Hops Swaps and Challenges

Coming Soon – 31 Days of Craft Storage Ideas

September 29, 2014 By Karen Mitchell

This October I’m participating in blogging, desk with computer Nester’s 31 Day Writing Challenge . 31 Days is an online writing challenge where bloggers write a post on a chosen topic every day in October. Everyone participating in the 31 Day Writing Challenge links up on October 1st so we can see and read the topics that interest us.

Normally, I’m a sporadic blogger so I hope this challenge will help me get into a rhythm of writing a blog post every day. I hope you’ll join me on this new adventure. It will be interesting to commit to this, as the first two weeks in October are school holidays here, but with a truck load of organisation (and some help from Pinterest) I hope to be able to blog for the entire 31 days. My category is Simplicity and Organizing and the final title of the series Craft Storage Ideas.

I hope you will join me and return on October 1st for the first post. Alternatively you can subscribe to my blog newsletter, which includes links to every post, by signing up by e-mail below. Thank you for visiting.

My Country Blog Hop – South Australia

July 1, 2014 By Karen Mitchell

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.

Bead Soup Blog Party Reveal

May 10, 2014 By Karen Mitchell

Thank you for stopping by! Today is the 8th Bead Soup Blog Party reveal and blog hop. What is a bead soup I hear you ask? It’s a wonderful collection beads, comprising a gorgeous focal and a clasp, that is exchanged between partners from anywhere in the world, and on reveal day (today) we share what we’ve created with the beads we received!

In case you missed my post about the beads I received, here’s an other photo of them. I received a huge bead soup from my partner, Esterina. She was clever enough to realise that she could fill the box with beads and not have to pay extra postage, I wish I had though of that! Esterina is a polymer clay artist and she sent me some of her own beads, including two focals, that are amazing! She really is quite talented.

Here’s the first piece I created with the soup Esterina sent me. I used the clasp, one of the gorgeous focals, two of the coordinating polymer clay beads, faceted amethyst and rose quartz, silver beads and purple ceramic beads, all from the soup. I added some glass pearls and daisy spacers. I used a silver pinch bail to attach the focal to the strand of beads.

Here’s a few more photos of the polymer clay beads and focal.

I thought a few earring were in order. The first pair match the necklace. I used some of the pumpkin shaped ceramic beads from the soup and paired them with larger glass pearls. The second pair pretty much made themselves, keishi pearls from the soup and silver stardust beads. The last pair I made with the batik leather drops and lampwork beads also from the soup and hung from purple anodised niobium hooks.

Here’s a quick memory wire bracelet, using the lampwork beads and random wooden and enamel beads from my own bead soup bowl. I was hoping to have another bracelet completed and ready to show all of you but I’m still waiting on a set of carved wooden beads that I just had to have!

Well enough about my soup, head on over to my bead soup partner, Esterina of e-Klei Jar and then all the others! Please visit Lori of Bead Soup Blog Party for a full list of the participants.

Bead Soups have arrived!

March 31, 2014 By Karen Mitchell

Don’t you love this time of year, when the handmade bead and jewellery community come together and exchange the most glorious beads! Today I’m going to share the soups my Bead Soup partner and I exchanged!

Yay! Bead soups have arrived and now it’s time to play show and tell.

Soup sent

First things first, the soup I sent off to my partner Esterina. I began preparing a beads soup right after the signup day, I don’t usually do this, I like to wait until I find out about my partner. Well, don’t you know it, I had prepared a bead soup with a polymer clay focal that was a little too much like what my partner usually worked with. After emailing each other we agreed to challenge each other a little, which is what the Bead Soup Party is all about, so I changed the soup completely.

This is the soup I sent my partner! A cloisonné focal, czech glass beads of various types (pressed glass, fire polished beads and some matte “beach” style beads), an enamel leaf, blue dragonscale agate, mixed 6/0 seed beads, pineapple quartz disks, an s clasp and a polymer clay mood bead. I’m not sure how these are made but when you hold it in your hand it changes colour; yellow, brown, green, blue and purple are some of the colours I’ve seen. I included it because the design seemed to be similar to the blue flower on the focal.

bead soup, BSBP8, Bead Soup Blog Party, Over the Moon Design

Soup Received

Now it’s time to share with you the beads soup I received from my partner.

Bead soup, BSBP8, polymer clay bead soup

Quite an embarrassment of riches! I could barely fit all of these lovelies in one picture, so I sectioned them out into my favourite dish and photographed them.

top left are the gemstones – amethyst coral and rose quartz

top right – African and Indonesian lampwork beads

middle left – coconut shell beads and batik leather beads

middle right – silver spacer beads, keishi pearl, purple ceramic beads and two clasps

And finally in the bottom picture some of Esterina’s own polymer clay beads

Already without even trying I can “see” at least 3 pairs of earrings, 2 bracelets and 3 necklaces. We shall see just how many pieces I can get done before the reveal on May 3rd. I might just be making things with this soup for quite some time to come :)

Bead Soup is Cooking!

March 18, 2014 By Karen Mitchell

Back After a Break

It’s been a long time since I last wrote a blog post, a whole season in fact. The reason is simple: I wanted to spend the Summer holidays with my girls before they decided their mum was too boring to be around, lol. I suppose I’m quite lucky, both the girls and I have common interests and a similar sense of humour, although I really can’t wait until the youngest outgrows the teenage eye rolling, groans and muttering to herself!

And Now for the Bead Soup

One thing I didn’t want to miss is the 8th Bead Soup Blog Party, organized by Lori Anderson of Pretty Things. This is my third BSBP, you can read about my past creations here. This year my partner is Esterina of e-Klei Jar in Indonesia. This is her first BSBP and we have been emailing each other, and as usual, Lori has made a great pairing with us!

Esterina makes gorgeous polymer clay beads and jewellery which you can see on her blog. Here are some of my favourites.

After chatting with my partner via emailing I’ve put together an interesting bead soup for her. Here’s my teaser photo.

The reveal date for this blog party is May 3rd. For more information and the full list of participants please visit Lori’s blog closer to the reveal date.

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Coming Soon – 31 Days of Craft Storage Ideas

My Country Blog Hop – South Australia

Bead Soup Blog Party Reveal