Earthy Spring Vibes with Summer Wind Art

Earthy Spring Vibes: 

By Ashley Bonney-Summer Wind

I have been playing around a lot lately with mixing different elements in my jewelry. When I was designing this piece, I wanted to have some fun bright elements, but I also wanted to keep it earthy. I found that adding leather cord to the end and some natural stone beads kept it nice and grounded. 

When I am adding leather cord, I like to take a long piece, fold it in half and then use a crimp end to secure it. I then add a lobster clasp and jump ring for the closure.

I really like using Vintaj Brass Findings because they age really well and are very easy to manipulate. You can see in the picture that I just linked the stone beads using eye pins and jump rings. I'll be sure to post the sizes at the end. 

The wood beads on this necklace were tricky, because one hole was very small and the other was larger. I find that wood beads do best when they are secured with twine or hemp. I have tried using eye pins in the past, but I experienced more movement than I like, so I switched to twine. In this case, because the smaller wood bead's hole was much smaller, I had to actually take the twine apart so I had a nice thin piece. I then just made a loop and the top and knotted between the beads and at the bottom. 

I hope you got a little inspiration from my post, I am always so inspired by all the ladies that post to Art Bead Scene. I have soooo much to learn, as far as techniques go, and I am so glad that we have so many talented artists here. Hope everyone has fun creating! 

Ashley Bonney

Summer Wind Art

https://www.etsy.com/shop/SummerWindArt 

Supplies:

Twine-I used Baker's Twine from Lima Beads

Leather Cording from Micheal's Craft Store

Stone Beads, any earthy color or shape

Wood Beads- Summer Wind Art

Findings:

Vintaj Natural Brass

CE20 - 9mm Crimp End

CL0003 - 12mm Classic Lobster Clasp

JR60 - 15mm Smooth 15ga Jump Ring

JR40 - 7.25mm Smooth 16ga Jump Ring

EP1 - 1in Eye Pin

November Monthly Challenge Recap

An impressive carved relief sculpture by Lee Lawrie is our inspiration for the month of November. Owls are portents of wisdom and vision. A fitting image to keep watch over the reading room at the Library of Congress, don't you think?


Now it is your turn. Share your blog posts about the challenge here:

Inside the Studio :: Erin Prais-Hintz of Tesori Trovati

Welcome to Inside the Studio! 

Each week one of our contributors gives you a sneak peek into their studio, creative process or inspirations. We ask a related question of our readers and hope you'll leave comments! As an incentive we offer a free prize each week to bribe you to use that keyboard. The following week we choose a random winner.
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  This weeks winner is  Carol of Dillman's Dallies. Congratulations!
You have won a Jack-O-Lantern pendant from Gaea Cannaday of Gaea Handmade.

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This week we visit the studio of Erin Prais-Hintz of Tesori Trovati Jewelry.

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 I have small but mighty group of talented designers who have signed onto my
Simple Truths Sampler Club.  

Each month, I promise to send them a goodie in the form of one of my Simple Truths polymer clay designs. These will be limited edition and available first to the Club members but then possibly released to the public at the full retail value through my Etsy site.
They don't get to choose, but they tell me that is part of the fun!

This year, I decided that instead of making what the spirit moved me to do, I would challenge myself to make something inspired by the artwork chosen for the monthly Art Bead Scene challenges. Sometimes that is a daunting thing to do because I am so very inspired, and just like you, sometimes I am not inspired at all! But it is an extra challenge to me to come up with something new and exciting every month, it helps me push my creative boundaries and try new techniques, plus the Challenge Art is just so darned impressive, that it is a joy to create! 

I hope that my Club members enjoy what they get (I have several members who keep coming back year after year, so they must love it) and I love to see what they do (I have a Pinterest Board devoted to their clever and inspiring designs). 

Want to see what you may have missed out on? Here is a look at the limited edition offerings that my Simple Truths Sampler Club has received in 2013:

It's really gratifying to see all the progress that I made this year! I have tried new techniques, like carving my own molds in January, using an open backed bezel in March, making my own scenic canes for the first time in June and a Stroppel cane in August and even hand sculpting a design in September.

So, you might be asking,  what is next for the Simple Truths Sampler?
I am not really sure, but I already have designs in the works (read: in my overworked brain ;-) for November and December (I picked the art for December and I am so excited to share it with you!).  I guess you will have to stay tuned to find out! And I can't wait to see what happens next year! I intend to keep this plan in place for the 2014 Club as well. And while there are only a maximum of 20 spaces available any month (there are spaces open now, you know, in case you are interested), I would love to have you. You can choose from 3-, 6-, 9- or 12- months subscription that suits your budget and needs. 

Wouldn't that make a great gift for a jewelry designer you love? (Or you! Especially you! ;-)

Since this month the theme of the painting features an owl, and I recently released two new owls to join my parliament of Woodsy and Motley owls - Snowy and Great Grey - I gave a choice to the Club members of one of the four types of owls. And of course, I have a few left from this batch that haven't made it into jewelry for my holiday shows or the new boutique that is carrying my owl jewelry. 

