Creative Bead Chat Thank You Blog Hop

Hmmm...so what is Creative Bead Chat?

"A home for creative component and jewelry designers to share new creations, tool tips and help build our creativity and sales ! A home for new designers as well experienced to share your experiences and ask questions. Ultimately we are a team and work together towards the goal of being proud of our accomplishments and accomplishing our dreams"

It was started by Melinda Orr and Marla James, and supported by a LOT of my friends! What started as a Facebook group has grown into a ning website of its own, called Artisan Whimsy. It has great learning resources, contests, challenges, giveaways and even a marketplace! The latest addition is a magazine of its own. And the magazine is ah-ma-zing! Like, seriously! You can read the August issue here.

The best part though, is the camaraderie and friendships being made there everyday!

The latest giveaway was hosted in July to mark the Facebook group reaching 2000 members! Over 50 components and finished jewelry pieces were given away! I had put my name in the hat, but didn't win anything. Nevertheless, I do want to participate in this blog hop to say thanks to everyone who helped make this happen!

I will start off with a pair of earrings I made a few minutes ago, last minute creation, of course :) The photos are not the best, but I wanted to make it to this hop, and so here they are!

These earrings feature components by my bead mommy, Sharyl McMillian-Nelson. You can look up that post to see the cool stuff I have received from her. What I love about her is that she is always evolving, making new components, adding on to what she learned and there is always something different and new in her shop Sharyl's Jewelry .

The polymer clay beads are a gift from my friend Lisa Caryl. She makes the most fantastic polymer clay beads and will be opening her shop on etsy soon! 

Anyhow...here's what I made:

 

I punched holes in the components, and added color with thread. I do love them a lot!

I bought these headpins from Heidi Kingman after I saw them on the giveaway, and didn't win. I love them a lot, and hence they are being hoarded :)

And now I will share jewelry I have made with components from other donors:

Marla James (Marla's Mud)

Marla has gifted me a whole lot of cool components, I am still working my way through them. Here's a necklace I made with an "arrowhead"

Jeannie Dukic (Jewelry By Jeannie)

I received this blue focal bead as part of her Echo Creative Club. Its still available in my shop (click on the picture to go to the listing)

Shelley Graham Turner of Tori Sophia
Shelley gifted me these cute little turquoise beads :) I super love these earrings!
They are still available in my shop (click on the picture to go to the listing)

Marti Conrad of Marti's Buttons and Beads
This focal was a gift from Marti. The bracelet is available in a second shop where I sometimes list my items. Please click on the picture to go to the listing.

Janice Everett of J-Lynn Jewels

This art tile was an instant hit! I bought these at her holiday sale last year. Am looking forward to the next one so I can stock up!

 

And finally, one of my favorite people, Emma Todd of A Polymer Penchant! 

She gifted these discs to me along with an order I had placed. These are available, but not yet listed, do let me know if you are interested!

 

Here are the rest of the participants of the blog hop...

Sandra - http://skyescreativechaos.blogspot.com
Carolyn - http://artisanwhimsy.com/profiles/blog/list?user=07ase2t9q0suy
Kay      - http://kayzkreationz.blogspot.com
Jana     - http://lasjoyasdejana.blogspot.com
Alenka  - http://pepita-handmade.blogspot.com
Rose    - http://handedcraftedjewelrybyrose.blogspot.com
Melissa - http://beadrecipes.wordpress.com
Malie   - http://kumifisher.blogspot.com
Connie - http://artisanwhimsy.com/profiles/blogs/creative-bead-chat-2000-thank-you-blog-hop

 And to sign off...THANK YOU CBC! We love you!

 

Pearls! Pearls!! Pearls!!!

My buddy Michelle of MishelDesigns is a treasure trove of knowledge as far as pearls go (and I bet she knows a lot about a lot of other things too!)

Exactly a month ago, she announced a blog hop to celebrate her beloved pearls (she has a diploma in pearls from the Gemological Institute of America!). The challenge was to design something with pearls...any kind (there are so many, I get dizzy just thinking about them!), real or imitation, as many or as little, and any form of jewelry. For the reveal, she requested the design and the source of the pearls.

I jumped in, not quite sure what I would do. Maybe a ring? Since I have not really ever made one?
And then happened my dead-internet-saga and I forgot all about it until I received an email from the lovely lady giving us further details about the hop.

Shamefaced, I thought I was too late, and will have to bow out of it. But then last night I decided I had to make at least something! She didn't put too many rules in, and I have used them before, not as a main focus, but yeah, I have used them.

Then my brain dug up the visual of a bracelet I had thought of a looooong time ago, when the components all just happened to sit next to each other (I was not even using them for what I was doing at the time!)
I heaved a sigh of relief and quickly whipped up this....

The focal is a very interesting ceramic tube bead by Marti Conrad of Marti's Buttons-n-Beads.
She had sent it to me as part of the gift from the bead fairies of Project Bead.

The pearls are keishi pearls (I am giggling as I write this, as I have a Japanese friend by that name at work), gifted by Marla Gibson of Spice Box Designs, also as part of Project Bead. The silver spacers are also gifts from my bead fairies!

