Art Bead Scene: March 2016

In March, the Art Bead Scene posted the challenge on their blog based on this painting:

The colors in this palette are super muted and neutral. But I had a strand of beads that I knew was just perfect for the challenge.

Here is my completed project:

The photo quality isn't the greatest, but you can see the blue/gray czech glass beads that I used on the bottom. They really pull out the mustard/gold tones in the painting and make the piece have a certain 'glitz.'

The top strand of beads are a matte finish seed bead using a darker gray smaller foil lined seed bead as a spacer.

The art beads, which accentuate the other pops of color in the artwork, are glazed ceramics by Keith O'Connor.

A friend posted the following blurb in FB about a week before the challenge deadline. I was glad that I copied it, because she has no affiliation with anything 'bead.' 

Coincidence, maybe! It's a small world, afterall!!!!!

I had started the piece below before I had completed the one above and had all the intentions of using it for another challenge. But, it reminds me more of the little kittens on the branch than it does with the other challenge, so I am posting it here.

The dangling glass beads are foil lined African pretties. And the fun tubes are some sort of embossed and rolled leather from Africa. 

Both of which were sourced from Allegory Gallery a few years ago and although they don't teally count as an 'art bead' I think they are wildly different than most of the materials I use and fit the color scheme enough to be included with this post.

I look forward to playing along in April and I hope you will check back to see what I have come up with for that challenge.

Be well!

Laurel

The Swan Thieves: The Inspired by Reading Book Club March Selection

Last month, we read this book.

Well, some of us read the book, some of us listened to the book, and some of us started to read the book and didn't finish it.

Guess which category I fall into?

If you picked option one or two, you are VERY wrong....

I got to Chapter 8 and had the highest of intentions of reading the rest of the book on the plane to, by the pool in, or during our travels by car in, Florida.

So yeah, that didn't happen!

When I returned, I googled a synopsis of the book and realized that what I had surmised from the first 8 chapters, was the same as those on the blog....

'Overdescriptive, lacking in interest, and no nice nifty resolution'- and that sealed the deal for me.

I cannot stand when a book doesn't 'resolve itself' and leave the reader with all the loose ends tied up and wrapped in a nice, pretty package with no more questions to ask.

So, I was glad I didn't read all of the (over 500) pages of the book, just to be let down. 

I did however deduce that there was a lot of love in the book. Or at least, lust.

For instance, why would a demented artist keep painting the same woman in his portrait over and over if there was not some love or lust (aka obsession). And consequently slash a painting in the National Gallery. Ugh!!!

And what about the narrator? He says a few times that he had been in failed relationships, but has no problem picking up chicks in the book... 

And then there are the love letters. And in French too!!! Ooh La La!!! How convienient that the narrator has to call up one of his former 'loves' to come over to have coffee and translate...

It just so happens that Alison and I ordered some fun stuff from Swoondimples this winter and that I had chosen the heart that is at the center of my necklace because I knew that I would need it for a book club project!!!

The cracked agate were strands from two seperate trunk shows at Allegory Gallery and I thought of them immediately because they look painted. And they also make a really great necklace to wear for Valentine's Day too! 

So, I may not have read the entire book, or even had my project done for the meet up, but I was able to piece something together that I absolutely adore 'de tout mon coeur' or 'with all my heart'- even if that wasn't my sentiment for the book...

See you next month for my thoughts on 'The Girl of the Limberlost' which I read as a teen and cannot wait to read as an adult to see if I still like it as much!!!!

See you then,

Laurel

 

Sarajo's Honey Do Challenge #2 (Inspired by Black & White)

I LOVE black and white as a jewelry inspiration. One of my favorite pieces to make EVER was one that was for our book club and inspired by the imagery of fall leaves at twilight in New England.

The book was 'The Bucolic Plague' by Josh Kilmer Purcell aka one of The Fabulous Beekman Boys. (If you haven't read it yet- it is a must! Oh to have endless capital and Martha Stewart to promote some of your products when you are just starting out...)

