Hops Swaps and Challenges

Epic Inspirations Blog Hop Reveal – Vikings

June 6, 2015 By Karen Mitchell

Hello and welcome to the Epic Inspirations Blog Hop Hosted by Melissa of Bead Recipes. Melissa has challenged several designers to create jewellery inspired by our favourite TV shows.

Having missed the Australian TV premier of Vikings due to horribly bad reception I had to wait for Netflix to arrive in Australia to start watching this great historical drama. Loosely based on the tales of the Viking warrior Ragnar, scourge of England and France.

Ragnar Lothbrok (played by Australian actor and model Travis Frimmel) is a Viking farmer and warrior who joins raiding parties to pillage and plunder on behalf of his local lord. Bored with continually raiding east every year Ragnar secretly commissions his own longboat and sails west during the annual raids. Lothbrok returns with slaves, plunder and a promise of further rich pickings.

Seeing as I seem to have a rather large reel of 12gauge copper I thought I’d try making some cloak pins.

I have to apologise for the dreadful pictures, the middle of winter is not the best time to take photos. I’ll replace them with better ones when the sun puts in an appearance.

Here’s just one of my favourites, I’ve worn it quite a few times with one of my crochet cowls. The loops at the top of the heart are adjusted for pinning thick material on one side and thinner on the other loop. For the pin top I attempted to create a rose. Might need a bit more practice to pull that style off.

I’m not sure if this type was every used by the Vikings, but this pin is a fairly simple fork style but this time I’ve wired a Lemon Jade bead to the top for a bit of colour and used a patina.

I know when I design the right kind of pin for this one it will be my absolute favourite! 12gauge copper wire, heavily patina-ed and finished with Labradorite beads. I’m thinking a plain pin with either lots of stamped texture or perhaps wire the top of the pin with more labradorite beads.

Next I think I’ll try my hand at a pennanular brooch. 😉

Please visit the other participants to see which TV shows inspired their creations for this hop.

Melissa Trudinger http://beadrecipes.wordpress.com (Hostess)

Karen Mitchell http://www.overthemoon-design.com <= you’re here

Andrea Glick http://zenithjade.blogspot.com/

Karen Martinez http://fairiesmarket.blogspot.com/

Lennis Carrier hhttp://windbent.wordpress.com

Lindsay Starr http://phantasmcreation.blogspot.com/

Mona Arnott http://bijouxgemsjoy.blogspot.com

Lee Koopman http://stregajewellry.wordpress.com

Shaiha Williams http://ShaihasRamblings.com

Veralynne Malone http://veradesigns.blogspot.com

Elisabeth Auld http://www.beadsforbusygals.com

Kelly Schermerhorn http://meanderingwithkelly.blogspot.com

Dini Bruinsma http://angazabychanges.blogspot.com/

Jami Shipp http://celebratinglifewithdamamashipp.blogspot.com/

The Art of Awareness Blog Hop Reveal

May 16, 2015 By Karen Mitchell

Today is the reveal for the Art of Awareness Blog Hop hosted by Lori Anderson of Pretty Things and Heather Millican of Swoondimples. The idea behind this blog hop is to make handmade jewellery featuring the handcrafted polymer clay “word beans” from Swoondimples. Each designer has chosen their own words and colours to reflect their personal cause.

I decided to create a piece to support Hearth Health which is an issue for myself and much of my extended family due to a wonderful (*sarcasm intended) disease called Familial Hypercholesterolemia.

I created a bookmark for my medical Filofax. I used brown leather and plum coloured felt beads which I embroidered with variegated thread. In future I must remember to embroider the felt beads before assembly, it’s really tricky doing this around the other beads, lol.

Filofax bookmark, art of awareness, mixed media, handmade, felt beads, polymer clay

And this is how it sits in my Filofax. I just open the rings and thread the jumpring on and close. When I get bored with my vintage Hamilton Filofax I can easily transfer all the papers and dividers along with my new bookmark into another planner.

What’s on the other side of my bead? I really didn’t know what word to choose to have on the other side of my bead! I wanted something about a long life and both creative and emotional fulfilment and when Leonard Nimoy (the original Mr Spock) pass away I knew exactly what to put on my bead. Live Long And Prosper.

I think it matches rather nicely with the vintage red roses I use for my dividers.

Art of awareness blog hop, bookmark, polymer clay, mixed media, felt beads, Filofax

I’ve rather enjoyed creating this mixed media piece and hope to play with more felt beads and polymer clay soon. Well, that wraps up this weeks blog hop. Please visit the other participants in The Art of Awareness Blog Hop.

