Showing posts with label blog hop. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blog hop. Show all posts

Thursday, July 30, 2015

AJE Component of the Month Challenge for July - Farthing Edition

Hello all!  Long time, no see!  It is time for the July 2015 installment of Art Jewelry Element's Component of the Month Challenge.  For new readers, or those who need to be reminded, every few months, one of the AJE team members offers one of their handmade components to the rest of the design team, plus does a giveaway to lucky readers who leave a comment!  On the last day of the month, we reveal what we created with said lovely component!

Farthing coin components by Niky Sayers...beads and clasps!
This month, Niky Sayers presented us with amazing components created from English farthing coins!  Mine was cleverly turned into a clasp!  I love it!

The clasp I received from Niky! So sweet!
I decided to use some artisan lampwork beads from the sweet and talented Sue Kennedy of SueBeads.  I love this glass...it has a sheen that reminds me of an oil slick!

Gorgeous beads by Sue Kennedy!
My intent was to bezel-set the cab and create a bracelet using Niky's sweet clasp.  I thought, "I got this", then proceeded to procrastinate, then get bogged down with the silly, simple soldered bezel, then my brakes went out on my car last night after work, then......well, you know the rest.

This is how far I got!
The rings will be soldered to the back for connectors, the little balls are meant for bezel embellishment, and the lopsided dapped copper circles will be bead caps (maybe).  That is as far as I got! I intend to complete it this weekend, so stay tuned!

Here are the other participants. Go see the pretties!!!

Guest bloggers
Rebecca Anderson


Friday, January 30, 2015

January AJE Component of the Month Free-for-all!

or "Use your Stash"  as this month's host, Jenny Davies-Reazor coined!  It was decided that after the chaos and hubbub of the holidays was over, rather than have one person create a COM to share, we would dig around in our stash and find treasure that has been hoarded away and create something from it.

In my totally characteristic way, nothing I created is completely finished!  I have started some very cool things however, and have ideas for others.


This necklace features a gorgeous focal heart by Sue Kennedy...I have to say, this wasn't from a hoarded stash, I just got it from her after coveting it for a while!  The matching bead in the flower was, though, as well as the purple flower bead by Karen Totten.  This obviously needs a clasp, patina and possibly other tweaking!


Here is a really cool ceramic focal by Jenny Davies-Reazor.  I dangled it beneath an old key I had  and used some wire-wrapped jasper as a chain.  That's my copper  metal clay hanging on the bottom.  Needs a clasp, patina and something else wrapped on the key, I think!


Tiny fold-formed copper leaves, embellished with sweet heart headpins by Jennifer Cameron!  Perfect for the season and surprsingly, complete!


Fun ceramic charms by Linda Landig are embellished with enamel cups by me and some Czech glass.  I need to patina the shiny sterling!

So, those were the pieces even close to being finished.  I have so many more things I wanted to create with components from my AJE team, but there just wasn't enough time.  I am going to give you a peek at what is up next on my plate, though...


These are gorgeous pieces by Diana Ptaszynski that are somehow going to turn into a fabulous necklace!


These colorful Czech glass beads are going to be added to different lengths of chain and bundled together to dangle beneath Lesley Watt's sweet bronze flower cap!


Sweet woodsy owl here by Karen Totten is going to be a necklace, perhaps with a copper armature surrounding him!


It has been really fun and inspiring to use these "hoarded" treasures!  Here is a list of others that participated in the challenge. Make sure to stop by their blogs and say hi.

AJE team: 

Guest Participants ( aka winners)
Samantha- Wescott Jewelry
Nikki - Silver Nik nats
Yvette - Blue Kiln Beads


Bonus participants! 




Saturday, January 3, 2015

December 2014 AJE Component of the Month

Our lovely components this month are from Diana Ptaszynski of Suburban Girl Studio, LLC.  We had our choice of stoneware snowflakes.  I chose a white one.


As per my usual modus operandi, I waited until the very last minute, then some family dynamics prohibited me from completely finishing mine.  The chain needs to be secured, it needs LOS and a tumble, and I may completely redo the clasp.


