Design Challenge 2017 -- The Reveal!

Okay...Here it is...the big reveal of our Cousin Creative Circle Ambassador Design Challenge!

On March 6th, I told you guys about our 2017 design challenge we do as Cousin Corporation of America's Creative Circle Ambassadors. (See post here.) All of the ambassadors received the same package of beads, findings, charms, etc to create with. We were able to add in anything from our private stash of beads, charms, connectors, chains, etc to create unique pieces that fit our personality.

Speaking of personalities, here are our Ambassadors:
The Girlie Girl - Rebecca Grafton
The Mermaid - Dawn Doucette
The Die-Hard DIY/Professional Blogger - Jennifer Priest
The Crafty Mom - Rachel Goodman Nielsen
The Laid-Back Author - Lisa Crone
and me - The Wandering Gypsy

Our styles are so different from each other, yet we always seem to be able to create commonality with our pieces.  I'm so excited to share our designs.  You can click the above links to see what my creative sisters have come up with.  Below you can find mine.

Ombré Plum Tassel Druzy Necklace

The items used in this necklace came from the new "Tassel it Yourself" line as well as the standard Jewelry Basics line CCA has.

This faux druzy didn't start out all sparkly.  It was a dull, flat white. Very little shine to it at all.  The druzy is a piece of acrylic resin that has been shaped to look like a druzy.  I fell in love with a strand of ombré plum crystal beads and knew I wanted to do something fun with them.  While I was painting my toe nails, I had this brilliant idea of using the glittery polish on the druzy piece.  The color is "Salsa" and is made by China Glaze.  It was the perfect fit for those lovely crystals.

I also removed the connecting clips from the druzy.




I had this lovely sort of pale copper colored chain that seemed to go well with with coloring around the faux druzy.  I also had a lovely brown leather tassel from the same line as the faux druzy that I wanted to use as well.  The only issue was the jump ring was silver. I needed gold.  Not a big deal. I switched it out for a gold colored one to match the color scheme of the necklace.








I decided to use a short section of chain (four links long) to attach the druzy to the necklace instead of a standard jump ring just to be different.

I arranged the lovely crystals in a pleasing pattern and strung them on 19-strand jewelry wire with the chain sandwiched within the pattern and attached them to the chain.  I didn't use a clasp since I used such a long piece of chain.

I created bead dangles out of some of the left over crystals and attached them to the bottom of the druzy.

The second project was another necklace using blue Calcite stones, brown ceramic beads, beaded link chain, a cross pendant, beaded tassel, polished cotton knotting cord and silver plated beads to create a lovely layered piece.

The Blue Jean Bohem Necklace

The blue Calcite is from the Boho line, the beaded link chain and tassel are from the Tassel it Yourself line, and the cross and ceramic beads are from Jewelry Basics.

I kept the Calcite strand to a choker length so add to the layered look.

The brown beads came strung on hemp so I attached fold over ribbon clamps to each end so I could create the necklace.

I took pieces of the polished cotton knotting cord and folded them in half then strung on the silver plated beads and secured the ends with more old over ribbon clamps. I attached the two together to form the second layer.

I added a jump ring to the cross connector and attached it to the beaded link chain.  Again, I removed the connector clip from the tassel so I could attach it directly to the cross.

The end result is a gorgeously casual necklace that could very easily be worn with a dressy outfit as well.

I hope you have enjoyed these two pieces and hope you look over the other what the my fellow ambassadors have created.  Happy Beading!

What Would Happen - Part 3

Hello!  Today, I am continuing the series on the Design Challenge we ambassadors are working on.  In previous posts, I have introduced you to our design team challengers and showed you all the lovely supplies that were hand-picked by our design diva, Dawn Doucette.

Dawn fell into the Romantics team due to her style of designing.  Let me take a moment to reintroduce her:

Dawn Doucette -Victorian influenced, one of a kind designs, attention to the most intricate details, created works of art that become family heirlooms.
Dawn has been designing jewelry since she was a little girl. What began as loomed friendship bracelets evolved into a business of creating couture jewelry; Bella Amore Legacy Jewelry. Dawn works with gemstones, crystals, pearls and seed beads to create one-of-a-kind statement pieces. Her designs have been published in Beadwork Magazine; winning design contests and modeled by distinguished public speakers.


Dawn is giving us a glimpse as to what she is working on for our "Design Challenge". 

Summery colors for sure.  Even though these colors are bright and cheery, I find them highly relaxing at the same time.  They are like sitting in the sun on a beach enjoying a lovely breeze across the water. I love how Dawn played off the colors of the leaf with the coral colored gemstones totally unifying the look.  I really cannot wait to see the rest of this piece.  I know it is going to be amazing.  It looks like she also matched the bead backing to the color of the leather on the pendant as well.  Dawn's designs are very intricate and her attention to detail is unsurpassed.  I enjoy looking at all her designs.  Check out her site to see all her wonderful creations.

