Friday, September 25, 2015

It's Here! The B'sue Boutiques September CHANGE IT UP Vintage Flair Challenge Blog Hop Big Reveal!

That's a mouthful!

You've seen a LOT of great designs today. Thanks for hanging in there this far! 

As you probably know by now, we all had to choose at least one from these four pieces below to use for the challenge (available for sale here): 


I ordered more than one, because I had no idea where I was going at first. Thankfully, when we were given a link to the wonders of Joseff of Hollywood, the gears started turning. By the time my order arrived and I combined it with my stash hoard, I almost had too many ideas to know where to start!

I wound up saving that tie for strategic steampunk purposes. 

As you can see, the first thing I did was cut the cuff in half. I picked out some vintage from my B'sue Etsy store orders and made the base for two necklaces. 


I let things go bling crazy for the one on the left, which resulted in this piece:


I needed sunglasses to photograph it!

But you can't really see the main element, so while this can get filed under "Vintage Flair," it's not quite changed from how I might use it otherwise. 

No....This is a job for two elements.  Actually two and half, but we'll get to that in a minute.  I bent the floral component (upper left of our choices) all sorts of ways and pondered a bracelet, but it wasn't satisfying on its own. I sat it down on the remaining half of the cuff piece, and knew what I needed to do. 

I took all the skills I've been gathering from my Etsy ventures; my rosary making, my assemblage, my metal bending and coloring...and threw them at this piece. 

I tried the pearl cabochon you see in the stash photo, but it seemed to get lost. Then I remembered; I've had this magical big blue gem since I was a kid. Never had anything it seemed to go with. It's been sitting in a baggie in one my bins forever and a day. 

Not this exact one, but to give you the idea what it looks like.

On this day, it got its time to shine. It needed to be cradled completely, and my one flower bit didn't do the job, so I had to get creative.

*snip!* Good thing I've got a bunch of these!
I stared at all the bright brass looking back at me. Needs something. Despite already being assembled, I needed to be creative again:

Testing 1-2-3...
"Hmm the bottom needs something. What's that? Tassels are a thing again? Say,...."

Without further ado, here she is:





Whee! Thank you Brenda Sue Lansdowne for the inspiration and fun (and all those goodies).

Now it wouldn't be a blog hop if I didn't give you the list of all of us you can visit, so here it is!

You may have started with Brenda's blog here

Here's the rest of us:
Mary Deis
The Rose Sword
Jann Tague
Clever Designs
Lori Beekman
B.Accessorized
Renee Hong
Fine and Dandy Jewelry
Cynthia Wainscott
Exotic Peru Jewelry
Dana Hickey
Magpie Approved
Mary Beth Quigley-Spiker
Q Settings
Karen Eaton
KJewelry Creations
Shari Gardner
SLG Jewelry Designs
Alison Huie
Ally's Baubles
Pamela Anger
Novegatti Designs
Carole Carlson
Beadsophisticate
Cindy Peterson
Howling Dog Jewelry
Marcia Tuzzolino
Aurora Designs
Charlotte Smothers
Sea Horse Ranch Life
Catherine Shattuck
Victorian Rose Boutique
Clare Wells Nemeth
Papercrafting Magic
Erin Whitacre
Shattered Time
Lynda O'Mara
Lomara Creative
Ginger Hammond
Lynn Leigh Designs
Ingrid Anderson
Lilis Gems Artisan Jewelry
Deb Beechy
Beetique
Harry Wood
Oscar Crow
Delyssa Maxwell
Past Time Fancies
Paula Gaskill
Lovely Layla Bugs
Irene Hoffman
Heart's Dezire by Irene
Alexandra Sefton
Imaginary Jewelry and Altered Art
Leslie Carver  (Hey, that's me!)
Adorn Divine Designs 

Thank you for joining us! 






Friday, September 18, 2015

Ever had an idea that just wanted out?


I had several of those butterfly fairies fluttering about my worktable.


They were just asking to have something interesting behind them, but I didn't want to just attach them flat. If you've seen my wing earrings, you know I've gotten into bending things lately, so sure enough I found myself twisting them all sorts of ways. Here are two that came out of the adventure: 


One of my butterflies was silver plate, so I had to give its raw brass backing a silver treatment. Wound up treating the bead caps, too. I need to remember to look up suggestions for doing that, since it's not so much fun chasing tiny things around on a plate! Funny enough, finding the right beads to match the reddish pink faux-opal effect of the cabochon was the hardest part. "Colors between the colors," indeed!

But "Best in Show" for this lot was definitely this one:


Not so easy to get that opal like effect to show on camera, but you get the idea. I got in some good wire wrapping practice here. 

I'm working steadily now on my pieces for the September "Change it Up" Challenge and blog hop on September 25!

B'Sue Boutiques Change it Up Blog Hop

Wednesday, September 9, 2015

It all started with an octopus...

...this one to be exact:

http://www.bsueboutiques.com/product-p/rb01526.htm


The August Monthly Challenge theme for B'sue Creative Group on Facebook was "End of Summer/Under the Sea." I had a few of these eight-armed fellows hanging around (you can get them here) and some strands of beads that reminded me somewhat of seaweed/coral ocean type scenery, so I decided to play around a bit.

The oxidized brass octopus got the green beads and nautical looking chain. I'm still debating the starfish on this one. Too much green? Perhaps a little Swellegant is in order here.


For the second variation, I used the chocolate octopus above with some of the same beads in ivory. Wow, it wound up looking eerily like bone. I just went with it, and gave him a little skull souvenir. This guy means business!


But the winner turned out to be the octopus I gave a little patina treatment to, along with the turquoise version of the beads:



This one wound up being my August Challenge entry. He won me a spot in the B'sue Boutiques Blog AND the newsletter, which was a first for me, and very exciting!

Haven't decided if I should be selling these or not. Lots of fun to do!