Art Jewelry Elements Challenge to Use Some of Our Stash

Florida Bay

This challenge is inspired by a simple question.  Do you have components by any of the 14 AJE teammates in your stash?  It just so happens that I have several and they are by 2 of my favorite artists.   I have always loved sailing and sailing boats.  I often make jewelry with sailboats or other nautical themes.  I seek out ceramic artists that make components with those themes.  Lesley Watt and Diana Ptaszynski are 2 AJE team members that have some wonderful ceramics with sailboats.

Red boat earrings available for purchase at BayMoonDesign

The first components I will share with you are ceramics made by Ptaszynski of Suburban Girl.  I used these 2 stoneware sailboats for a pair of earrings. These sailboat earrings have a nautical look with the  stoneware boat on them. The nautical earrings are paired with a bead of the same color.

Sailboat Necklace available at BayMoonDesign

The next component that I used is a handmade stoneware sailboat in red and bluish green by UK artist Lesley Watt. I love the boho, summer look of this necklace. The necklace started with the sailboat. I then found a handmade white ceramic to attach it to using some sterling silver and metal work. The turquoise Irish waxed linen adds some additional color to it. I made the angular sterling silver clasp to mirror the angles in the sails of the ceramic boat.  This necklace has red sponge coral and white beads attached with boho looking turquoise Irish waxed linen thread. The red sponge coral makes this a great necklace for this spring since it is the popular marsala Pantone Color of the spring 2015.

I hope you have enjoyed seeing some of my favorite sailboats!

Bay Moon Design Meets Art Jewelry Elements January Component Stash Challenge Featuring Lindsay Starr's Focal

Inspiration Piece

Most if not all beaders have piles of jewels that they hoard over like the dragon above.  In the case of the Art Jewelry Elements team, they have lots of art beads.  January's Art Jewelry Elements component stash challenge called for 9 lucky readers of the Art Jewelry Elements blog to be selected randomly to receive an art bead from members of the team.  Sue Kennedy, Lindsay Starr, Jen Cameron. Center: Caroline Dewison, Lesley Watt, Melissa Merman, Kristen Stevens and Linda Lang each contributed a bead.

Free Form beading by Lindsay M Starr of Phantasm Creations

I was lucky enough to win  beadwork by Lindsay M Starr of Phantasm Creations. Lindsay is a beadwork artist living in Nashville, Tennessee, but she says she is a west coast girl at heart.   She is continually inspired by nature, especially the sea, sea life, and insects. She loves learning, and always challenges herself with new color palettes, materials, and techniques.

Starfish

As soon as I saw the bead, I was reminded of a starfish.  I am luck to live by the Atlantic Ocean in Lewes, Delaware in the summer and Blackwater Sound in Key Largo, Florida in the winter so I get much of my inspiration from the water.  I wanted to use the turquoise, golds and whites in her piece to create a necklace.  I love how her beadwork is 3 dimensional.   I was challenged to find a way to attach Lindsay's piece to other beads to create this necklace.  I knew seed beading was not an optional that I wanted to use.   I also knew that I didn't want to cause any stress on her beadwork which looks very delicate so I dug out a finding that I have been hoarding for several years now. 

I added some brass loops to the component and then sewed the back of Lindsay's beadwork to it.   The finding turned out to be the perfect size to hide behind the beadwork and it also had holes in the metal work where I could attach the beadwork.

Starfish necklace available at  Bay Moon Design

I added some gold glass beads and turquoise beads and a brass clasp that I made to it.  What are your thoughts on my using the metal finding as a base for the necklace?  I would love to hear what some of you might have done instead.

Here is the list of the participants - the team, winners and special guests! Please visit them!

AJE team: 

Kristen Stephens 

Susan Kennedy 

Jenny Davies-Reazor

Lesley Watt    

Melissa  Meman

 Lindsay Starr 

Jennifer Cameron 

Caroline Dewison

Linda Landig

Guest Participants ( aka winners)

Lee - Strega Jewellry

Shai - Shai’s Ramblings

Samantha- Wescott Jewelry

*** you are here Kathy - Bay Moon Designs

Nikki - Silver Nik nats

Melissa Trudinger

Becky Pancake

Yvette - Blue Kiln Beads

Karin - Ginko et Coquelicot

Bonus participants! 

