The theme this year is not based on swapping beads, but instead based on sharing colors. For each month one of us has suggested a color pallet to inspire the group. Our first color challenge for this year's CC7A (the Creative Continuum of 7 Artists) is brought to you by our host Alicia of All The Pretty Things.
Alicia decided to kick it off with some bright Easter colors. I think I might be a bit 'Mardi Gras' challenged. I just don't seem to be able to work with color pallets beyond 2, maybe 3 colors. So I zeroed in on 2 'fruity' colors from the pallet Alicia sent and went with watermelon and papaya. I just happened to have one more rose quartz doughnut left from the set I bought from last month's CC7A post (my watermelon color). And then I picked a warm, brassy-orange filigree to compliment my piece (my papaya color). The design has a lean toward the era of Downton Abby. If any remember my piece from last year inspired by Alicia, then you'll remember that I also picked this period (and Downton) to reflect my design for Alicia's month. Which I personally think is perfect since both she, and I are huge fans of the show.
I wanted to create something that any of the Downton ladies might wear to Easter dinner. They all wear dresses with long, elegant styles, and they often dress for dinner with some gorgeous necklace that 'lady's maids' have to fasten into place. I can't even imagine needing to 'dress' for dinner when I find it bothersome to deal with dressing for work let alone dinner. I'd rather slip into my jammies when I get home; not into an evening gown!
Now I can't wait to click over to my fellow CC7A team to see what everyone else created with their Easter egg inspiration: Alicia (our host), Christine, Monique, Therese, Sally and Emma.
I have an extensive bucket list of places I want to see. I realize the title of my blog is kind of a give away to my love of travel, so it should come as no surprise that I have a list. I have two lists actually, and they are over on Pinterest. The first one is for the places I want to see, and a second for the places I've been. I guess we all have our silly collections, mine just don't tend to be 'things' (unless we're talking about beads) usually they are experiences.
I have been to several of the places on my Blog Header; London (Big Ben), New York (Statue of Liberty), Seattle (Space Needle), Paris (Eiffel Tower), New Delhi India (Gandhi Museum), Hilo Hawaii (King Kamehameha), San Francisco (Transamerica Pyramid and Rodin's The Thinker). Some of you who have seen The Thinker might say, "that's not where that statue is." And you'd be right, and wrong at the same time. Apparently several casts were made, and so this statue actually sits in the courtyard of about 9 museums in the US, and another 8 outside the US. So for me, I saw Rodin's sculpture in San Francisco's Legion of Honor. And while that sounds like a lot of statues, there are almost 50 of Mahatma Gandhi around the world. As for my Shiva, this is a statue that sits on my book shelf that I brought back from a little town in the foothills of the Himalayas. You can read more about it here.
So back to the list. I can now tick off one more place I've been that is on both my bucket list and travel icons for my blog header: Savannah. I read a book years ago called Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, which intrigued me enough to make my bucket list of places I wanted to see. On the cover is a popular statue, Bird Girl, in an old cemetery just outside of Savannah called Bonaventure. The statue was originally made in 1936 using an 8-year-old girl as the model, and was meant to be a bird feeder. Four statues were cast from the original, which ended up in four states with one purchased by a family in Savannah who put it in the family plot in Bonaventure. The statue has since been moved to a local museum due to its popularity from the book. I am not one for visiting graveyards, but this one was intriguing. It is on 100 acres with lanes of trees crisscrossing through the cemetery and framing up the statuary. It is a worth the trip for any photographer.
We enjoyed our week in Savannah, and nearby Hilton Head. While there is a lot of history in this little town, we honestly just enjoyed the endless places to walk, or hike around. The streets are tree-lined and full of Spanish moss hanging down. The main park, Forsyth Park, is gorgeous with a cast iron fountain in the center. We met a local man who was out walking his dog who showed us a picture on his phone from 4 weeks ago when they have a quick drop in temp and the fountain completely froze over. They can't turn the water off as the cast iron would crack so the fountain froze with the water looking as though it stopped just shy of bubbling over. We spent one morning down along the old river walk and found a local favorite for pralines called River Street Sweets. I don't think I've ever had one before, and boy are they good.
The neighborhoods are full of Georgian style houses that are gorgeous to check out. And in one little neighborhood we found our favorite restaurant, The Crystal Beer Parlor, which is an old speakeasy. You wouldn't know from the outside that it was a large pub on the inside, but I suppose that was the point. Our second favorite restaurant we found out on Hilton Head called Scott's Fish Market, which had delicious fresh seafood. I think if I tallied the rest of the family The Distillery would come in third.
