Wonder and Whimsy Challenge Reveal: Malachite

This month's Wonder and Whimsy Challenge was all about green.

As a bit of background, I've recently been having a lot of fun putting together palettes from themes and ideas. This month's theme was Malachite.

From the above picture, I put together this palette:

And from that palette, I gathered together the following beads:

...You may notice that there is no actual malachite in that picture. Instead, it's a collection of Czech glass and aventurine, paired with a strand each of shell pearls and Chinese faceted glass.

I didn't actually end up using all of those beads. In fact, I have two more necklace ideas that I haven't even started. One even involves seed beads!

But! Enough about what I didn't do... Here is what I did make!

When I was designing this necklace, there are two things about malachite that I was trying to capture:

1. The way that malachite has all of those shades of green intermingled

2. The look of many bands of colors pressed up against each other

So, that was the look that I was going for: a design that had many different shades of green, banded together into a bold collection of green.

And the earrings? The earrings were just an added bonus. A necklace this luxurious calls for a complementary ear-dangle after all. 

So, there you go! That's what I made for this challenge. Thanks so much for stopping by today... Be sure to stop by in the beginning of September, to see what my next palette will be!

July 2023 Reveal - SJ Designs Jewelry Honey Do List Design Challenge

It has been over a year since I've joined the Honey Do List Design Challenge, run by Sarajo and Eric Wentling over on SJ Designs Jewelry. I am very happy to announce that it's still going strong--and they've been doing it for eight years now!

For July, here is the picture that Eric picked for the challenge:

Here is what he had to say about it:
Here is some inspiration from our trip to Asheville, NC earlier this summer. I took this picture of pink dogwood flowers right outside an art gallery, so I feel like bringing this around full circle.  Give us some flowers, some leaves, some pink stuff, whatever!

I do love dogwoods... And I have definitely realized that I have a renewed appreciation for pink. I had a lot of fun looking through my stash to find components that would fit this challenge. I ultimately picked out some Czech glass, some peridot, and some rose quartz.

So, with that in mind, here is what I made!

The necklace can be worn with the clasp in the front or in the back. 

On a sidenote: I picked that particular clasp because it reminds me of branches. I thought that was quite fitting for dogwoods!

...I realize that I need to figure out a new way to do my photos. One of my storage drives on my computer completely died, so right now I'm using Instagram as my editor until I figure that out. Ah well. Hopefully these will do! Trust me--these pieces are really lovely in person!

Thanks for stopping by to see what I made! And thank you, Sarajo and Eric, for letting me play along. I hope to do so more in the future. :)

Have a lovely day, everyone!

Wonder and Whimsy Monthly August Challenge: Malachite

Hello, August!

It's time for a new palette!

This month's palette is inspired by the many shades of green found in malachite. 

After choosing a picture (from Unsplash, credit: Lisa Yount) and picking out a matching palette, I dug through my stash to pick out some coordinating beads. (No actual malachite, sadly—didn’t have any in my stash. My main goal with this is to use up things I already own, but I might convince myself to purchase some. Heh. We'll see.)

Like in my previous Monthly Challenges, I'm giving myself a full month to create something lovely. Stop by on August 31st to see what I made!

Until then, have a lovely day everyone!