Thursday, May 31, 2012

Challenge of Literature Blog Hop Reveal!

Erin Prais-Hintz, the lovely lady behind this blog challenge says, "Reading can transport you to a million different places and that is what this challenge is all about."

When I signed up for this challenge, I was nearing the end of the Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini. I don't know if this series has replaced my previous favorite book but the characters are wonderful. Especially Saphira, the dragon. (Side note: If you get the chance, this series is FANTASTIC in audio.)

Saphira, on the cover of the first book, Eragon
One of my favorite parts of the series is when Saphira loses a scale. The following excerpt is from the fourth book in the series, Inheritance.

"You're fine," said Eragon, exasperated. “Stop worrying. There’s nothing you can do about it anyway.” 
     Saphira growled and continued to study her image in the lake. She turned her head from side to side, then exhaled heavily, releasing a cloud of smoke that drifted out
over the water like a small, lost thundercloud.
     Are you sure? she asked, and looked toward him. What if it doesn’t grow back?
     “Dragons grow new scales all the time. You know that.”
     Yes, but I’ve never lost one before!
     He did not bother to hide his smile; he knew she would sense his amusement. “You shouldn’t be so upset. It wasn’t very big.” Reaching out, he traced the diamond-shaped hole on the left side of her snout, where the object of her consternation had so recently been ensconced. The gap in her sparkling armor was no larger than the end of his thumb and about an inch deep. At the bottom of it, her leathery blue hide was visible.
     Curious, he touched her skin with the tip of his index finger. It felt warm and smooth, like the belly of a calf. Saphira snorted and pulled her head away from him. Stop that; it tickles.

I'm not sure what Eragon did with the dragon scale, but I started thinking that the jeweled scales from Christopher Paolini's dragons would probably make beautiful jewelry.

So...

I took some glittery scrapbook cardstock and punched out two dragonscales. Take some copper wire and wire wrap some yellow crystals. Take even more copper wire and make some jump rings. Now, I bought some sequins and I'm pretending they're baby dragon scales. Attach them together with those jump rings you made aaaand...

Pretty earrings. They sparkle like you would not believe. I wore them on Wednesday and they're super light because I used sequins instead of glass beads. And they're deliciously long, but that could be because I have a short neck :P

I imagine my dragon would have been teal. I would have named her Chaiti, the Hindi word for "teal."

Won't you join Chaiti and me while we go blog hopping? Here are the other participants of the Challenge of Literature Blog Hop!

Erin Prais-Hintz
Rebecca Anderson
**Rose Binoya** [YOU ARE HERE!]
Lori Bowring Michaud
Shannon Chomanszuk
Marlene Cupo
Jenny Davies-Reazor
Kim Dworak
Beth Emery
Therese Frank
Amy Freeland
K Hutchinson
Jennifer Justman
Susan Kennedy
Linda Landig
Lisa Lodge
Lisa Lowe
Kirsi Luostarinen
Beth McCord
Melissa Meman
Sharon Misuraco
Tracey Nanstad
Melinda Orr
Kashmira Patel
Alice Peterson
Sally Russick
Niky Sayers
Pam Sears
Amy Severino
Tracy Stillman
Emma Todd
Melissa Trudinger
Lesley Watt
Shai Williams

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

BTW: Working on a story...

Apparently, my last Bead Table Wednesday post was last month. Sigh. Horrible, I am.

Wire wrapping
I haven't really been inspired with my jewelry. I have sketches upon sketches of ideas but it seems my passion went on a vacation the last few weeks.

Making jump rings
The only real pieces I've made were blog challenge pieces. I even missed a deadline for a magazine I regularly submit to.

Black and white pictures... because the color is part of my story...
But this challenge has got me going. It's Erin of Tesori Trovati Jewelry's Challenge of Literature Blog Hop tomorrow and I HAD to get something done.

I'm wearing my piece now. And I'm rather in love with it. And feeling the wire in my hands and playing with the beads... I think I'm ready to come back to jewelry making. Yay!

Right?

YAAAAY!

Come back tomorrow to see my creation.

What's on your bead table today?

Friday, May 25, 2012

My Current Obsession

Not much jewelry making going on over here. Unless you count what I've been doing at Michaels (did I mention the craft store I work for is Michaels?)... which I don't because it's not MY jewelry.