Anyhow, the white that I used for that piece was a white and gray round gemstone strand that in my uneducated days I figured was some sort of marble, but turned out to be Howlite.

This stone is also one of my favorites to work with still! So it was no surprise that I had a few strands laying around that I knew would be perfect for this challenge!!!

So why am I so late to post all this? I was in Disney!!!!

This was in one of the fun shops in Disney Springs. Notice Minnie is sporting a white necklace?

Oddly enough, I was ready to go with most of my projects before I left for FL. I took my necklace with me to post about but ran way out of time. However, I wore it a bunch- here I am with my Grandma and her sister in West Palm Beach and I am sporting it!!!

Those are my kids with their GREAT grandma and GREAT GREAT aunt y'all! 

We had several great visits = memories made with the kids.

Sadly, my necklace made it all the way home and the night I brought it with me to the bead shop to blog about, it got stuck on something and broke. Luckily, it was an easy repair, and not many beads fell off the soft flex wire. 

I took two of the beads off and made earrings to match and now I have a fun (and complete) set to wear- because howlite truly goes with EVERYTHING!!!!

Halcraft Pretty Palettes: March Reveal

You probably saw my post earlier this month about how excited I was to play along this month. 

And you probably recall that it was because my friend Alison from Alison Adorns was the featured artist for the month...

Oh, you didn't??? You can catch up here: http://www.halcraft.com/design/pretty-palettes-march-inspiration-3/

So, here is my inspiration dress (in case you didn't see it before):

The challenge said that we could choose any of the three color combos and the beads selected, or, find another dress and some Halcraft beads to match... So I did!

*You can see how some of the beads came to be a part of my stash if you look back at my post from last month when Alison and I took a trip to Michaels...

Anywho- here is my piece:

My necklace still needs to find the perfect clasp, but is centered on the faceted crystal beads and frosted glass orbs from Halcraft. The gold sequin globes and feather coated black and white wooden beads are from Pat Catans a few years ago.

Here are some matching earrings that I made to go with it (spring break got in the way, so they also need some ear wires!!!!)

I am looking forward to the challenge for April! I will be home all month and can't wait to play in many challenges, but Halcraft and the Allegory Gallery Design challenges are always my favorite!!!!

Coolest little bead shop in Florida

We have crisscrossed across Florida on our vacation and have gotten to spend time with great friends.

We made our way over to the outskirts of Tampa (Brandon) from West Palm to see friends of ours from Montana who were lucky enough to beat the weather there while working on a jobsite nearby.

We also took a daytrip to see some of our snowbird friends at their beautifully renovated condo in Port Richey.

As soon as we arrived in Port Richey, my darling friend (who also makes jewelry) asked if I wanted to go to a cool little bead shop down the road.

I totally did and I am SO glad we went!

Here is my apsiring bead artist in front of the sign.

It doesn't look like much from the outside, but the inside was full of treasures. Take a peek-

Lots of rocks and geodes, and goodies from their travels all over the world!

This incredible amethyst geode- only $4500!

I aspire to look this good someday... Lol

And now for the beads- crystal!

Rocks!

So yummy! I think we were there for an hour and I STILL didn't see everyhing! I can't wait to go back next winter!!!

Here is my stash. I was a very bad girl but I am going to make some really cool goodies!

Meadow Song Challenge

I had a lot of fun with this challenge!!!!

I love greens- especially lime and olive. So this challenge was a breeze for me!

Speaking of breezes, I started off by making the piece below. If you do not already follow Andrew Thornton's Destash page on Facebook, go now!

Alison whipped up some really cool grab bags and this necklace was made with some of the components from the one that I got.

I'm not a big 'blue user', so when I opened up the bag and saw these nesting lava rocks, I was kind of bummed out.

But in another kit, I had this cool orange plastic circle, so I knew that it would be cool to use it with them!

