Blue Bird on a Snowy Day

So, my last post was my December 2014 AJE Component of the Month piece, featuring a sweet white snowflake by Diana Ptaszynski of Suburban Girl Studio, LLC!

If you remember, I got behind and didn't finish it.  I wasn't really happy with the layout and the clasp either.  This is the before shot...

Since then, I have done a little renovation and am really happy with the end result!

Here is the after..."blue bird on a snowy day".

I changed the juxtaposition of the copper snowflake to be above the blue bird, added a couple more copper beads, some winter flowers and leaves with curly tendrils.

I swapped out the original clasp for one the is a bit smaller and with a little more interest.

Of course, the LOS to add an antiqued patina makes the whites pop (just like a few of you said it would)!

Thanks for encouraging me to finish it!  I will be listing it at Melismatic Art Jewelry hopefully today!

AJE Component of the Month for October 2014...

featuring amazing ceramic pieces by Karen Totten of Starry Road Studio!

She calls them Spiral Fossils and they are so very cool! I chose the green/blue glaze because I love it and I bought a few lovelies from her at BeadFest that totally work together!

Unfortunately, my piece isn't finished...I sort of bit off a bit more than I had time for after procrastinating...

I took so much time deciding that I wanted to try and experiment with Jenny Davies-Reazor's cool mixed-media pendant that she taught at BeadFest, and since I didn't take the workshop but am going on a quick how-to she graciously shared with me, most of my time was taken up getting the copper backplate how I wanted it.  Still have to cure the polymer and attach it all.

The other lovely pieces are also Karen's...love that feather, although it may be too similar in color, but it might work!

Hope you will check back...I will definitely post the finished piece!

Monthly Winners

Lindsay Starr / Phantasm Creations

Sherri Hartman Stokey / Knot Just Macrame

Staci Louise Smith / Staci Louise Originals

AJE Blog Team

Diana Ptaszynski / Suburban Girl Studio

Susan Kennedy / Sue Beads

Caroline Dewison / BlueberriBeads

Jenny Davies-Reazor

Lesley Watt

Melissa Allford Meman

Francesca Watson

Jennifer Stout Cameron / Glass Addictions

Kristin Stevens / Beadworks by KAS

Spring "Pie"...AJE January Component of the Month

Art Jewelry Element's January Component of the Month Blog Hop is today!  Our gorgeous components this month came from Karen Totten of Starry Road Studio.  All us folks over at AJE dubbed these "pie" beads!  They are definitely yummy, and yesterday,  Karen gave us a look at how she actually makes these hollow beads!

When Karen first posted a pic of the beads, several of us tagged the actual one they wanted to work with and I chose the salmon-y pinkish one all the way to the right, fourth row down!

I decided right away that I wanted to make a bracelet, but almost changed my mind at the last minute...of course, I procrastinated, then caught a bug from my boys, so here I am at the last minute again!

I love the color of the glaze on this bead...as I said before, it is sort of salmon pink...with just a twinge of peach.  I decided to use Design Seeds and search for a palette to help me out.  I fell in love with a few...you can see the ones I chose on my Pinterest board, but I actually sort of took ideas from all of them, as you can see!

I used some of my enamel components, copper, and Czech glass to pull it together.  I am really happy with my "bouquet" of flowers component.  Copper toggle clasp handmade by me as well!

Go and see the beautiful creations everyone else made...here's the links to our participating blogs:

Shirley Moore
artZhodgepodge
Boot-C
Jennifer Cameron
KristiBowmanDesign
Diana Ptaszynski
Kristen Stevens
Jenny Davies-Reazor
Lesley Watt
Francesca Watson
Melissa Meman
Joanne Tinley
Linda landig
Sue Kennedy

February's COM will be created by Francesca Watson!  Stay tuned to see what lovelies she has come up with!!