Summer Color Blog Hop Preview & A Great Find!!!!

I am participating in the Summer Color Blog Hop sponsored by Lisa Lodge of  Pine Ridge Treasures   gratefulartist.blogspot.com .  Below is a picture of what she sent me...

  Ohhh, I forgot the color........

AND this is where I am at now.....(hehehehehe)

I am working on the piece. Come back on August 24th to see the finished pieces (in color)












Now for my FAB FIND!!! The JC Penny Store in the Crystal River Shopping Plaza is closing up shop AND everything....I mean EVERYTHING is on sale..... while I was leaning on the jewelry counter waiting on my daughter to look around....I just happened to look down.....and then the clerk asked me if I needed help.....AND $18 later......

Yep, yep, jewelry displays...white leather....now I have a place to take pictures of my jewelry for my Etsy store....WHAT A FIND!!!!

Black & White Jewelry Challenge

 ”Colour is black and white put together.” ~Unknown

For this challenge, Sally Russick of Studio Sublime challenged us to create a piece of jewelry using only black and white. The objective of the challenge was simple (ha! seemed simple). Participants were also able to use base metal colors or crystals as accents.

So I have had some black and white buttons sitting on my table for oh so very long just looking at me. So I said OK! I played with them for ever so long and just couldn't get them to behave on wire. So I found some ribbon and that seemed to do the trick!  I have incorporated some black chain and closures.  I think it still needs something, but I am going to let it sit a bit and come back to it. Maybe it will tell me.  But in the meantime, this is what I came up with.

My camera is not behaving....I think it is time to branch out to a new one.  

The cameo in the middle is a button. The more I look at it the more I think I want something more around it....

I used white ribbon to connect the buttons to the chain. The small beads are just black and white beads that I had in my stash....

You would think it would have been a snap to make  but it really took me to my limit.  






I think I need to some more tweaking. But for now it will hang over my desk til I am ready to get back to it.

For more wonderful inspirations hop on over to Sally's Page and see what the rest of us made. 

Thanks for looking!

Seasons Blog Hop

Sorry for the delay....my doctor prescribed a new antibiotic for me, and well, I am highly allergic to it. I have been in bed for two full days. Today is the first day I have ventured out of it. So I am a day late!
Today is the reveal date for the Seasons Blog Hop, a challenge put together by Lisa Lodge of Pine Ridge Treasures and the blog A Grateful Artist. Lisa's blog hops start with a kit especially created by Lisa containing unique combinations of beads, findings, pendants and art beads.

In this blog hop, Lisa asked us to create jewellery that fits one of these two themes:

A season of the year—Winter, Spring, Summer or Fall

A season in your life—for example, first love, collage days, and so on

Lisa sent me some wonderful blue crystal seed beads, then some large oblong beads and then those small round beads.  She also included the little butterflies and the clasp. Of course  I forgot to take pictures of my stash before hand....But below is what I came up with. 

The blues reminded me of the beach and how growing up we used to go to the beach all the time.  I can't tell you how many shells we collected along the way.  Or how many sunburns we got! But I loved looking for those unusual shells that were always hiding a low tide.  Or to go out after a storm and see what the sea had offered up for me to see on the beach. Even after I got married (to a sailor) our first place was a furnished apartment on the Chesapeake Bay.  I love it. The waves crashing, the seagulls challenging each other as they dove for fish. My perfect spot to live would be in the mountains, but facing the sea....I would be in seventh heaven!

Anyway, to Lisa's beads I added some small conch type shells. And then to the focal piece which I made off kilter, I added some metal birds.  And to a piece of cool looking chain, I added metal shell beads.  I love this piece. It really came out better than I expected.  

I am glad you stopped by, for more go to A Grateful Artist