I have to say, I am really enjoying this challenge more than I thought I would.  I have been really spurred into creating things after being in a design funk for a while.  Thanks Dawn for helping me break through my designer's block.

Check out the previous posts:
What Would Happen?
What Would Happen - Part 2

What Would Happen: Design Challege Part 2

This is the second part to the blog series we as Creative Circle Ambassadors are doing for our "Design Challenge" issued by fellow ambassador Dawn Doucette.  In my previous post, I introduced you to our teams and showed you all the lovely goodies we received to create our pieces with.  Now it's time to show you a little of my design process and to tease you a bit before the big reveal at the end of March.

I gathered up a few of the supplies that seemed to just go well together and pulled from a few things I already had to accentuate what I was looking at.  I did make some changes to my initial design as some of the supplies didn't behave and want to play well with others.  The leather strap in the center was one of those supplies.  A few things shown in the background were also abandoned as the design took shape.  These supplies are available at your local craft stores and at Prima Bead.  Walmart carries a few of them as well.  I did accidentally inflict a war wound while working on this one.  My pliers slipped and scraped against my knuckle.

Don't you just love these copper paddles.

The next piece was a bit more complicated.  The beads are available on the Prima Bead website as well as your local craft store.  The sheet metal and heavy gauge wire (not shown) are available online from various retailers such as Rio Grande. I broke two saw blades cutting through the copper sheet. LOL.  I guess I wasn't holding my mouth right.  After the first initial cuts, I finished it up the cuts with my shears.

The design is purposely hidden underneath the copper sheet so you can't see what I am planning.

 Hopefully soon, I will let you know the progress of the other ladies. I am excited to see what they are up to.  Ciao for now!

What Would Happen?

So what would happen if you gave eight very unique designers the same exact beads to work with?   We are about to find out!  One of our Creative Circle Ambassadors, Dawn Doucette, came up with the idea and hand-picked our supplies for us and a great job she did too.

We have been issued a challenge to create unique items using the same pieces. Okay...sounds fun.  Reveal date will be on March 30th.   We can do whatever we want using the materials given and adding in our own findings, beads, chains, etc. that make us happy. 

I do plan to blog along the way as I brainstorm as to what to create.

Below I have grouped our ladies into "teams.  Most of them have been grouped together by their styles and techniques.  The last grouping is of the last two remaining original Creative Circle Ambassadors.

 THE DESIGNERS

The Glamazons:   It's all about the bling with these two.  The more sparkly, the better for them.  They can move between sharp, edgy, on trend designs to laid back girl next door styling.  They know how to bring the punch to their designs.

Allison Cooling - young, innovative, edgy designer of Quiet Lion Creation, skilled photographer, graphic designer, blogger

After obsessively scanning through Vogue and other fashion magazines, she became inspired by the designer jewelry that filled the pages. Wanting to replicate the look and feel of those designs; she found that after a few experiments, it was easy to do.

Allison aims to show the world that making cool, hip, and beautiful jewelry is fun, regardless of skill level. Her blog is devoted to DIY jewelry using all types of techniques and materials. Occasionally, Allison posts tutorials for men's jewelry, accessory DIYs, nail design DIYs, recipes and art inspirations.

Rebecca Grafton Utermohlen - young, feisty, vibrant, leans more towards the sparkles and glitter, DIY jewelry fanatic, marathon runner, dedicated blogger

Rebecca started making jewelry as a 12-year-old kid who was bored one summer and needed a hobby. As the years have passed, jewelry making became more than just a hobby; it developed into a true passion. Rebecca dabbles in all types of different crafts, but jewelry making remains her favorite.




The Romantics:  These ladies always seem to have that old world charm in their designs.  Romance exudes from all they create. They are laid back, calm people who love the world around them.


Dawn Doucette -Victorian influenced, one of a kind designs, attention to the most intricate details, created works of art that become family heirlooms.

Dawn has been designing jewelry since she was a little girl. What began as loomed friendship bracelets evolved into a business of creating couture jewelry; Bella Amore Legacy Jewelry. Dawn works with gemstones, crystals, pearls and seed beads to create one-of-a-kind statement pieces. Her designs have been published in Beadwork Magazine; winning design contests and modeled by distinguished public speakers.

Molly Moore Alexander - wire and mixed media artist, blogger

Molly is a self-taught jewelry, mixed-media and mosaic artist, and is the owner and designer of Miss Molly’s Designs. Here jewelry designs have been published in such publications as Bead Trends, Belle Armoire Jewelry, Jewellery Magazine and Jewelry Affaire, and can be found in public and private collections around the world.

Each of Molly’s pieces are created lovingly in her home workshop, incorporating copper, silver, glass, resin and natural stones with wire, fiber and found objects, resulting in unique, one-of-a-kind designs. Molly continues to push herself artistically, learning new techniques and working with exciting new materials whenever she can to keep her designs distinctive and current.


