A little while ago, Kristi Bowman decided to hold a blog hop to see what jewellery designers might want to do with her new “wonky beads“—big fat chunky polymer clay beads in vibrant colours and textures. I jumped right in and ordered the Fuschia colourway. When the beads arrived I was thrilled with them, they are such vibrant silky colours!
It took me a while to decide what to do with the beads, as they are much larger than I usually play with, and I was unsure what to pair them with. In the end, I pulled out some ivory large hole pearls in similar hues to the single ivory wonky bead, and found a bag of purple Greek ceramic beads with magenta and gold splotches (technical term, that one!), as well as some lavender waxed linen cord and antique brass chain.
While I was in Kristi’s shop, I also picked up a pair of flower charms in the same shade of purple. I knotted them to a pearl and then continued to knot the linen up the front of the brass earring wire, twisting it around as I went.
I’m really happy with how this set turned out, think I might keep them for myself!
Thanks again Kristi for the opportunity to play with your funky wonky beads! There are other participants in the blog hop, please go and have a look at their creations on Kristi’s blog, or hopefully by clicking on the links below!
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I’m taking part in a few artisan-bead blog hops in the near future, one in about a week using Kristi Bowman‘s Wonky Beads, and another in early October with a collections of beads from UK artists Lesley Watts (THEA Elements) and Caroline Dewison (BlueberriBeads). The idea is to feature their beads in some creations to be revealed during the blog hops.
Here are the wonky beads from Kristi — I selected the colourway and she chose a set for me. They are the most delicious colours and because they’re polymer clay, they are very light despite being quite large.
And here are the beads and components I got from Lesley and Caroline’s bag of goodies. Lesley provided a bracelet focal and a pendant , both made from bronze clay. The bracelet focal has been coloured with a deep magenta-pink patina, while the flower has a purple enamel centre. Caroline has provided a selection of ceramic beads, topped off with a heart in a dark chocolate brown.
The ideas are swirling around in my head! Come back next weekend to see what I make with Kristi’s beads in the Wonky Bead Blog Hop, and on October 2nd for the Autumn Design Challenge.
Welcome to Melbourne … as seen by me. Today’s blog is the reveal of the 2nd Annual Challenge of Travel blog hop, hosted by Erin Prais-Hintz. Erin had the delightful idea of writing about our hometowns in this year’s Challenge—a “stay-cation” if you will.
So let me tell you about my hometown. Melbourne is not my original hometown—I grew up in Perth, on the other side of Australia—but I have always have had family here, and when my husband and I moved back to Australia over ten years ago, we chose Melbourne as our place to settle down.
Yarra River and City Skyline By Donaldytong (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html), CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/) or CC-BY-SA-2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5)%5D, via Wikimedia CommonsMelbourne is the capital city of Victoria, one of the six Australian states. It’s Australia’s second largest city, with a population of more than 4 million. It was founded in 1835 and, after the discovery of gold in Victoria in the 1850s, became one of the richest cities in the world (sadly nowadays, it’s one of the most expensive cities in the world to live in, despite its title as the most liveable city).
Nowadays, Melbourne is a vibrant city, known more for its culture and addiction to sports of all kinds (tennis, cricket, motor sports, and especially Aussie Rules Football, locally known as the footy), than its looks. It has a moderate climate, warm to hot in the summer, and cool in the winter, and we frequently experience “four seasons in one day” thanks to the cold waters of the Southern Ocean below us and the heat of inland Australia above. It’s one of Australia’s leafiest cities, thanks to both the climate and the English influence, and there are beautiful parks in all corners of the metropolitan area.
But what I like best about Melbourne is its ambiance. Generations of migrants, starting with the British (convicts!), the gold diggers of the mid-1800s including plenty of Chinese, German and Irish fortune seekers, post WWII immigration by southern Europeans, particularly from Italy and Greece, and more recently SE Asian, Middle-Eastern and African immigrants have made Melbourne home, resulting in a melting pot of multicultural influence, and the ability to find just about any kind of food you might desire! Our damp cold winters lend themselves to art and theatre, while our summers can be delightful. And every neighbourhood has its own personality.