Along with Diana's sweet focal, I included a cute blue bird by Caroline Dewison of BlueberriBeads, a white lampwork bead from Mermaid Glass, one of my own copper metal clay components (it started out as a flower, but I filed it into sort of a snowflake shape!) a Czech glass flower, and some cool brushed-finish copper beads from my stash.


I really like the monochromatic effect of all the winter white, with the one pop of color Caroline's sweet bird adds.


I may add some more beads and completely change the design...stay tuned!  But first, go see what others have created!  Thanks for stopping by...

Monthly Winners

AJE Blog Team

Sunday, November 30, 2014

Art Jewelry Elements Component of the Month, for November 2014

I am happy to be back on the last day of the month to share my design for the AJE COM featuring cute beaded ring components by our own Kristen Stevens!



Because Kristen is just so cool, she sent me a green set AND an indigo blue set!  These are made from twins, meaning they have 2 holes and they have a very cool iridescence which is very hard to capture in photos.

As per my standard MO, I waited until the last minute and created a pair of earrings with my indigo pair yesterday!


I wanted to make the beaded rings part of something else, so I found some copper washers that were the perfect size, after some hammering!  I decided I wanted to attach the beaded rings to the washers, so I got everything ready by texturing, punching some holes for the wire and added interest, patina'ed everything with LOS, then tumbled.  These are always important steps to remember to do BEFORE attaching fragile components like these that you don't want to expose to chemicals, or water!

I used very thin gauged copper wire and wrapped the rings onto the washters.  I used absolutely gorgeous lampwork headpins from Sue Kennedy of SueBeads.  These are my most favorite color combination she does!


I added my own hand fabricated sterling ear wires, embellished with tiny glass beads and copper wire for the finished pair.  I think a tiny touch of red to bring out the red in Sue's lampwork would have been great, but I couldn't find anything tiny enough and just the right color red for the jov.  These worked in a pinch!


There you go!  Thanks for stopping by.  Here are the participating Team Members and Guests for the month.  Go take a peek at all the gorgeousness!

Guest Designers


AJE Team




Thanks again, Kristen!


Sunday, August 31, 2014

AJE Component of the Month for August - Leather Feathers!

This month, our component comes from the talented Rebekah Payne of Treewings Studio.  She created these fun, organic leather feathers...she talks a bit about the process here!  We had our choice of an earring pair, or a larger focal feather.



I opted for an earring pair and received a gorgeous set with purple, blue and metallic designs!  I knew that I wanted to create a copper backing to somehow attach the feather to, but it took going to BeadFest this past weekend to solidify my idea in my brain!

Gorgeous lampwork headpins by Jen Cameron and Sue Kennedy!

See the ones circled in yellow? Yep, the orange swirls with purple stripes!  As soon as I saw them, I knew what I was going to do.  I set about making my copper back plates, adding texture, measuring, punching holes and creating balled headpins and earwires.  The plan was to rivet the feathers to the copper piece using the lampwork headpins at the bottom and copper balled headpins at the top.  The tips of the leather would be folded over so the copper headpins would go through twice, making a loop for the copper jumpring.

A not great photo of everything all laid out after I patina'ed and tumbled the wire and metal...except for 1 stupid jumpring that flew out of my hands never to be seen again!
Ta-Da!

The design itself, I really like...I wish my construction had been a bit neater.  I had a mishap with one of Jen's headpins...I started swirling the back and couldn't get it straight for some reason, so I gently straightened it back out, hoping I hadn't work hardened the wire too much.  When I went to try a second time, the wire snapped.  Luckily, there was enough left to work with to get it riveted fairly tight, but I may go back and add a drop of E6000 to make sure it holds.




Thanks, Rebekah for the challenge of working with a new medium for me!  I can't wait to see what everyone else created.  Here is the list...

