Art Jewelry Elements Component of the Month - July 2015

Yet again, where did the month go?!?  This year is just flying by.  Somehow I made a little time for beading this month and got to play along with the Art Jewelry Elements Component of the Month.  I would have been really sad to miss out, as we were all playing with either an English Farthing coin bead or clasp by our newest member, Niky Sayers.

Aren't they cute?  Wren is one of my totem animals, so I was already familiar with this coin, and have a few in my collection.  Originally I had thought to make something incorporating other coins...and then (as it usually does) something happened.  This happened!

I was having some issues originally, conceptualizing a way to not overwhelm Niky's awesome bead.  After pulling out some interesting metal pieces to play with, I ended up with this layout. 

I used purple craft wire to suspend the coin bead in the center of a textured copper hoop, and then brick stitched along the lower half of the hoop to keep the wire from sliding around on the hoop. 

Look, matching purple thread!  I love the haze it creates on the copper.  I created a bail out of a structured warped square, and attached it to the top of the copper hoop - allowing for free movement as it's being worn.  

From the lowest part of the beadwork, I suspended this awesome old key.  Maybe it's a clock key?  I don't know...and I don't know why it needed to go with this coin bead...but it did!

  I usually try to put a couple accent or contrast beads in the front of a necklace.  This time I chose some amethyst and silver foil Czech lampwork beads, and vintage glass insulators.  The exposed foil on the lampwork beads has tarnished black, but I like how it looks anyway.  These little insulators were a lucky find at one of my local bead shops.  I'm not sure what type of electrical device they would have been for originally, but I needed something to bring the steely color of the key into the upper part of the necklace.  And they're still kind of performing their original function, right?  Insulating the lampwork from the surrounding beads.

The rest of the strap alternates between some dark plummy pearls and hazy silver peanuts in 3 bead sections.  I love the texture that peanuts make when they're strung together. 

I finished it off with one of my favorite copper s-hook clasps.  I love the ease of an s-hook, but it's really important to remember to use them on heavier necklaces...this way you'll notice if they become unhooked.  I lost several lighter weight necklaces before I figured this out!

And here he is!  Little 1946 wren.  While my friend Kelly was here this weekend we had a realization that neither of us had a finished piece of beadwork from the other person...so this piece went home with her!  Though, I have to admit, I totally wore it to work all last week...I find it necessary to test drive just about everything I make.  Please tell me I'm not the only person that does?

Well, that's it folks!  Please hop around and check out what all of the other participants created with Niky's lovely beads and clasps!  I'm off to do just that!

Guest bloggers

Rebecca Anderson

Nan Smith

Jess Green

AJE Team

Sue Kennedy

Niky Sayers
Kristen Stevens
Jenny Davies-Reazor
Lindsay Starr
Caroline Dewison
Lesley Watt
Linda Landig
Rebekah Payne

Beading Back in Time - Early Civilization Blog Hop Challenge

Hello fellow Beadzillas!  I must once again reassure you that I exist!  We just moved, and I hope as we settle in and I am able to set up my bead room again, to pick up blogging a bit more frequently.

That aside, it's now time for the 3rd edition of our Beading Back in Time blog hop challenge.  Since the beginning of the year, my beady buddy Sherri over at Knot Just Macrame and I have been hosting challenges for some of our beady friends.  All we ask is that each person challenges their self, within the theme, in whatever way they choose.  It has been just lovely to see all my friends take this idea and run with it, weather they make jewelry or beads, work with needle and thread, or clay and kiln.

And so, in our challenge, we have finally made it up to the period of time we are calling " Early Civilization".  This theme will encompass anytime from 3500BC to 500AD...and yes, that is a LOT of civilization to choose from!  Surely there will be something that inspires everyone!  This era of time includes the following cultures (not in chronological order):

I hope you will join us at the end of the month for the reveal!  Hopefully there will be some inspiration and progress posts before then...fingers crossed!

Muad'Dib - the Epic Inspiration Reveal and Blog Hop

When I saw my friend Melissa post about her love of the Outlander book and TV series, and how it has inspired her to create, I couldn't help but join in her Epic Inspiration challenge.  I am so visual in my inspirations, that I am constantly making notes while watching TV or movies, so that I can remember the ideas I had at the time.  I can immediately think of half a dozen shows or movies with inspiring jewelry - I sat and watched and sketched the pieces worn by the actors!  Because I am in the middle of packing for a move, there was simply no time for me to create a new piece - at least nothing in the grand scale that a challenge like this deserves.  So I decided (with Melissa's approval) to post about a piece that I made back in the fall, inspired by Frank Herbert's epic saga, Dune.

