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)

Bead Soup Blog Party

Party Time!!!
Lori Anderson's done it again ~ Today is the reveal for the the 8th Annual Bead Soup Blog Party!
Somehow she's managed to partner up a few hundred people to swap beads. We had to send a clasp, a focal and some coordinating beads.
This is my second time participating. It's great to meet jewelry desingers across the country and work with new and different components. You can check here to see what I did last year... BSBP 2013

This year my partner is Jayne Capps from Oklahoma. I had already "met" Jayne during one of Andrew Thornton's destash events. We had a great online chat and I learned more about Jayne through her blog. I especially related to the post about fixing up her workspace. Make sure you check out what she created with the beach glass I sent her. Jayne's Blog

It was so much fun to get find this package in my mailbox!

And look what I found inside...

Don't you love the way she tagged everything?!

I want to know how Jayne drilled the bakelite mahjong tile.

The group of glass beads told me they had to become a bracelet. I grabbed a few bead caps and spacers from my stash, whipped up a toggle clasp and wire wrapped it all together.













The mahjong tile has so much character on its own that I decided to keep it simple. Jayne's linked beads are now connected to chain and hang from the bottom of the tile. A few spacers, some sloppy wraps and an extra long chain ~ it's good to go!

I combined several different components for this final piece. The hammered tubing is really cool. (so cool that I almost picked some up from Home Depot last week. I love their plumbing and electrical aisles for supplies!)

My original plan was to hook the necklace in front in the smallest ring. When I headed outside for photos, I realized you could actually hook it in any one of the rings. I think I like the hook in the middle ring best.

Anyone who follows me know that whenever I participate in a challenge I have to try something new. My Artistic wire was too shiny, so I torched it to add color and age. (I'm not sure if that shows up in the photos.) It was also a bit tricky to solder the jump rings connecting the copper tubing and chain.

I still have plenty of turqoise nuggets to play with. Earrings!
Thank you so much Jayne for this really fun soup!

And.... huge thanks to Lori Anderson for organizing the group once again!


Please visit some of the other participants!!!
You can access the extensive list on Lori Anderson's post - Welcome to the 8th Bead Soup Blog Party

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