Reveal - SJ Designs Jewelry Honey Do List February Design Challenge!

This month, I've had the wonderful fortune to be a part of a bunch of different design challenges. The one I'm writing about today was organized by Sarajo Wentling of SJ Designs Jewelry. 

Each month, her husband gives her a jewelry design challenge (hence the name Honey Do List)... And this month, she invited others to join her! You see, for February her husband put together a color palette based on one of his photos.

What color palette? Well, this color palette:

Not my photo!
Courtesy of SJ Designs Jewelry.

It's so nice and Spring-y!

...And, based on that inspiration, this is what I made!

A tassel necklace and a pair of earrings!

I had a great deal of fun making this set--from picking out the beads to match the photo, to designing it, to watching it come together as I made the links. I was particularly happy when I found a beautiful copper flower to serve as a focal piece--not just drawing from the color palette, but from the inspiration photo itself. (I even found a copper flower toggle clasp--woo!)

For those curious, the materials include red aventurine, three different shades of freshwater pearl, Czech glass, vintage acrylic, and copper.

With so many grey winterish days this February, it was a joy to work with something so bright and warm!

(Disclaimer: and when I say grey winterish days, I am not including the random 70 degree days like this past Saturday. Thank you random Cincinnati weather. Still, this set felt quite appropriate for the sporadic pleasant days--a reminder of a lovely Spring to come!) 

Thank you so much, Sarajo, for inviting people to play along with you! And thank you, blog visitor, for stopping by!

And, because I enjoy spreading the designing happiness, here are the other people who are participating:

Sarajo Wentling  (our hostess!)

Alison Adorns
Gloria Allen   
Terry Jeanette Carter
Jenny Kyrlach (you are here!)   
Kathy Lindemer 
Laurel Ross
Jeanne Marie Steck

I, for one, am excited to see what everyone made! 

More Bargain Bead Box Goodies - January's Box

It's time for a little bit of show-and-tell! 

This time, as you can probably guess by the title of this entry, I want to show off what I made with my Bargain Bead Box last month. (I haven't even touched my box of goodies for this month yet--ha! Need to get on that.) I'm really happy with everything I made with January's box--and there was quite a bit of it!

First up, as a reminder, here are the components that were in the box...

Vintage-y and brass, with a pop of color. Love it!

Now, I have already showed you this set... it was part of my Monthly Challenge reveal last month:

I am personally fond of how the pendant stays with the vintage clock theme. :)

It is not everything that I made, though. Here is the other necklace that I made:

Three strands of chain and wire-wrapped goodness! This necklace took quite some time to make, but it was definitely, definitely worth it! I was so excited when I figured out how to add a tassel to the watch center piece! (And it is a fully functional watch, too--even cooler!)

As far as materials go, I used all of the crystals and glass and brass from the Bargain Bead Box, and also added another type of chain and some beautiful (expensive!) creamy peach pearls that I have. 

In fact, I used up so many of the box's components that I had to ask if I could order another box! (I plan on making another one of these necklaces at some point on commission... One of my friends wants one. I just have to find the time to do so!)

I am really, really proud of this necklace... It is positively luscious!

It can either be worn as a long single wrap necklace, or as a double wrapped choker.

Playing around with new backdrops for my pictures.

And, since I do like matching sets, I decided to make some earrings to match.

...Only I couldn't decide on just one design, so I made six pairs instead of one:

So, there you go! As you can probably tell, I was extremely inspired by all of these beautiful components. The color palette made me quite happy, and I just love the combination of crystals and pearls and brass. Lovely!

Thanks so much for stopping by today and letting me show you some of the pretty things I've made... I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

And now I'm off to finish up my designs for next week's (many) reveals!

Wednesday's Worktable

As I've mentioned before, my worktable has been overflowing with projects and ideas... I've even started planning my March Monthly Challenge already!* Today, though, I decided to take a break from working on my Halcraft pieces, and my origami pieces, and my SJ Designs Jewelry pieces. 

Now, my original plan was to play with these super sparklies that I purchased the last time I was at Michaels... 

