Welcome the second My Country Blog Hop. The idea behind the blog hop is for each participant to choose a place they are familiar with and make a piece of art inspired by that place.

Last year I shared a pair of earrings inspired by Australian Aboriginal artworks, this year I thought I’d create something to reflect my home state, South Australia.

Did you know…?

• Although most of Australia was settled by convicts, South Australia was the only colony to be authorized by an act of the British Parliament and mandated to be completely free of convicts.
• The Letters Patent issued by the British Parliament included a guarantee of the rights of Aboriginal Natives, and their descendants, to their traditional lands (very progressive for the times!).
• South Australia is the home of many prominent wine regions. The Barossa Valley, McLaren Vale, Coonawarra, Clare Valley, Langhorne Creek and Padthaway just to name a few.

At first I thought I would create something inspired by the wineries surrounding our little cottage. A five-minute drive in any direction and you will find vineyards galore here in the Adelaide Hills. But, after sifting throughout my bead stash I found I ended up making a necklace inspired by something even closer to home.

This lovely plant is called a Callistemon or Bottlebrush and is native to Australia. The interesting thing about the Bottlebrush is that the seed pods are designed to dry out and burst open in a bushfire, releasing the seeds to grow in the scorched earth after the fire has passed.

Here is my interpretation of the Bottlebrush seed pods, made with green glass pearls and hand dyed silk ribbon.

Thank you for stopping by and for letting me share a little bit of South Australian history and flora. Please visit Nan’s blog for a list of all the other participants.

Welcome to the Wonky Bead Blog Hop!

The Mission

Purchase a “Wonky Bead Set” from Kristi Bowman Design at Etsy and create a piece of jewellery and share your creations of Reveal Day!

Mission Accepted!

Kristi had a number of different sets of the beads in her Etsy store, Fuchsia, Magenta and Red. Each set is a mixture of different shapes, sizes, colours and textures. Of course, I chose the Fuchsia set, and I couldn’t resist adding the earring set as well.

I had truly forgotten what it is like to work with polymer clay beads. This Wonky Bead set has a lovely feel, smooth and silky with a matte finish.

Purple Poppy components (earrings) by Kristi Bowman, Turkish Delight czech rounds (earrings) by Zoe & Bruno, Anodised Aluminium earring hooks in purple, Wonky beads by Kristi Bowman, Shabby Flower Frame by Patina Worx, Purple hemp and leather by Beadsmith, Sari silk  Beads made by me, Wood Beads, Pink faceted Tourmaline, Gold Stardust bead, Brass chain and clasp from stash.

I’m going to keep this set for myself, since I’ve already worn the earrings and the colours are perfect for almost everything in my wardrobe!

Bead Hoarding is an Addiction, it sits right up there with Bead Shopping! Of course you need to go shopping first, then the hoarding kicks in. There are two types of hoarders, the organised type and the dis-organised type. I am, of course, completely organised…NOT! My bead hoard is spread out everywhere! Although, mercifully it didn’t take very long for me to find the subject of this challenge. What took the longest was trying to find the brass jump rings and tiger tail. Still looking!

Lori Anderson of the Bead Soup Blog Party has given out a challenge. Dip onto our hoard of beads and just make something. Well, there were lots of decisions to make – what would I use, what shall I make, can I really bear to part with this or that? I ended up chosing one of my earliest hoardings and coincidentally the most expensive (curse you eBay!).

Quite a few years ago I attended a polymer clay workshop taught by Christie Friesen. During the workshop I made a bird brooch by following the steps in the Birds of a feather book, we were also introduced to some steampunk designs. A short while later Christie was having a sale on eBay, selling the pieces she made while creating the book Steampunkery. Well I couldn’t help myself I just had to have my own steampunk dragonfly. I’m not sure if it’s the one on the cover or made to photograph the instructions but it’s a CF original and I’m happy about that.

I knew I was going to have to do something with it someday, but I kept putting it off. I did however start a bead soup that I could use when I decided what I wanted to make. Earthy toned seed beads, freshwater pearls, brass beads and a few czech firepolished beads strung up and woven through the chain and sari silk to add just a bit of interest. The real stumbling block was the location of the holes in the wings. I’m not 100% happy with the setup of the chain at the moment, I may still tweak it.

What really surprised me was the green (likes more yellow in the first photo) sari silk. As you can see its quite frayed and organic looking, I had pictured a deep earthy purple but ended up using the green instead.

For a full list of participants please visit Lori