November 7, 2008

"Don't go into the light!!!"

Or my other funny title "WELCOME TO THE THUNDERDOME!!!! Three designers enter! One designer leaves!" Ok! Enough with the humor! There is jewelry to be designed!

Heather of Humblebeads sent some of her amazing beads out to me and to jewelry designer Lorelei with a design challenge, and I sent some pendants out to Heather and Lorelei. The rules were simple, create jewelry using at least one of each artist beads in each design. I myself noticed right off that I should have sent out a few smaller round beads, as the pendants were too big to make earrings. This mistake limited my designs to necklaces or bracelets. Doh! I had some really fun ideas for Heather beads and was really drawn to her color palate of warm rich reds, golds and creamy whites. Her beads were inspired by this painting by John Singer Sargent...



Oddly, I'd created the Lucky Lantern pendants a wile back but had never seen the painting. After seeing it I applied glaze in a way that would make the lantern pendants look like they were glowing with light. I would have loved to add a bit of black to the top and bottom of the pendant too but worried that it would bleed into the "paper" area. But the black would have made them even more like the painting.

Heather's oval floral bead has a beautiful blue color and I'd purchased some beautiful Iolite round beads last August that matched perfectly! I wasn't sure how I was going to use them when I purchased them... Serendipity!

Check out Heather's Humblebeads Blog and Lorelei's Blog to see what they did in this challenge!

The beads we all received...



The jewelry I made...





6 comments:

Lorelei Eurto said...

Absolutely gorgeous work G-
I love them. The bracelet is my favorite...I love how you wire wrapped the blue and white lily bead!!!
This was a blast, as always!!

Melissa J. Lee said...

I love how you framed the pendant in the top necklace! So fun!

Heather Powers said...

We don't need another hero...opps sorry, that was a little mad max flashback.

I love them! Isn't it funny that we both used ribbon on our necklaces? I love the mix of textures on the necklace, it's wonderful. And the hoop, a perfect element to frame your pendant!

Thank you for sharing in the fun. I must get more lanterns!!!

SarahKelley said...

Absolutely *awesome* bracelet!

Joelle said...

So pretty. Such a lovely color palette and nice use of the fabulous silk ribbon!
BTW, I'm back in business on my blog.

Gaea said...

Thanks all! I noticed it has a red, white, & blue theme and I'd made it on election night! Thank goodness Joelle! I was thinking I would have to set the blog goons out on you!