Monday Muse and Beady Link Party

Hello! Daylight is getting shorter, temperatures colder and all things fall have captured my attention this week. I'm loving owls right now and have round up some of my current favorites. 

First up is this sweet little owl from Andrew Thornton with an intriguing painterly treatment found in the Allegory Gallery Etsy shop.

A minimal ceramic pendant in a perfectly rustic glaze from Cherryhill Studio.

My bead crush of the week are these adorable owl lampwork beads from Glass Afternoon.

The flowers on the belly of this owl just makes the whole design for me, what a stand out from Havana Beads.

Tiny owl charms from me over at Humblebeads - so cute as earrings or as tiny charms.

I love everything about this ceramic owl from Jenny Davies-Reazor. The color is so perfect for fall and the two holes opens up so many design options for this piece.

Beady Link Party

We invite our readers to share their blog post links with us each week. As long as they feature jewelry or beads, share your favorite post from last week with us. We hope this will inspire you to blog a little more often and bring our community closer together.

1. Please only post blog new links each week. *

2. Visit at least two other blog links and leave a comment. We want to grow our blogging community and encourage you connect with each other.

3. You have until Wednesday each week to share your blog post.

We want to connect more with our readers! Join the party and share you latest beady blog link.

Haven't blogged in a while? It's the perfect time to share what you have been up to, what you find inspiring, your creative process, interview a favorite beadmaker, review a beady book - get creative and get blogging!

The beady link party is open to jewelry designers, beadmakers and group bead blogs.

Share you link using the "Add a Link" Inlinkz button below.

*We ask for fresh links, if you have a post that you haven't shared with us yet but it's a few weeks old, that's cool.    

An InLinkz Link-up

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!

Louise Nelson Bird Beads

Hello cuteness! 

I recently discovered Scottish glass artist Louise Nelson and just had to share her wonderful birds with you.  I could see them paired with brass branches, leafy chain and Czech glass leaves and flowers.

She has a very limited offering in her Etsy shop, but maybe if we buy her out today that will spur her on to share more of her feathered friends with us!

These Are a Few of My Favorite Beads

No matter if your day is happy or sad, beads will make you smile!  Here are few of my current favorites...

polymer clay cat bead by Tree Wings Studio

boro lampwork beads by Firelily

polymer clay beads by Earth Tones

lampwork beads by Lori Lochner

porcelain owl by Joan Miller

Lori Anderson creates jewelry for her web site, Lori Anderson Designs, and wrote the blog An Artist's Year Off.    She is also the creator of the Bead Soup Blog Party.