Do Over Challenge

I love the idea of mystery boxes and the anticipation of what could possibly be inside.  The do over challenge from Jeannie was totally up my alley and I'm thankful for my dear sister-in-law and fellow jewelry designer/enabler for hooking me up with the link.  It's also a treat to get some fun mail and not all the political crap-o-la that is filling my mail box, but that's another rant.

I received a sweet three piece set of pink and white pearls with a pink and silver foil heart.  After taking the before pictures and taking all three pieces apart, I honestly just stared at the beads.  I'm not much of fan of the sweet, pink pearls and my first instinct was to recreate the beads into a bracelet for my one year old niece.  Unfortunately, little miss is going to have to wait a while for auntie to make her another bracelet.

Standing on my chair to reach my bead stash above my desk (to keep little busy hands in my household away), I started pulling out random beads.  Not sure what my color scheme was going to be, I just pulled beads out until I had at least 6 colors to choose from.  Once I saw the pink and brown ceramic beads, this was my jumping off point.  At first, I had planned a necklace, but the number of beads needed and my design wasn't cooperating.  I set it aside for a couple of days and when on with my life, wife and mom duties.

As I was sitting in bible study this past Wednesday, the design came to me - three stand bracelet.  Cha-ching!!  I drew out my design and then came home and went to work.  The third strand with the chain and aqua beads went through a few color changes before I felt the piece sang.  The only pieces I did not use were the white pearls, one of the claps and the earring wires.

I do love wearing multiple strands of bracelets, but rarely were a multiple strand piece at one time.  This was a good challenge for me and even though pink is so not my color (mom of 3 boys...) it was fun to play with and be challenged.

Feel free to do a little blog hopping with the other participants of Jeannie's 4th Do Over Challenge.

Jeannie K Dukic http://site.jkdjewelry.com/blog

Miranda Ackerley http://mirandack.com/

Patti Vanderbloemen http://myaddictionshandcrafted.blogspot.com/

Marlene Cupo http://amazingdesigns-marlene.blogspot.com/

Mary Govaars http://mlhjewelrydesigns.com/

Kelli Jacobson http://www.creativemoonjewelryandthings.com/

Dagi http://kokopellidesign.blogspot.com/

Gerry Nickerson http://gersgems1.blogspot.com/

Charlene Jacka http://clay-space.com/blog

Birgit Klughardt http://www.gitesbeads-gite.blogspot.com/

Mowse Doyle http://mowsemadethis.blogspot.com/

Renetha Stanziano http://lamplightcrafts.blogspot.com/

Debbie Beechy http://beetique56.blogspot.com/

Cilla Watkins http://www.tellyourgirlfriends.com/

Carolyn Lawson http://carolyncreationswa.blogspot.com

Micha Sorensen http://tulipsandpine.blogspot.com

Emma Todd http://www.apolymerpenchant.com

Donetta Farrington http://simplygorgeous-donetta.blogspot.com/

Tracy Stillman http://www.tracystillmandesigns.com/

Rita Avila http://www.jewelschoolfriends.com/

Day 317

Future Jewelry Designers

Day 126

Happy Birthday to ME!!

Day 332

While Mike and I were enjoying our quiet evening together, I spent my time wrapping wire and beads into a bracelet. It's my trial pieces from the berry vines class and unfortunately it's too big to be a bracelet, so I'm thinking it will have to be transformed into another piece, but I like the bright copper with the blue green beads.

Day 325

I have been on a jewelry kick of late and took a picture of a couple of pairs of earrings that I have recently made. The one on the left is a cherry quartz faceted square bead dangling from a hand forged and hammered S swirl. The pair on the right is vintage Lucite blue with silver swirls through out the bead.

Day 323

One of my new toys I got while shopping at Hobby Lobby in Tulsa was a beading lap tray. I thought this would be great to have another way to work on my jewelry and can transport this to various rooms around the house or take it with me on a trip. I am working on a new necklace using more fabulous lucite beads I recently purchased at The Beadin Path.

Day 306

Another month of preschool began today and it was another day of mom working in the class. One of the projects was to string beads onto a necklace. Andy, with some assistance, was able to find all the letters to his name and then strung them onto the string. It was a fun time in the class and I'm really proud of my little beader.

Day 298

Tonight I pulled out a few beads and started playing with a couple of ideas for a necklace for a friend. It will probably take me more time to figure out my color scheme than to string it together. I'm thinking more pink and brown, but we shall see what happens.

Day 270

This morning my beading partner in crime and I skipped church to take a jewelry class by Scott David Plumlee. The gal who owns the beadclub in Woodinville managed to get him to teach some classes over the weekend, so we jumped at this chance. Normally, Scott teaches at beading shows and the cost is significantly more. Today we learned how to use an electric screwdriver to make components of wire and beads and then used jump rings to make a chain. I always enjoy learning new techniques and how to use everyday tools in creating jewelry.

Day 195

About a week and a half ago, I received an email from the parent company of the beading and knitting emails I receive informing me of what they call a "hurt sale". They have too many books and supposedly some were not perfect, so they off load them for a discount. I purchased two beading books that I have been pining for and one knitting book all for less than $25. The receipt stated it would be 3-5 weeks before I received my order, so I was totally stoked when they showed up on my door step this evening.

pic of bead books