Guest Artists

The AJE Team
Diana Ptaszynski -  http://www.suburbangirlstudio.com
Jenny Davies-Reazor - http://www.jdaviesreazor.com/blog
Francesca Watson - http://francescawatson.com/




Thursday, July 31, 2014

July AJE Component of the Month - Fused Glass Fantasy!

This month, the design team over at AJE was honored to work with gorgeous fused glass pieces by the multi-talented Francesca Watson.


She asked if we wanted cabochons or drilled pieces and I chose the red piece on the bottom right and left it undrilled since I thought this was a perfect opportunity to practice my bezel-setting skills!  And I was right!


I chose some scalloped bezel wire to use and originally was going to use a copper backing to create a pendant, but the more the copper laid on the work bench, the more I longed to jump in and use the sterling sheet I had stashed away.  I told myself I wasn't going to use it until I felt more proficient...sterling is expensive, y'all!  But, I jumped in with both feet!


I went with an organic shape, but when I put the cab in, I wasn't sure which side was going to be the top, or how I would attach a bail.  I punched one hole where I thought I might try to hang it, and didn't like it, so I punched holes in each of the scallops, then punched a few more, and then a few more! I also wanted to pierce the back so that the red glass would show through in a design...believe me, this was not the design I wanted!  It was going to be a pretty spiral, but after I got part of it sawed out, I realized how flimsy it was so I sawed it into a big hole, then tried to mimic the outer shape with the waves and holes.  After a trying soldering session (couldn't get it to flow) I finally got my act together, decided to use my bigger torch and finished it up.


I like it and am so happy I persevered and went with the sterling instead of the copper!  Here is the back...


Now, I need to get the rest of the design going!  I think I am either going to do a sterling viking knit or a handmade chain of some sort...what do you think?

Thanks, Francesca, for the gorgeous glass cabs, and for the design challenge!  Go see what the rest of our team created!

Guest Designers


Toltec Jewels - www.JewelSchoolFriends.com

Carol Briody - cbriody.blogspot.com


The AJE Team

Caroline Dewison - blueberribeads.blogspot.co.uk

Susan Kennedy - www.suebeads.blogspot.com

Jenny Davies-Reazor - www.jdaviesreazor.com/blog


Francesca Watson - www.francescawatson.com

Monday, March 3, 2014

AJE February Component of the Month - Fluttering Hearts

I am so honored to be part of the group of talented, kind and generous jewelry artists at Art Jewelry Elements!  One of my favorite things about being part of that team is participating in these Component of the Month challenges...it is so much fun to receive such gorgeous, unique pieces from these wonderful artists.  I have to say it is sort of humbling when it comes your turn to be on the 'component provider' end!

For February, I decided to offer hearts that I hand-cut from copper, shaped, then torch-fire enameled. The finishing touch was the addition of colorful glass frit.


I was trying hard to think outside the box this month and had something on my mind that I wanted to do...



I wanted to create a sort of  "milagro" type of sacred heart and did a search on Pinterest.  Wow, lots of inspiration there!  So I set to work.  I did some sketches, decided on one, then sawed it from copper.





I was going to leave it bare, with perhaps some texture, but changed my mind, and covered it with molten solder and embedded little brass flowers in.  I riveted the heart onto piece using balled copper headpins which also create a pin clasp in the back.  Not showing the back this time as I am not especially happy with it right now and am going to work on it some more with some other ideas I have for future pieces.



I chipped the heart as well when I was attaching it, but I just filed it down and patina'ed it with some liver of sulfur and left it...I think it adds to the "vintage" feel of the piece!




Below is our team of designers for this month.  I can't wait to see what everyone created!  How about you!

Guests...
Lori Bowring Michaud 
Kathy Lindemer
Kim Bender 

AJE Team...
Melissa Meman
Jenny Davies-Reazor
Rebekah Payne
Caroline Dewison
Kristen Stevens
Keirsten Giles
Sue Kennedy


Monday, December 2, 2013

AJE November Component of the Month ~ Beaded Beads by Kristen Stevens...La Bella Luna

I feel like such a slug...I haven't been blogging very much at all, except for special challenge posts.  Oh, well...there are only so many hours in the day!!

