Fire and Water Challenge

Hi, welcome to this month's Allegory Gallery's challenge: Water & Fire Mystery Competition.  As with every challenge Allegory Gallery presents, Andrew Thornton selects a beautiful collection of various beads, each with a particular color palette. For this competition, Andrew states that "when we created the concept of this challenge, we thought about forces of creation and we instantly thought of the elements...water and fire both have many beneficial attributes as life-givers and influencers of change, but they can also be harmful and detrimental to life.  Water and fire also cancel each other out.  As with all things, there's a balance."  A new twist to this challenge is that there are two kits - one for Fire and the other for Water.  Participants wouldn't know which kit they were getting until the package arrived.  How exciting!  Not only is there the element of Christmas morning excitement (at least for me) of opening the mailbox and receiving a package of beady goodies, one wouldn't know which kit they would receive until the package was opened too.  What fun!

Fire Challenge Kit full of juicy yellows and oranges

I received a Fire kit, full of juicy oranges, reds and yellows.  I usually don't design with these colors, especially orange, but I gotta tell ya, I absolutely loved the kit!  I remember reading long ago that being a Leo, I'm a "fire sign" and that yellow and orange are "my colors".  I haven't thought of that for years, but I suppose there must be some truth to that because I really was drawn to the fiery colors of the kit.

I messed around with the beads not really settling on any specific design.  I made some earrings, then strung the Carnelian chips onto the wax linen for a necklace, but kept thinking of how to represent "Fire" for the competition.  I guess it was the whole Leo Astrological information that kept coming back to me, but I decided I want to create a sun for the Fire challenge.  The large lucite(?) bead has swirls of dark red, orange and yellow in it so I thought that would be a perfect center for my sun.  I scoured the wire making books I have on hand and found Kelly Tibbetts' design for her Avenging Angel pendant in Wire Jewelry Start to Finish by the publisher of Bead & Button magazine.  I must admit that I have many books and magazines for jewelry making but I usually fall short of actually trying the projects shown.  Anyway, Kelly's design looked like half a sun to me, so I practiced the technique until I actually "got" the rhythm of the wire pattern.  I continued making smaller then larger rays, alternating the lengths in somewhat of a random pattern to form the corona of the sun.

When I finished the sun pendant, I tried different cords and chains but settled on a combination of chain and orange and yellow small round beads from the kit to tie in the oranges and yellows of the sun. When I was playing around with the beads I made a "flame" clasp, so I added that to the Sunburst necklace adding a vintage yellow orange bead I had in my stash.  Here is my competition piece:

Fiery Sunburst Necklace for Allegory Gallery's Fire & Water Competition Challenge

Close-up of Sun Pendant

Fiery Sunburst Necklace

Carnelian Chip Necklace

Carnelian Chip Necklace

Earrings using the juicy yellow and orange beads from the kit

Yellow and orange beads from the kit with Czech glass and sun charms

Thanks for joining me here.  Don't forget to stop by the Allegory Gallery Design Challenges page on Facebook to see what everyone else made.

Art Elements' April Component of the Month

Ocean Waves Necklace

Hello and welcome to my entry for April's Art Elements Design Challenge.  Art Elements, a blog celebrating creativity and art expressed in craft form, host monthly design challenges.  I had the privilege of being chosen to receive one of  the lampwork glass beads made by Jen Cameron. 
 
When creating these beautiful beads, Jen said that first she was thinking of the Northern Lights for her inspiration.  As time went on, however, she noted that the beads had more of an ocean feel.  She textured the outside of the bead with swirls.  How she achieved her technique is described here.

The bead I received has more of an ocean feel.

Close Up of Jen Cameron's Lampwork Bead

In deciding how to design using this bead, I started by choosing sterling silver wire.  I thought the silver would be a good choice to contrast the dark blue and could also pull out the sandy brown and white in the bead.  Silver also reflects the way sun sparkles off the water.

To echo the ocean feel and the swirls on the bead, I made a large swirl clasp and figure eight links for a touch of some bubbles. 

I chose bronze faceted Czech glass, dark blue crystal and champagne, mercury finished Czech glass beads to pull out the colors in the focal bead.

Vintage "Sandy" Beads

In digging around in my stash I found these vintage Italian(?) lamp work beads that seem to have a sandy, beach like feel to them.  I gave the larger ones some swirls to set them apart a bit.

I love how the silver, crystal and bronze beads subtly sparkle in this necklace and I'm also very glad
to have more of the vintage beads so I could make a pair of earrings to coordinate with the necklace.