This is the reason for my non-jewelry making:




Yep. Macarons. I'm obsessed. Sorry to my Pinterest and Instagram peeps who have been inundated with macaron pictures and doodles. I'm not eating them (though the only reason is that I can't find a local dealer... I meant French bakery). I have a series of small illustrations in mind.

 My favorite here is the big pen and ink sketch... Tea cup is a thumbnail of an illustration idea. That dark purple cookie was my first color attempt. I think the cookie in the bottom right is adorable.

Marker attempt. It's closer to what I want in an illustration but I was having trouble getting the texture right. See, macaron's have "feet" and they have a bumpy/crunchy texture. But I did these cookies in green... my favorite flavor is pistachio, which is green. YAY!

 Last night's watercolor attempt. The texture is a little better. I'm not happy with the filling. Or the shadow at the bottom but it's way closer to what I want. 

Soo. Yeah. This is what I'm currently obsessed with. Jewelry will come back. I have designs waiting in the sketchbook and new beads that came today so don't worry! Beady love will return soon :)

Have you had macarons yet? What's your favorite flavor?

One last sketch before I go. A gypsy dancer! YAY!


Saturday, May 19, 2012

And the Winner Is...

Commenter #20! Lisa S! Congrats! You've won the silk sari ribbon!

Lisa, I've sent you an email. If you don't see it in your inbox, perhaps it's caught in your spam folder! I'm going to be sending you your ribbon (and some extra goodies as well) soon!

Thank you to all who entered! I'll be doing another giveaway soon!

Happy Saturday, all! <3

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Inspired by: Morocco


Source: flickr.com via Rose on Pinterest

I've been doing a lot of reading on ethnic fashion and today, I was in Morocco.

Bright colors.

Beautiful wraps.

Gorgeous jewelry.

I'm in love.

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Silk Sari Ribbon Giveaway!

 THIS GIVEAWAY IS CLOSED!
Thank you!!!!


I'm so in love with silk sari ribbon. Especially the ribbon above. It's a rolled ribbon and the width can vary from .5 inches up to 1 inch. I love the color variation and how soft the ribbon is. And you know what? I'm giving away the above ribbon!

It's 4 1/2 yards. So many people have expressed how much they want to try working with silk sari ribbon but haven't yet. This is a good amount to play with!

All you have to do is leave a comment on this blog and you'll be entered for the giveaway! I'll pick a random comment on Saturday, May 19th. Be sure to leave an email or a link to your blog so I can contact you if you win!


BONUS ENTRIES:
-Share this post on Facebook
-Let your Twitter peeps know about this giveaway on Twitter
-Pin this blog entry onto Pinterest


That's up to 4 entries! Make sure you leave a comment for EACH time you share this post.

Yay for silk sari ribbon! :D

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

5/15 Tuesday

-Last week was a rough week. The boyfriend's car died and I had to drive him around which I was happy to do except he was stressed which made me stressed and for two people living paycheck to paycheck, the amount that was spent on gas set all my bills back this month. Just. From. One. Week. SIGH.

-Been so sleepy lately. But only in the day time. Isn't that great? Up all night and sleeping all day. I'm going to admit to being depressed about my "job." And a dip in sales from my jewelry biz. Yep. I'm depressed.

Lilac Breasted Roller- Ink/markers on bristol board

-I put "job" in quotations because I don't work unless I have students. And I don't have students. Haven't had students since March. I'm rather depressed about that. I've done everything they tell me to do with "marketing" and it's not working. I could go on a huge rant but I won't. You never know who will find my blog :P Did I say I'm depressed?

-I woke up to a parking ticket. I forgot it was street sweeping day today and left my car in the street. So, when I finally managed to get out of bed, shower, and leave the house at 4pm, there was a nice, pale yellow piece of paper on my windshield demanding money from me. Well, get in line buddy :P

-There's a magazine I submit to regularly. I've been in almost every issue. I missed the last deadline (TODAY)... I know it's not a big deal but... well... it kind of is... to me anyway.

Ostrich Egg Shell Beads. WANT
-The only thing keeping me sane is this project I have in mind. It's a great project. I got a lot of work done on it two weeks ago. And I started it back up last night but I can't really say anything about it because I don't want to jinx it. But, it has something to do with jewelry. So that makes me happy.

 -Oh. The boyfriend got a car two days ago. So he's not so stressed out anymore. And he's keeping me together.

-Espresso helps as well.