I will select one of the remaining owls (surprise!) to fly to the home of a random winner drawn on October 25th if you answer one of these questions: 

If you regularly participate in the ABS monthly challenges, why do you do it? 

 or

If you do not regularly participate in the ABS monthly challenges, what would encourage you to participate more? 

We have over 3,000 members who follow us regularly from around the world. And there are likely many, many more that also follow us. We would love to see more entries in our Monthly Challenge Recap/Blog Hop and have been making changes around here to spruce things up and bring you even more inspiration. We would love to have your feedback! We can't thank you enough for being a part of our Art Bead world and look forward to the future!

Funky Fungi Bracelet

My hands are frozen and my lips are chapped! We have had one day of rain and 1 week of winter weather, if you can call 65 degrees as a daytime high "winter" (and I do), and this So. California gal is ready for a bit of spring. Ignore all that complaining I did back in August about how meltingly hot it was, I didn't know what I was talking about! So, with hot coffee in hand I attempted to unfurl my frozen fingers and create a Funky Fungi bracelet. Not so easy to knot leather cord with these frozen hands but I digress...

Mamacita Beadworks

Green Girl Studios

Golem Studio

Gaea Pendants

Leather Cord USA

Free Project: Woodsy

"A wise old owl sat on an oak

The more he saw the less he spoke

The less he spoke the more he heard

Why aren't we like that wise old bird?"

Owls are associated with wisdom. They can see things that others can't. Apparently I needed to heed the power of the owl because I was ignorant of how social media could work for me.

I am not a big fan of Facebook, as I would rather spend my time blogging, and Twitter is just way too brief for me (please, I say 140 characters before I even get out of bed in the morning!). But I know that a lot of you are out there on Facebook quite regularly. After I spent the night listing things (please, Etsy, make it even quicker for me to batch edit and list items!) I stopped into Facebook for my bi-weekly check in. I added a picture of one of the little hooties to my profile and within moments I had hits and mentions and comments and hops... it was viral, I tell you! I have never seen anything like it. And because of that little innocent posting I even sold a bunch of things. (Note to self: rethink your aversion to Facebook). My point is that I wasn't even planning that interaction and yet there it was.

This necklace features one of the first wise old owls that I made in my 'simple truths' like back in January 2011. With the cooler weather in the air, I have been making up a clutch of young owlets like my first wide-eyed friend, and apparently you like him! (Note to self: make more owlets). I submitted this little guy to a magazine...but he got rejected :-( Sad for me, but a bonus for you! I think that he is too cute to keep to myself, so I am going to share him with you for free! So here is a project to design your own fall-inspired, asymmetrical necklace.

Supplies:

23” antique copper bar chain, Industrial Chic line (or substitute what you have!)

6 etched brass jump rings

1 etched brass oval jump ring, Vintaj

4 antique copper jump rings, Vintaj

1 brass ball head pin

1 leaf toggle bar, Vintaj

1 leaf toggle, Vintaj

6” 20 gauge bronze wire, Vintaj

6 antique copper cog spacers, TierraCast

3 polymer clay disk beads, Humblebeads (or substitute ceramic for an earthy feel!)

1 long antique copper branch, Nunn Designs (or make your own with thick 16 gauge copper wire hammered and twisted into a branch shape)

2 short antique copper branches, Nunn Designs

1 copper leaf stamping, similar found at AccesoriesSusan

1 owl pendant, Simple Truths by Tesori Trovati

• Finished size: 18” with a 1” drop

Step by step:

1: Separate the chain into two 10 ½” pieces and two 1” pieces. Set aside.

2: Cut the wire into three 2” sections. Create a wrapped loop stringing one copper cog spacer, one polymer clay bead and one copper cog spacer. Finish with a wrapped loop. Repeat two more times.

3: Connect the wrapped bead links with the etched jump ring. Attach the two long pieces of chain to the jump ring on one side. Attach the two short pieces of chain to the jump ring on the other side, ending with another jump ring.

4: Connect the pendant to this jump ring. 

5: Position the branch connections so that they form an open space in the middle. Connect them together using small jump rings. To the middle branch add the copper leaf stamping. Attach an etched jump ring to one side, and connect the other side to the jump ring in step 4.

6: Use a small jump ring to attach the leaf toggle to the etch jump ring.

7: On the other end of the chain, connect an oval etched jump ring. Thread the brass ball head pin to the leaf toggle bar and created a wrapped loop underneath. Open the oval brass jump ring and thread the toggle bar and the two remaining ends of the chain.

I think I need to get back in the studio and make more of these happy little owlets because they are literally flying out the door!

Happy creating! 

Do you design around the seasons and traditional themes, or do you just design what you will like?
What sort of motifs are you seeking as themes for your designs this fall and for the upcoming winter/holiday season?

Do tell!