Dia De Los Muertos - A Celebration of Life Challenge Reveal

Today is the reveal day for Karen McGovern's Dia De Los Muertos - A Celebration of Life Challenge over at Love My Art Jewelry and I'm so excited!!!  I've been dying (hahaha - see what I did there?) to show you the necklace I've been working on.  

I love the sentiment behind the Day of the Dead traditions as demonstrated in this post and this one.  Heck, I even made Day of the Dead shoes!  So of course I was excited when Karen suggested a Day of the Dead challenge at Love My Art Jewelry.  I started with a sweet little sugar skull bead by Heather Powers of Humblebeads:

How stinkin' cute is that!  I knew I wanted to go crazy over-the-top with color on this piece, so I pulled all the colors from her bead and started knotting a little rainbow micro macrame section:

Then I transitioned into some flowers with colorful glass seed beads (because what's a Day of the Dead sugar skull without flowers?).

Finally, I added some braided square knot sinnets to make a strap and made a tassel to hang underneath for a little swingy movement.

Ta da!  

Links to other people's posts will be here - I can't wait to see what everyone made!!

Caribbean Color Palette - Challenge Update

If you missed the Caribbean Color Palette challenge post over at Love My Art Jewelry, don't panic.  There's still time to play along.  Here's the palette:

Yep, that's me - hanging on to summer with every ounce of my being!  I know, I know... it's that time of year we should be playing with the autumnal colors, but just look at those blues and how fun it is when you throw in some chartreuse!  I've been playing around with my cord and beads and have come up some really pretty bracelets so far.

I liked this one so much I made up kits for it and used them in my ZigZag Micro Macrame bracelet class in Denver.

I thought this one was going to be boring when I started - like maybe it needed more color.  But once I got underway, I really liked the way this one came out with more white than color.

Anyway, if you're interested in playing along, the rules are simple:  make something inspired by the Caribbean Color Palette photo.  It can be anything - a painting, jewelry (of course), a scarf, a quilt, a pair of hand painted shoes (hinting here - I'd really love some!) - as long as it's made by you.  Share a photo of your piece with me by September 14, 2016 (see, you still have time!) and I'll put together a blog post revealing them on the Love My Art Jewelry blog on September 16th.   If you'd like to do a blog post, send me the link along with your photo and I'll include it.  Please send photos to me through my business Facebook page or via email.  

Who's in?

Beachy Beige Macrame Jewelry

Yes, I'm still playing with the Starfish Collection and I'm showing no signs of running out of inspiration.  I've been concentrating more on the neutrals lately, Beachy Beige!  The neutral colors seem to make the knot work of the macrame stand out a bit more, playing up the texture and pattern.  Tiny pops of color add a little "something".

I am having so much fun with this palette that I think everyone should join me, so I'm hosting a little challenge over at the Love My Art Jewelry blog.  It's pretty simple:  make something handmade inspired by this photo:

You'll find all of the details in this post:  Starfish Color Palette Challenge.  I hope you'll join me!

Rebirth of the Sun Blog Hop & Challenge Reveal

The lovely Lesley Watt and crew over at Art Jewelry Elements issued a challenge back in November that I couldn't resist.  The theme?  The SUN!  It seemed a little strange at first when you consider it's winter here, but once you think of the winter solstice and the rebirth of the sun this time of year, it starts to fall into place.

I am all about the sun and focusing on it rather than the cold temperatures we're "enjoying" here in Nebraska lately has been a welcome distraction.  I found an awesome earthenware clay pendant from Wild Raven Studio with a cool (or hot haha) tribal sun motif and wanted to add a knotted "chain".  It started off great.

And then it went downhill.

In my defense, it didn't go that far south accidentally.  Once I decided I wasn't happy with the connection between the "links", I started playing around with it just to see what would happen.  I had a vision of a sloppy "nest" encircling the pendant like what Heather did with wire in this post, but that, too, ended badly.

With all of the failures out of the way, I finally managed to pull together a piece, with at least some of the elements I'd first envisioned.  The knotted chain links are fun, and different than anything I've done before.

And the piece I found to use as a bail turned out better than what I originally had in mind - I really like the way the "u" shape of it echoes the knotted links.

I can't wait to see what everyone else did with this theme, and I hope you'll join me.  Here's the list of participants:

Guest Designers

Melissa Trudinger

Lennis Carrier

Linds Newnham

Tammy Adams

Sherri Stokey  <--- You are here
Kathy Lindemer

AJE Team

Lindsay Starr

Jennifer Cameron

Sue Kennedy

Niky Sayers

Jenny Davies-Reazor

Lesley Watt

Caroline Dewison

Beading Back in Time, Early Civilization Reveal

It's time for the big reveal!  Earlier this month I posted about the third installment of the Beading Back in Time Blog Hop Challenge hosted by Lindsay Starr and I (it's here if you missed it).  Our first installment in January focused on the time before humans and the second installment, on early humans.  For this round, we drew inspiration from early civilizations.  I really meant to explore something other than ancient Egypt, but I've been an Egyptophile since I was a kid and the temptation was just too strong.

 I have a seed bead mix called Egyptian Lapis Stripe.  I dug it out and put it with some bright blue cord to start channeling some Egyptian vibes.  It's pretty enough, but it really wasn't screaming "Egypt" to me, so I figured I'd better try a little harder.  The first thing that comes to mind when I think of ancient Egyptian jewelry is a collar.  And gold.  I don't use a lot of gold, but I knew I wanted to add it in my piece somehow.  I was also pretty set on the bright blue cord.

