Color of Dreams Blog Hop

Today is the day. I signed up for Rita of Jewel School friends' Color of Dreams blog hop. She graciously sent all the participants an orphan/ooak bead from Patricia of Color of Dreams Boutique to create with. We were to share a dream that has come true, one we are working on now, or one we hope for in the future. The one goal of the hop: we'll focus on our dreams as entirely possible, with the idea, "If we can dream it, we can achieve it". I love her pillow beads. They have so much color in them. This is the bead I received. Isn't it wonderful?

 I love reds and pinks so this was great. It also has a touch of yellow/orange and brown in it, plus a very pale green. Reminds me of Spring when everything is starting to grow, be born and bloom again. Which is kind of appropriate for my dream. I dream or hope one day that my jewelry will bloom, flourish so that people will want to buy it and wear it for themselves. Plus I also hope for a time when I have more time to play, experiment and create more jewelry and glass items than what time I have now. Anyway, I thought about what I wanted to create with my pillow bead. And since I had just gotten a new stamp set from PJTools (more on that in another post) I knew I needed to stamp a tag with dream on it, since this was about our dreams. Plus I wanted my bead to dream itself or fly on its own. So I created a 'dream' tag and a focal/dangle with the bead to hand together from this memory bracelet. Then I found beads I had plus a few I bought to bring out all the color in my bead. So this is my 'Dream' bracelet. I hope you like it.

 

To see what all the other participants created, go to Jewel School Friends blog and check them out or click on the links below. (Hopefully they work).

Honorary Artist: Patricia Handschuh
Patricia's blog:            The Color of Dreams        
Patricias Etsy:             The Color of Dreams
Hostess: TJ                Jewel School FriendsKay Thomerson           KayzKreationz (you are here)
Audrey Belanger          Toki No Hourousha
Alicia Marinache          All the Pretty Things
Terry Carter                TappingFlamingo
Lori Schneider             Bead Addict
Jenny Kyrlach             Wonder and Whimsy
Asri Wahyuingsih         Asri's Beadwork
Dini Bruinsma              Angaza by Changes
Karla Morgan              Texas Pepper Jams
Debbie Rasmussen        A Little of This, A Little of That
Veralynne Malone          Designed by Vera
Kathy Stemke               Vintage Memories Jewelry Design
Mowse Doyle               Mowse Made This
Heather Richter             Desert Jewelry Designs
Lori Poppe                   Adventures in Creativity with LorilliJean
Jayne Capps                Mama's Got To Doodle
Andrea Glick                Zenith Jade Creations
Kathleen Breeding         99 Bottles of Beads on the Wall
Becky Pancake             Becky Pancake Bead Designs
Karin Martinez              Fairies Market
Miranda Ackerley          Mirandack
Penny Houghton           Smelly Nelly
Carolyn Lawson           Carolyn's Creations
Chris Eisenberg            Wanderware
Christie Murrow          Charis Designs Jewelry
Monique Urquhart        A Half-Baked Notion
Eve Shelby                  Raindrop Creations Jewelry by Evelyn
Cryss Thain                 Here Bead Dragons
Jasvanti Patel               Jewelry By Jasvanti
Nan Smith                   NanMade Handmade Jewelry
Sue Kennedy               SueBeads
Jean Yates                   Snap Out of It, Jean! There's Beading to be Done!
Debbie Rogers             Debbies Treasures
Marybeth Rich             A Few Words From Within the Pines
Shirley Moore              Beads and Bread
Shaia Williams             Shaiha's Ramblings
Kathy Lindemer           Bay Moon Design
Linda Anderson           From the Bead Board
Judy Turner               Silver Rains
Gloria Allen                Gloria Allen Designs
Regina Wood              Ginas-Design
Robin Reed                Artistry HCBD
Mary Goovars            MLH Jewelry Designs
Marlene Cupo             Amazing Designs
CJ Bauschka              4 His Glory Creations
Robin Showstack        The Crazy Bead Hoarder
Cynthia O'Toole          Sparkles and Sweets
Jael Thorp                 Jael's Art Jewels
Renetha Stanziano      Lamplight Crafts
And if you're looking for Stained Glass, Mosaics or Fused Glass kreationz for your Home or Garden, check out my shop, KayzKreationz. You will find some of my beaded, wire-wrapped jewelry there, too.

Polymer Clay Wonky Bead Blog Hop Challenge

Recently Kristi Bowman-Gruel at DreamSome Designs issued a challenge for all artists using her new Polymer Clay Wonky Beads. I love them, they are so rustic and earthy looking and feeling to me. So I couldn't resist the call.  And as usual, I forgot to take a before picture of the beads I received.  When I got them I immediately knew I wanted to do something with macramé with the beads.  I recently started getting back into macramé. I used to do it back in the 70's when it was popular and have been falling in love with it all over again. I also knew I wanted to do something very rustic and earthy/country feeling.  I went back and forth between a bracelet or necklace. The necklace finally won out.  I finally found some hemp cord in the color I wanted while on our epic 1900 mile road trip, bringing our new Honda Goldwing back from Virginia. (But that's another post, and video of the Tail of the Dragon ride!) LOL  I also knew I wanted to use all the larger beads in the macramé part of the necklace and the smaller one as part of the clasp.  And since I love copper and felt it lent the right rustic feel to the piece I found a copper washer I had, hammered/textured it and used it as the other half of the clasp.  So the smaller bead is the toggle bar and the washer is the clasp.  I love the magenta, purple and brown of these beads, so I went with the natural hemp and the magenta hemp cord.  I also added some seed beads in the same colors to add a little bling.  Then I had to decide how to lengthen the necklace as I only wanted the macramé part for the beads.  I first braided this fluffy yarn I had to add to it, but didn't like the look with the macramé and earthy beads, so I had to come up with another idea. Since I was using the copper washer for the clasp, I thought I should use a copper chain.  But I couldn't find a chain I liked that I felt went along with the rustic look I wanted, so I decided to make my own.  I created these 'Figure 8' links, then hammered and textured them.  I also made my jump rings to attach each link.  I knew I would macramé the one end of the necklace back over itself from the end of one of the 'Figure 8' links.  But I had to figure out how to attach the small 'toggle bar bead' to the other end.  I finally decided to take some of the natural hemp, wrap it through the bead, back up over the end of one of the links and then wire-wrap it to the link with copper wire.  I really like the look, although I know some may feel it is too 'eclectic'.  But I think it all went together well.  Be sure to check out all the other 'hoppers' and see what they created with Kristi's Polymer Clay Wonky beads.  And please leave me a comment on what you like or don't like about my piece.  Thanks. This shows a close-up of the beads I was sent.


