Some of you may remember I participated in Lori Anderson's Bead Soup Blog Party last year (my first time!) I had SO MUCH fun, I've decided to do it again!
Last year, the awesome Mary Govaars sent me the most colorful and bright bead soup, and I created a set I still LOVE to wear.
I can't wait to see what I'll design this year! lol! :)
RanaLea
Showing posts with label blog hop. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blog hop. Show all posts
25 January 2013
01 December 2012
Floral Holiday Treasures!
Lisa Lodge, of Pine Ridge Treasures, put together this FUN hop for us! Thank you Lisa!
Lisa sent each of the participants a selection of kind of "out of the box" beads and elements for an "out of the box" hop. Her instructions to us included the guideline that these creations did not have to be jewelry, nor did they necessarily need to be "Christmas." Rather, this is a December "holiday" hop.
But, Christmas is my 2nd favorite holiday of all (Halloween and Thanksgiving tie for 1st place... lol!) so, I went Christmasie. Plus, she sent me the most GORGEOUS red and white lucite flowers!
Okay, here's a partial pic of the kit itself (I'd already started using it when I realized I hadn't taken pics... oops!)
So, I knew early on I wanted to weave a combination spiral rope and nepal chain, mainly to see if I could do it. I needed small enough seed beads (11s are perfect for that) and decided to go with red and green, to maintain the theme.
Now, my first thought was to make a bracelet, but then I decided that maybe I would make a garland... Therein lies the problem....
When I decided to go with a garland, I neglected to take into account that this is pre-finals week for me (the students really want their essays back, you know?) AND we scheduled my mom's retirement party for the same day as this blog hop, and of course, I have LOADS of things to do to prepare for that... But I managed to get about a foot of it done... and then I changed my mind again... it's so pretty, I don't want it just hanging out in my house. I want to to travel about! with me! So now I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it... I will be putting more of those beautiful lucite flowers on it, at random intervals... Oh, and you see that vaguely holly-berry lookin' bit at the bottom? That's the nepal chain stitch. So, you know, yay! It worked! lol!
Now lest you think I was a total slacker, I did get 2 pieces completed. Admittedly they were earrings, but still:
More of the awesome red and white flowers, but Lisa also included the orangey flowers as well! They remind me of orange blossoms, even though I know those are white... What can I say, I'm weird... :)
So that's it! I'm looking forward to finally figuring out what I want to do with the garlandy piece. Maybe a lariat necklace... I'll keep you posted!
In the meantime, why don't you go visit the other artists in this hop! Here's the list:
Lisa sent each of the participants a selection of kind of "out of the box" beads and elements for an "out of the box" hop. Her instructions to us included the guideline that these creations did not have to be jewelry, nor did they necessarily need to be "Christmas." Rather, this is a December "holiday" hop.
But, Christmas is my 2nd favorite holiday of all (Halloween and Thanksgiving tie for 1st place... lol!) so, I went Christmasie. Plus, she sent me the most GORGEOUS red and white lucite flowers!
Okay, here's a partial pic of the kit itself (I'd already started using it when I realized I hadn't taken pics... oops!)
So, I knew early on I wanted to weave a combination spiral rope and nepal chain, mainly to see if I could do it. I needed small enough seed beads (11s are perfect for that) and decided to go with red and green, to maintain the theme.
Now, my first thought was to make a bracelet, but then I decided that maybe I would make a garland... Therein lies the problem....
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This is not done... If you look close, you can see the thread up there at the top.... |
Now lest you think I was a total slacker, I did get 2 pieces completed. Admittedly they were earrings, but still:
More of the awesome red and white flowers, but Lisa also included the orangey flowers as well! They remind me of orange blossoms, even though I know those are white... What can I say, I'm weird... :)
So that's it! I'm looking forward to finally figuring out what I want to do with the garlandy piece. Maybe a lariat necklace... I'll keep you posted!
In the meantime, why don't you go visit the other artists in this hop! Here's the list:
Your Host: Lisa Lodge, Grateful Artist (Pine Ridge Treasures)
Courtney Breul, Beads by Breul
Jeannie Dukic, Jeannie's Blog
Kimberly Flood, Goddesses and Beads
Mary Govaars, MLH Jewelry Designs
Tanya Goodwin, A Work in Progress
Kathy Lindemer, Bay Moon Design
Alicia Marinache, All the Pretty Things
Cheri Reed, Creative Designs by Cheri
Toltec Jewels, Jewel School Friends
Rana Wilson, RanaLea Designs <--you are Here! :)
Thanks for visiting!
