CLOUD BRIDGE ~ An Allegory Gallery Design Challenge

Who or what is Pantone, and why do they can dictate the "it color" for the year. 
I went to their website -  still can't figure out what they do? Can anyone explain it to me?

So, this year's color of the year is actually two colors - rose quartz and serenity.  

This photo of Andrew Thornton's Allegory Gallery Cloud Bridge kit called to me.
I don't know why, because I'm not a huge fan of pink and blue together. I once had my house turned into a nursery by mistake. Apparently, the contractor couldn't read my directions. 
He changed it the next day.



Crunched for time; preparing for an out of state art festival and ensuring the gift shop had new pieces in my absence, I decided to work some simpler designs. 

rose quartz chips with river rocks

assorted rose quartz

First up are two bracelets using the some of the rose quartz and river rocks from the kit.

I added sterling silver accents and my hand-crafted toggles.




This color palette actually worked quite well with a few gorgeous glass beads from Andrea Pirkey that I've been hoarding for a several years.



The seed and small glass beads for the perfect accent for this lovely floral focal. 

I love the simplicity of this design.

Rose quartz and pink glass from the kit with blue glass from my stash make this fun bead pop!

Thanks to Andrew and William for another great challenge!

And, THANK YOU, for stopping by.
I hope you'll leave a comment here or on my Facebook page.

Spring Awakening Challenge

When I saw the beautiful blue and green palette of the Spring Awakening  challenge, I just had to have the kit.

Every month or so Andrew Thornton puts together a collection of beads and components for the Allegory Gallery Challenge and blog hop. 

Participants purchase the kits and then work their magic. It is so much fun and inspiring to hop around and see the completely different approaches everyone has taken with the same raw materials.

I like to sort and organize the beads by shape, color, type or whatever catches my fancy.

The first beads to catch my fancy were the green and black glass – maybe vintage German?

My first thought was to use peridot, but that didn’t show off the beads.

Back to my stash for black onyx.  Perfect!

The additional assorted greens are from the kit. Of course, the bracelet is finished with one of my signature toggles.

You may have noticed that I’ve been obsessed by multi-strand designs lately. I decided to challenge myself to use some (a lot) of those smaller beads Andrew always includes. This bracelet went through a few reincarnations before completion. I’m quite happy with the finished product. 
It received great reviews at the Ollie’s (the gift shop that carries “my line”), although I haven’t put it up for sale yet.

Finally, I had set aside an eclectic mix of beads to go with Andrew’s mystery component, a polymer clay pendant in a lovely shade of spring green.  It was fun to create a mismatched, yet balanced “chain”.

There's plenty more to play with, including that luscious green waxed linen cord. Check back Monday to the earring designs floating around in my head.
I’m looking forward to hopping later to see what all the other creative folks have done. 

Hope you’ll join me!!!

Paula Kramer http://cavecreekbeads.blogspot.com

Jeanne Steck http://www.gemsbyjeannemarie.blogspot.com/ 

Christina Porter http://queenbeedesignsny.com 

Ann Schroeder http://www.beadlove.wordpress.com

Michelle McCarthy of Playing with Clay www.fireflydesignstudio.blogspot.com 

Lennis Carrier http://Windbent.wordpress.com 

Alison Herrington http://www.AlisonAdorns.blogspot.com/ 

Andrew Thornton http://andrew-thornton.blogspot.com