Honey Do Challenge ~ Black and White and Shades of Grey

I have so much fun playing along with Sarajo and Eric Wentling. This month Eric challenged us with some black and white photos - very different from last month's bright orange, yellow and green.

Right away I thought of liver of sulfur on silver.  




This cuff started as 20 gauge flat sheet of sterling silver. 
I cut a 3/4" wide rectangle and rounded the ends. After stamping the borders, an oval dapping block created the the slight dome and curved the cuff.





Naturally, "Shades of grey" brought labradorite to mind. 

These beauties have been lingering in my stash waiting for the right accent to bring out the amazing flash. None of my other gems did it any justice, so I decided to try something different - I knotted the piece with dark blue silk thread.
I love it!






And, just when I thought I was all done, I re-discovered a jar of white beach glass. Silver wire wrap, liver of sulfur and a few moonstones for accent...
2 more necklaces.

Thanks for visiting!

I hope you'll hop over to Sarajo's blog to see what everyone else has created!  (click here)

I WAS Inspired by Reading!!!I

Another month has passed and I’m ready for another installment of the Inspired By Reading Book Club. For the month of March, Andrew (Thornton), our fearless leader, chose An Irish Country Doctor. It’s a thoroughly enjoyable novel by Patrick Taylor, who is himself an Irish doctor.

We follow young Dr. Barry Laverty as he becomes assistant to rough Dr. Fingal O’Reilly. Taylor’s anecdotes give us many insights into life in a small town, human nature, and how to “read” and best deal with different personalities.

I was struck by how Dr. O’Reilly dealt with one character early on. It was actually Barry’s first encounter with the seemingly gruff older man. O’Reilly literally threw the patient out of his office and told him not to come back until he had washed his feet.

Well – of course I had a podiatrist appointment the next day. And you can be sure I washed my feet before I went!

Here’s the necklace I was inspired to create. The flip flops stamp was as close as I could get to feet. I love the way the tiny wrap came out on the blue beach glass.

 I traced a river stone for the copper blank. Don't you love the organic shape?!

Everything was oxidized in liver of sulfur and tumbled. I'm not sure I'll ever put chain in the tumbler again. (Who am I kidding? It looks great ~ I'll deal with the tangles.)

I also need to figure out which copper wire I used for the wrap, because it did not oxidize like I wanted it too.
I'm hoping this will become a favorite at art and craft fairs in The Hampton's.

Another part of the book that I could not get out of my head was the title of the 6^th chapter ~ “Forty Shades of Green”. I’ll just leave it to your imagination as to what it reminded me of.

Anyhow – I had to create something green. I actually thought for a brief moment to create 40 green things. Not in my lifetime!
Instead, I searched through my box ‘o green and settled on some lovely faceted chrysoprase beads in two shapes. I really love the many shades of green in these beads.

Once again, I must thank Andrew and the other book club members. I challenge myself each month to try different techniques and create my own components whenever possible.

Please check out the other participants. I'm excited to see some new names and more participants this month!

(I'll add links on Thursday. For now I'm off to NYC to have lunch with my daughter)

Jenny Davies-Reazor
Judy Campbell
Andrew Thornton, Laurel Ross, Terri Greenawalt, and Alison Herrington
Karen Grosset Grange   Be sure to scroll down - it's in French and English!!!
Sarajo Wentling
Ann Schroeder
Rachel Stewart

Soup's On!

It’s that time again –

Time for the Bead Soup Blog Party, hosted by the amazing Lori Anderson.

I’m excited to have Jayne Capps as my partner this year. I don’t know how Lori does it, but two years in a row, there’s some sort of connection. Last year’s partner lives in the same town where I own a house and plan to “retire”. And this year, while I have never met Jayne, she has purchased from me during a destash event. Then again, maybe it’s not such a coincidence. It’s amazing all the folks I have “met” through different beading and jewelry making forums and how many groups overlap.

On to the fun stuff…

Jayne has received my soup and posted pictures on Facebook, so I can legally reveal it. Jayne and I "chatted" on-line and found out we have some similar tastes. I had lots of ideas running around my head, but waited to for the partner assignment before finalizing my soup. 

I was happy to see Jayne lives in a land-locked state so I could go with my original idea to send authentic Atlantic Coast beach glass. I dug out a gorgeous piece of cobalt blue and wrapped it in sterling.

(I knew Jayne liked silver because that's what she bought from me.)

 

I threw a plain piece of white beach glass in the pot for Jayne to play with, packaged it up and went to bed.

 Well, if you've ever simmered soup for a while, you know it always needs more seasoning.
Jayne mentioned that she likes other metals besides silver. When I woke up, I wrapped the white glass with copper and oxidized it. I was so happy to see that liver of sulfur did not affect the beach glass!  Woo Hoo - another new technique!
Then I found some great copper components in my stash. 

Finally, I was ready to head to the post office. 
Here's what Jayne found in her mailbox a few days later.

This is Jayne's photo!

You cannot imagine how hard it was for me to part with that lapis!
And the carnelian thrown in just because Jayne sais that was one color she really didn't like. This is a challenge isn't it???






I can't wait to see what Jayne creates. 
Check out her blog to find out - The reveal is May 3.