Treasures by Louise

My necklace from Jeannie K. Dukic was a chain of beautiful semi-precious jade and faceted czech glass crystals. A long wire wrapped chain by Jeannie Dukic, jade and Czech crystals Coordinating Bracelet   Earrings to match I had a moment of hesitation as I cut into the beautiful chain of wire wrapped jade and crystals. The delicacy of the chain was not to be matched...at least by me. But I had a vision, so I went ahead. At first I planned to remove the crystals and go all "natural", I wanted to add a complementary color and some variety of shapes to the chain. The lovely chain became a lariat, as I decided to keep the ring part of the toggle, and I spliced in wire wrapped sections of red agate and sections of rust-tone Czech disc beads with the crystals. The crystals became a contrasting texture to the stones and disc beads. The decision on the focal came later, after auditioning a number of artisan beads I recently ordered. Auditioning some porcelain foca...

I just signed up for Jeannie K. Dukic's Jewelry Do-over challenge with JKD Studios. This is a different take on a jewelry design challenge. Participants must have a blog. For a small postage fee, Jeannie sends some of her old non-artisan jewelry creations. The challenge is to photograph the before, and using 50% of the jewelry, make something new. Designers are encouraged to use artisan and hand crafted beads/components in their new designs. I have watched this blog challenge for at least the last two and decided to make the jump and try this one for the first time. You can sign up,  too! To learn more about Jeannie, the Do Over Challenges or her Echo Creative Club, visit her new blog at: http://wheethepeople2.wordpress.com/

Here is my entry for Lorelei's Blog Hop Challenge: Inspired by the Blue/Teal Resin Sliders from Michaels and my impression that they look so much like water bubbles. I found some beautiful glass beads the same day, and added gold tone beading wire and brass spacers, as well as some Crystazzi bicones and Bead Gallery bicones I had on my beading table. I tried to evoke the feeling of a waterfall and the spray of fine mist at the base of a waterfall.  In my mind's eye I was remembering hiking in Michigan's Upper Peninsula to view the many waterfalls last summer. What fun , and many thanks to Lorelei Eurto for challenging us! Here's the link to Lorelei's Blog Slider Blog Hop Reveal And h ere is the blog list : BeadLolaBead CabeWoman MustardBead.blog-hop-reveal. A Polyme r Penchant Pearl  and Pebble: Challenge reveal Peacock Fairy: challenge bubble Beads for Busy Gals: resin bauble Dawn's Blog Shirley Moore B Street Studios Sally Russick Pamela 7...

For our blog hop, t his Friday wi ll be the big reveal, but today I'm sharing a bit of photo inspiratio n for my necklace made with the cool acrylic sliders from Michaels. Enjoy! Michigan's upper peninsula has many beautiful waterfalls to inspire artists and crafters

Here are the starting materials for the Slider Challenge. The Deadline is going to be soon, so creating must begin! Yes, they're very matchy matchy, so I'm going to add some things from my stash. Beads were 50% off at Michaels this week!

Here's another work-in-progress: a whimsical approach to adding the creative touch in your projects. This is a re-purposed pepper mill that I imagine as a way to "sprinkle on" the inspiration. What colors would you fill it with? What inspires you to create? And how do you work around those creative blocks that happen on occasion?