Sarajo Wentling

Leah Curtis

Susan Delaney 

New Earring Monday -Weeks 3 and 4

Florida Bay

Welcome to weeks 3 and 4 of New Years Monday sponsored by SJ Designs.

I started week 3 by focusing on turquoise, a color I have been using frequently.  I think that is because I am a snowbird living in the Florida Keys and I am surrounded by gorgeous turquoise water.  I just came back from a boating trip to Florida Bay,  The water was amazing.  There were all different kinds of blues, green, and turquoise.  I want to share with you a pair of earrings that were inspired by that trip--my seahorse earrings.

Turquoise Seahorse Earrings available at BayMoonDesign

These seahorse earrings are made from natural brass sheets that I embossed with a seahorse pattern. I then hand painted the earrings with blue and green patinas to created turquoise earrings. I used blue glass wavy and gold beads to create a rolling sea look. The metal has a protective coating to keep the color vivid for years to come! I have hung them on gold wires to accentuate the metal that shows through the patina and the gold wavy beads.

Shamrock Earrings available at BayMoonDesign

The next pair of earrings I made for my BayMoonDesign shop for Saint Patrick's Day.   They have a gold shamrock on green and sparkly, green swarovski crystal and gold beads have been added. I had the luck of the Irish with these Celtic earrings last year!  I sold several to people in Great Britain and the United States.  This year's earrings are similar but slightly different.  I hope they will be popular again.

Bead Peeps Swap n Blog Introduction-A Little Bit about Bay Moon Design

Latest necklace by BayMoonDesign

I am waiting for a partner for the Bead Peeps Swap n Blog. Bead Peeps are a group of jewelry makers on facebook. A partner will be assigned to me by the organizers of the hop shortly.  I thought I would help this process by telling a little about myself and my jewelry.  Much of my jewelry creations are drawn from influences found in nature, and each piece is designed to be comfortable and fun to wear.  I began making jewelry when I took a jewelry making lesson with a friend and we had a great time making a necklace and drinking wine with some other ladies.  I took more lessons and then I began buying beads. I enjoy shopping for beads almost as much as creating with beads.  I find making jewelry a challenge and a creative outlet.

I make a variety of different kinds of jewelry.  I do this mainly because I like to learn new techniques and expand my range.   I really don't know how to describe my style because I think it changes.  I am really drawn to make jewelry that is inspired by a bead hop where you are given a piece of art as an inspiration. The multicolored necklace pictured above is such a piece.

A favorite necklace of mine that is feminine and sophisticated and inspired by nature

I know some of my jewelry has been described as delicate, sophisticated, feminine.   Personally, I like jewelry with a BoHo look.   I do know that I don't make anything that I will not wear.  Most of the jewelry that I make I sell in my BayMoonDesign shop.  For that reason, I tend to make jewelry that is geared to a season like the holiday season or fall.  Currently, I am in Florida and I am working on jewelry for Saint Patrick's Day and the summer craft fair season.  Since I live in the Florida Keys in the winter and by the Delaware Bay in the summer, my jewelry is inspired by nature.

Saint Patrick's Day Earrings Available at BayMoonDesign

Sailboat Earrings available at BayMoonDesign

Starfish  Bracelet Available at BayMoonDesign

I like to use vintage or materials from nature.   I love to use materials found in nature like sea shells and pearls and materials made from nature like ceramics..  From looking at my jewelry you can see I love to use ceramics and polymer clay beads as focals.   I use a wide variety of beads.  I use to use beads that were on the small side, but recently I have started working with larger beads.
 I have started doing more metal work.  I bought Cindy Wimmer's book about making chains and clasps from metals and I bought a tumbler so I am now making more of my components like the silver connector and silver clasp in the blue necklace.  I don't really care to work with tiny seed beads.  I do like peanut beads and superduos.  I love the texture of Irish waxed lace and use it in lots of my jewelry like the starfish bracelet.