A selection of images from my Pinterest inspiration board.

I've been a fan of Dune since before Highschool, when I both read the book, and watched the SyFy channel miniseries (I've never seen the infamous David Lynch version).  There are so many powerful themes and fantastic characters in the story, but what I see in my head when I read the book, is a slideshow of images from the miniseries.  I love the use of color in the show - to me the intensity of color from the sun, moons, and environment on Arrakis is a symbol in itself.  It shows us just how pervasive and important the spice melange is, to life on Arrakis, trade relations, and interplanetary travel.  Once I started thinking about color, several other things made it known that they needed to be represented in the piece:  the Fremen, stil-suits, dunes, desert, sand, spice, pre-spice mass, the sandworm, the dual moons, circles (ecological life cycle), and space.  OMG, I started to get overwhelmed - how do you translate ALL THAT into one necklace?  Well, in my case, I started with the Fremen:

I used my favorite man-face mold to create my Fremen - the blue within blue eyed desert people of Arrakis.  To make the eyes luminous, as they are in the film, I used two small sapphire colored vintage glass cabs.  They have a foil backing and reflect light from certain angles.  I worked for quite awhile to get the cabs set in the clay just right - so the backing of each cab was perfectly level and matching...I didn't want the finished eyes to look cross-eyed...  Before I baked the polymer clay, I dusted on some Pearl-Ex powders in a range of copper and bronze, with a little bit of green.  You will see why I needed green in a bit...  After baking, I glazed the piece, and as soon as that was dry, I started beading the capture.

I wanted to incorporate the hood of a still-suit, along with the desert and night sky in the capture.  This left me with jumping off points for the rest of the necklace:

I also made the mask of the stil-suit able to open and close with a little bead latch.  The large yellow bead represents a pre-spice mass under the desert, buried by the swooping dunes of the desert sands.  One of the moons is represented with a piece of circular peyote, and I continued the circle/cycle theme with some Tierracast rings with beaded a toggle to fit through one of them and topped by a large green pressed glass bead.  .

The majority of the strap is a random mixture of deep blue and green beads, loosely netted into a representation of space.  

But there's one thing I still haven't shown you:

The back of the capture shows the blue moon of Arrakis, and the great desert Sandworm.  How could any Dune tribute be complete without the worm?  I don't think it can!

Your beauty shot this time shows one of my favorite quotes from the book.  Paul Attreides, aka Muad'Dib, uses this Bene Gesserit litany against fear when his perseverance was tested.  It has always stuck in my head as a life lesson - so much of our society today is based in fear of the mights and maybes.  If you can see past and move past the fear, it is truly freeing - I especially try to use this lesson in my creative exploits.  I hope you will check out the rest of the participants in Melissa's challenge!  I'm off to do that now!

Melissa Trudinger             http://beadrecipes.wordpress.com (Hostess)

Karen Mitchell                   http://www.overthemoon-design.com

Andrea Glick                      http://zenithjade.blogspot.com/

Karen Martinez                 http://fairiesmarket.blogspot.com/

Lennis Carrier                    http://windbent.wordpress.com

Lindsay Starr                      http://phantasmcreation.blogspot.com/ (you are here!)

Mona Arnott                      http://bijouxgemsjoy.blogspot.com

Lee Koopman                    http://stregajewellry.wordpress.com

Shaiha Williams                 http://ShaihasRamblings.com

Veralynne Malone            http://veradesigns.blogspot.com

Elisabeth Auld                    http://www.beadsforbusygals.com

Kelly Schermerhorn          http://meanderingwithkelly.blogspot.com

Dini Bruinsma                    http://www.angazabychanges.blogspot.nl

Jami Shipp                          http://www.celebratinglifewithdamamashipp.blogspot.com.au/

Art Jewelry Elements Component of the Month - May 2015

Where, oh where, has this month gone!  I just can't seem to get the hang of a full time job, beading, writing, and attempting to get out of the apartment for some exercise.  Add to that, we have signed papers on a new apartment and get to move again at the end of June...  Hopefully after that things will settle down!  I will have a bead room in the new place, and my commute will be much shorter...I anticipate coming home from work, starting dinner, and beading while it cooks!  One can dream, right?

Anyway, back to the subject at hand!  This month we got to play with some of Susan Kennedy's little beaded beads!

