have had a holiday full of friends and family, food and beads, and are ready for the spectacular new year that 2015 will bring!

My friend Sherri of Knot Just Macrame and I have teamed up to bring you an exciting quarterly blog hop this year.  The Beading Back in Time blog hop challenge starts here and now!  What exactly does this hop entail?  Well, let me tell you!

Each quarter (January, April, July, October), we will hold a month long challenge focusing on a theme from the past, and culminating in a top notch blog hop with some of our awesome beady friends!  And just what is the theme for January, you might be asking?

PreHuman

We have decided (as if the header for this post wasn't enough of a hint...) to start off with Earthly life, before the dawn of humanity.  I have always had a healthy obsession with dinosaurs, and that has evolved over the years into a love of working with fossils and other ancient materials...as both my Facebook page and Etsy shop will show.  Here are just a few pieces that I have in my personal collection:

  

I bought this huge ammonite slice with one of my first paychecks, from the first bead shop I worked at.  I worked in fits and starts on this piece, over the course of 6-7 years, and it is one of my go to necklaces when I want to make a statement.  Plesio doesn't want to encounter an ammonite this large in his watery world...

This is my favorite necklace that I've made with a giant Carcharocles auriculatus, fossil shark tooth.  These teeth were fossilized, then tumbled in a river for eons.  Their surface is smooth, and edges soft - a tactile delight.  Mr T likes the blue to match his eyes...

And this one is my boyfriend's favorite fossil shark tooth necklace.  Pachy seems to agree...

I also captured this piece of petrified palm wood as a pendant for my boyfriend.  Steggy wonders where the leaves have gone...

There are tons of fossil beads and specimens out there, just waiting to be incorporated into your art!  Here is some eye candy for you - just a few things from my personal collection:

Of course, you are not limited to using actual fossils!  There are tons of awesome artists making beads and components based on fossils and other prehistoric life, and even some commercially available items...

Steggy is showing off some of my favorite artist beads - lampwork ammonites by Jennifer Cameron of Glass Addictions, a bronze clay ammonite charm by Lesley Watt of THEA Elements, a ceramic large trilobite and small stoneware ammonite by Diana Ptaszynski of Suburban Girl Studio LLC, and a resin trilobite treasure tile by Jan Onipenco of Molten Mayhem.  Pictured with mama and baby Strachysaurus, are Czech pressed glass trilobites and ammonites, along with a resin triceratops cabochon.  And Anky is propping up some of my own iridescent polymer clay cabochons.  Oh, the possibilities!

The gang with their favorite necklaces!

Again, don't think only of dinosaurs and fossils!  Consider the plant-life, the environment, the colors, the textures, the weather.  Go back even further, to the creation of the planet, and the beginning of life itself.  Think of the first footprints in the mud, from the first critter crawling up out of the ooze to breathe air.  Insects grew larger then, because of the higher oxygen content in the atmosphere - what kind of giant insect would you like to encounter?  Can you imagine the color and texture of dinosaur skin?  If you had one as a pet, which species would it be?  I've always been partial to Protoceratops...

We challenge you to challenge yourselves!  How can you push yourself outside of your design comfort zone, and stay within the theme of the challenge?  I love an open challenge like this - where each participant is free to work and push themselves, whatever level they're at, and whatever medium they work in.  For me, this will mean a couple of smaller pieces, and a larger sculptural piece...I think.  That may change completely, and that's ok!  After all, I am still trying to figure out when I actually get creative time, now that I've joined the world of the working again.

For now, all slots for this blog hop are full.  If you have an active blog, are a bead maker or beadworker, and would like a chance to participate in the next quarterly hop (starting April 1), please message Sherri or I via our Facebook pages.  Please keep watching my blog and Facebook page for inspiration and updates.  Don't forget to check out my Etsy shop too...lots of fun fossil jewelry over there!  And, as always, thanks for looking!