Bead Peeps Swap and Hop

May 3, 2015 By Karen Mitchell

Yay! The reveal for the Bead Peeps Swap and Hop has finally arrived. This hop is hosted by Linda Anderson and the Bead Peeps Facebook group. Participants for this blog hop were paired up and asked to exchange a selection of artisan beads and reveal their final handmade jewellery designs today!

My partner this time around is Robin Kae Reed of Artistry HCBD, a US jewellery designer who makes gorgeous pieces with lots of gemstone beads and lovely charms. I can’t wait to see what she has made using the beads I sent her!

Robin sent me a beautiful selection of clasps and gemstone beads along with lovely artisan buttons, including some letter “K” charms.

I was very happy with this lovely collection of gemstones, buttons and charms as I had just ordered and received a reel of my favourite chain and two quite large spools of vintage bronze wire that I was eager to use.

I sketched out my designs and “shopped” my stash for a few beads to compliment the gemstones that Robin sent and decided to wait for a nice child free day to assemble my pieces.

Of course, you can guess what happened, I misplaced my wire spools and couldn’t find the chain! I suppose I could have used copper but I really wanted that buttery caramel look you get from vintage bronze. I searched high and low, the real kind of search that we women do, not the “bloke-y look” that men looking for their keys tend to do.

I ended up not finding the wire and ran out of time so here are what I have today.

I used a button from Robin and some thread and picasso seed beads to crochet a wrap bracelet. When I find my wire I intend to add some of the gemstone chips on jump rings along the length and some tiny key charms.

Here I wired some peacock freshwater pearls to another matching button and used my pliers to twist the wire to match the clasp, also from Robin. I threaded this pendant onto a leather necklace. I hope to make a beaded chain from the green (jasper I think?) gemstones and some blue grey agate I have.

Finally, at the last moment I just had to make a scarf pin from the green jasper disks. I think I might have to patina the copper though. This one is going to go to my Mum for Mother’s Day next week, along with one of my crochet cashmere scarves (not pictured) and some lotion bars I made last week.

Although the designs in my head didn’t eventuate they will be completed one way or another and I promise to show you updated versions of the pieces.

To see what the other participants in the #BeadPeepsSwap created please check out the list here on Linda’s blog.

Bead Peeps Swap Partner Announcement

April 17, 2015 By Karen Mitchell

TADA! Partners for the Bead Peeps Swap and Hop have been announced. Bead Peeps is a kind of sister group to the Bead Soup Cafe on Facebook and this is the first Swap and Hop held by the group’s founder Linda Anderson. The rules for the swap are simple, two handmade artesian components (a focal + a clasp or a set of co-ordinating beads) are chosen by us and sent to our assigned partners. We make something spectacular with the two handmade items and reveal them on our blog on 2nd May.

My partner for this event is Robin Reed of Artistry HCBD. Robin and I connected and chatted on Facebook about some of our favourite materials and colours. I spent some time exploring her blog, Artistry HCBD.

Don’t you just love that bird focal! You can check out her Facebook page and her Indiemade store to see her gorgeous designs. Robin’s favourite materials are gemstones (agate and jasper in particular) and silks and leather, and her favourite colours are earthy tones.

I’ve sent Robin a few of my favourite artisan beads and gemstones. I’ll share a photo of the goodies I’ve sent early next week, along with the wonderful goodies I received from Robin.

2nd Annual Bead Hoarders Blog Hop Reveal

December 6, 2014 By Karen Mitchell

Welcome to the 2nd Annual Bead Hoarders Blog Hop!

Our hostess is the amazing and talented Lori Anderson of Pretty Things. The idea behind this blog hop is simple: use some of those lovingly hoarded beads and make something special with them!

Now, I’m the first to put my hand up and say I’m a hoarder, but it’s not just beads. Thankfully I’ve conquered the magazine hoarding (thank you digital subscriptions!) but I still have plenty of craft materials (yarn, vintage buttons, stationery…) and books. Many more than our little cottage can handle.

Slowly, over the last month, I’ve been sorting our living room, ready for Christmas decorating and I found tucked away in a box a stash of vintage buttons given to me by my husband’s grandmother. In her younger days my grandmother-in-law worked in one of Adelaide’s first Haberdashery stores called The Button Bar and collected some of the more unusual buttons they stocked. I even have some sampler sets, still on their original cards, in different colours and sizes. Many of the buttons date back to the 1920’s, I even had a small collection of WWI and WWII military buttons which I’ve passed on to another family member who is a military buff.

The Challenge

For this challenge I decided to use one of my specially hoarded buttons. Although not technically a bead I think it still qualifies. The button I used for this challenge I believe is circa 1940’s. I have this same design in four other colours and two different sizes. I’ve teamed the vintage button with brass chain in two styles (leftovers from another piece) and a mix of 4mm fire-polished Czech beads and Swarovski bi-cones in green.