Sandy Beaches Earrings

Thank you for joining me here!  Be sure to stop by the other designer's posts to see their creations:

Guest Designers:
Sarajo Wentling
Deb Stewart (you are here!)

Art Elements Team:
Sue Kennedy
Laney Mead
Lesley Watt
Claire Fabian
Karen Totten
Cooky Schock
Jenny Davies-Reazor
Caroline Dewison
Cathy Spivey Mendola
Niky Sayers
Lindsay Starr
Jen Cameron

Forest Journey Mystery Competition

Hello again and welcome to the reveal of Allegory Gallery's latest challenge, the Forest Journey Mystery Competition. 

As with all the challenges/competitions that Andrew Thornton designs, this kit was loaded with many beautiful beads.  The concept of this challenge involved "thought(s) about the hero's journey...They must leave behind the status quo...where remarkable things can happen..." 

Every trip into the forest can set one on a remarkable journey of sights, sounds and sensations.  In creating this necklace, I wanted to express the different textures and shades of light found in the forest:  the smoothness of wooden branches chewed bare of bark by animals, the roughness of gnarled roots, broken branches and sticks, and rays of sunlight streaming through the forest canapy, revealing leafy plants dappled with delicate forest flowers. 

Most of my design features beads from the kit although I did add some Czech glass flowers, leaves and wavy glass discs.  I also found the delightful leather cord which has metallic flecks of copper on it from barsikmoy, a fellow Etsy seller.


Journey into the forest for more beautiful designs by visiting Allegory Gallery's Design Challenges Facebook page here.

Thanks for joining me!

Queen of Hearts Challenge

Have you ever started on a project and felt like everything was coming together, that you would certainly love the outcome of the finished piece only to be sorely disappointed when it just isn't meant to be?  Yeah, well that's what I encountered in the beginning of the Queen of Hearts Challenge hosted by Allegory Gallery.  According to AG's blog, this kit was "loosely inspired by two things: Queen of Hearts appearing in Lewis Carroll's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and Valentine's Day." 

I'm not really a fan of pink, I don't design with it much and so I started second guessing my decision to join this challenge when the package arrived.  I was thrilled when I opened the package because there was more than just pink and red beads in the kit; there was a lot of purple in the package too.  Yea!  There were large plastic, glass and wood beads, some large vintage Lucite beads in deep red with golden speckles.  The kit also included a nice strand of Rose Quartz.  I quickly started to design a necklace using the large Lucite beads, some of the Rose Quartz and the small plastic purple crackle beads.  I planned on tying some purple leather cord to the two beaded strands.

The necklace was looking really good - on my bead board - but when I picked it up to try it on... well I just didn't like the weight (or lack thereof) of the piece.  I usually don't use plastic beads in my designs, but after participating in these challenges I've started to like the vintage Lucite beads.  They work well in earrings since they are so lightweight.  You also could design a statement necklace with a bunch of these large, lightweight beads and not have the necklace weigh you down.

Anyway, I found myself so bummed out by not having my necklace turn out as I wanted that I got into a bit of a creative funk.  So I thought, o.k. this is a challenge, so how do I challenge myself?  I usually make jewelry with copper wire so I went the other way, grabbing the lovely Rose Quartz and knotting it onto the Irish Wax Linen.  I alternated with the light purple glass rounds and used a vintage Czech glass button for the closure.  The button has a beautiful iridescent shine to it.  This necklace feels so warm on as the stones heat up from being on your body.  As weird as this might sound, it's very comforting to wear. Rose quartz is known as the love gemstone representing love in all its different forms. It is supposed to "bring optimism pertaining to love" and "bring happiness to the wearer."

This is such a departure for me style wise.  It makes me think of Mother's Day so perhaps I should pursue making this type of necklace for spring craft fairs?












I wanted to showcase Andrew's pendant, so it's just a bead and a crown for the Queen.

I also made a couple pair of earrings - one small Rose Quartz dangle

and these funky ones with two of the cool vintage purple beads. 

Check out the other jewelry designer's creations at Allegory Gallery's Design Challenges Facebook page.

Thanks for joining me here!








Next up... Forest Journey Mystery Challenge.  The reveal date is April 13!