I was really tempted to add some color to this...maybe bright yellow or green, but thankfully, better sense prevailed.

The bracelet is 7.5 inches long and looks super pretty :) 

And as is always the case with my designs, some beads I bought from Emma Todd of A Polymer Penchant were just sitting there doing their own thing, and I ended up making these...
The beads I used here are gifts from her :-) Yeah, I have super awesome friends! I am blessed that's for sure!!
 

The earrings on the daintier side...just shy of 1.5 inches from the top of the earwire.

Both these pieces are for sale. The bracelet: $25 + shipping, and the earrings are $15 + shipping. So let me know if you are interested :-)

There are whole bunch of super talented ladies who joined this hop. Pearls are so versatile, they can be used and strung and coiled and done-whatever-you-want-with! All these ladies have very unique styles, and its definitely a visual feast! So go on and have a look!

MiShel Designs - Pearls! Pearls!! Pearls!!! Blog Host 

Sadafulee,…Always in Bloom <-- You Be Over Here

Antiquity Travelers

Jewelry By Jasvanti

Bead Contagion

Back Story Beads

Sharyl’s Jewelry and Reflections

Silver Niknats

Fresh Baked Designs

Lisa Yang Jewelry

Designed by Vera

Serena Trent
Amy Bright
Carefree Jewelry by Lisa

Agape Creations Jewelry

Klassy Joolz

Beautifully Broken Me

One Kiss Creations

Stories from the City of  Brass

Make Bracelets!

Carolyn’s Creations

Raindrop Creations Jewelry

Freestyle Elements

 

Focus On Life ~ Week 37 ~ In Motion

This week's prompt says:

Get moving and a grooving this week!
Stretch those creative muscles and capture things in motion.

And hence, I present this....(stretched more than my creative muscles for sure! And I had to work hard to bring into motion the thing I had captured ;-) )

2nd Annual Challenge Of Travel ~ Santa Clara County and California in general!

Gosh, I am SO late for this one!!!! The reveal was on August 31st, and I finished making my piece a couple weeks before that. I was all set (and excited) for the reveal, and some time around August 21st, my home internet connection decided to die. It was resurrected only yesterday, so here I am with my post!

What's it about?

Erin Prais-Hintz of Tesori Trovati had put out a call in the beginning of August to join the "staycation" edition in her "Challenge of Travel" series. We were to explore what our hometowns had to offer for visitors. Hometown could be anything...the town you grew up in, the town where you live now, any place you call home.

I was torn about "where" home is! In my heart, its always, always, always going to be India (and in my mind, when I say, I want to go home, I will always mean I want to go to India) But in reality, and for all practical purposes, home is California. So this is about California! And it is more about the history of California than present day California. Hope that is ok!

Narrowing down to where I live...Santa Clara. Silicon Valley. We have so many tech companies headquartered right here. Google, Facebook, Apple, Cisco, eBay, PayPal, LinkedIn...just to name a very select few. I guess being a tech hub is what my hometown is well known for. But I would like to step back into history and speak about the actual street that I live off of.

El Camino Real ~ The Royal Road! Before I begin singing its glories, I have to admit that I hate driving on it. With that taken care of....

This is a historical road, stretching from San Diego in Southern California to Sonoma in Northern California, connecting 21 Franciscan missions. However, the road’s importance and its name recognition have far outlasted that of the missions it originally served.
Here is more information about the road: History Of El Camino Real

*this part of my post is copied from wikipedia*
In 1892, Anna Pitcher of Pasadena, California initiated an effort to preserve the as-yet uncommemorated route of Alta California’s Camino Real. Given the lack of standardized road signs at the time, it was decided to place distinctive bells along the route, hung on supports in the form of an 11-foot (3.4 m) high shepherd's crook, also described as "a Franciscan walking stick."
*end of wikipedia excerpt*

These bells have always fascinated me...and are a very prominent part of my design.
Here's a picture of the bell over at the mission in Santa Barbara. This is the only picture of the bells that I have managed to click.

Here's a better version, not clicked by me. Click on the picture to go to original website:

Next thing that I took inspiration from for my piece...is the land here! My neighbor, who has lived on this street for close to 60 years now, says that the region was all orchards! Oranges and plums and figs! Even now, the soil is rich and extremely fertile. There used to be a huge orange orchard near my office, actually right across the street from a big Sony campus. It was a gem in the middle of the city, oranges for as far as the eye can see. I bet you noticed the past tense here. Yeah, its gone, there are apartments there now :((

Here's a picture of my own orange tree...

And the last bit of inspiration...I thought about this for a long time...what is my state known for? What does it say on the license plates? Golden state! So yeah...the last bit is the gold :) Although, I don't know of any gold panning being done where I live...I had use this bit of info about my state :-)

So...here are my earrings that I made for this challenge :-)

 

 These are for sale, although not on my shop. Please send me a message if you are interested :)

There was an inlinkz code for this, but since I am late..its closed :((
Please visit Erin's blog to see the other entries
http://treasures-found.blogspot.com/2013/08/2nd-annual-challenge-of-travel-stevens.html.