16 October 2012
You say your earrings don't match?
Neither do mine! :)
Awhile back, I signed up to participate in the Mismatched Art Bead Earrings Swap over on the Art Jewelry Elements blog. We were all matched up with a partner, made a pair of mismatched earrings, and sent them off to our partner.My partner is the wonderful Kay Hand, of the Creative Tangent blog (and you can find her here and here--she has the coolest shawl pins here!!!--on Etsy). I'll show you the GORGEOUSNESS that Kay made for me in a few minutes. :)
One of my stumbling points as a jewelry designer is that I'm very concerned with things matching. Both sides of a necklace must be even... a bracelet MUST be symmetrical... and earrings HAVE TO MATCH! In fact, I get downright annoyed with myself when things don't match up.
I've tried before to break the habit, and I've even bought lampwork beads SPECIFICALLY for the purpose of making mismatched things. Those beads? Yeah, they're still in the box...
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Don't they look so sad? Non-made dino earrings... :( Soon! |
Now, for the awesome!
From Kay, I received the niftiest pair of shoulder-sweep earrings. These babies are LOOOONG. I love them. She used gorgeous lampwork beads, fun charms, chains, bead caps, and quite possbily the prettiest earwires I've ever seen! They're bright, and colorful, and will go with so many different things!Here, look!
Pretty! Lookit how pretty! I love them! |
And, they're fidgety! I love fidget earrings.
Kay also sent me the matching bead to the red lampwork in the earrings. And it has an eyeball!!!
Creepily awesome. :) I'm sensing mismatched Halloween earrings! |
Now, just before I began making the earrings to send to Kay, I received a bead swap package from one of my bead groups. My partner in that swap, Kelli, sent me the coolest polymer clay skull beads (she made them herself!! They are AWESOME!!!) And it had been awhile since I wrapped any wire, so I thought it might be fun to play with that, too. Plus, Halloween is coming, and it IS my 2nd favorite holiday ever! So, I ended up creating a rather over-the-top (and kinda largish) pair of wrapped hoop earrings for Kay.
For an idea on size, my form was a pill bottle... Yes, they are BIG. |
And now, the blog list! Go check out the awesome earrings created in this hop! :)
- Diana Ptaszynski http://www.
suburbangirlstudio.com - Lisa Liddy http://www.lisaliddy.
wordpress.com - Kari Asbury http://www.hippiechickdesign.
blogspot.com - Jayne Capps http://mamasgottodoodle.
blogspot.com/ - Rebecca Anderson http://www.songbeads.
blogspot.com - Lesley Watt http://www.
thegossipinggoddess.blogspot. com - Lori Bowring Michaud http://www.artfullyornamental.blogspot.com
- Renetha Stanziano http://www.lamplightcrafts.
blogspot.com - Holly Westfall http://www.
silverrosedesigns.blogspot. com/ - Theresa Fosdick http://www.thoughtful-
notions.blogspot.com/ - Ali McCarthy http://www.
northwoodscreativestudio. blogspot.com - Shai Williams http://shaihasramblings.
blogspot.com/ - Iveth Caruso http://www.creativeatelier.net/blog.html
- Carolyn Collins http://www.
sparklingwaterstudio.com - Elaine Ray http://www.elaineray.
blogspot.com - Kristen Stevens http://kristen-beadjourney.
blogspot.com/ - Charlene Jacka http://clay-space.com/blog
- Jan Onipenco http://www.MoltenMayhem.
typepad.com - Stephanie Woods http://www.rainydaysdesigns.
com - Eleanor Burian-Mohr http://www.
cornerstoregoddessjewelry. blogspot.com - Shelby Foxwell http://www.
sundownbeaddesigns.blogspot. com - Pam Sears http://www.
crazycreativecorner.blogspot. com - Mary Harding http://www.
maryhardingjewelrybeadblog. blogspot.com - Lisa Johnson http://www.Whimsyswonders.
blogspot.com - Kashmira Patel http://www.sadafulee.
blogspot.com - Penny Neville http://www.
copperpennydesigns.blogspot. com - Dee Elgie http://www.cherryobsidia.
blogspot.co.uk - Sarah Small http://www.bysalla.blogspot.
com - Carolyn Lawson http://www.
