Shop Update - New Listings

Just finished posting new items in our Etsy store - three sets of beads, two circle toggle clasps, one cuff focal, three pendants.

Beads:

Rose Bouquet Lampwork Beads

Celestial Lampwork Glass Beads

French Tarragon Lampwork Beads

Toggle Clasps:

Circle Toggle Clasp

Circle Toggle Clasp

Cuff focal:

Lotus Cuff Focal

Pendants:

Lotus Pendant

Puzzle Pieces (3)

Frog Pendant

February ABS Challenge - Sacred Gateway

Heijinja, 1941Tōshi Yoshida
Woodblock Print
(Please note this art is copyrighted and is to be used only as inspiration.)

This month's ABS Challenge piece was a lot of fun to work with.  Mom and I both agreed on the pendant - we wanted to focus on the architecture.  Though instead of using the building in the woodblock print we went with a Torii shrine.



Sacred Gateway

I found an image I liked and mom made a pattern from it.  I wanted to pull the colors in from the painting, so I used black, red, white and pink.

The side of the pendant are the cherry blossoms - we wanted to give you a hint of the outline of a cherry blossom.   I then used white and transparent pink to bring in the colors of the cherry blossoms.

Sacred Gateway

Mom and I went shopping at Von's yesterday to buy beads and ribbon to finish off the piece.  We totally forgot to ask them what type of beads we bought - so they are white and red :)  I wanted to add ribbon to the piece, so black silk ribbon.  The piece is long enough that you can just slip it over your head.

Sacred Gateway

So, that is our piece for February's ABS Challenge.

While working on the pendant for the ABS challenge - I also enameled other pendants that I will work on taking pictures of and posting on Etsy for sale (right now the battery on the camera died).

A big honking pendant for a bib necklace.  I still need to make beads for this piece and then mom and I will assemble it and show pictures when it is completed.

A frog pendant.

A lotus pendant.

A lotus cuff for bracelets.

Two circle clasp pendants. 

I will work on taking pictures and posting in the shop this week.  There are two more pendants but I can't share one of them until Friday, March 1st for the Challenge of Music.  The other pendant is one of our Warrior Women pendants for a cancer benefit and we need to assemble the piece and I will share once we are done.  Long and productive weekend!

Focus on Life Week 8 - Monochromatic

This week's assignment was: Monochromatic photos tell a story, evoke emotion and uncovers the soul with the simple contrast of one color. Monochromatic photos enable the viewer to see a deeper meaning behind what may be concealed by multiple colors.

This week look deeper through the lens to the story your photo captures and then process it to one color! Or be daring and shoot in B&W (monochrome).

I love how black and white looks - like Sally said there is no color to distract you from the story found in the picture.  I thought this week's photo shoot would be fun, but the weather has not been cooperative - cold and overcast out.  Plus this week I was feeling very blah.  I was thinking about the military a lot and missing my friends and time I spent in (though I have no desire to re-join) I was just missing the camaraderie.

So, I thought I would go to the American Legion (a few miles down the road from mom's house) and take pictures of the memorial wall they have with bricks with service members name on them.  I love that they have a wall for those who have served in the Lafayette area.  I really need to talk to my cousins and see about having a brick for my gramps and I need to talk to my brother about getting one for my dad.

What I would love to know is the stories behind each of those bricks.  What each of those people did during their time in the service: where were they stationed; what was their job; why did they join; how they felt while they were in and how they felt when they got out (did they feel as lost as I did when I got out).  There are so many stories and I would love to know them.  I am lucky enough to have the letters my gramps wrote while he was in the South Pacific.  I really wish I could have got my other grandpa to talk of his time in the European Theater but he wouldn't.  He said it was over with and didn't want to think about it. Those lost stories we will never know - how tragic!

Okay - enough of being depressing (sorry).  This is what I took pictures of this week and played in Pixlr.

Memorial Wall

Mom bought a brick for me and my grandpa (her dad)  I love how we
are together on the wall

My Uncle Gerald - KIA during WWII

Thanks for stopping by.  If you would like to see what everyone else took photos of this week head on over to The Studio Sublime.

