We began our journey in Canada with Monique and her challenge of the National Gallery of Canada. And now we end our series of the Creative Continuum of 7 Artists in Canada with the polymer extraordinaire Emma of A Polymer Penchant.
This month Emma sent out a stash of beads including a beautiful pendant of polymer that she made which looks a bit like fireworks. She's sending us off in style.
Her challenge for July is just the perfect final celebration for our group of seven. I decided to string it with some simple silk thread and knot the stash of matching beads Emma sent. I created a faint braiding with the thread which I think gives it a bit of a romantic look.
To finish up my set, I used some unusual beads that Emma sent that are hoops with balls along the outer edge. I stacked them to look a bit like a burst of fireworks. At least that is what I saw as I stacked and twisted the ensemble together.
I'm going to miss our monthly get togethers with this group. We've had a lot of fun trying out all sorts of beads and styles. Thank you all for a great ride!
Check out the rest of the crew's final projects: Alicia (our host), Emma (this month's featured artist), Therese, Christine, Monique and Sally
I mentioned Fernhill Glass Studio in my last post as one of my new favorite places to buy unique cabochons.
These glass pieces were not made for that purpose, in fact when I was digging through the large dish of discarded glass the owner curiously asked what in world I had in store.
I wasn't entirely sure I wanted to tell him since I still had yet to get the price, and perhaps bargain a bit with him. But once I realized it really wasn't going to cost me much, I let him know they were going to be turned into beaded pendants. Still, with the quizzical stare, he just raise an eyebrow and said 'huh, interesting.'
This piece of orange glass I had a certain person in mind. A young friend of mine is very partial to orange, and I could tell as I began to bead it that it was going to end up going home with her. I know this will look absolutely wonderful on her. Her mom gifted me some orange silk thread, which I think looks perfect with it, along with brass beaded accents in multiple sizes for the threading and around the top of the bezel.
I still have a bag full of this beautiful glass in a rainbow of colors that you will be seeing more of in the coming months. Lots of pattern ideas floating around in my head that are becoming sketches. I have them prepped and ready to go, now if I could just stop scooting them around to match them this way and that, I might actually get a few more pieces finished. Soon, I promise.
ZnetShows has come up with another fantastic challenge with more sea glass (a personal favorite of mine). I just could not resist when I saw the call for artists from Hope Smitherman. She asked us to create two sets with the beads sent; one set designed as for daytime, and a second set that is more dressy for nighttime.
When my beads arrived I knew the second I saw the lavender colored sea glass that I was going to pair it with a recent bit of glass I picked up for a cabochon. I was traveling last April in Oregon and stopped into a local glass blowing studio called Fernhill. They had a big bowl of bits of glass that they snip off in the process of making vases, glasses, bowls, etc. I went straight for the bowl and spent a good hour sifting through all the variations. What a find! They sold the bits of glass to me by the pound, and I feel like I walked away the winner!
The focal you see here is one of the glass cabochons that I used small pearls to bezel around. I paired it up with the lavender sea glass from ZnetShows and used more pearls as accents. It created the prettiest combination, and with the beaded bail you can shift the necklace around to show off different parts of the pattern.
For matching earrings I decided to use some of the pretty tear drop shaped white sea glass in my ZnetShows stash with some amethyst to match with my necklace. I felt like the pearls were more of an evening wear set even tho it is light in color. It would look fantastic with a summer dress for a night out!
The second set I made was with the deep green sea glass. I LOVE this color. When Hope asked what color I liked, I of course said green. I was sent these beauties in wonderful, large rounds. I loved the simplicity of the simple string of the sea glass, and so went with it and matched them up with some onyx rondelles. I thought the onyx really brought out the richness in the color. I wanted to add chain around the back, but need something that could carry the size of the design. When I first added simple silver chain it just seemed to be lost with all those larger beads. So I decided to make my own chain using jump rings and smaller hematite rounds. I love how this one turned out.
I wanted to echo the colors in earrings, but didn't want to use the sea glass as they would be too heavy. So instead I use these wonderful flat black rounds from my ZnetShow's stash and pair them with some green tinted glass beads, which was perfect and not too 'matchy-matchy' ... as one of my friends says.
So for my daytime necklace and earrings I created this green set that I think would pair up beautifully with some shorts, black shirt and simple sandals. You'd be all set with this baby for a summer lunch with the girl friends!
I thought I'd show you the rest of my stash that I'm still working on. ZnetShows was really generous with us to design with! And I do love me some sea glass to play with. You'll see mine and all my fellow designers in this months edition of Creative Spark, which you'll find over on the ZnetShows blog. And here are the rest of the designers so you can see what everyone else made.
Amy Serverino, Andrea Trank, Becky Pancake, Bobbie Rafferty, BR Kuhlman, Charlie Jacks, Christie Murrow, Christina Miles, Christine Stonefield, Cynthia Machata (that's me), Cynthia Riggs, Donetta Farrington, Hope Smitherman, Kashmira Patel, Kathy Lindemer, Kay Thomerson, Kelly Patterson, Klaudete Koon, Lee Koopman, Lisa Lodge, Renetha Stanziano, Sandra Washington, Shaiha Williams, Sheryl Stephens, Stephanie Haussler, Tammie Everly