I really use every color.  Personally, I love greens, purples, and blues the best.

I can't wait to see who my partner is and get beads from him or her.  I do love beads!

January Art Bead Scene Challenge Met With Marsha Neal and Work of Our Hands Ceramics

Imagine Tomorrow by Hundertwasserand palette by Brandi Hussey

This month, we're working with this vibrant piece Imagine Tomorrow by Hundertwasser. I love bright colors, but especially during winter when nature's colors are muted. This month, we've got a very bright color palette .  Just about all the colors of the rainbow are represented here in fully saturated hues.   I followed the color proportions faithfully, by using a lot of orange - yellow orange, true orange, red-orange and yellow.

Purple bullseye ceramic by Marsha Neal and round orange and yellow ceramic by Work of Our Hands

 I also added purple because I wanted to use a large purple bullseye ceramic by Marsha Neal.  The ceramic is a great color and the shape mirrors the circular design in the poster.  To complete the focal, I added an orange and yellow ceramic by Work of Our Hands.

Multicolored Necklace is available for purchase HERE

I decided to use brass when I connected the 2 ceramic beads to the multicolored necklace because I had yellow in the necklace.  I also created a large sun shaped clasp from brass so that the shape of the clap would mirror the shape of the purple ceramic.

Brass sun clasp by BayMoonDesign

While I was making the clasp for this necklace,  I made 2 medium sized ones to add to the components section of my shop. 

medium size sun clasp by BayMoonDesign available for purchase HERE

 My goal this year is to use  more of my handmade findings in my pieces and to add handmade components to my shop.  So far I am on track with that!  I just added 2 medium sized sun clasps for sale.

Vibrant Colors of Winter in Key Largo, Florida

I have lots of vibrant colors around me for inspiration.  How do you like these colors that I found this winter in Key Largo, Florida? 

We're All Earrings-January Challenge

2015 Pantone Spring color forecast

This month's "We're All Earrings" challenge focuses on the 2015 Pantone Spring color forecast.  Personally, I usually use more vibrant colors in my designs.  Out of this springs colors I do like the Glacier Gray the best.  Glacier Gray is an unobtrusive gray that contrasts and enhances other colors.   It slips into the background to allow other colors to take center stage. Nature’s most perfect neutral, Glacier Gray is a shade that is timeless and sophisticated. It is quietly assuring and tranquil.  Glacier Gray, is above all, constant.

Glacier Gray Pearl Earrings available at BayMoonDesign

With those thoughts in mind, I decided to create a sophisticated pair of earrings using Glacier Gray. I used  silver keishi pearls and black lacquered wood beads work together with the long kidney wires.   The black wood lacquered beads, and silver to add contract and texture and help to create unique earrings with an contemporary look.

Rocky Mountain National Park Glacier

Working with this color brought to mind the remains of a glacier that I saw this Fall in the Rocky Mountain National Park.  It was hard to wrap my mind around the fact that this is a glacier that remains there after a hot dry summer before fresh snow arrived shortly there after.  It was about 13,000 feet in elevation and cold.

What colors do you like?

New Earring Monday and Readying for Valentine's Day

I have taken the challenge and I am playing along in the New Earring Monday sponsored by SJ Designs Jewelry.   I love making earrings and this will be a great way to always keep moving forward at a steady pace.  It's super simple to play along... just make one pair of earrings a week and share them on your blog every two weeks.  I will try to do something a little different and dip into my art beads and make my own earwires with some regularity.

Sterling silver and black earrings available for purchase at BayMoonDesign

For this month, I challenged myself to make my own sterling silver ear wires. I made these sterling silver and black earrings.  These are geometric black recycled glass beads have a pretty sea glass look to them. I paired the black beads from ZnetsShows with an interesting looking pewter bead with texture. I made the sterling silver ear wires so that their size would accent the geometric dangles and pewter beads. These are fun earrings that are about 2 inches long.

Love is all around this time of year!

With Valentine's Day approaching, I like to work with pink and reds in my designs.