One of my favourite parts of Melbourne is St Kilda, where I lived for a few years. Down by the beach, it’s a magnet for tourists and backpackers, and a lively spot with lots of good cafes and restaurants, with vestiges of a seedy past that give it a bit of an edge. St Kilda Beach, on Port Phillip Bay, is no Bondi, but it has its charms, and is a fabulous spot for a walk.
St Kilda Beach Stefano at wikivoyage shared [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)%5D, via Wikimedia CommonsIt’s also the home of Luna Park, an historic amusement park, and the inspiration for my first piece. Luna Park was built in 1912, and has operated more or less continuously since then. Its Scenic Railway is the oldest continuously operating rollercoaster in the world. And its iconic “Mr Moon” facade is instantly recognisable.
Luna Park, Melbourne By Adam.J.W.C. (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5)%5D, via Wikimedia CommonsI used a fair chunk of my stash of bright happy beads by Jennifer “Jangles” Heynen to reflect the primary colours in the facade, and natural waxed linen inspired by the rollercoaster framework to make a fun necklace and a pair of (mis)matching earrings.
My other piece was more inspired by the colours of Melbourne than a particular landmark. First of all, I’d like to note that this bracelet is heavily influenced by Lorelei Eurto, who regularly makes bracelets in this style. Thank you for the inspiration Lorelei (and my version is for personal use only). The Humblebeads birds nest house represents my home in Melbourne, and the other beads are inspired by the colours of Port Phillip Bay and its beaches, the Yarra River (notably a very muddy river), and the greens of Melbourne’s leafy vegetation. The big lampwork bead is by a local artist, Puddle Glass Art.
I hope you have enjoyed my little introduction to Melbourne! I’d have loved to take you further afield, but there’s a blog hop to get to! Erin has linked up all the participants on her blog post so mosey on over there and take a peek at some wonderful places.
There’s still time to enter the giveaway for this necklace. Leave a comment on the original post here before 11pm Australian Eastern Time (that’s 9am on the East coast of the US and 2pm in London). I’ll post the winner tomorrow!
Some months ago, Lisa Lodge announced another one of her fun challenges and blog hops, the Summer Color Surprise Blog Hop. Lisa’s challenges involve purchasing a kit from her, containing a selection of beads for creating something. In this challenge, we didn’t get to pick the colour of the bead selection, hence the surprise.
The bead kit I received was green. It contained a round Marsha Neal Studio pendant with a spiral design in a pretty shade of green, a handful of large round yellow turquoise beads and some tiny olivine Swarovski bicones.
While I was tempted to keep to greens alone, I decided the beads needed a pop of colour to pull the three shades of green together, I added some green and orange bi-coloured glass nuggets and some oval antiqued copper chain. Apparently I’m on a long necklace kick at the moment, because this one is about 30 inches long.
With some of the left-over Swarovski crystals and a couple more of the bi-coloured nuggets, I whipped up a pair of earrings too.
Thanks for the opportunity to create something with these beautiful beads Lisa! I’m looking forward to the next challenge in November. Now, go and check out what other people have made. We all got different packs, so there’ll be a great variety!
I recently reached a couple of blogging milestones—I’ve now got around 110 followers of my blog according to WordPress (this number includes those of you who receive an email from me every time I post a new update and those of you who follow through the WordPress Reader), and this is my 100th post!
So to celebrate, I’ve updated my blog theme (actually, if you’re a regular visitor, you’ll know I updated it a few weeks ago now) and added some new elements to it, to make it easier to navigate.
You’ll now be able to find links to all of my recipes on the Recipes page, which can also be accessed via the tab at the top. And I’m in the process of putting a link to all of the blog hops and challenges I’ve done on another page, which I hope to have up and running soon. This should make it a bit easier to find posts.