Carolynscreationswa.blogspot. com - Karin Slaton http://www.backstorybeads.
blogspot.com - Ashleigh Becker http://www.
seladesignsjewelry.blogspot. com - Kay Hand http://www.creativetangent.
blogspot.com <--My partner!!! :) - Rana L. Wilson http://
ranaleadesigns. blogspot.com <--Me! :) - Sandra McGriff http://www.
skyescreativechaos.blogspot. com - Dawn Pierro http://www.turtlemoondesigns.
me - Shelley Graham Turner http://www.
shelleygrahamturner.blogspot. com - Karen Mitchell http://www.overthemoon-
design.com - Melissa Trudinger http://www.beadrecipes.
wordpress.com
31 July 2012
Art Jewelry Elements: July Component of the Month
Woot! I finished it! :) And I had so much fun with it!
Okay, so earlier this month, on the Art Jewelry Elements blog, I saw the fabulous July Design component, Jennifer Cameron's Nightmare Insomnia beads. This bead is so many levels of fabulousness, I just cannot tell you. :) I could not wait to play with this one, so I hopped right on the opportunity to get one and participate in the hop!
Okay, so this is the bead Jennifer sent me:
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You can't see it terribly well here, but in addition to the gorgeous swirly colors in here, there's an awesome zebra stripe. |
I pondered this bead for a few weeks, until I finally decided that I wanted to play with seed beads. I finally settled on a cellini spiral (my first ever!) using instructions from the fabulous Inspirational Beading blog. Here's some pics of the cellini in progress:
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seed beads all over! |
So, I had originally thought to do a cellini spiral bangle, with the nightmare bead in the center focal. But really, I gotta tell you, I wasn't real sure how to do that, as I've never woven a bangle before (I'm pondering that next) and I wasn't sure if the entire thing might not be too chunky. After all, the cellini certainly has some oomph to it, and the bead is a lovely size, as well.
Eventually, I settled on a necklace, and decided to weave a basic spiral rope for either side of the cellini. I attached those ropes to the cellini section with a very haphazard and organic series of beaded "strings." Not sure if it was "proper," but it worked:
You can sort see the stringies here... |
Then, I had to figure out a way to attach the bead to the necklace. I really want it to be over-the-top (well, more than it was already...) and I thought it'd be fun to give it a bit of fringe. So, I wove a seed-bead-bail-system-thingy through the bead to secure an actual woven bail to one end and some danglies to the other. Then, I decided a woven bail would too much, so I just used 3 strands of seed beads to go around the cellini. So, here's the finished "thingie":
:) |
And here's the Whole Shebang!
Pretty! |
Beti Horvath: Stringing Fool
Gretchen Nation: Art Food Lodging
Karen Totten: Starry Road Studio
Kathleen Douglas: Washoe Kat's
Keirsten Giles: The Cerebral Dilettante
Kristen Stevens: My Bead Journey
Lola: Bead Lola Bead
Lori Anderson: Pretty Things
Nancy Pederson: Something Heartfelt by Nancy
Pam DeBoer: Purple Notes from the Studio
Rana Wilson: Rana Lea Designs
Shannon Chomanczuk: For My Sweet Daughter
30 June 2012
Happy Bead Soup Folks! (and a sneaky peek!)
Yup--I'm joining in on this go-round of the Bead Soup Blog Party, and I met (virtually, at least) my partner a few days ago.
Her name is Mary Govaars, and her blog is here. We've had a few conversations, and we seem to have a lot in common, working with a lot of the same materials. Mary makes pretty pretty things, and I'm excited to be working with her. She has an Etsy shop, and I'm TOTALLY coveting her Dot to Dot earrings.
I've just put the finishing touches on the bead soup I'm sending to Mary, and thought it might be fun to share a little sneak peek:
I'm shipping my package out to Mary today, and I can't wait for her to get it and then see what she creates! Of course, we have the last reveal date (August 25th), so I'll have a bit of a wait. lol!
You can see all the participants and their blogs here. And a big whopping THANK YOU to Lori for organizing all this for us!
Talk to you soon!

Her name is Mary Govaars, and her blog is here. We've had a few conversations, and we seem to have a lot in common, working with a lot of the same materials. Mary makes pretty pretty things, and I'm excited to be working with her. She has an Etsy shop, and I'm TOTALLY coveting her Dot to Dot earrings.
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Aren't these gorgeous? Click the pic, and it should take you to her website! :) |
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hee hee!!! :p |
You can see all the participants and their blogs here. And a big whopping THANK YOU to Lori for organizing all this for us!
Talk to you soon!
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