Of mothers and daugthers

My church has a private blog and for Mother's Day I sponsored a giveaway. Now that everyone has seen the items over there I can show you guys! It was super sweet. The winner wanted to give the prize to her mother since the contest was to tell a story about your mom and we voted on the best one. I thought it was a great idea to give the subject of the winning story the prize but I also wanted my friend to have a piece of her own to remember the fun. So we got together and here's what I came up with after our chat. I made a set of beads that would be included in all the jewelry to represent the mother/daughter's similarities and common elements. I then proceded to make 2 totally different styles of necklace with the same beads and mostly the same findings and "extras". Here's how it turned out.

The long necklace for the daughter is able to be worn with either chain in the front depending on her mood and outfit.

I made them an identical set of earrings.

Mom's necklace is short and a little more traditional in style but still bright and fun.

They loved it...which means I am one happy beader! I added the beads to my shop too so if you'd like include them in some of your summer plans go here.

BTW 6-29-11

Today I have a custom order to make and my deadline is....drumroll.....tomorrow. Awesome. Actually, it's really fine because it's supposed to be 99 degrees here today and we'll be in the basement playing the Wii and making jewelry ;)

What's on your bead table (or life's plate in general for you non beady types?)

Check out more of Bead Table Wednesday on Flickr and pop over to Humblebeads to give Heather a virtual hug on the upcoming release of her new book! Heather is the brain mama of BTW. She totally rocks. Go tell her so.

Turquoise and orange, the saga continues.

During the week of the now famous Muffin Tin Jewelry Challenge my inspiration went a little into over drive. I told you yesterday about the projects I completed for the challenge. What I didn't tell you was that I made a necklace for myself because I wanted to wear my current favorite color combo to a wedding on Saturday! I came home from work at 9:30pm on Friday night with a large caffeinated beverage and made these pieces while the hubs and I watched a movie.

I'd say that was one well spent creative week, peeps!

Muffin Tin Challenge Reveal

Here's my completed muffin tin! What's that I hear you say? One is empty?! Oh dear.

Wait! Here it is!! It is being worn almost daily by the resident super hero father man!

Hot, I know right? Hand's off, ladies, this one's mine ;)

Some close ups and group shots of the product of the Muffin Tin Challenge hosted by ABS.

A couple of the crystal stretchy bracelets were a custom order that I forgot to get a photo of before they were delivered...bad beady blogger! Only one task that I set myself did not happen (one of the pendants that I set out to patina just hasn't found it's patina soul mate yet so I left her plain for now). However, I did end up making WAY more pendants and beads than I had expected and even got lots of them cured, covered in patinas and ready to be sold or made into finished jewelry. I think we're going to call that a wash. Exceeding expectations, even....love that! This challenge was an awesome way to make your "to do" list tangible and attainable. I might be doing more of these on my own in the future so stay tuned.

Summer fun

We started our weekend off with a visit to our Butterfly Pavilion. We had tons of fun and I will post more pictures of the prettiest inhabitants over a few posts. Have an awesome weekend!

I won!

Last month over at the Art Bead Scene I was randomly selected to win one of the grab bags from this fantabulous sponsor Gardanne. Anne Lichtenstein. Check her out. Her lampwork and enamel skills will make your fingers itch to get your hands on some. Which you can totally do by clicking through to her shop on Etsy. Do it, do it now!

BTW 6-22-11

Yesterday over at the Art Bead Scene they posted a Muffin Tin Challenge. I LOVE this idea. Incidentally, the Muffin Tin Challenge and Bead Table Wednesday came from the same place. Ms Heather Powers! She is one awesome, amazing chick. Did you know she has a book in the offing?! So cool right? Hop over and leave her some bloggy love.

Here is my muffin tray and the projects from top left to bottom right.

A skull necklace for the hubby,

a new pendant design that needs a patina,

the smaller version of the new pendant which also needs a patina,

new flower beads that need patinas,

a custom order in progress that needs "something extra" that seems to be eluding me,

zebra striped leatherleaf beads that I have been wanting to use for ages and they have been stumping me,

the next two cups are both new colors of clay for my Primrose and Iris pendants,

the three cups full of crystals are all going to be stretchy bracelet coordinates for a friend that needs easily coordinated arm candy,

and one last new clay color for another style of flower pendant!

I plan to take photos of each project in it's completed form and post it next week!

Check out the rest of the BTW group on Flickr.

What I did on vacation (part 2)

My father in law and I visited Harbor Freight (my first time ever) and I picked up an alphanumeric stamping set! Here are my first few pieces. He also has tons of scrap and stuff from his job that is awesome for jewelry making.

I hammered a piece of scrap brass tubing to make this bracelet and used some brass wire for the clasp. Pop on some turquoise and voila!

A pendant for my sister in law and her boyfriend. I later used some liver of sulfur on it but somehow forgot to get a picture.

The clasp on this necklace (front and back)

And the winners are...

Holly Westfall at number 23 and Lesley Watt at 17. Thank you all for participating! Thanks to random.org for the number generator ;)

I am sick as a dog today and pretty much letting the boys do whatever they want that won't burn down the house. That's also the reason the pic of my most recent pendant choices is modeled on my husband's pillow and taken on my iPad. You do what ya gotta do, am I right?! Oh yeah, and there are a couple beads in the pic that don't go, I know...but the are new ideas I'm playing with and thought a little sneak peek might keep you interested ;)

I will be emailing the winners if I don't hear from them first for shipping info and pendant choice. Thanks again to all of you who participated!

What I did on vacation (part 1)

Practiced my photography. Both of jewelry and non-jewelry subjects.

Part 2 will focus on the new skills I developed in the jewelry department (hint: involves a lot of metal and some chemistry).

Don't miss out on the giveaways that are going on right now! Check out this post to see.

BTW 6-15-11

Today I will be experimenting with new colors and patinas for my new pendants!

I am also hosting a giveaway for two winners if you comment on the giveaway post found here.

Bead Table Wednesday is the brain child of the amazing Heather Powers of Humblebeads and to more of the bead tables across the blogland check out the Flickr group.

Giveaway Tuesday!

In honor of my new pendants I will be giving away 1 each to 2 fantastic commenters! Just leave a comment on this post to enter. Blog about it, Facebook it or Tweet it for additional entries. Please leave separate comments for each so I make sure to give you all your entries. I will choose a winner on Monday morning June 20th. The winners will be able to choose one from the picture above (also available for purchase in my shop) OR I will be accepting custom color requests from my winners!

If you love giveaways as much as I do check out these lovely ladies:

Amy at Copperdiem

somethinguniquebylana

Both are hosting fantastic giveaways so check them out and click the Follow button on their blogs if you haven't already. Both are well worth keeping track of!

UPDATED LIST

These marvelous blogs are also hosting giveaways at the moment!

Lori at Pretty Things (there are 9...count 'em 9! winners over there!!)

Norma at Moonlitfantaseas

Laura at Little Treats

ABS challenge June 2011

This month's challenge is inspired by this work.

Ophelia by Odilon Redon

c. 1900-05; Pastel on paper mounted on board, 19 7/8 x 26 1/2 in; The Woodner Collection

This painting really spoke to me as far as colors were concerned. The palette is so varied and vibrant that there seemed to be endless combinations of color that appealed to me! In fact, as I was coming up with the perfect art bead to use I created a whole new line for my Etsy shop almost by accident! You can see the variety in this snap I took of them all together (minus that perfect one that I used for my finished piece).

Here is my finished submission.

It features my new Primrose pendant in yellow and turquoise!

Having been on vacation for a couple weeks this was an awesome project to come home to! It totally got me back into the creative groove.