Challenges ~ Sentiment~ and the Sisterhood Giveaway

The Art Spark for September is "Sentiment".  In case you are not familliar, Art Spark is our creative challenge over at Love My Art Jewelry.  You can win fantastic prizes, and a link to your shop on our blog!  Each week, we feature a designer of the week, and they get a link on our blog for that week.  Its a great way to network, get your name out there, and have fun creating for the challenge each month. 

I have been entering more and more challenges lately.  Its a funny thing...........I am rather enjoying the process of trying to create something to fit in a box (whatever the challenge constraints are) yet still make it my own style~ a little outside of the box.  It's a great way to push yourself creatively!  You can check out a major challenge by stopping by saturday for the Bead Soup Blog Party blog hop!  In that one, we got paired up with someone, sent each other beads, and had to use them in a piece of jewelry (or something we created).  The challenge lies in the fact that you have no control over what you will be sent.  I loved my beads I got, but boy~ I would not have bought them, because they are outside of my comfort zone!  What is so funny about the whole thing is, I finally feel like I have developed my "style" of jewelry making after all these years, my signature style, if you will............and now it seems I can't wait to explore new ones!!!  (its the torment of being an artist I suppose, never happy, always changing) 

Challenges are a way to grow as an artist, so join some, let us see what you can do over at LMAJ, check out Art Bead Scenes monthly challenge, join a design team.............get out there and stretch yourself.

I finally made my "sentiment" item for this months LMAJ Art Spark.  Here is what I made:

Here is why:

I created it for my best friend, the one who has been my friend from braces to babies, who drive in the middle of the night to be there for me when things in my life were falling apart.  My BFF!!!!
You see, Steph, my BFF, is a really go getter. She’s the woman you call when you need something done. She is tough, and business like, and organized, and outgoing, and remembers EVERYONE she meets! She is a city girl, an NYU graduate and drives highways like she’s running to the store. If she is shooting for the stars, I know she will get one. Then there’s me. A country girl…..I will always live near woods and tree’s, hate driving highways (give me a windy back road any day of the week!) I am so very unorganized, HATE confrontation, and multi-tasking, never seem to finish anything, and can’t remember who some of my teachers were in high school, and ILO shooting for the stars, I tend to just dream about them………….I guess you can say we are total opposites. City mouse and country mouse if you will.




The Simple Truths link represents both of us….me, the dreamer, and her, reaching for the stars. I added a silver PMC link with a spiral, because she love spirals almost as much moons and stars ~ that we have in common. There is a wonderful Two Sisters glass disc bead, a crackle agate in grey / blue, a kyanite bead, and a piece of sea glass that I turned into a bead by drilling it. The sea glass is to symbolize our first vacation together, this past summer, with our children. It was so awesome to finally get to spend some time away together, with our families………………….and to see our boys (4 months apart in age) playing together like brothers. They clicked. Maybe they too will be best friends. We can only hope!



So there it is. A long story. Actually, I should tell you a story or two, you would probably spit out your coffee…..yeah, we’ve been friends that long, and we’ve got some good ones. But I’ve shared enough. I love her. She is awesome. She has never let me down. This is for her.



Sentiment.

Oh- and by the way, if you are into handmade beads, then you will want a shot at the Sisterhood of the Traveling Beads!  Enter for a turn at SingingWoods blog...............................
She entered a bunch of her lampwork beads, and tons of awesome art beads from Green Girl Studio, Round Rabbit, Gaea, Mary Harding, Kylie Parry, just to name a few!  I am not missing the chance!