Thursday, March 19, 2015

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!!!

8 comments:

  1. Great designs! all so unique and gorgeous!

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  2. Yum. I think you really did a great job with Andrew's component.

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  3. Yum. I think you did a great job with Andrew's component.

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  4. You've got some super wire wrapping skills! I love your signature clasp. The necklace looks awesome, always love to see what people do with the mystery component. Great job!

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  5. Your pieces are great! I am a huge fan of multi-strand bracelets and Andrew's kits make it easy with such a great choice of beads. I love the mix you used.

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  6. Very gorgeous creations. I agree that this kit seemed to lend itself to multi-strand. Your signature toggle is amazing too. I am just learning how to fabricate these and love your personal stamp. And you are right. The black onyx is a perfect offset to the peridot. Great job on the challenge!

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  7. So many wonderful creations! Good job! I love how you made the green really POP in the first piece. I believe you're right that they're vintage German. The multi-strand looks so opulent. I always think that with multi-strand creations. There's a visual weight that really looks regal. And you've knocked it out of the park with the necklace! The balance in the asymmetrical design is perfection and really compliments the pendant well! Thank you so much for participating! Everything you made is charming!

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