Focus on Life Week 7 - Beauty of Flowers

This week's Focus on Life prompt was the Beauty of Flowers.  I was bouncing up in down in happiness because mom and I had this in the bag.  Every spring, summer and fall mom and I walk on campus and take pictures of the flowers.  There is a wonderful hort park just a block away from where I work and you can find me there almost every day, durning lunch, taking pictures.  I think my friends are kind of tired of me stopping there to take pics as we do our walks - but it so worth it!!!

I went ahead and created three collages of my favorite flowers.

Enjoy!

Daffodils taken in the spring of 2012

Strawflower taken in the late summer 2012

Caucasian Pincushion Flower taken summer 2012

New Etsy Listings

Last night I posted four new listings on our Etsy site.  Hopefully this weekend I will have several more to post because mom and I have a whole pile of pendants to file and sand and enamel.  Mom is also working on sawing out our piece for the 2nd Annual Challenge of Music and a piece for the February ABS Challenge.  So, this weekend will be busy for us - which I like!

Yesterday we also received our goodies from Jill, our BSBP partner, and you can see a collage here.  Once Jill receives her package we will share what we sent her.  Then we received notification that three of our pieces were accepted into a magazine - YAY!!!! 

Okay - onto what I listed last night on Etsy.

Blue Heart Toggle Clasp - Enameled Copper

Purple Heart Toggle Clasp - Enameled Copper

Bamboo Pendant - Enameled Cooper

Koi Pendant - Enameled Copper

Like I said above this weekend will be busy - sawing, filing, sanding and enameling.  I might have time to sneak in and make some beads on the torch.  Also, tomorrow is Focus on Life - Week 7 Flowers.  And you know mom and I love our pics of flowers and I can't wait to share with you all!  Have a wonderful Friday!!!

BSBP Goodies Arrived

Our goodies arrived from Jill today and I so did a happy dance when I opened the box.  To be honest I didn't wait for mom to get home before I opened the box - though I did wait for her to open the bag of goodies :)   I really hope the Smilebox collage works because for some reason my collage choice in Photoshop is not working and I had to go to something else.  Just so you know, the reason I have a picture of mom and Lily is because mom was at the counter looking at the goodies and Lily had to join in the fun of looking at all the loot.   The metal components are made by Jill and the Picasso Glass Beads are from a friend of Jill's, Lenka, from the Czech Rep.  Now how cool is that.   Now it is time to break out the cookie sheets and start laying out our ideas.  I know what theme I want to go with and mom already has an idea that she needs to sketch out.  It is going to be so much fun to see what we do with all of these gorgeous pieces!!!!  I can't wait to play!!!! UPDATE: Jill received her goodies so I am posting what mom and I sent her. We sent Jill - one large enameled copper heart pendant, four smaller enameled heart pendants, one enameled copper heart clasp, lampwork glass beads that we made, and Viking Knit (black and red) that we made.  To learn more head on over to Jill's blog to see what she posted.

Our Bead Soup Blog Partner Is...

Yes, mom and I are a little late on announcing who are BSBP partner is, we have been a little busy this past week with a visit from my aunt (from Bailey, CO).  Lori sent us our partner inforamtion on Tuesday and mom and I didn't email our partner until Thursday - yes, I know, bad Evie and Beth.

So, without further ado - Jill MacKay is our BSBP partner this go around.  Mom and I found out that Jill is in the process of a move and was a little busy with the unpacking of boxes and all that fun stuff you have to deal with while moving.

Because of the visit from my aunt, who we haven't seen in two years, we were a little behind on getting our BSBP goodies done.  I just finished the enameling on Sunday, took pics, sent Jill our address information and mom packed up the goodies at 5:30pm on Sunday and I will mail the package on Monday.

