Art Bead Scene Ornament Blog Hop

If you’re looking for the History Hop: Paleolithic Style blog post it’s here.

It’s the time of the year for decorating Christmas trees and Art Bead Scene is holding its annual Ornament Blog Hop to showcase ornaments made with art beads. This year I was lucky enough to acquire a couple of Gaea Cannaday‘s beautiful ceramic Christmas designs to use in my ornaments, and they arrived just in time.

The first one is a cute little plaid Christmas tree. Those of you who know me know of my love (umm, obsession?!) with the Outlander books and TV series, and this ornament is actually destined to be part of a Secret Santa exchange (shhh). This tree needed a decoration for the top and I’ve knotted the two together with green and red waxed linen.

The second ornament came with three coordinating ceramic beads, and I’ve simply knotted them all together with waxed linen in a similar style to the tree.

This ornament has already found a spot on my rather crowded Christmas tree.

For other participants in this blog hop, visit the Art Bead Scene post here, which features everyone’s links. Sit back with a holiday drink (as it’s summer here I think I’ll have a vodka cranberry cocktail) and see what everyone has made! Happy holidays!

History Hop: Paleolithic Style

If you’re looking for the ABS Ornament blog hop post it’s here.

I’m a day or so late with this hop, it’s such a crazy time of year here. But, in the end I managed to get my piece done and photographed for Leah Curtis’s History Hop: Paleolithic Style.

The Paleolithic Era, the earliest and biggest part of the Stone Age, covers the period from when prehuman species first started to use stone tools until about 10,000 years ago when humans started to develop the beginnings of agriculture. Along with the development and use of tools, fire and more, Paleolithic humans started to develop art, such as rock paintings and stone carvings.

So the challenge in this hop is to create a piece inspired by Paleolithic art. I decided to use a small pendant by ceramic artist Beadfreaky, who is clearly very influenced by Paleolithic art. My pendant features a paleo-style deer against a white background. I combined it with small African bone beads and small round beads that were sold to me as “citrine chrysoprase”, which on investigation is more commonly known as lemon chrysoprase. The beads are on natural leather cord.

Thank you Leah for another interesting blog hop, I look forward to your next History hop inspiration! And sorry for being late to the party.  Now I need to go and see what the rest of the participants have made. If you’d like to take a look, the links are below …

Leah Curtis (hostess) – Beady Eyed Bunny
Shaiha’s Ramblings
Anafiassa
Emmanuelle
Julia Hay – Pandanimal
Rachel Mallis – Mint Monarch
Beadrecipes <– YOU ARE HERE
Robin Reed – Artistry HCBD
Joanne Tinks
YeeLen Spirit Designs
Karin G. – Gingko et Coquelicot
Dini Bruinsma
Deborah Apodaca
Tapping Flamingo

Facebook Participants:
Laura Bailey Taskey
Album for Facebook participants found in Bead Soup Cafe