This past Friday morning, after Thanksgiving, I woke up early, but all couch potato-ey and found my boy up already, on the couch watching tv and playing his video game.  After snuggling with him a while, I plied the remote from his hand and did some channel surfing of my own.  I eventually ran across one of my all-time favorite movies, Moonstruck.  Everything an opera-trained girl could love...Pucinni's La Boheme as part of the story (my most favorite opera of all time!), Italian food, a love story with the under-dog getting the girl, Cher, Nic Cage before he went all weird, Olympia Dukakis, and some of the best movie lines ever!

"La bella luna!"
"Let me ask you a question...why do men chase women?"
"Snap out of it"
"Aw, Ma, I love him awful!"
"It's Johnny Cammereri!"

Oh, and Dean Martin sings "That's Amore" for both the opening and closing credits"

This movie colored my whole holiday weekend after...I went through the days singing "when the moon hits your eye, like a big pizza pie, that's amore" alternating with lines from La Boheme's doomed Mimi singing "Donde lieta usci al tuo grido d'amore".  So, when I finally sat down to work on my Component of the Month piece, featuring Kristen Stevens' gorgeous beaded beads, I kept seeing that gorgeous moon in my head!


The color of the beads I chose were a challenge for me, as I don't usually work with that pretty, creamy winter white. Another challenge is the fact that most of my work is metal and beads that I can patina with liver of sulfer, etc, then toss into the tumbler for a while.  Using components that patina and water might damage takes a lot of forethought!


I made sure to patina everything before assembling them together...Kristen's gorgeous beads, lampwork beads from my stash (sorry, I'm not sure who made them...have had them quite a while!), indigo blue Czech glass flowers that bring out some of the lovely frit color in the lampwork and some hand-wrought copper caps...bigger on the 'moons' and smaller, fluted ones to embellish the flowers.  The lampwork reminded my of a black, starry night, with lights in the city reflecting colors into the sky, and of course, the creamy beaded beads are my 'bella luna' or beautiful moon.


If you have never seen this '80's classic movie, watch it!  If you are a romantic at heart, you won't be disappointed.

Now, go see what the other AJE team members and guests created with their beaded beads!

Special Guest
Alice Alice Dreaming

Caroline  Blueberri Beads
Melissa Melissa Meman (you are here!)
Rebekah Tree Wing Studio
Sue SueBeads 









Wednesday, October 30, 2013

AJE Component of the Month Challenge for October

I was really excited to receive my gorgeous copper clay component from Kristi Bowman.  She managed to get some awesome flame colors in the copper.


 I really wanted a simple design, not to take away from the focal.  The curved shape just screams "bracelet"!!

The gorgeous ruffled lampwork bead is from Mermaid Glass...aren't those colors to die for?

I immediately knew I was going to use this faceted agate that I have been hoarding for a while.  I remember falling in love with the sunset oranges, cream and russets, and was going to make a wire-wrapped necklace of just the agate.  I still have enough, so I might just do that!

The lampwork was an impulse addition.  I knew that I wanted to include that awesome pop of indigo blue in my piece, but wasn't sure how for a while. I had tried several other beads to bring out the blue...some of my enamel (couldn't get the color just right)....some Czech glass (mmm, no).  I saw this beauty from Mermaid Glass and my heart skipped a beat.


I had originally wanted to make a special link for the clasp from Cindy Wimmer's new book, The Missing Link (fabulous, by the way, and if you don't have it, you need to get it!).  Since I was trying to stay simple and was running a bit behind, I decided on the big wire-wrapped loop that I flattened and textured a bit.  I then used a balled headpin to wrap the ruffle, and then added a swirled hook clasp.



I have to say, I love the way this feels on and I love that the somewhat eclectic color combo evokes something deep in me!

Thanks, Kristi, for creating such a fun and unique Component of the Month!  Go take a look and see what the rest of our team and this month's guest bloggers created!  Happy Wednesday!

Guests


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