SATeam March Challenge...Pot of Gold

Each month members of the Starving Artists Team are invited to stretch their skills and their imaginations by participating in a specific challenge. March’s challenge was to either find a leprechauns pot of gold or to create a piece of jewelry using the color gold.

I don’t design much with gold wire. The expense and fear of making an error with the precious metal encourages me to make use of other products. I have found that most of you share that opinion. You have however made beautiful gold jewelry in a variety of styles.

New member Patricia of Patradashery was the first to jump in with a beautiful gold butterfly. The wings are Golden yellow Horse eye jasper a gorgeous gold dust lamp work bead makes the body. Patricia gave her butterfly wingtips of green and rainbow antennae in celebration of St. Patrick’s Day.

Our Islandgirl Lynne broke out some delicious gold plated seed beads combined them with ruby red and made these dramatic beaded beads. The shape and color combination remind me of temple bells.

Cat also combined red and gold in her interpretation of the theme. Her gorgeous Mayan Sun pendant grew from her desire to bezel a beach pebble. Lucky for us that her muse had a mind of its own.

Julie struck out in an entirely new direction. She doesn’t make heart jewelry or work with the color gold. She decided to combine both in her answer to the challenge, this warm heart pendant.

Dawn combined gold and black in a bold pair of perfectly wire wrapped hoop earrings. I love the artistic addition of the small black bead on the ear wire.

Caron used precious metal clay with a keum boo gold overlay to create this doubled sided pendant that reminds me of an ancient coin. Note the citrine set at the base of the bail.

Jeanne made a Viking knit bracelet and incorporated pearls in the weave to showcase a special polymer clay bead. Jeanne’s friend made the bead and Jeanne made the bracelet for her friend’s daughter. It is a lovely collaboration don’t you think?

Sylvia posted a beautiful pair of wire wrapped earrings with citrine drops. She did a fantastic job to create those graceful swirls in an identical pair.

My entry for the FamiLee jewels is a salvage piece in aged gleaming brass called Peace Comes from Within. The wrapped bead drop is rutiliated quartz.



The diversity and skill in this group is a continuous source of pleasure and surprise. I always enjoy seeing a topic through the eyes of another artist.

Check back next month to see our creations in celebration of Earth Day.

Featuring artisan handmade creations by the Starving Artists jewelry Team, the SATeam members create handcrafted jewelry and beads. More information about our team and its current shop owner members can be found at SATEAM.etsy.com and here on ArtFire.

Color Report: Peapod

Today in our color feature, we look at Peapod, one of Pantone's top ten colors for Spring 2010. This color can be seen in a versatile range of jewelry designs featuring stone, glass, and lampwork beads, all by our talented SATeam artists. Click on the links below the pictures to learn more about the item:

Jade and sterling silver earrings by redbirdjewellery

Green Howlite Nuggets and Lampwork Beads Copper Necklace by EleganceAndSparkles

Seafoam Green Quartz Coiled Sterling Silver Earrings by WickwireJewelry

Ribbon and wire spool knit necklace - Green fairy by CatsWire

Lotus Glass Earrings - Brass/ Green African Vaseline Beads by mcstoneworks

Amazonite, Swarovski Crystal and Sterling Silver Necklace in Pastels by NorthernGirlJewelry

Green aventurine and sterling silver greyhound scatter pin by FeatheredGems

What's your favorite shade of peapod?

Featuring artisan handmade creations by the Starving Artists jewelry Team, the SATeam members create handcrafted jewelry and beads. More information about our team and its current shop owner members can be found at SATEAM.etsy.com and here on ArtFire.

A perfect moment

Saturday morning. Off to the bakery. My eyes are still half closed and I'm tired. So I stumble downhill, buy my bread and stumble uphill again. When arriving at my back yard, I hear something rustling on the other side of the fence. At first I think it's the neighbor, but then I see them flying up to the tree behind me - three little finches chattering away.

Little bird necklace by 2 Belles and a Bead

I look around to see if someone or something has disturbed them, but they probably just got together for some kind of bird coffee klatsch. The cat behind the window staring down is no danger for them, although I wouldn't trust him if he was out here now.

The cat came back lampwork bead by Fireballbeeds by Islandgirl

Slowly I begin to wake up and see things that have changed in our little garden over the last few days. I can't remember the flowers over there. I give them a nod to greet them - and spring - in our corner of the world.