...But that didn't actually happen.

You see, while I was looking at those, I saw something in the corner of my eye: a glass focal bead from GlassyFields, included as a thank you gift with my last purchase. I had thought I had put it away, but there is was sitting on the corner of my beading table.

Now, it's not a bead that I normally would have picked out. That's not saying it's unattractive, it's just not my go-to style. As I looked at it, I wondered--what could I make with that?

One thing led to another, and before I realized that I had deviated from my original plan, I had gathered a bunch of coordinating beads to play with:

The focal bead can be seen in the center, surrounded by all sorts of options: pearls and Czech glass and dyed magnesite, with some acrylic and dyed wood for good measure.

It's probably no surprise where this lead me:

...Yep. Yet another tassel necklace in the making!

I'm actually really excited about where this particular design is going... It's always fun to take something I was unsure about and make something gorgeous. And while I haven't decided if that's the final pattern or not, but I think it's safe to say that the super sparkly beads have been put away for another day, and it's time for me to settle down into making wire-wrapped links. Exciting times!

Thanks for stopping by today... Happy Wednesday, everyone!

---
* - Did you know that March is actually the 2 year anniversary of my Monthly Challenges? Well, it is! As a result, I want to make it extra special... Hence all of the extra planning! :)

Upcoming Fun...

Looking at my blog calendar, I just realized that next week is going to be an exciting one for reveals. I have three scheduled--three!

...I guess that means that I better get creating!

(Or more accurately, that means that I need to finish the things that I've already started to work on--my worktable is overflowing with beads and ideas right now!)

First up, on February 22, I will be revealing what I made for SJ Designs Jewelry "Honey Do List." Her husband picked out a challenge for her (hence the name), which for February is a nice spring-ish color palette for her to use. And, excitingly, she invited others to play along!

Not my photo!
Color palette courtesy of SJ Designs Jewelry.

It has been a rather grey and bleak month (as February tends to be), so it's been happy to play around with these warmer colors.

The second reveal will be on February 24... You see, I have decided to hop on board and try my hand at creating something for the Halcraft Pretty Palettes.  This month, it's all about pink and lace. Given my new influx of pink beads, I couldn't resist! 

Not my photo!
Courtesy of the Halcraft blog.

I was actually only able to find three out of those five components at my local Michaels (they were sadly sold out), but I substituted a few others--and I'm pretty happy with the results!

And lastly, of course, is my personal Monthly Challenge... That reveal will be on February 26th!

This is my photo! ;)
And it's my origami kit, in case you forgot what I was playing with this month.

I have made one set so far, but I have a few more that I'm playing around with--we'll see how many I finish by next week!

So, there you go! Tune in next week... There will be all sorts of pretty things for me to show off!

This Week's Worktable

...better late than never?

I'm honestly still feeling pretty under-the-weather, so this post is going to be sparse on brilliant commentary. Hopefully you'll forgive me. :)

I have a lot of projects in my head this week, but I haven't been actively making much due to being sick. For example, I was commissioned by my sister-in-law to make a birthday present for one of my nieces... And I completely dropped the ball on it until yesterday. (Side note: yesterday was actually said niece's birthday. Oops. Talk about last minute!)

Her current two favorite things are emeralds and unicorns, so I poked around in my stash and came up with this combination:

Emerald glass and a unicorn charm!
I've had that unicorn charm for years,
just been waiting for the right project to come along.

And then I started playing around with the components:

Yes, that's the making of a tassel. I'm not expecting you to be surprised. :)

And, after an hour of poking about, this is what the finished necklace looks like:

Please pardon the photo quality--the lighting was wonky, and I wasn't feeling up to doing anything fancy to spruce it up.

Thankfully, it is very pretty in person, and my sister-in-law is happy with it. (And not even mad at me for being a procrastinating procrastinator!) Hopefully my niece will love it, too!

Oh, and since I'm showing off completed projects, I wanted to show off the finished piece from last Wednesday's worktable. As a reminder, this was the picture that I shared of the components...