Sue sent me the set on the top right - a combination of turquoise, ivory, olive green, and mustard yellow.

I knew before the beads even arrived that I didn't want to make earrings or a necklace.  I don't really wear earrings anymore, and I already have PLENTY of necklaces, so a bracelet seemed like the best option.  The challenge I face when using small beaded components, is not overwhelming them with my own beadwork...it is unfortunately easy to do!  So to keep my own beadwork to a minimum, I made this central component:

I bought that blue mother of pearl frame eons ago - it has holes through short edges that I was able to use to suspend a beaded square in the middle.  After that, I looped around the long edges to secure the square in place.  When I was done with that, it still looked like the component needed a central element, so I went digging through my box of 2hole beads, and found this lovely striated vintage glass one...isn't it pretty?  

Here are all the beaded components together.  Part of the reason I used those turquoise picasso drops on the edges of the central component, was so I could use them as a wire attachment point, and simply string Sue's beads and the rest of the bracelet.  Like this!

I used vintage glass beads on the rest of the bracelet, and an antique brass colored toggle with matching crimp covers - I like that they're nearly the same size as the little green Japanese glass beads!

I used a few turquoise delicas before and after I passed through the drop bead, just to alleviate a bit of tension on the wire, and to leave less of it exposed.

This is what the back of the central component looks like - the square lays nice and flat on your arm, for maximum comfort.

And here we go, two beauty shots!  Because I couldn't figure out a way to get a good picture of the central component and Sue's beads too.  

Please check out Sue's Etsy shop - she's got a few more pairs of these gorgeous beads there, along with a ton of her gorgeous lampwork!

Don't forget to check out what everyone else did with their beaded beads - that's what I'm off to do now!

Guests

Elisabeth Auld

Mischelle Andrade

Karen Martinez

AJE Team

Susan Kennedy

Jennifer Cameron

Diana Ptaszynski

Kristen Stevens

Jenny Davies-Reazor

Lesley Watt

Melissa Meman

Linda Landig

Caroline Dewison

Lindsay Starr  (you are here!)

Niky Sayers

Beading Back in Time Blog Hop Challenge Reveal Part 2 - Early Human

Are you ready for another blog hop reveal?  I know I am!  It's time for the Beading Back in Time Blog Hop Challenge Reveal Part 2 - Early Human - hosted by myself, and the lovely Sherri of Knot Just Macrame.

Sherri says I'm the short one...what I want to know is why does she get to wear the leopard hides?!?

 Before we even announced this phase of the challenge, I knew I would be incorporating these beads into my finished piece:

These are Neolithic quartz beads, that were painstakingly drilled by hand!  One of the things that I have always loved about beads is just how much a part of human culture they have been since the beginning.  I've had these beads for a few years now, just waiting for the right project.  And here it is!

I've wanted to make a shaman necklace for myself for years, and this seemed to be the perfect reason.  I wanted all of the components to be natural, and preferably handmade...so I broke out my seldom used dremel tool and went to town on my box of weird nature things!

 Some of the materials I used include (because I'm sure I can't remember all of them): hemp twine, driftwood and kelp from the Oregon Coast, Baltic Sea amber, crinoid segment fossils, coral skeleton, turkey spur and deer hooves, the neolithic quartz beads, sliced walnut and tagua nut, rudraksha seed, large flat seeds from Peru, wood and twigs, antler...the list goes on!  In the center is a stylized ceramic cat skull by my buddy Mel of Melody Allen - Ceramics.  Humans started developing ceramics around 24,000 BCE - I love this combination of two creative disciplines that are so integral to our identity as humans.

Here are a couple more views so you can see the entire scope of the piece.  What objects can you identify?  There are a few that are still mysteries to me - like the large wood nobby thing just below the ceramic skull.  A friend gave that to me, and I have no idea what kind of tree it came from...or is it some sort of root nodule?  Do you know?

And here's our beauty shot!  I hope you enjoyed checking out my creation this time around.    Please use the links below to see what everyone else has been up to- I have such creative friends!  I'm off to check out their posts right now! Thanks for looking!

Lindsay Starr, Phantasm Creations  You are here!

Sherri Stokey, Knot Just Macrame

Susan Kennedy, Sue Beads

Stephanie Sanner Haussler, Pixybug Designs 

Jean Wells

Jenny Davies-Reazor

Michelle Ann McCarthy, Firefly Design Studio

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!