December Art Bead Scene Challege

Romain de Tirtof's signature

Each month the Art Bead Scene hosts a monthly challenge featuring an inspiring piece of art work.  They invite you to pull out your art beads and play along for a chance to win awesome prizes from  sponsors and possibly get featured on their blog.   Your creations must use one or more art beads.

Sleeping Beauty by Erte

This month's challenge features "Sleeping Beauty" by Romain de Tirtof.  He is known as Erté (1892-1990).  He was a Russian fashion illustrator and stage set designer, a master of the Art Deco style.  Sleeping Beauty has with many different elements that can be used for inspiration: snow, bold red color, high contrast imagery, art deco, female form, blue, weeping willows and sleep.

 

Entry by Bay Moon Design

 I decided to enter the necklace that is pictured above. This necklace includes glass pearls, denim blue fairy ribbon, and sterling silver bead caps. The fairy ribbon is from Marsha Neal Studio.  Two large blue glass pearls are framed in sterling silver bead caps. The necklace has some white czech beads, small glass pearls, and denim blue swarovski crystals. I love the patriotic red, white and blue colors.  These are the colors that jump out at me when I look at Sleeping Beauty.  The center of the necklace features a beautiful, lampwork focal by artist Kaz Baildon.  Her art bead is the bead that qualifies this as an enty.  It isn't too late to enter.  Click here to find out how.  There are some great prizes by this months sponsors.

Songbead on Etsy

Jan Atherton on Etsy

Humblebeads on Etsy

Art Bead Scene is a great blog to follow not just for the monthly challenges, but for the great tips on jewelry making.

"Free Beads" Blog Hop

Kaz Baildon beads to be given away

When I see the words "free beads"' I get very excited.  Of course there's a catch - but only in so much as you have to make something lovely with them and share it on a blog hop...not too onerous is it?  This blog hop is sponsored by The Gossiping Goddess Lesley Watt.  Don't you just love the name "The Gossiping Goddess".  I wish I had thought of it first.

Leslie's very talented bead making friend Kaz Baildon recently had a major overhaul of her studio to make way for some new projects she is planning and in the process she destashed this huge haul of lampwork beads in her direction.  Leslie decided that 10 people were to receive a bead or beads from this selection. The recipients of the beads will use them to create a piece of jewellery, accessory or ornament and share this at a blog hop on Wednesday 12th December.  How generous is that?!

What the winners receive was a complete surprise.  It was anything from a large lampwork bead...

One of my beads is here!

My 2 beads

 Some folks received matched pairs like:

Matched Pairs

 I faced 2 challenges in working with the beads that I got.  Do I put both beads in the same piece? What colors do I work with?  I decided to create 2 pieces. I still had to figure out what colors to work with. I guess I was a coward and took the safest route.  Also,  I  was limited to working with the beads that I had in my stash.

Twist Wire Necklace by Bay Moon Design

 For my first piece, I decided to pull out all of my white beads and in doing so I noticed that I had some 26 gauge lavender Parawire which seemed to match the color of the bead perfectly.  I had this on hand because I crochet wire necklaces frequently, but I wanted to do something different this time.  I have never worked with Parawire before so I looked on the Internet to see what people do with it.  I located a great tutorial by Little Red Robin from Bristol, Avon, United Kingdom where she made a twist wire bracelet with 26 gauge silver colored florist wire.  I always wondered how folks made this style of jewelry so I thought I would give it a try.  I used her basic directions to create a light and delicate necklace.

Red, White, and Blue Necklace with Matching Earrings by Bay Moon Design

For my second necklace, I created a red, white and blue necklace which is19 inch (48.3 cm) and includes glass pearls, denim blue fairy ribbon, and sterling silver bead caps. I love the patriotic red, white and blue colors.  The center of the necklace features the beautiful, lampwork focal by artist Kaz Baildon. Two large blue glass pearls are framed in sterling silver bead caps. The necklace has some white czech beads, small glass pearls, and denim blue swarovski crystals.  The denim blue fairy ribbon by Marsha Neal Studio helps to give this necklace a contemporary look.  These same large blue glass pearls and sterling silver end caps are used in creating matching earrings.

I think it is interesting that both lampwork beads looked to be the same color and yet when paired with lavender one looked more like lavender blue.  The other lampwork bead looked more blue when paired with blue glass pearls and denim fairy ribbon. 

I would like to thank Lesley Watt for giving Kaz's lampwork away and creating this blog hop.  She is generous with her beads and time!  Please give everyone a visit.