Flower earrings by Creations by Carol Ladine

Now the sun is coming out hesitantly. It looks a little as if it's not quite awake, either. It won't be here in our yard before afternoon, but I can see it on the rooftop across the street, a single promising ray.

Domed brass earrings by O'Refined

The finches are still in their tree, probably talking about the crazy woman looking up at them with a big smile on her face. I don't care. All is good this very moment.

I heart Earth - tree necklace by Paintin by Faith

By Cat's Wire

Featuring artisan handmade creations by the Starving Artists jewelry team. SATeam members create handcrafted jewelry and beads. More information about our team and its current shop owner members can be found at SATEAM.etsy.com and here on ArtFire.

Favorite Tool - Elbow rests

As a lampworker (beadmaker) I spend a lot of time sitting, which isn't all that great for my already compromised back. When I set up my work station I had one of my physio people come in and look at how I had things set up. He raised my chair and mentioned I needed something to rest my elbows on. I had a piece of black foam for a long time but it finally compressed down and was almost useless. I had seen bean bag style elbow pads but often they were fabric, which would of course get holes fast with hot glass bits flying about. I cannot unfortunately remember where I found these leather ones but I love them. They are easy to clean and don't burn through if a hot piece of glass happens to land on them.

Blog Carnival March 2011

It's the last Sunday of the month, so that means it's blog carnival time again!  This month, the topic for the members of the Starving Artists team is "Who has influenced your jewelry work?"

Please follow the links below to read what some of the team members have to say on the subject.

Bead Sophisticate

Island Girl

J3 Jewelry

BeadSire

The FamiLee Jewels
 

Featuring artisan handmade creations by the Starving Jewelry Artists team. SATeam members create handcrafted jewelry and beads. More information about our team and its current shop owner members can be found at SATEAM.etsy.com and here on ArtFire.

Old Photographs and Fashion

I've been going through the huge pile of photographs in my den. To my horror some had bonded with the plastic film on those old "magnetic film" pages in a couple of albums. Fortunately the ones lost were mostly sightseeing pics. But 25-year-old pics of my children were starting to brown around the edges and the colors were fading and the deep darks were lightening. This is ironic because I worked for Kodak in the 1980's. So, my big project for this long and snowy winter has been to scan and fix photos that will soon be useless and nothing more than bits of paper.

Oddly enough, the old black and white baby pics of my grandmother (1898) and other family members were in better condition. The images were fairly clear, although they still required a bit of adjusting, mostly the shadows. Well, while looking through 115 years of photos, including tintypes (yes, those photos were actually on tin), I came across some very stylish ladies. Some I knew and some I didn't. Then I wondered what they might have worn as jewelry? (Or not, depending on the situation.)

The photo at the start of this post has a date of 1919. I have no idea of who she is (please, please mark names on the back of your photos, people!). This was probably a school graduation photo since she's all dressed in white. The only thing she's wearing is a flower corsage and a really big bow in her hair.

Fast forward to the 1920's. This lady appears to be wearing another corsage or maybe a fabric flower. (Fabric flowers are seen often in today's fashions.)



Now to the 1930's. Here's my grandmother wearing in a typical streamlined suit. Notice the the hat has a brooch or pin in it:

I got to thinking what she might have worn, so here's a typical pin (from "Vintagecostumejewelry"):

This reminds me of the color forcasts in previous posts.

This photo has absolutely nothing to do with jewelry but it's simply too cute not to post here (my mother, late 1920's, she's about 4 yrs. old):



Last but not least, for all the men reading this: be glad your baby photo didn't look like this: my grandfather is the baby, his brother is in...the dress. This was common among middle class families at the turn of the century.

(At least the older brother didn't have long curls like my other grandfather had to wear! He was still embarassed by that photo until the day he died. But he had really nice hair...)

Tennessee River Pearls

One of the most significant freshwater pearl farms in the world lies on the Tennessee River in the United States.



Because of the large size of these freshwater mussels, many shapes and sizes can be cultured.



Most of the pearls for sale at the gift shop when I visited were coin, pear and tablet shaped. After nucleation these mussels are left do their thing for three to five years before harvesting, yielding a high quality and lustrous cultured pearl because of the extremely thick nacre.