The Frog Prince Design Challenge

+

Allegory Gallery's fairy tale mystery challenge for January is the Frog Prince.  This challenge also celebrates Pantone's Color of the Year for 2017: Greenery.  Greenery is described as a "fresh and zesty yellow-green shade that evokes the first days of spring when nature's greens revive, restore and renew."  What a wonderful color to receive in the mail this time of year!  Just look at the luscious green beads I received in the kit:

Beautiful shades of green in the Frog Prince Mystery Challenge

I find it interesting that, although I don't really care for green as a color I wear myself, I absolutely love to play around with the color when I make jewelry.  I guess it's my longing to dig in the dirt, especially this time of year, and to tend to flowers, shrubs and vegetables that draw me to this color.  I started my challenge pieces with the gorgeous frog pendant that Andrew Thornton included in the kit.

Frog Prince Necklace with Andrew Thornton Pendant

I love the little frog pendant and wanted to highlight it in my necklace.  I chose a green faceted teardrop bead along with this really cool blue and green crackle square bead, then wire wrapped them together to form the dangle with the pendant.  Leaves came to mind when I was thinking about frogs, so I used the pressed glass leaf beads from the kit, more faceted teardrops and some small green leaves I had in my collection. 















My next design is a long, 33 inch necklace I made using the beautiful green seed beads from the kit. I added some copper chain, metallic copper colored seed beads and some Czech glass English Cut matte metallic beads I had on hand.  The large bead I used in the pendant design has a greenish gold tint to it and the vintage Lucite drop is a lovely mix of blueish greens with a bit of gold swirled in.

I usually try to make at least one pair of earrings using the kit.  I made two:  in the first one I wanted to use the interesting polymer clay beads, but alas, I broke one of them attempting to make the hole just a little bit bigger... sniff.  So I found some old lampwork beads I had on hand that looked sort of like frog eyes to me - albeit unevenly dilated frog eyes : ) - for my design using the wax linen cord and more of the small beads.  
 


In my last pair of earrings I used some polymer clay beads with some twisted yellow green beads on the bottom.  I really like how these look on but I've been having a hard time getting a good photo of them.

That's it for my challenge pieces.  Please join Allegory Gallery's Design Challenges Facebook page to see what everyone else made.

Thanks for joining me here today and come back on February 23 for the next Mystery Challenge - "Queen of Hearts".  I can't wait to see what William and Andrew have in that kit - thanks guys!

White As Snow - Allegory Gallery's Mystery Challenge

Allegory Gallery's first fairy tale inspired Mystery Challenge, White as Snow, came to my door with loads of white and red beads and of course the special component made by Andrew Thornton.  

In 19th Century Germany The Brothers Grimm penned the fairy tale Snow White.  Snow White's name came about when her mother pricked her finger with a needle and, seeing the drops of blood on the white snow covering the black window sill, decided she wanted a daughter with "skin as white as snow, lips as red as blood, and hair as black as ebony."   I used Andrew's pendant for the necklace along with the white howlite chips, the large red "jewels" and the smaller red faceted glass beads.  Three is a continuing theme in the story so the three large, dark red beads worked perfectly.  The blood red plastic and glass beads really look nice by the white of the howlite.   

Since it's the busy holiday season, I didn't get much of a chance to really try out anything too far out of my comfort zone, but along with the necklace I did try to create a bracelet with the wax linen.  It kept fighting me, wanting to become something else.  At least that's what I told myself after enduring a lot of frustration.  I haven't had a chance to finish what I've been playing around with, but here's a peek into what I'm thinking.

I do like silver with the white and red, but since I usually work with copper, I don't have a lot of "go to" silver items laying around.  But I think with a little silver chain, a hammered toggle that reflex the greys in the howlite, another blood red bead by the toggle...voila! a necklace.

I always try to make a pair of earrings or two, especially one that will go with any necklaces I make.  I did that along with this cute pair I think look like little people : )

Thanks for joining me here.  Be sure to check out Allegory Gallery's Facebook page to see what everyone else created Allegory Gallery Design Challenges.

Allegory Gallery's Magic Potion Special Challenge Reveal

 

Look at the beautiful beady goodness!

Today is the reveal date for Allegory Gallery's Magic Potion Challenge.  This is one of their "Special" challenges in that one does not know what the kit will include.  The only "clue" was the above graphic.  I have participated in the challenges before, but this was the first "special" one I tried.  Boy, was I ever glad I joined!  One of my favorite colors is purple and this kit was loaded with purples.

Magic Potion Bracelet

Andrew Thornton creates beautiful pendants for these challenges and this time along with the pendant we received a bonus of two star rounds which I knew I'd make earrings out of.  The pendant has stars and swirls on it and is one of my favorites.

