The Frog Prince Design Challenge

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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.