Savannah seems to have it all. There are also some wonderful beaches. In the city you can head to Tybee Island which is about a 20 minute drive. The beach has a long boardwalk out over the water (which is how I took this picture from this angle). Or for a bit more upscale experience try Hilton Head which is about a 40 minute drive. The sand is soft and there is an abundance of shells for those who love a little shelling. We brought home several bags, so I'm hoping to do a little beading with some of those. Finally, I think my personal favorite was a walk around Pinckney Island just off Hilton Head which is a wildlife refuge. There were marshes in every direction full of tiny mud crabs, local oysters and muscles. But even more amazing were all the birds. I lost count on how many types there were. There was a gorgeous great blue herring just standing there looking at us. Unfortunately (for me) the picture is on my husband's camera, so I'll have to come back later to show you all that one. But I'll leave you with a quick video of bird chatter we heard out on the island. Blogger wouldn't load this one, so just click over to my Facebook page.
I recently wrote a book review on Lisa Lynn Barth's new Timeless Wire Weaving in the most recent issue of Bead Chat Magazine (page 120). I had been noticing her work on Facebook quite a bit over the last few months. The patterns had me in awe of the way she can wire weave around all kinds of rocks and stones, or into a piece of leather.
Every time one of her pieces posted over on Facebook I would stop and study it. I decided I really had to try this technique, and I decided that one of the best ways to review her new book was to test the instruction on myself.
I ordered her book, and went through it front to back several times over the course of the next week. And by the following weekend I was ready to give this a try. I picked one of my favorite patterns in the book, and a rock gifted to me from Christine (who found this one on the shores of Lake Michigan) and then began my project.
Of course it took me a bit to get this started, and I did have a few places where I had to back up and rework things. It took about 3 hours, which I'm sure is much longer than it is supposed to take. But what was amazing (at least to me) was that this example here is truly my first time ever trying this technique. Lisa's instructions were so clear that you really can use this book to teach yourself.
Lisa regularly teaches classes, and you can see that in the way she's written this book. She is the kind of teacher you hope for when you sign up for classes. She is thoughtful, and attentive and you walk away feeling like you've really mastered a new technique. A wonderful thing to find in a teacher.
Today we are celebrating Alenka's birthday with a butterfly-inspired hop. She loves these beautiful little creatures that she calls METULJI!
I do love the amazing colors these little guys can come in, along with lots of other small creatures in our world. For a bit of fun eye candy, check out my pinterest board for some inspiration.
Alenka is an amazing polymer artist who creates beautiful beads, cabachons and even something called 'inchies' out of polymer clay. She has such an eye for color, and I simply love her heavy use of vivid spring colors like yellows, oranges and sprout green. If you haven't seen some of her other work then check out the interview I wrote on Alenka a year ago right about this time in our March/ April issue of Bead Chat Magazine (Pages 86-89). Just look at those sweet flower earrings she made! And one of my all-time favorite pieces ever ... the zipper heart. Her creativity knows no limits.
Ok, so on with the hop. I confess that I love looking at butterflies out in the yard, on a hike or up at our cabin in the Adirondacks. We always get a large variety of admirals, and several with vivid reds and oranges. But when it comes to jewelry I don't usually use butterfly shapes. But I knew this hop was coming up, so I purchased a beautiful silver piece that slips on to a licorice leather band. So I created a simple, rustic bracelet for the hop.
Be sure to check out everyone else celebrating Alenka's special day: Alenka (our host), Monique, Beti, Kathy, Kepi, Christine, Amy, Dini, Alicia, Sheila, Therese, Rebecca, Rachel, Liz, Ana, Jasvanti, Carolyn and Nan. That makes 19 of us (including me) ... happy hopping!
When I saw that Heather over at Humblebeads was hosting a Game of Thrones hop, I was in. In fact she had me at hello on this one.
What more can I say? It's a crazy show full of amazing costumes from another era, drama weaving across the kingdoms and plenty of plot twists. I didn't find out about the show until several seasons in. Well it isn't that I hadn't heard about it, I just hadn't watched it. But then my husband had read all the books and said 'you know, you might like this series.' We watched one show, then two, followed by several more. It turned into a binge watching marathon until we had ran out of episodes. I've been hooked ever since. There are some real bad-ass characters in this show, and of my favorites is Danny, or Daenerys Targaryen. I'll spare you all some of the more gruesome scenes, but this innocent looking girl turns out to be anything but...
I decided to use Danny as my inspiration and went in search of some her costume designs. She wears some dramatic styles. But here's the weird thing ... I was pretty set on making a pair of earrings, and I was pretty sure I'd find some of the characters wearing earrings. But as I scrolled through page, after page in my google search I could not find a one? hmmmm. I decided instead to make a bracelet. And as I looked through Danny's costumes I realized she was a great choice as she does wear quite a lot of arm gear whether it is at the wrist or the upper arm.
She also happens to be the mother of dragons. I suppose that would sound strange if you're not a fan, but makes for a clear theme when designing with her in mind. I decided to go with a braided, black leather for the band and used a a dragon-scale, hooked closure. I added some rough cut rubies for the eyes because those babies need to glow, for sure.
And for a little bonus. I recently re-worked a dragon pendant for my niece who is very into them. We found a pin that she really liked, but preferred a necklace for her dragon. So I pulled it all apart, added a back and a bail ... then strung it through some black leather cord. It was the perfect redesign for her. And the bonus touch to my dragon post.