Now for the giveaway! Here’s a necklace featuring a gorgeous bead by Aussie ceramic bead-maker Natalie Fletcher of Peruzi, which I’ve used as a focal for a long necklace. The bead is glazed in olive green with subtle hints of blue and a bronze-y brown, and has a lovely embossed bird of paradise pattern. I’ve paired it with Czech glass beads and antique brass. It’s quite a long necklace, but could easily be shortened.
To win it, follow my blog—you can follow by email, through WordPress’s own reader if you are a WordPress user, or via an aggregator (there’s a button for Bloglovin’ in the side bar to the right)—and leave me a comment telling me how you follow my blog. I’ll randomly pick a winner from the comments I get!
Make sure you leave me a way to get hold of you. International entries are most welcome! I’ll close entries on Monday evening at 11pm Australian Eastern Time, which I believe is early Monday morning in the USA and Monday afternoon in Europe! (Can you believe I forgot to add a closing date and had to come back to edit this post? Doh!)
And come back this weekend for the reveal of the Summer Color Surprise Blog Hop, hosted by Lisa Lodge.
I’ve got a table at The Handmade Show this weekend and I’m busy getting a few last minute things ready for it (earrings anyone??). As it’s Father’s Day in Australia at the beginning of September, I thought I would make some cufflinks.
I had some antique brass cufflinks with round bezels and some silver-plated square bezel cufflinks. At the craft show I went to a few weeks ago, I bought some Japanese paper in various colours and patterns, which I cut to fit and set in resin. All in all I have made 8 pairs for the show, enough for a trial anyway! I think they turned out well. (if you’re wondering what the black grid is, I used a baking rack to hold the bezels flat while the resin was setting!)
I do have one small problem though, I have no idea how to display the cufflinks on my table. Any suggestions?
If you’re in Melbourne this weekend, think about coming to The Handmade Show. It’s nice and warm inside, there is great entertainment from crooner Frank Lee Darling, facepainting for the kids, plus 30 stalls packed full of great handmade stuff. And me, of course!
Saturday 17th August
10.30am – 3.30pm
St. Anthony’s Parish Hall…
164 Neerim Rd Glen Huntly, Melbourne Vic
PS: this is my 99th post. Stay tuned for something fun for post number 100!!!
Welcome to the Summer Colour Inspiration challenge, hosted by Sharyl McMillian-Nelson. My apologies to Sharyl for being a day late with this, I think I took on too much this week with 3 challenges in a row! Anyway, I got here in the end.
Sharyl provided us with a beautiful set of floral photos to use as inspiration for the challenge, asking us to pick one for our inspiration. I picked number 7, a beautiful combination of deep fuschia pinks and violet, with a touch of lime green foliage.
I had a few strands of glass and dyed stone beads in pinks and greens that I wanted to use, and while digging through my art beads I came across a gorgeous boho polymer clay owl made by Martha Eason of Menagerie Studios in just the right shades. With so many bright colours, simple seemed best so I strung a repeated sequence of beads and added some sari silk woven through the chain.
Thank you for the challenge Sharyl, I loved the colours I had to choose from! And here are the other participants:
I was lucky enough to be picked as a guest designer for Art Jewelry Elements‘ Component of the Month challenge. July’s component, a lovely porcelain orchid pendant, came from Diana Ptaszynski of Suburban Girl Studio. It arrived in the mail late last week—just in the nick of time! I received one of the blue pendants—mine was the one on the lower right of this picture.
Picture by Diana Ptaszynski, borrowed from artjewelryelements.blogspot.com
I picked through my stash, and found a couple of things to go with the pendant including some lovely Czech crystal rondelles with that same deep blue plus a coppery red highlight and some dyed blue fire agate. Some copper beads, connectors and chain, which complement the blue so nicely. And I went to a big craft show on the weekend and might have bought a strand of blue Czech beads there too. I wanted to make a two-strand necklace, for a change, and I was inspired by a design I saw in a bead company’s email I got during the week.
I love how well the beads complement the lighter and darker blues in the pendant, like they were made to go together. And the copper seems to make the blue more intense.
Thanks again to Diana and the Art Jewelry Elements team for such a fun challenge. Check out the AJE blog for the other participants!
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