You are probably still wondering why this little farm is so important. The pearl output, in global terms, is minuscule. The significance lies in the shells of these mussels. 95% or more of the world's cultured pearls are nucleated with beads carved from these shells. Thus far, no better nucleus material has been found.

Lampwork Time

The talented glass artists of the SATeam are creating some phenomenal lampwork beads! Check out their newest works below, and click on the links below the images for more information:

Purple Haze - handmade lampwork focal bead by beadupastorm

Violet and Emerald Handmade Lampwork Glass Beads by MyPrecious

Melbourne - Handmade Glass Lampwork Focal Bead by melissabeads

Floss Lampwork Earring Bead Set by NValentineStudio

Fireballbeeds - Jellies in my bead by islandgirl

Featuring artisan handmade creations by the Starving Artists jewelry Team, the SATeam members create handcrafted jewelry and beads. More information about our team and its current shop owner members can be found at SATEAM.etsy.com and here on ArtFire.

Look to the rainbow

This is one of my favorite songs from the movie "Finian's Rainbow". There will be not many words today, just follow me to look at the rainbow ...

Real rose necklace - Red by MC Stoneworks

Orange beaded pendant necklace by Bead Origami

Jade, aquamarine and vessuvianite earrings by Wickwire Jewelry

Peridot earrings by Elegance and Sparkles

Aquamarine and silver ring by Northern Girl Jewelry

Ring with lapislazuli inlay by TJR Jewellery

Purple rain earrings by Red Bird Jewellery

By Cat's Wire

Featuring artisan handmade creations by the Starving Artists jewelry team. SATeam members create handcrafted jewelry and beads. More information about our team and its current shop owner members can be found at SATEAM.etsy.com and here on ArtFire.

Favorite tool - Ott Light

I love my Ott Light. I got three of them at Micheals with a coupon about 6 months ago and I use them a lot more than I thought I would. I have one beside my sink for examining beads once they are clean, it's also a area I do some resin work so it's helpful to have good light there. I've got one in the metal studio right by where I do the bulk of my wire wrapping, I find it saves my eyes to have some extra light there. The third moves around a bit, I use it when setting stones so it often goes with me where ever I may be doing that. I take it up to the School House Studio as I often do finishing work there. I am so glad I bought them, they tend to be expensive but with a 40% off coupon they really are worth the investment.

Bracelet Season

Today is the first day of Spring in the northern hemisphere.  This means it will soon be short sleeve weather.  And what is the perfect accessory to go with short sleeves?  Bracelets! 

Bracelets can add so much style and personality to a look.  They can be delicate and feminine or big and bold.  They can showcase your favorite item or show off your support for a cause.  You can match a bracelet to your outfit one day and match one to your mood the next.

I love how noticeable bracelets are.  Most of us move our arms around quite a lot during a day so a bracelet is sure to catch the eye of those around the wearer.  Don't be shy to express yourself through your choice of arm candy.

Doesn't this bracelet just call out "spring"?  The pretty flowers and feminine lines are perfect for this gentle season of reawakening. 

Sterling Silver and Purple Lampwork Flower Bracelet by Wickwire Jewelry

I can feel the movement of this bracelet and hear the soft tinkle of the charms as they gently sway in the air.  I would love to have this butterfly garden adorn my wrist.



Flutterby Dreams - Lampwork Sterling Charm Bracelet by Studio DTQ


This bracelet certainly makes a big statement!  Like the Ancient Egyptians, you too can wear jewelry featuring a scarab. 

Scarab Beetle Cuff Bracelet by MC Stoneworks

Perhaps you prefer bats to beetles?  Or maybe you want to remember a visit to a particular place?  This flattened penny bracelet allows you to show off your love for winged creatures.

Pressed Penny Copper Bangle Bracelet: Fruit Bat by The FamiLee Jewels

You don't want to wear a creature but you do love texture?  Then here is the perfect piece.  This copper cuff bracelet has a rich, sophisticated look, don't you think? 

Shiny Bubbles Copper Cuff by Twining Vine Designs

 
How many bracelets do you have in your collection?  Do you wear a different piece each day or do you find yourself going back to the same favorite one over and over again?

Featuring artisan handmade creations by the Starving Artists jewelry Team, the SATeam members create handcrafted jewelry and beads. More information about our team and its current shop owner members can be found at SATEAM.etsy.com and here on ArtFire.