Here is a sneak peek:

BSBP Goodies

Jill, mom and I hope you like what we created for you.  There was a color snafu with the enameling, but we improvised, adapted and overcame :)  We are looking forward to receiving our goodies and sharing with everyone.  We will keep everyone in the loop of the process of how we are doing on the creation process - you will have to come back on April 6th, the 2nd Reveal date to see what we both created.

Bead Lovers Challenge - Artisan Whimsy

It is February - the month of LOVE.  On Artisan Wimsy they are having a Valentine Challenge - where we are to design something that represents our PASSION & LOVE.  Well, as many of you know our passion and love is enameled copper - with mom's mad love of sawing and my passion for color.

Mom and I have been on a heart theme for about a year now - we love it (except for some of mom's small design elements that I have to make sure the enamel doesn't fill up the holes).   For the challenge we could submit pieces for the component or the jewelry category -- so of course I thought we would submit for both.

Here is the jewelry component piece:

It is an enameled copper pendant - mom handsaws out the pendant from 20 gauge copper.  She glues down a pattern, drills pilot holes and then takes a jeweler saw and starts sawing.  After the pendant has been filed and sanded I do the enameling.  This pendant we are calling "Flaming Heart" because of the colors - what can I say I love playing with colors.

Our piece for the jewelry category:

The pendant is a smaller pendant that mom handsawed out from 20 gague copper, filed and sanded and then I enameled.  Currently this is my favorite colors of enamel - I mix three different colors together to get the "Peacock" color.  The chain is Viking Knit that mom did, attached the pendant and it is ready to go.

Thank you ladies for this wonderful challenge and for the wonderful prizes.  If you want to participate head on over to Artisan Whimsy and check out the Bead Lovers Challenge.

Focus on Life Week 6 - Feel the Love

Focus on Life week 6 is Love.  This is what Sally had to say,

Since love is in the air in February,

this week keep your heart open, breath in the air and feel the love, 

then capture it in a photo.

Feel the love that the universe is trying to show us everyday!

A smile from a child, the cold nose of your puppy or even something like the corky photo above.

Whatever it maybe

I can't wait to see what made you feel the LOVE!

There is a lot of things I love but here are the most important things for me:

Mom, my niece and nephew in 2011 at Holiday World

Tiesha sprawled out on the couch

Reville giving me kisses

The fur babies laying with me

Just sitting with mom and enjoying the day (taken on 2/7/13)

I can't wait to see what everyone else took pics of this week.  Head on over to Sally's blog, The Studio Sublime, and check out the other participants.

Focus on Life Photo - Week 5

Hey all - I have actually made it to week 5 of Focus on Life photos.  It has been so much fun going to everyone's blog and checking out their photos for that week.  I also want to thank everyone for their wonderful comments!

So, this week's photo is Hearts.  Our assignment from Sally is as follows: "Have you ever taken a moment to notice all the hearts that come into your life everyday?  From candy hearts, patterns on clothes, a paper heart you make yourself or heart shaped spirals made from the ornate rod iron fencing that you may or may not have ever noticed on your walk around the neighborhood, hearts are hiding everywhere.  This week pay attention to your surroundings, think outside the box and capture a heart!"

Before I received the prompt from Sally for this week's photo mom and I were working on sawing out heart pendants and the smaller hearts, toward the front, will end up being heart clasps.  I was complaining to mom that the smaller hearts were a pain in the rear to enamel so she said why don't we make them into toggle clasps and you know I jumped right on board with that.  These pendants just need to be filed and sanded and I can start enameling these babies.  Still trying to figure out what colors I want to use - any suggestions would be appreciated :)

 
 If you all remember I said I wanted to start teaching myself how to doodle or Zentangle.  I did buy a book and sketch pad and I started last weekend.  I have also started following several people on Pinterest and their doodle and Zentangle boards (thank you for suggesting that!).    The above heart is the first thing I have completed.  I do have doodles I did, but not ready to share yet.

I did take the Heart and played with it in PicMonkey.  Here are a few other elements I did on the Heart:

So, those are our hearts for this week.  I hope you head on over to The Studio Sublime and check out what everyone else took pics of this past week.