Wonky Beads
 

Next is the bead I used as the clasp for the necklace.


Wonky Bead clasp

Finally, here is the whole necklace with the Kristi's Wonky Beads, my Macramé and my Hammered Copper wire links and clasp.  Hope you like it.


Wonky Beads Macramé Hammered Copper Necklace

And if you're looking for some of my other Wire-wrapped, beaded Jewelry or Stained Glass, Mosaic and Fused Glass pieces for your Home and Garden, check out my shop, KayzKreationz.

Tree Wings Studio Blog Hop and Challenge

If you're looking for my Bead Hoarders Blog Hop reveal piece, I'm sorry, I couldn't get anything finished. I had a case of Heat Exhaustion and haven't been able to finish my pieces. I'm still working on them and hope to post them soon.  In the meantime, please read about my Tree Wings Reveal piece which I had already finished before this happened. Thank you so much for understanding.

Recently I signed up for a chance to win a set of polymer clay beads from Rebekah Payne of Tree Wings Studio.  I love her beads. I have a set with the most adorable little pony and some additional beads and I haven't had the time to make up a bracelet with them. It will be for me, since I love horses.  Just need to make the time. Anyway, I got chosen to receive one set of a large and small round bead.  I was overjoyed.  I love the colors in them, to me very earthy and rustic.  And as usual, forgot to take a picture of them before I started.  I knew I wanted something very rustic, but since there were only 2 and they were different sizes I had to figure out how to use them.  I had started hearing/reading about Chinese knotting and this intrigued me. It seems to be very similar to macramé which I used to do in the 70's and have been starting to re-add to my repertoire. (See my macramé anklet here and a fused glass piece I did a couple of years ago and added a small macramé hanger to it and sold in my shop.) 

 
As I perused the internet for ideas and information about Chinese knotting I found a knot I like, the Chinese coin knot, I think they called it, also known as the Celtic knot a and thought it would make a great bracelet with the larger bead as the focal and the smaller one as the clasp.  I found some hemp in a neutral color that matched the main color in the beads and then some wonderful 6/0 seed beads in the coordinating colors in the bead to add as pops of color.  I set to work tying off a knot with a small seed bead as a stopper for the small round bead for the clasp. Then I started tying Coin/Celtic knots and adding the seed beads in between each knot. I was hoping both pieces of the hemp would go through the seed beads instead of having to put a bead on each piece, but it didn't work.  I figured out how long I needed the bracelet and added the larger focal bead. Then I finished tying off the rest of the knots and the seed beads.  Finally, I tied another knot, left a loop for the small bead/clasp to slide through, tied another knot and then 2 small seed beads on the end.  I love the way it turned out. Very earthy, rustic that would go with so many things.  The only thing I'm not fond of is the way it turns. I think I should have reversed the strings I was using working from left to right and then right to left as I would in macramé to keep it straighter. However, the tutorial I found didn't say anything about doing that. Next time I'll try it to see if it helps.  Anyway, tell me what you think of my Chinese/Celtic knotted bracelet.  Hope Tree Wings studio thinks I did justice to her beads. Here's the bracelet and a closeup of the larger bead/focal.  Thanks for letting me play.  Be sure to check out what everyone else did with their beads on Tree Wings Studio.

For more of my Wire-wrapped, Beaded jewelry or Stained Glass, Mosaics, Fused Glass kreationz for your Home or Garden, check out my shop, KayzKreationz.



Here's the participants:

Rebekah Payne - http://www.treewingsstudio.com/

Stephanie LaRosa - http://stringaholic.blogspot.com/

Kathy Alderfer - http://artfulaccents.blogspot.com/

Kay Thomerson - http://kayzkreationz.blogspot.com/ (you are here)

Pips Jewelry Giveaway

Aren't these gorgeous?  Well Pips Jewelry is having her first giveaway on her blog for a set of these beads or another in a second picture on her blog.  So click on the title of the post or here on Pips Jewelry to rush over to her blog and check it out.  The giveaway lasts until Sunday, the winner will be picked Monday, Feb. 6th. It's open to everyone.  I'm really hoping I win either the Bronze Flower or the Petal Capped.

And if you're looking for some great Glass Kreationz gifts for your Home or Garden or Wire-wrapped, Beaded Jewelry for yourself or a loved one, check out my shop, KayzKreationz.  I make Stained Glass, Mosaics and Fused Glass Kreationz.