Mojo Challenge Week 7: One Color

Sometimes too many choices can be stifling - causing a creative paralysis. So this week we are going to limit our choices to increase our creativity. It's about to get monochromatic up in here!

Your Assignment:

Make a piece of jewelry with just one color, varying to value (light & darkness), shape and texture for interest. 

Tips for Working with Just One Color:
Start this assignment at your bead boxes, gathering up variations of one oclor to work into a design. Find beads that are different in shape and size, go for interesting textures. You can use texture in the beads or mix in wire or fibers.

Check out this awesome article on Making Your Monochromatic Magnificent by color guru Margie Deebs and the article from Brandi Hussey on the Color of Metal is required homework for this week!  You'll notice in each of my examples below I used metal as a contrasting color for my designs.

Share your progress!
If you write a blog post about your Week 6 Challenge share the link by clicking on the blue button below.  If you don't have a blog leave a comment here to let me know you participated in the Facebook group this week.

What is the Jewelry Mojo Challenge? Click here to read all about it.  Can you still join? Yes! You can follow along and do all 12 weeks or pick and choose the ones you find inspiring.

An InLinkz Link-up

30 Words: Motherhood

Joy and pain

Pure love

Unconditional.

First and last thought 

of every day.

They are first

Always.

I'm never perfect

But I'm here. 

Unshakable.

My heart lives outside of me.

30 words or 30,000 words - there are never enough to express the depths of loving someone else as much as I love my daughters.  This photo was taken several years ago, at the start of the teen years and is one of my all time favorites as I think it captured each of their personalities perfectly.

30 Words Thursday hosted by Erin at Treasures Found: Grab an image (preferably one you shot or one you have permission to use). Write exactly 30 Words (no more, no less). Post it. Head on over to Erin's blog to see the other entries for this week.

Bead Table Wednesday

Hello and welcome to Bead Table Wednesday! Today on my table are wishes and dreams because I have no time for making jewelry right now and I would really like too. But I am feverishly filling orders and very busy with deadlines this week. But a girl can dream! I picked up these Czech glass beads at a store I visited in Florida while on the Bead Cruise.  They have just been calling me to play, soon beadies, soon!.

I have a few new colorways for my Feather series. These are very summery and some will be heading off to Ornamentea very soon along with lots of other goodies for a Humblebeads Trunk Show. I'll share more details about dates when they have safely arrived at the store. 

Another thing I've been playing with that will be making it's way into my shop in different colors are new shapes for my Branch Disk beads.  My Branch beads are by far one of my most popular designs and I thought it was time to branch out into different shapes. Ha, I'm puny.  So in my Etsy shop I have tiny rounds and these fun wafer disks.  

And the other new shape that I have been playing with is square disk beads. These would be awesome for earrings and also they would look great as spacers.

Here you can get a better view of the shape of the square beads.  

So this is what's on my Bead Table today.  If you'd like them to be on your Bead Table next week, check out the new beads in my Etsy shop.  You know, just trying to be helpful.

What is Bead Table Wednesday? It's a day to connect with other bead and jewelry artists around the world to share the good, the bad (as in awesome) and the ugly - hey I know what your bead table really looks like because mine looks the same!

You can share your blog posts in the InLinkz tool below or you can share you photos on Instagram with the tagged #beadtablewednesday

An InLinkz Link-up

Mojo Challenge Week 6: The Poetry of Beads

Oh no, I had lost my mojo for the Mojo Challenge! I've been scrambling around between events, deadlines and battling viruses. Fun! And terrible for blogging.  But I'm back and we are going to tackle the next 6 weeks with excitement and creativity - because that's why you are checking in each week right? 

Your Assignemnt:
Create a piece of jewelry inspired by a poem, quote or a song.

 Nothing Gold Can Stay inspired by Robert Frost's poem.

Tips for Getting Your Beads to Sing:
If you have my book Jewelry Designs from Nature, I have a great article on the poetry and beads that you should check out.

So how to do you get from a song, quote or poem to a piece of jewelry?  Look for visual clues in the text, it may be a symbol like a nest or bird, or a word or it could be a color or imagery described a poem. Find beads that express those ideas as your focal and work from there.

Don't spend a lot of time searching for the perfect quote or song.  Pick one that is already meaningful to you and gather up your beads.

Check out my Inspired by Nature Jewelry Challenge from a few years ago for some instant inspiration.  I paired up photographs with a poem and gave design tips for each set.

Share your progress!
If you write a blog post about your Week 6 Challenge share the link by clicking on the blue button below.  If you don't have a blog leave a comment here to let me know you participated in the Facebook group this week.

What is the Jewelry Mojo Challenge? Click here to read all about it.  Can you still join? Yes! You can follow along and do all 12 weeks or pick and choose the ones you find inspiring.  

An InLinkz Link-up

Mojo Challenge Week 5: Jewelry Redos

I took a little hiatus due to my travelling schedule. I hope you are all ready to jump in and start again with week 5 of the Jewelry Making Mojo Challenge.  Let's rev up those creative engines this week!

Your Assignment:
Take apart a few older designs and use the pieces to create a new creation.

We all have that pile of jewelry that we have either fallen out of love with or it sat in a box because it was only 'meh' and didn't have the design punch we were hoping to achieve.  Maybe it's older jewelry that is no longer in fashion or doesn't fit your style any longer. Whatever the case, I know you have some jewelry that could use a second chance.  I know I do!

So pull out those pieces, remember to snap a before photo and then get to work disassembling and then working your mojo.

Tips for Redos:
*Look for pieces that have special beads you'd like to reuse.
*Take apart a few pieces to give yourself more choices and who knows, maybe you'll be on a roll and create several new designs from your reclaimed goods.
*Focus on the principles of good design to make sure your round two is a stronger piece of jewelry.

Here is a must-read series on the 7 Principles of Design for Jewelry Making on Fire Mountain Gem's website. (Scroll down on at the bottom of the article for the links to the entire series.)

Share your progress!
If you write a blog post about your Week 5 Challenge share the link by clicking on the blue button below.  If you don't have a blog leave a comment here to let me know you participated in the Facebook group this week.

What is the Jewelry Mojo Challenge? Click here to read all about it.  Can you still join? Yes! You can follow along and do all 12 weeks or pick and choose the ones you find inspiring.  

An InLinkz Link-up