Bead Box to Go, prepped and ready

Today my mom is having outpatient surgery. I knew that since I'm the one taking her, I'd have plenty of wait time. And, here I am waiting. Not sure if I'd have internet access or battery; I came prepared. I've not only got my laptop and phone (plus chargers), my journal and a notebook, a book to read, some coloring pages and gel pens, and snacks; but I've also got a few jewelry-making supplies. As usual, I'm over-prepared. I like it that way. Since I spent several hours yesterday gathering the jewelry supplies, I figured I'd share some of what I collected.

I started with this craft organizer that already had a selection of beads and focals packed for vacation. With this in hand, I decided to tackle it like a muffin tin jewelry challenge and fill each compartment with the supplies needed to complete a piece. For the most part, I used what was already in the container, removing only the yellow beads as they just didn't speak to me. As well, I tried to use the focals that were already gathered. 

There weren't near enough focal elements for this task, so I dipped into my inspiration jar to select the rest. 

In the end, here's how the box looks now.

I tried to put the wire I would use in the large compartment on the left, but there just wasn't enough room. Instead, there's a small pair of scissors and a few beading needles there. Let me give you a closer look at what I assembled. 

These are compartments 1-4

#1 holds a focal made with an old pearl and rhinestone earring. As well, there are black Chinese crystals from ZnetShows.com, gold-tone chain and wire, and brass bead caps.

#2 is a Tim Holtz bar that I bent for bracelets, pink crystals, a toggle clasp, and Vintaj Arte Metal wire.

#3 has a large brass loop and more Chinese crystals from ZnetShows

#4 is a project I had just started and decided to throw in one of the open spaces. It's a hardware semi-circle thing, a few charms, and glass pearls.

#5 is a strand of freshwater pearls, a strand of clear crystals, and several religious charms.

#6 contains teal Chinese crystals, beading thread, and a couple of bead caps I altered with Vintaj Patinas.

#7 is my favorite of the whole box. There's an old chandelier crystal, a strand of aqua dyed quartz, an elaborate brass hardware piece, and aged brass wire.

#8 has a key that's been decorated with a smashed and colored button. To go with it, I added cultured sea glass tubes and small brass colored beads.

#9 holds a strand of amethyst chips, an enameled filigree bead, and a couple of charms. 

#10 is another favorite with a strand of labradorite, a lampwork bead, an enameled filigree bead, and a ceramic bead from Gaea.

#11 has another bead from Gaea (the heart bead), a polymer clay bead from Shipwreck Dandy, a lampwork bead from StudioJuls, pink plastic beads from an old necklace, and some Picasso Czech glass beads. 

#12 was a tough one. I wasn't sure what to do with those bright red beads. But, the large brown stone seemed to compliment it just right. I added a few gold colored bead caps, red beading thread, and red seed beads.

#13 contains a reproduction dog tag, an enameled bead, a chandelier crystal, black glass beads, and stone beads.

#14 has a ton in it. There's vintage white glass beads, Czech glass beads, and industrial chic element, brass bead caps, and a selection of small, various coordinating pieces.

#15 initially started as something else, but when the ceramic bracelet bar fell out of my hands and broke, I went in another direction. I kept the leaf fringe chain and leaf toggle but added a strand of olive green glass beads.

#16 is a conglomeration of what was left in the box: a large Tim Holtz tag (bent for a bracelet bar) and two different types of stones. We'll see how that one comes together.

In addition to all these elements, I've got a baggie of wire spools, a few neutral filler beads, pliers, and a bead mat on a clipboard. Most of the compartments also have any findings I might need (jump rings, headpins, etc.) Like I said, I think I'm prepared. Of course, I don't believe I'll NEED all of these items today for the short procedure. But, I've got this prepped and ready for today and the days to come. It's nice knowing the decisions are made and all I have to do is create. Now, to just off the internet and get to it.

Muffin Tin Jewelry Challenge Reveal

Earlier this week, I showed you the beads and bits I had gathered for Humblebeads' Muffin Tin Jewelry Challenge. Basically, you take a muffin tin, fill each cup with supplies to make a piece, take a picture, make your pieces, and reveal. Fun, right!?

I am so glad I jumped on this challenge as it forced me to put my hands on my beads as I rang in the new year. It was something I desperately needed to do. Here are my muffin tins full and ready to go. (Clicking on the pictures will enlarge them.)

In the left tin are supplies to make earrings and on the right, I gathered supplies to make necklaces and bracelets. You can watch my video of my prep and the content of the cups on YouTube.

Here are my completed earrings in their tin.

Those are kinda hard to see. . .

Here's a little better look at them.

Alright, I'll let you see them even better.

Then there's the earrings and bracelets.

Again, you can't see them real well in this picture.

Here's how the bracelets turned out.