Hot Pink Earrings available for purchase at BayMoonDesign

I made these striking hot pink earrings. The geometric earrings have black and hot pink beads that have a dramatic look to them. I paired the black and hot pink beads with handmade sterling ear wires so that their size and shape would accent the geometric beads.  I find it difficult to find pink and hot pink beads that I like.  These beads came from MyElements which is a shop that I recently discovered.  I recommend looking at their chains and beads.  I love they both.  There are lots of beads in a variety of fun shapes and colors.  Their chains come in lots of cool colors and a variety of metals and sizes.

MyElements chain on Handmade Long Red Necklace and large Sterling Clasp by BayMoonDesign

In addition to adding jewelry for Valentine's Day, I added some handmade cards to my shop. 

Heartini card for Valentine's Day available at BayMoonDesign

I pulled my red and pink card stock out to make some handmade Valentine's cards for family and my for sale in my BayMoonDesign shop.

As I mentioned, I am finding these challenges a great way to always keep moving forward at a steady pace.  I feel that I am ready for Valentine's Day!  How about you?

In the Woods

 

Warning about Bears at a Trash Site in Yosemite

If you follow my blog, you know that I went on a 6 week camping trip this fall and visited a number of national parks along the way from Lewes, Delaware to Yosemite National Park in California.  While on this trip, I read an exciting book called Ranger Confidential: Living, Working, And Dying In The National Parks by Andrea Lankford. For twelve years, Andrea Lankford lived in the biggest, most impressive national parks in the world.  In this graphic and surprisingly funny account of her and others’ extraordinary careers, Lankford unveils a world in which park rangers struggle to maintain their idealism in the face of death, disillusionment, and the loss of a comrade killed. She reveals the  thin line between protecting the park from the people, the people from the park, and the people from each other.

 

Bear Trap in Yosemite

Lankford reveals arguments with bears that she won.  She pursued bad guys on her patrol horse. She jumped into rescue helicopter.   She slept with a few too many rattlesnakes. Ranger Confidential is the story behind the scenery of the nation’s crown jewels—Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Great Smokies, Denali.

This is what a bear trap looks like

 Secretly I was hoping to see a bear from a distance of course.  I only saw signs like this bear trap that I ran across on a hike one morning in Yosemite.  The trap was pretty exciting to me since I had never seen one before.  

Bear lockers

In Lankford's book, I read about the bear lockers.  These are bear proof containers that are near campsites to store food.  The sight of these bear lockers at a campsite in Yosetime brought the book to life for me.

"Housing"  for Volunteer Rescue Folks

The book describes a special section in Yosemite, that is for the volunteer rescue folks to live.  I might have just walked past it and not have even realized what this was if I hadn't read this book.

A Volunteer Rescue Worker fine tuning his skills

Right outside this section of the park, I spotted this fellow who was obviously skilled at walking a wire.  I don't think he was just entertaining himself and others.  I think he was practicing for a rescue.  For some reason which escapes me, a lot of people like to climb these huge mountains.

Mountain Climbers

 Half Dome at Yosemite is so popular that permits to climb it are awarded based on a lottery. 

El Capitan

The most dangerous things that I did in the national parks was ride in our big truck and do some mild hikes.  

Bear Pendant by Moriah Betterly of Blu Mudd

 I am on Moriah Betterly's design team so I am familiar with her ceramics.  I just bought this bear pendant.  I have plans to make this into a necklace inspired by this trip.

I am also a member of 2 teams that make handmade artisan goods.  These teams are the etteam and aweteam.

 Please click HERE to visit view with links to artisan work

Above is a little sampling of their handmade artisan works. Many of these artisans have sales this time of year. The First Friday Art Walk Team (AWETeam) is the official team hosting the the "First Friday Art Walk Weekend" on Etsy.com. I am offering 10% off my jewelry, cards and components from now through Monday with code THANKU2 at checkout.

Component by BayMoonDesign

Soft Pink Leather Compass Bracelet by BayMoonDesign

If you have a special trip to celebrate you may want to purchase my compass component or finished compass bracelet. 

Happy New Year (image from GraphicStock

Perhaps you have a special trip planned for 2015.  If so I would love to hear where you hope to go. I am hoping to go to the Smokey Mountains in the Fall.