The first item I made was a bracelet using the pendant Andrew made and the wonderful large acrylic and glass beads.  There was a black bead with sparkles in it that is absolutely lovely, but unfortunately the photo does not do it justice.  I happened to have a small purple button that matched the colors too - bonus! 

Magic Potion Necklace

Next I made this necklace.  I used the black Obsidian(?) chips, the silver rectangle beads and the small deep red rounds.  I added some vintage crystal roundels and a large dark red faceted round I had for the pendant.








 I made a few pair of earrings to go with the necklace. 

                            

 

 Then I finished (last night!) with the earrings I originally thought to make.

I think that wax linen cord just makes earrings fun so I used that to add shimmery purples to the bottom of the star rounds.  The best part of all is that I still have plenty of beads left over for more projects!  Thank you Andrew and Allegory Gallery : )

Stop by the Allegory Gallery Design Challenges Facebook page for all the other items that were made for this special challenge. 

Summer's End

Early this summer I read a post about a summer bead challenge showing bright, beautiful colors of fruit: lemons and limes, watermelons, cherries, blueberries and other gorgeous fruit and juicy summer colors.  (I couldn't remember exactly which blog it was so I can't add a link).  I was thinking of summer colors and what colors represent summer to me while driving out through the bluffs to La Crosse.  Then it struck me - Orange and White - Traffic Cones!  We travel back and forth to Chicago on a regular basis so the seemingly endless traffic cones lining the highways and byways are a sure sign of summer to me.  During the trip to La Crosse I went to a big box store in Onalaska and perused their collection of bright orange beads.  I grabbed a handful of juicy orange, yellow and some cut white roundels that mimic the reflective quality of the cones and headed to the checkout.

First Attempt

My first idea was to string the beads.  I even added red orange cut rounds which I thought in theory wouldn't work with the orange, but it sorta worked.  They picked up the dark orange in the lampwork beads.  I had added two vintage orange glass beads along with the big box lampwork beads and colorful yellow and orange rounds.  I wasn't happy with it.  I don't like to string beads because I don't trust the crimps, especially with a long string of somewhat heavy glass beads.  The necklace did not do anything for me.  I realize that part of the problem is this method just isn't "me" so I decided to take it apart and start over. (I see now that I didn't even straighten it before snapping the pic - oops).

I thought again about what to do and decided to stick with what I usually do, wire wrap the beads to form a chain.  I added some vintage orange and yellow beads I bought from my friend Willow to the lampwork beads and began again.  This next necklace design has been morphing for a while.  I started with a basic pattern necklace with smaller beads wrapping around the neck.  Then I thought I'd break up the continuous lampwork swirls and throw in some smaller roundels to the rounds.

Second Attempt

Third Attempt

Final Necklace?

Traffic cones... I was needing white.  I dug through my stash of white beads and found some nice vintage diamond shaped  glass beads, and thought that would work well with some sparkly glass roundels. I then decided on an endless chain to represent the endless chain of traffic cones.

Endless Traffic Cones Necklace

 

I really like the "Endless Traffic Cones" necklace.  It was fun to make and wear, and since it is so simple the reflective qualities of the white roundels and the brightness of the oranges really represent the subject matter.  The necklace looks really good lying on a purple, navy or black t-shirt.

As I was listing the necklace in my Etsy shop, however, I noticed that the orange is flaking off of the glass beads I bought at the big box store!  What?!  Note to self - be sure to really check the beads obtained at a big box retailer!  I usually don't buy a whole lot of beads from them, but every now and then I do find some I like.  I shall be very careful from now on with which ones I do buy.  I did check to make sure there wasn't any paint chipping off of them, but I guess the heat of the summer must've made the paint brittle?  But on a positive note, I can think of the necklace and it's imperfect, chipped beads as a representation of the wear and tear those traffic cones go through, right? : )  The orange and yellow ones in the first necklace are vintage and have no chips in them.  Eesh, so many things are cheap junk these days.


Finally I made a couple pair of earrings to go with the necklaces.  I'm trying to perfect hoops, and I used a wooden dowel we had in the backroom for a mandrel.  It works, but I think the hoops are a tad large for most women's liking, so I will search for a broom handle or something smaller.

Well that's it for my summer colors inspired creations.  I usually don't like the color orange and therefore don't create any jewelry using that color.  I like using more muted colors.  Yet as I was playing around with the beads and after I made the first necklace I found myself looking at orange and other bright colors in a different way.   I'm now in the process of making a few bracelets that are bright green, yellow and white.  More summer colors!

Thanks for joining me here.