Showing posts with label blog hop. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blog hop. Show all posts

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?

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/