Showing posts with label shells. Show all posts
Showing posts with label shells. Show all posts

Saturday, June 9, 2012

Alice in Wonderland Blog Hop


Thanks to everyone who is stopping by to hop along with us.  I am so honored to be hosting my first blog hop with all of you fine ladies.  I cannot wait to meet you all, and read about what inspired you.  

What I love about Alice is not just her distaste for arithmetic, but her open and innocent way to view everything.  I love how she can escape into her fantasy world, and her grand adventures.  Alice reminds me to have fun, take a break, DREAM, be innocent, be confident, and think like a child now and again.  

My first piece is called, Absolutely Alice.  
It started with a focal from Marie-Noel Voyer-Cramp of Skye Jewels and More Skye Jewels.  I just loved this tile with Queen Alice.  It really spoke to me.  It embodies everything I love about Alice.  It reminds me that we need to be the Queen every now and again.  




So, the necklace was designed around the things that make me think of Alice, like her beautiful blue dress (represented in the blue recycled sari-silk).  I also wanted to make sure the necklace still felt like me (since I was venturing into new territory using an ephemera tile and filigree findings).  So I found the perfect shade of sea glass for the focal, and used a brass sun to "bezel" it, and then attached it to the vintage looking backing by bending two of the remaining suns rays through it.  I do not usually use these vintage like findings, but they go so well with Marie's tiles, I thought I had to try it out, plus, they are very royal, and queen like.  I added shells of course, and found the perfect black and white striped ones.  Black and white stripes always remind me of Alice's stockings.  To complete the piece I made a small chunk of chain with brass spirals.  "down the rabbit hole" makes me think of her swirling around and around.  I am very happy with how my piece came together.  I will think of Alice each time I see it!  

The second piece was a last minute thing I added.  I absolutely love the poetry in Alice, the nonsensical and funny poems always bring a smile to my face.  


And who doesn't love the tea party.  Here is my "Twinkle, Twinkle little Bat" necklace.






It features a focal from Marsha Neal Studio.  I used some more of my swirl chain and a swirl clasp I made as well.  I added a hand stamped charm that says twinkle with a sparkly crystal drop off of it.  It's simple, but I love it.  

There are also a couple giveaways going on, so make sure to hop to every blog.  Genea has an amazing stash of beads she made JUST for this challenge to giveaway, along with some other goodies!

I am giving away this little stash.

It consists of some bright yellow sari silk, a copper etched cuff (hand drawn by me) with some branches and the Cheshire cat peeking through all mysteriously, like he does.  It also has some cool glass beads I got from the Best Little Bead box, but I am not sure who made them.  They seemed very Alice to me.  And last but not least, you get some of these whimsical black and white shells.  All you have to do is hop to everyone's blog, and leave a comment here that you did.  Honor system people.  It would be nice if you leave a comment for each person too.  It's not a long list, and its how we can all get to know one another.  You can get a second chance to win by sharing the hop with a link to this post and leaving another comment telling how you shared.  They must be separate comments to be entered twice.  Make sure I have a way to contact you or you will not qualify.

Good Luck and have fun hopping to see what the artists below made!

Ginger Bishop

Staci Louise Originals (you are here)

Genea Beads

Jenny Davies-Reazor

Heidi Post

Donna Bradley

Linda Hanes
Birgitta Lejonklou

Libellula Jewelry and Cicada Silver

Linda Florian

Dyanne Cantrell

Nicole Valentine Rimmel

Jo in Wonderland

Fresh Baked Designs



Wednesday, August 31, 2011

BTW ~ Inspiration and Dimension

Remember these cool shells and things?????
Well, they inspired these.




And that's whats on my beads table!  (check out the flickr group Bead Table Wednesday to see what other artists have on their table)  These are still in the patination process right now.  I cannot even wait to play with these in some jewelry designs!!!!
If you want to see how these flat copper discs.......................

Become these cool 3-D little charms.................................


.................then hop on over to Love my Art Jewelry for my tutorial of how to make them.

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Getting Inspired

You may have been wondering where I've been.  Well, I have been getting inspired.  We had our annual family trip to LBI NJ.  I love the beach.  Everything about it inspires me, and I had ample time to find little treasures that will continue to inspire me in the months to come.


I found some great shells, and sea glass, and REALLY cool beach stones.  I love textures, and looking at this beach loot is inspiration galore!
I am all ready to get into the studio to prep for the LBI Sea Glass festival, Chowderfest Weekend.  Its a great time.  For details, check out my website.

I was not the only one who was artistically inspired at the shore.  Here are some drawings and projects my kids did.  I am so very proud of them and their ability to express themselves through art!

These three were done by Aiden 9yrs old


The colorful one is by Julia 7yrs old
And these were done by all three kids, but Collin 4yrs old came up with the idea!

Here are some pics of the kids getting braver and braver each year in the water.  They swam and boogie boarded until we called them out to go home each day.  I think Julia may be a surfer when she grows up!




They all handled crab pinches and wipes outs without much fuss at all.  Even my littlest bub had TWO HUGE wipe outs, and went back for more!  I just love those guys!

us at the beach after dinner....we were there every chance we got

Theres Jules...she even made a pen pal friend this year

Bub couldn't hang all day, but he tried

It was a refreshing time, with friends and family, and I am already looking forward to next year.

Now I can't wait to get into the studio and make some stuff with my new finds. 

What inspired you this week?

Saturday, July 30, 2011

Giveaways, Giveaways, Giveaways!

So, here is a list of some really cool, current giveaways right now!

First, don't forget to enter mine...I am giving away these beads from my Artisan Accents shop,
And then choosing another winner for this pendant.

You have until Wednesday, August 3rd to enter.  Click here to read about it and enter.
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Then there is one that I would like to win....its from Heather at Humblebeads, and its a whopper of a giveaway!
Check this out!
Click here to enter to win that lot of goodness above!
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And then, if you are still hoping to land some great artisan beads, you can hop on over to Love My Art Jewelry here to enter to win these beauties from Artisan Beads Plus.

Good Luck and have a fun and safe weekend!

Friday, July 22, 2011

Trying New Things!

Tomorrow (Saturday, July 23rd) I will be teaching a free demo on drilling sea glass and shells, along with some idea's of what to do with them once they are drilled. 
Its at Beads of a Feather in East Greenville, Pa.  I finally typed up my outline, and posted it to my website as well (that way people can refer to it once they come home...we don't hand out papers for free classes).  But, I still need to make some samples of what you can do with your shells and sea glass you bring home from the beach.
I think I am going to do some sort of a charm bracelet and a couple pendant or necklace ideas. 




I am pretty excited to teach.  I love talking (oh my word, I never shut up!) and especially so when its something I am passionate about.  I also like to share any tid bits I pick up, so others can have as much fun as I do.  So, I think it may be a good fit for me.  I will certainly let you know how it goes, and maybe have some pictures too.

If you do make your way over to Beads of a Feather this weekend, check out Artisan Clay's trunk show of WONDERFUL ceramic beads and pendants.   She blogged about us setting it up over there.  You can read it over at the Artisan Clay blog.
She took this picture of us because we showed up wearing each others necklaces!  Aren't we funny???  I just love her work.  We have had a wonderful chance to grow together as artists, and share tips, websites, materials and encouragement.  She is great, and I am thankful for her.