Thursday, March 31, 2011

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.

12 comments:

DawninCal said...

This was a fun challenge and it's always a pleasant surprise to see the diversity of designs and interpretations of the theme offered by the participants.

Looking forward to the April challenge!

Anonymous said...

Beautiful pieces, I love Julie's cute little heart.

mcstoneworks said...

Great diverse pieces. Congratulations, ladies on meeting the challenge.

Jeanne/J3Jewelry said...

What a wonderful and diverse group of entries for the March Challenge. I love them all!

Cat said...

I had big fun with this challenge and I'm totally in love with the pieces.
My absolute favorite however is Caron's pendant!

AMDesignsbyAngela said...

What wonderful submissions...They certainly met the challenge. I had planned to enter, but the month just got away from...Good job SATeam!

Randee M Ketzel said...

Okay, now understand my comment is subject to a wee bit of prejudice--I am holding Jeanne's bracelet in my hand right now-it arrived this afternoon--and the craftsmanship and sheer artistry of this piece is simply breath-taking. It is a gorgeous work of art that will be handed down through my family for generations to come. Ya'll are so lucky to have this talented lady as a member!


Randee M Ketzel

RMKDesign

EleganceandSparkles said...

All beautiful entries. The talent shines through.

DawninCal said...

Hi Randee!

It's great to read your post after reading it, we appreciate what a talented and wonderful lady our Miss Jeanne is even more.

Thank you so much for stopping by and posting - you're awesome!

:)

Dawn

Islandgirl said...

I had those little gold seed beads sitting there just clamoring to be used! They thank you for letting them out of their dark drawer! Lovely work everyone... this challenge got a lot of response!

Caron Michelle said...

These challenges are so much fun, the amount of creativity, skill and talent within this group never ceases to amaze me, they are an amazing bunch! Thanks Cat, you are a darling, you know its mutual admiration here too!

RitaJC said...

Great entries everyone!
Sorry for not participating: had health issues :(
Looking forward to the new theme!