I found this lovely article on 15 things we need to give up to be happy. It's a great article. I hope I can apply this to my life because posts like these are terribly depressing. I would much rather be doing... oh I dunno... a silk sari ribbon giveaway...

Say... now there's an idea :P Come back tomorrow!

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Button Swap Reveal!

It's here! IT'S HERE!!! The Button Swap Blog Hop! WOO!

Let's get started.

Here's what my lovely partner, Shanti, sent me.
Such pretty buttons! I decided to play with 2 of the shank buttons. I'll admit, I was not as creative as I would have hoped, but my muse is on vacation, apparently. Or focused on drawing and painting. ANYWAY, here's what I made.




This sparkly shank button makes a lovely and elegant focal. I used teal and mint green beads in the necklace to give it a bit of playfulness. I'm not the best at making necklaces but I do adore them. I used to think I was terrible at making bracelets but I think I've gotten over that little bit of self-doubt. Hopefully, I can get over this bit as well.

Now for my next piece.

I'm so in love with sari ribbon. And I decided to use the long shank button in a bracelet.


When I saw this sparkly focal, I knew I had to have it. I knew it would work wonders in another "rustic elegance" piece.

Here's what I came up with.

I know. A button as a clasp. Not too terribly inventive but this bracelet makes my body dance with happiness. Seriously. I put it on and I can't help but shake my wrist to get the danglies moving and then my shoulders move and before I know it, I'm in a down right boogie. Lol.

I still have three buttons to play with. I'm going to do some hopping and hopefully get some inspiration as to what to do with them!

Want to hop with me?

 Kim Roberts and Partner unable to participate at this time.
Pam Ferarri and Stefanie Teufel (will share their reveal on a later date)
 Rose Binoya (<--YOU ARE HERE) and Shanti Johnson
Stefanie Teufel and Pam Ferarri (will share their reveal on a later date)

Thank you, Cindy, for hosting this challenge! I loved it! <3

Saturday, May 5, 2012

One Color Blog Hop- Yellow!

[[When I upload pictures from my camera, the pictures are half solid gray. So, I've uploaded some pictures I posted on instagram while I was working on the projects and took pictures of the finished pieces. They make me cringe. I'm so sorry :( ]]

Sally asked us to pull out a color from a crayon box and create something beautiful with just that one color. So, I jumped at the chance to play.

The colors we chose from were black, brown, purple, green, blue, orange, yellow, and red. Now, because I thought I wanted a challenge, I chose yellow of all colors. Why? Because, I don't work with yellow very much. I don't even use gold tone metals very often. So, I thought, "Let's make this a real challenge."

Well... challenge me it did...

My first piece...

Copper wire frames and pale pale yellow seed beads. and yellow crystals. If you look at the sketch and the final pair of earrings, you'll see I ditched the dangle clusters.

After finishing the wire wrapping, I thought, "OH MY GOSH! Copper isn't yellow at all!" So... I moved on to another project.

 I've been seing a lot of silk sari wrapped pieces and wanted to try my hand at one.
I hammered 18 gauge wire and started wrapping. It looks like a dream catcher. I added a lucite flower dangle and broke up some golden chain with yellow crystals.

It's really quite comfortable to wear. I love the crystals and the silk together. Rustic elegance, I think. And the dark yellow crystals are such a deep, rich yellow, I think I'm in love.

I didn't go too far with my designs, I admit. I bought a lot of yellow beads and did so many sketches but... just couldn't make them work out except for this necklace. Maybe I'll revisit this design later. For now, this necklace makes me happy and it makes me giggle wearing it.

Now! Time to go a'hoppin!

Hosted by:

Red

Bobbie Rafferty   http://beadsong.blogspot.com

Orange

Rebekah Payne   http://treewingsstudio.com

 Yellow

Rose Brisson Binoya [YOU ARE HERE!!!]    http://ahteesblog.blogspot.com

Blue

Rebecca Anderson  http://songbeads.blogspot.com
Alicia Marinache  http://allprettythings.ca
Charissa Sloper   http://blog.obsidiansoda.com
Sandi Volpe   http://sandivolpe.com

 Green

Jenny Davies Reazor   http://www.jdaviesreazor.com
Elizabeth Auld  http://beadsforbusygals.com

Purple

Jennifer Judd Velasquez http://jenjuddrocks.blogspot.com

Brown

Diana Ptaszynski   http://suburbangirlstudio.com

Black

Birgitta Lejonklou  http://lejonklou.blogspot.com/