The Die-Hard DIY/Crafters:  These ladies bring a very unique perspective to the table.  They have the ability to switch back and forth between crafting and jewelry design with great ease.

Rachel Goodman Nielsen - DIY enthusiast, dedicated blogger

Rachel loves to create. Some of her passions include baking, building stuff, sewing, gardening, crafting and, of course, making jewelry. Rachel loves to try new things and a few years ago decided to give jewelry making a shot. Her sister showed her a few basic skills and she was hooked. She enjoys the process of creating a piece of jewelry and learning new techniques. Rachel shares what she creates with the readers of her blog, Adventures of a DIY Mom, in the form of step-by-step tutorials. Rachel is a wife and stay-at-mom to four kids, three girls and a boy.


 
Carolina Moore - DIY Fanatic, blogger

Caroline has been crafting all her life in a variety of areas including jewelry, quilting, and papercrafting.  She currently maintains two blogs dedicated to her crafting - alwaysexpectmoore and 30minutecrafts.

She is a newcomer to the Cousin Creative Circle experience.





The Silver Sisters - The last two remaining original Creative Circle Members.  We have been with Cousin from the beginning back in August of 2011.


Lisa Crone - laid back and very organized, author of A Bead in Time, blogger, bead fanatic, creates more classical designs with modern twists, beachy and nature themed designs

Lisa has been designing beaded jewelry for over 20 years. She is a self-professed bead fanatic and enjoys learning new techniques from other bead enthusiasts through books, magazines and classes or improvising as she goes.

In her book A Bead in Time Lisa shares her journey of finding design inspiration in nature, artwork, vacations and the craft store. She currently maintains a daily beading blog where the tagline reads, “appreciating the individual beauty of beads and the unique works of art they are used to create.”

Lisa blogs to share in the fun of the online beading community. She regularly showcases beads, techniques, projects, bead artists, designers and crafters.


Shelly Owen (aka Me) - jewelry designer, wire and metal artist, graphic designer, painter, design style varies, given to melancholy on occasion

Shelly is a self-taught designer with over 20 years experience in jewelry design.  Her designs have been seen on the CW's hit show "Hart of Dixie" and published in Crafts 'n Things magazine.

Descention Into Insanity

While being around an amazing bead embroiderer (if that's a word) that happened to be one of my fellow Creative Circle Ambassador's, back in February, I was inspired to give it a try.  Thanks Dawn Doucette (Bella Amore Legacy Jewelry).  Just another insane obsession to add to the long, ever growing list I already have.

When I got back home from the Cousin Creative Circle Ambassador Retreat, I made a beeline to my local Gem and Mineral Show.  I picked up a few cabochons to play with.

I went to Jo-Ann's looking for stiff felt, but they didn't have anything stiff enough to hold up.  So I ordered some on the recommendation of Dawn, again, from Nicole Campanella's website, Beadwright. Her stuff is really nice and comes in some really great colors that compliment your stones rather well.

Anywho......I picked out three stones that went well together and got started.  I glued the stones down to the felt with E-6000 and trimmed down the felt.

I gathered by supplies, some Czech glass seed beads I had picked up at the Gem and Mineral Show, some Toho from Fusion Beads, Miyuki seed beads from Jewelry Supply, sharp scissors, beading string, leather for backing, and beading needles.  I used Beadalon's Wildfire beading thread, but I did discover that Berkley's Fireline works way much better.  Good to know for next time.  The leather I purchased from Michael's for $6.99 a piece.  It's a pretty big piece.

Then the beading started.

 First row was done and then I realized that my stone wasn't exactly perfect on all sides.  It's a bit lumpy on one side.  Oh, well.  To late now.   I just kept going.

I ended up doing four more rows atop the stone and then went back and added a outer row of 3mm round silver plated copper beads before trimming and gluing the foundation to the leather.

Here is what the untrimmed focal looked like after adding the outer silver ring of beads.  After I trimmed it, I added a row of the turquoise seed beads to hide the edge.

I moved on to the smaller stones and then attached the embroidered pieces together with 8mm round genuine turquoise beads I picked up at the Rock Man and Gemstone Lady in Longbeach, gunmetal 8/0 Toho beads, and 2.5 mm silver plated copper beads.

After I beaded around it all, the color of the stones seemed to transform into something very lovely.  They went from bland and unexciting stones to knock outs.

I added a place to attach it to the rest of the necklace that I was going to create.  The plan was the use gunmetal enameled copper jump rings to attach it to a chain. I changed my mind when I sat down to finish it.  I used more beading thread to create a unique strand for the back.

Finished piece that will be given to my mom for her 68th birthday. Total time working on this piece was 18 to 20 hours.  Well worth it.  I think I have now descended into a little bit of insanity, because I want to do more of this.  Unfortunately, my hands and wrists are screaming at me.  They are super sore and stiff from the weaving of the beads.  Now I remember why I quit beadweaving in the first place.  LOL....back to the madness.