Lesley Watt - http://thegossipinggodess.blogspot.co.uk/
Cory Tompkins - http://tealwaterdesigns.blogspot.co.uk/
Rebecca Anderson - http://songbeads.blogspot.co.uk/
Marie Cramp -  http://skyejewels.blogspot.co.uk/
Claire Braunbarth - http://smittenbeads.blogspot.co.uk/
Heidi Post - http://expostfactojewelry.blogspot.co.uk/
Tiffany Smith - http://southerngalsdesign.blogspot.co.uk/
Sharyl Macmillan-Nelson - http://sharylsjewelry.blogspot.co.uk/
Ailsa Cordner - http://www.bramalfiebeadsetc.co.uk/
Linda Landig -  http://lindalandig.wordpress.com/
Caroline Dewison - http://blueberribeads.co.uk/
Renetha - http://www.lamplightcrafts.blogspot.co.uk
Kari Asbury - http://hippiechickdesign.blogspot.co.uk/
Niky Sayers - http://silverniknats.blogspot.com
Purple Cobwebs - http://www.purplecobwebs.blogspot.co.uk/
Cilla Watkins - http://www.tellyourgirlfriends.com/

 Therese Frank - www.theresestreasures59.blogspot.com

Claire Ennis - http://clairescrystalclassics.blogspot.co.uk/
Emma - http://apolymerpenchant.blogspot.co.uk/
Kathy Lindemer - http://bay-moon-design.blogspot.co.uk/   --(you are here)
Alicia - http://www.allprettythings.ca/

Sandy Huntress - http://keepsakecrafts.net/blog/

Also, stop by later in this month to see what earrings I wore to the White House Christmas tour last week.

White House Christmas Tour with Spotting of Bo

White House at Christmas

This week I had the opportunity to go on a White House Christmas Tour along with my daughter Christina. This tour surpassed my expectations even after watching it on the television for years with my daughter. It is hard to believe but the decorations are even more spectacular in person. Just as we were entering the White House, Christina mentions that she hopes we see the first dog Bo Obama. I told her that I saw him in a White House video looking at all of the Christmas trees.

Decoration featuring Bo Obama

Christina and I each had our picture taken with the "Bo decoration".   Shortly thereafter, Christina yells "Look at Bo". I got so excited the photo of Bo that I took was one big blur. Christina did manage to get of photo of the back of Bo. You can see his very cute white paws.

Bo Obama

Bo is very well behaved. He didn't even look when his name was yelled. He was walking without a leash which really impressed me. I wish my cats were as well behaved!

                               Bo inspects the White House at Christmas in this White House video.

I know you are wondering what jewelry we would wear to the White House. We both carefully selected Christmas earrings to wear.  Christina wore Christmas tree earrings made crystals that have lots of sparkle. She plans to wear them to all of her holiday parties. I wore a pair of earrings that are made from red and green handmade ceramic beads from the Marsha Neal Studio on Etsy. I used Irish waxed linen thread from White Clover Kiln on Etsy. I will show you what they look like and how I made them in another blog this month.

Christmas tree earrings by Bay Moon Design

Do stop by my blog on Dec. 12 to see what I create for another blog hop.  This blog hop is organized by Lesley Watt and features beads by the same bead artist.

Lesley Watt - http://thegossipinggodess.blogspot.co.uk/
Cory Tompkins - http://tealwaterdesigns.blogspot.co.uk/
Rebecca Anderson - http://songbeads.blogspot.co.uk/
Marie Cramp -  http://skyejewels.blogspot.co.uk/
Claire Braunbarth - http://smittenbeads.blogspot.co.uk/
Heidi Post - http://expostfactojewelry.blogspot.co.uk/
Tiffany Smith - http://southerngalsdesign.blogspot.co.uk/
Sharyl Macmillan-Nelson - http://sharylsjewelry.blogspot.co.uk/
Ailsa Cordner - http://www.bramalfiebeadsetc.co.uk/
Linda Landig -  http://lindalandig.wordpress.com/
Caroline Dewison - http://blueberribeads.co.uk/
Renetha - http://wwww.lamplightcrafts.blogspot.co.uk
Kari Aspbury - http://hippiechickdesign.blogspot.co.uk/
Niky Sayers - http://silverniknats.blogspot.com
Purple Cobwebs - http://www.purplecobwebs.co.uk

Cilla Watkins - http://www.tellyourgirlfriends.com/
Therese Frank - www.theresestreasures.blogspot.com
Claire Ennis - http://clairescrystalclassics.blogspot.co.uk/
Emma - http://apolymerpenchant.blogspot.co.uk/
Kathy Lindemer - http://bay-moon-design.blogspot.com
Alicia - http://www.allprettythings.ca/
Sandy Sewin - http://keepsakecrafts.net/blog/
Lori Bowring Michaud - http://artfullyornamental.blogspot.co.uk/
Amy Tayor Freeland - http://copperdiem.blogspot.co.uk/
Katherine Gale - http://terrabeadworks.blogspot.co.uk/
Tory Tompkins-http://tealwaterdesigns.blogspot.com