Art Jewelry Elements Component of the Month Reveal April 2015

 Oh my, where did the month go!?  How is it time for the Art Jewelry Elements Component of the Month reveal again?  I know I spent half of April in post surgical recovery stupor, but seriously...anyway, moving on.  When I found out we were going to be able to play with one of Rebekah's little wood heart beads I was super excited - just look at them!

Rebekah sent me a lovely little copper heart, and it arrived a couple of days before my surgery.  I fondled it often during recovery, attempting to generate an idea to no avail.  And then the lovely Jenny sent me a recovery package and the entire design came together 5 minutes after opening the envelope!  I give you Dino Love - aka All Dinosaurs Go To Heaven:  

Back in January, Jenny had shown off a pendant in progress with this amazing dinosaur stamp.  I ogled it thoroughly, but never thought that she would send it to me!  I did a little bit of research about the stamp, and discovered that it was issued in 1970 as part of a 4 stamp set commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Natural History Museum.  You can read more about it and see the other stamps here.  Jenny was kind enough to include some beads to go with the pendant, including the copper peacock spotted daggers.  I love how those spots match the color of the heart, and I finished off the necklace with some of my favorite leather lace in a nice rusty tan color.  

Just look at all these details!  Jenny really managed to capture all of the colors in the stamp with the paint on the pendant.  The texture on the heart is so delicate, and the word on the side perfectly sums up how I feel about all things prehistoric.  To connect the pendant to the leather strap, I raided my stash of Czech lampwork and found these sugar beads - silver foil inside of amethyst glass with emerald green frit "sugar".  I love how they pull all the greens and purples in the rest of the piece together, and add a bit of sparkle too.  

Look, two beauty shots this time!  I didn't realize until I was done with the beading that the heart looks like it has wings - hence the secondary title of this piece "All Dinosaurs Go To Heaven".  I can't wait to see what everyone else has done with Rebekah's hearts!  I hope you will hop along with all of us!

Guests
Karin Grosset Grange
Carol Briody
Rebecca Anderson

Ann Schroeder


AJE Team
Rebekah Payne
Jenny Davies-Reazor
Caroline Dewison
Susan Kennedy
Diana Ptaszynski
Kristen Stevens
Melissa Meman

Niky Sayers

Lindsay Starr

Beading Back in Time - Early Human Blog Hop Challenge

Hey everyone!  No, I haven't dropped off the face of the planet - for the last month I've been super busy preparing for a surgery that I had on Wednesday last week.  I thought during my recovery period there would be tons of time to get caught up on my backlog of blogging, facebooking, etsy posting, etc...but the reality has been that all I want to do is sleep.  So, here I am, after my second nap of the day, finally posting about our upcoming blog hop challenge!

 Do you remember a few months ago when my friend Sherri Stokey of Knot Just Macrame and I hosted our first quarterly blog hop challenge?  No?  Well, if you would like to refresh yourself, check out our posts here and here...and don't forget to look at  all the participant's finished pieces again!  Both of us were so pleased with the effort that everyone put into this challenge, and we're excited to introduce the Spring quarter challenge:  Beading Back in Time:  Early Human Blog Hop Challenge!

Sherri says I'm the short one...what's that all about?!?!

The challenge will work like before, with the exception of the timeline.  Last time we focused on inspirations from before the dawn of humankind.  Now we are seeking out inspiration from the very earliest discoveries of humanity, up to 3500 BCE (yes, that is a bit of an arbitrary date).  This timeline will encompass anything from the evolution of modern humans, to the decline of Neanderthals, the Paleo-, Meso-, and Neolithic "stone age" periods, and everything else in between!  Please check out Sherri's intro post HERE!

There are so many ways you could be inspired by this theme!  Cave paintings, stone carvings and sculptures, primitive textiles and fibers, and early beads are just a few of the things I've had floating around in my mind.  I definitely want to use these beads in my piece this challenge:

These are hand drilled quartz beads from the Neolithic period!  Just holding them is a fantastic feeling - beads and bead creation have been a part of human culture for SO LONG...it gives me goosebumps to think about!

I hope you will stay tuned for the reveal of the BBiT: Early Human Blog Hop Challenge on May 1st! Hopefully I will be able to post a few more updates during my recovery period...we will just have to see how the nap schedule works out.  Don't forget to check out my bi-weekly posts over on the Art Jewelry Elements blog too...I just posted one yesterday about my collection of vessel beads!  Thanks for looking!