When I was digging through my stash looking for stuff with Egyptian flair, I came across some end pieces by Scorched Earth.  They're not exactly Egyptian, but I liked the feel of them.  I also had an Eye of Horus pendant from Scorched Earth and a bunch of scarabs.

The bead mix I had didn't quite match the end pieces (not enough green, too much orange), so I mixed my own.  I also unearthed these gold pendants from a swap I did a while back with my friend, Lennis (she put together an awesome Egyptian inspired package for me you can see here). 

By this time, even though I'd had a whole month to make a piece for this hop, I'd wasted 91% of the allotted time.  Typical.  Apparently I work best under pressure.  I hadn't counted on breaking a crown and having to have a tooth pulled, however.  Note to self:  start earlier!  I did manage to pull off a piece just in the nick of time, though.

My Egyptian inspired collar, featuring Egyptian blue cord and a custom bead mix, several small scarabs and one larger focal scarab.  It's a super cool scarab, too.  I have no idea what the back says, but it's fun.  My original plan was to use the Eye of Horus focal and my backup plan was to use one of the rectangular gold pieces.  The shape of those just didn't work in the piece as well as the rounded shape of the scarab.

I can picture this piece being worn by some Egyptian back in the day, can't you?

I hope you'll join me in visiting the sites of the other artists who decided to play along this round:

Sherri Stokey  <--- You are here 
Lindsay Starr  Co-Host
Susan Kennedy
Jean Wells
Michelle McCarthy
Niky Sayers
Jenny Davies-Reazor
Stephanie Haussler

Beading Back in Time - Early Civilization Blog Hop Challenge

Do you remember way back in January when I first told you about a series of blog hops my friend Lindsay Starr and I were going to host?  No?  Not to worry (my memory isn't always so great either) - you can always follow this link to the original post and refresh your memory.  We started with the Pre-Human Edition and then moved on to the Early Human Edition.  For the third round, we'll be taking our inspiration from the early civilizations.  And boy, is there a lot to choose from!

The first written language appeared near the beginning of this period. It's generally agreed that the ancient Sumerians invented it about 3200 BC and the picture above is an example of Sumerian text.  These guys weren't just sitting around admiring their penmanship, either.  They were doing things like inventing the wheel and plow; making advances in arithmetic and geometry; and studying astronomy, chemistry and medicine. 

The folks in Egypt were keepin' up with the Jones', too.  They'd built the Great Pyramid at Giza and the Sphinx before the mammoths even went extinct!

Just think about that for a minute.  That's a long time ago and those structures are still standing.  If that's not truly awe inspiring, I don't know what is.  They were also inventing a calendar with 365 days and 12 months, a system of written numbers and a form of geometry, and practicing medicine.

The Indus Valley Civilization was another of the big ones, and the most wide spread in the Old World at the time.  Their engineers created plumbing and sewage systems and they built houses of brick with bathrooms!  And flush toilets!

Over in ancient Babylon, King Hammurabi came up with the oldest existing code of laws.  This guy put 282 laws covering all aspects of life in writing.  His goal was for government to take responsibility for order and justice, and if you think about it, that's a big deal for any civilization.

The arts were flourishing in these civilizations as well, with some breathtaking jewelry in the mix like the Minoan Master of Animals shown above or the Egyptian pendant below:

How's that for a bunch of inspiration?  Our challenge is to create something inspired by this theme:  the Dawn of Civilization.  Use any medium you like and draw inspiration however you like, whether it's a certain civilization, a style, or even a specific material (got any gold laying around?).  Then meet Lindsay and I back here on August 1st to see what everyone made.

And most of all, remember to have fun with it!

Another Variation and A Contest!

You know how much I love to play around with variations on a theme, whether it's changing a cord color, changing out beads, or modifying a pattern.  I just finished up this pretty bracelet in soft seaside colors and it's just a slight variation of my Leaves Micro Macrame Bracelet pattern.   

 

I started out trying every possible color in a solid colorway in this pattern and then I needed more.   I always feel like I need to take it just a little bit further and I'm fascinated with multiple cord colors.  I never know exactly where the colors will end up until I've tested it out, so it's like opening a little gift every time.  For this new bracelet, I twisted together two different colors of cord and hid that in the center row of beads to get a different color on each end of the piece.  Clever, huh?  I also switched up the rows of beads in the center of the bracelet.

 

I've experimented with shading and ombre:

I tried a duplex color mix on opposite sides of the bracelet instead of opposite ends:

You are really only limited by your imagination, even if you're working with the same basic pattern. Ms. Nadja Shields of Imbali Crafts has the same fascination with variations.  She recently worked with my Hydrangeas pattern and did a little tweaking of her own.  She changed up the closure with a loop and button and also added another row of knotting between the sections:

Isn't that lovely?  She had such fun with it, she is sponsoring a little competition.  The challenge is to take the Hydrangeas pattern and add your own twist.   You could add beads where there aren't any or add knots instead of beads.  Maybe you could add a tie closure a sliding one.  Whatever variation you can dream up.  When you've finished it up, head over to this page to enter your creation.  You have until July 20, 2015, when she will be announcing the winner.  And the best part?  You can win any four of Nadja's micro macrame tutorials - you get to choose!

Are you still here?  I thought you'd be busy working on your entry by now!  :)