And this is what the final necklace looks like!

...I really, really pleased with how it turned out! Besides the fact that I love the colors, I love the way that it hangs and jingles gently. Chance are, I'll be on the lookout for more vintage earrings to convert! :)

So, there you go... Thanks for stopping by today! 

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone--and, like I said last time, stay healthy!

Wednesday's Worktable (sort of)

...I am, once more, sick. 

Bronchitis is what the doctor said on Monday. (And laryngitis, too, so at least I sound as bad as I feel.) It seems this has been a brutal winter for illnesses in this area, and apparently I am no exception. Bah.

I'll try to post an actual worktable entry here soon, when this all starts to clear up. (Or, at least, when I'm less dizzy.)

In the meantime, happy Wednesday everyone! Stay healthy! :)

The Jenny Monthly Challenge - February Edition

When picking out my challenge for this month, I thought I would continue on with my paper-turned-jewelry theme. After all, I've made paper beads. I've turned pictures into pendants. 

So, what am I doing this month?

I'll give you a hint:

That's right: origami!

Some background: 
During my most recent trip to the Aquarium, I also stopped by the nearby Barnes and Noble. (A book store and the Aquarium in one place? Win!) This particular Barnes and Noble had just put all of their holiday merchandise on mega-clearance, as well as quite a few of their boxed kits. That meant that $20 kits were going for $5, $10 books were $2.50, and so forth.

...And wow, did I make out like a bandit:

The fossilized shark tooth and the smashed pennies are from the Aquarium.
Everything else is from the 75% off clearance table at Barnes and Noble.

I bought two of the origami kits... I wanted to buy more, but I was trying to be reasonable. After all, I could only carry so much--and I wasn't going to put the tabletop catapult back! (As a sidenote, the catapult is awesome... I've assembled it, and it's currently stationed next to my laptop, to protect my computing from interlopers.)

Each origami kit includes findings (wire and chain), an instruction book, and an assortment of origami paper:

Credit for this kit goes to Sherry Gerstein, whose name you see there on the book.

The big sheets of paper are 6 x 6, the medium sheets are 3 x 3, and the little ones are 1.5 x 1.5 (measurements in inches)... And I am particularly fond of that teal pattern:

And so, my challenge is pretty straightforward this month: I'm going to use the above kit to create some origami jewelry. 

More specifically, my goal is to make--successfully--at least one design from the included instruction book. If I feel particularly plucky, I might try to find additional instructions on the internet... But, that is not a requirement. Knowing me, I'll probably have more than one set to show at the end of the month... but I want to give myself freedom to experiment and fail and not have to make something presentable. So, one design it is! :)

Come by on Friday, February 26th, to see what I make!

Wednesday's Worktable

As I work my way through my project pile, it's always fun to find things I had completely forgotten about. 

...It's also fun to look at those forgotten projects, and get completely new inspiration on what to do with them.

Today's worktable is a perfect illustration of that. You see, I found a pair of vintage earrings in the pile that needed new earwires. I had chucked them there with that very intent--to just put them on new earwires, and be done with it. 

Only, I had gotten distracted and completely forgot about them... and when I found them there today, I started to have ideas. Namely: what if, instead of just changing the earwires, I made the earrings into pendants?

Oh, look, I made one of the earrings into a pendant.

Well, that was simple enough. I even made earrings to match!

But what to do with the second vintage earring, that was now all alone? I didn't want it to feel neglected.

And so I started routing through my bead stash, and now this is what I have brewing on my worktable:

Pendant in the middle, possible earrings on the upper left,
and a bunch of coordinating beads to play with!

...And that's how one forgotten pair of vintage earrings with bad earwires has turned into this:

Pretty things in the making!

I have gotten a lot better at organizing my stash and staying on top of my projects--finishing them once I start them, not putting them off, and so forth--but every once and awhile it's exciting when something forgotten turns up again and leads to an unexpected surge of creating. And what can I say--I love this color combination!

Thanks for joining me today for a glimpse onto my worktable... Happy first Wednesday of February, everyone!