The yellow beads and the green manik manik are also from the kit. So I am pleasantly pleased with the results on this piece!!! 

The tear drops in the piece below were from another destash. It's a simple string that uses seed beads as spacers, but the lemon lime combo sure is jazzy. I can't wait to wear this one!!!

The following piece was from a bag of beads that a friend at the shop gave me. I know she is going to be bummed out that she passed these up! 

I had enough to make a bracelet, but I need to find an awesome clasp. Once I do, I probably won't take it off for a long while because I love these beads so much! Thanks friend!!! (You know who you are!!!!)

Lastly, I made these two pairs of earrings.

They are both funky and fun and I have been inspired to make earrings lately because collectively, we just don't do it enough when we get together at the bead shop!!! 

Zack, Alison and I have are adding them to our repertoire for sure!

My apologies for not having ear wires on them. Those pics got transferred onto my  computer to free up space because I needed room on my phone and my camera for all my vacation photos.

Greetings from sunny Florida!!!! (Yes, I am blogging from the beach! Neener neener!)

So, thanks for stopping by to take a look! 

And I can't wait for tomorrow when the new kit debuts!!!!! 

Tell your friends to play along if they aren't already!!!

See you then- Laurel

Fun at Michaels (the craft mecca)

Some of the book club peeps had a fun weekend last weekend! It started off when Dawn and I needed to get the table set up for a local fashion show that an organization that she belongs to was hosting. 

A few more weekends ago, Amy (also from book club) and Dawn and I got together to make these glasses using her die cut machine. It was so much fun!!!!

Our plan was to pair these with manequins from my bridal shower (that now live in my little girl's room) so that our official theme for the table would be 'Manequins and Monograms'

So, back to Friday evening....We made it to the ballroom and set our table up accordingly. Look how nice our table looked!

Then, we called Alison to join us at Michaels. (She and I had seen each other at Allegory that afternoon and when I mentioned that Dawn and I would be near Michaels and would probably stop by after we set up, she offered to meet us there!)

On our way over the hill to the mall, Dawn's little boy told us that he was thirsty, and we realized that we were too!!! So, we decided that Starbucks would be a nice treat, and Alison met us there.

She pulled in right beside a white Lamborghini. Crazy, right?!?!?! (I won't lie, I was trying hard to chat up the owner to see if he would let me sit in it, or at least get a quick selfie, but alas, he had the personality of a cement block- and he was wearing skinny sweat pants {rolling my eyes}.....)

Things got crazy when Dawn's little one couldn't sit still, so we said our goodbyes and parted ways. Alison and I grabbed our go cups and off we went. To Michaels. Finally! (I know you all are in the edges of your seats here....)

I was on a mission to find something to go with my beads that I selected for my Halcraft Pretty Palettes piece. Honestly, I found the strand that would work within 2 seconds of walking into the bead aisle!!!

But something else caught my eye- blue stickers! It became my quest to find and scarf up as many of the blue sticker items that I loved as I could! And here is what I found....

I am extremely thrilled to use these things in my designs. I was also jumping for joy that 1. I got to wander through the aisle uninterupted and at my own pace (extremely awesome if you know what it is like to shop with your husband waiting outside for you, or your two kids, or all three. Trust me- it's exhausting!) And 2. That I had a friend with me who appreciated how exciting it is to find stuff on sale!!!! (Another fun fact- both of us got these huge piles of stuff for under $26 each!!!! Score!!!!)

It was great. After we spent about an hour in just the bead aisle, we wandered around the other parts of the store....I know, it was hard for me to do that! (Yeah right)

We wandered into this fun aisle and I decided to have a little fun. Look what I did! (And yes, it is my cover photo on FB now)

But then we realized it was time for our fun to end and head home. 

Afterall, I had a party to go to the next day! Here's a pic of the three of us with our friend Robin (who we are working on getting into book club with us)

I am so lucky to have these great friends! Thanks Book Club!