And these are the necklaces, which I love!

Like I said above, this was a perfect way for me to start the new year. I liked that most of the supplies were already gathered and the decisions were already made. With this method, creating these pieces went quickly. I'm definitely going to have to remember to use this method when I get stuck in the future.

Thanks to Heather Powers of HumbleBeads for the challenge. It was just the push I needed. Make sure you head over to the HumbleBeads blog and check out the other designers results. Their links will be in the comments.

I'd love to know what you think. Thanks for stopping by!
Craft Happy!

Muffin Tin Jewelry Time!!

Oh yeah. . .it's Muffin Tin Jewelry reveal time.

You may remember that Art Bead Scene put out a one week, 12 project challenge to be organized into a muffin tin. I started the challenge a bit late and even when the rules were relaxed to 6 projects, I still chugged on to get my twelve completed.

I started with a 12-cup muffin tin. I actually had to go out and purchase one as I had recently disposed of my nasty, crusty, rusty, old one and was just using a 6-cupper.

Then, I started filling my cups.
For me, the first step to this was selecting focal beads for each of the twelve spots.

After that was done, I added complementary beads.

Finally, my task was to select the findings and wire for the projects.

Let me admit that filling the cups was the biggest hurdle in the whole challenge. Once that was complete, I knew exactly what I wanted and needed to do. I simply had to carve out the time to get the work done.

At last, here's the reveal of what was in each of the cups and what I made from it (clicking on the pictures will make them larger)

Cup one

Cup two (this one took me the longest as I had to resin the focal and three of the accent beads first)

Cup three

Cup four

Cup five (don't you just love that little hedgehog?)

Cup six

Cup seven

Cup eight (the focal is polymer clay)

Cup nine

Cup ten (took the longest to actually work with my hands, but is my favorite. . . I guess I just had time to bond with it!)

Cup eleven

Cup twelve (yes, that's the same focal. It's just two-sided)

Looking back over this challenge and realizing that I got twelve pieces made in way less than a week has left me with a sense of accomplishment. I'm seriously considering taking up this muffin-tin method as a weekly ritual. . .or semi-weekly ritual. I really liked the fact that once everything was in the cups, I knew exactly what I had to do. The figuring out and fretting was over. When I walked into my craft room each day of the challenge I knew exactly what needed to be done. There was no staring blankly at beads or rummaging through drawers and bins (at least not after the first day.) And the whole tin was easily transportable into the living room or any other area I wanted to work. Even though the pressure was on to get the projects done by today's deadline, there was very little stress involved. In addition, this would be a great method to use when preparing for a trip or vacation.

I could probably go on about how much I enjoyed this, but I also need to mention that it helped me recognize how easy it is to forget about the little things you need in a bead design. . .the seed beads, the jump rings, crimp beads, clasps, etc. I found a few times as I worked on a project that I had left out a small thing and had to deviate from my muffin cup to get what I needed to complete a piece.

All in all, I really had a great time and thank Heather for extending this challenge to us. Even if I don't win the prize, I'm so glad I got to participate. Thanks!

Jumping on the ABS Challenge Bandwagon

As the title clearly states, I'm going to enter an Art Bead Scene Challenge. In fact I'm not only going to enter one, but TWO ABS challenges.

NUMERO UNO

The first is the June Monthly Challenge and I've already given you a peek at what I was creating for that challenge. I made it a point to complete that piece at the beginning of the week (you know, before the month runs out completely!)

Let me remind you what the inspiration piece of art is for the month.

Ophelia by Odilon Redon.

I've admitted that the piece completely caught my attention and captured my imagination. There was something about the pool that made me want to make sure there was a sort of reflection in the piece I made. I guess I hear pool (in an ages gone by sense) and think "reflecting pool". As such, I played and played with some tiny mirrors before finally realizing I could put one inside polymer clay and actually make the art bead myself.

In addition, I knew that I wanted to incorporate the yellow, blue, and grey in the piece. So I made the bulk of the piece to include those colors.

I'll admit that I'm not completely satisfied with this necklace, but this IS my first attempt at the Art Bead Scene Monthly Challenge. So, I guess it will do for now.

NUMERO DOS

Yesterday, I mentioned the Muffin Tin Challenge also going on over on the ABS Blog and  my interest in it. I WAS able to get my hands on a 12 cup muffin tin this morning and have spent the majority of the day filling my cups! Now, I'm not totally convinced I can get ALL of the projects in my cups done by Monday, but I'm sure as heck going to try! Here's a peek at my muffin tin.

Rest assured that whether I finish on time or not I WILL share it all with y'all!


Before I head out to work on those twelve projects, I do want to let you know that the fantastic Andrew Thornton is having a yard sale of sorts on both his Big Cartel shop and his Ebay site. There's some awesome stuff in both places, you could browse for hours!