September Monthly Challenge Recap

I think this painting by Paula Modersohn-Becker of the Old Poorhouse Woman is a fun choice for the start of fall. The garden of poppies on the field of green really grab me. The floppy heads of the poppies are mimicked in the circle pattern on her skirt and her bonnet. The colors are muted yet vibrant shades of red, pink, gold, green and blue. So much to love in this painting! Thank you to Mary Harding for pointing out this wonderful artist to me and suggesting we add her to our 2016 lineup!

Let's see what you did!

If you created something for the September challenge, please share your link with us! Get the InLinkz code for your blog: get the InLinkz code

Designing with Wood Beads

A few weeks ago, I was selling my ceramic beads in Pompano Beach, Florida and during a quick power shopping moment, I discovered natural wood beads and sticks at the Koru Beads booth. Tracey Jackson sells the most beautiful beads made from nature - shells, stones, wood, and so much more.  But the wood - I had to have it!  So many types and shades.  I was thinking earrings with the sticks and mini logs, pendants with the drift wood pieces (layering a beachy ceramic bead on top perhaps) and a stacking pendant with the longer sticks.  I also purchased a beautiful strand of Tibetan Agate that the color stripes matched up in pairs for earring accents.  Here's my haul:

So far I have made 2 pairs of earrings.  I made the birds out of mid fire buff clay and glazed one pair in shiny brown and one pair in shiny smokey blue.  So with the mini logs, a little bling gets thrown in to break up the brown tones.  I used 20g Vintaj wire and earring findings to wire wrap the pieces together.

The smokey blue glaze matched this pair of Tibetan Agate beads nicely.  I used the 2 shortest sticks, a crystal accent and again, 20g Vintaj wire and earring findings to wire wrap the pieces together.

Tracey will be adding the wood beads to her website this week, so be sure to check out www.truthjackson.com to get some for yourself!  I know I am excited to use the rest of my treasures in the near future.

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