Wednesday 28 October 2015

Art Bead Scene October Inspiration Challenge

For the month of October this image of the Egyptian goddess Ma’at was selected.

The winged goddess Ma'at is the symbol of truth, order, law, morality and justice. She is one of three goddesses painted on the walls of the tomb of Queen Nefertari who lived around 1300-1255 BC and was the first wife of the Egyptian pharaoh Ramses II. The goddesses received the queen's offerings for her journey to the afterlife. Ma'at, pictured squatting with outstretched wings, wears a red dress. Her green wings are extended to shield the queen's cartouche.


 
Ma'at from Tomb of the Queen Nerfertari, 1255BC, Valley of the Queens

The Art Bead Scene hosts an inspiration challenge every month. Participants must use an art bead in their design. The idea is to take something from the inspiration, a theme, colour or colours, shape, whatever strikes you as a starting point, and make an original piece based on it.


I chose to use the colours of the artwork and, to a certain extent, the cartouche symbols, as my inspiration.

Beautiful 5mm potato shaped freshwater pearls and 10Kt Gold Filled clasp were used to make this necklace and bracelet set. Although they were lovely with the shades of blue, purple, copper and green I felt like something was missing. They sat on my bench for a while waiting for the right touch.

This colour palette suggestion attracted my attention and brought the pearls back to mind.


The predominant shades of purple-y blue, copper and greens fit perfectly. Now I needed that finishing touch, the perfect art beads. I went searching through my vast haul collection of art beads and these little lovelies called to me. They are rustic ceramic coins from Cindy Pack of Art & Soul. I was attracted to the shades of blue with the brown ceramic. They felt right with the pearls. The coin on the necklace is imprinted with a paisley pattern and the one on the bracelet has a swirl pattern. Keeping with the direction of the clasps, I used 14Kt Gold Filled jump rings and pendant bails to add the ceramic coins to the strung pearls.


 
Rustic Ceramic Coins by Cindy Pack, Art & Soul





Please come check out what everyone else has made too.


Thanks for stopping by and have a great day

Monday 26 October 2015

Do you like Resin Jewellery?

Resin jewellery is something I keep looking at but have not tried. I did purchased the resin mix so long ago that I don't even remember what brand it was. I have a feeling that if I used it now the resin would come out yellow. That would work with an antiqued look but is that the way I want to go? Who knows right now.

Sometimes I feel like I am stretching myself too thin and when this happens I lose my muse. She seems to say "Enough! I can't juggle any more things". Problem is, the interest doesn't go away. Instead it keeps intruding on my thought processes.

Today, I received an email from the Beading Gem about a give away for...what else but some resin jewellery supplies from Little Windows!


So many lovely things on their site. Here's an example of some charming personalized earrings from the Little Windows Project Center page


Too much browsing was just too tempting. I entered the contest on Pearl's excellent Beading Gem site, but am proud of myself as I did resist ordering products here and now.

Go check out the Beading Gem. The site is run by Pearl Blay, a Canadian like myself. She describes it as being "the place for all those stories I never get to tell, melding all my passions - writing, reading,crafts,  history and science (I was then a scientist by day) into this blog." All kinds of helpful information on many different jewellery media is provided by Pearl, and there are lots of other draws on a regular basis. Perhaps you'll fall for the "making bug" too.



Thanks for stopping by and have a great day.

Friday 16 October 2015

We’re All Ears October Challenge

Every month the Earrings Everyday blog hosts a design challenge based on a theme. This month the challenge was inspired by Iris Apfel, whom she describes as being “the quirky and oh-so-colorful nonagenarian fashion icon that I simply must put on my Christmas wishlist.”

After spending some time googling fashion images for fall 2015, Erin Prais-Hintz provided several photos of outfits by designer Monique Lhuillier, all in shades of aubergine.

I chose to make earrings to complement these outfits.




Last year I had cut some brass discs and on two of them stamped a pretty butterfly, which I proceeded to etch. The etching was not as deep as I had hoped and they had languished in a drawer since. When I saw the lace in the inspiration outfits the airiness and lightness of the butterflies came to mind.

The deep aubergine colours reminded me of some Swarovski crystals that I also had stored away. The shape of the beads reminded me of wings. They seemed to be a natural fit for the butterfly etchings. I continued the theme with brass wire wrapping and ear wires.

Flight of the Butterfly
Please click here to see what everyone else has made too.


Thanks for stopping by and have a great day.


Monday 5 October 2015

He’s a Silly Cat

Do you remember seeing this boy? About 2 months ago? He was claiming my bench as his resting spot. Here he is in the arms of one of his favourite people, my daughter Allie.





Lucky has decided he needs to do more exploring of the house.


A couple of weeks ago Allie was home from college for the weekend. We were chatting away, taking some of her laundry out of the dryer when this happened.





All of a sudden he just hopped right up into the dryer, even got comfortable and lay down in the warm clothes.




It took quite a bit of coaxing to try to get him to come back out. Eventually we ended up reaching in and pulling Lucky out. For the rest of that day’s laundry chores it was a battle to keep him out of the dryer.

Since that day, he does like to check out the dryer but I have been able to discourage him from getting into it. Maybe it’s a good thing that my washer is a top loading washer.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day.