echo creative club

i am so excited to announce to you guys that i'm part of jeannie dukic's jewelry design team for this year (!). i can hardly believe my luck. so the deal is we choose our months and then choose what components we wanted to work with. then we blog about it on the given day, and today is that day! so here goes.

i wanted to focus on a winter theme, so i chose a gin blossom in blue. when it arrived in the mail, i fell in love. it was so amazingly beautiful! i love art beads! so i put on my thinking cap, and i thought of snowflakes, so i dug through my cache, looking for ice. but i didn't want just ice. i wanted *richness*. yumminess. plummyiness. so i found some black and thought of bare branches. and what are bare branches without a few cardinals? and ice, of course. i pulled it all together but i wasn't happy, so took a few things apart, added a couple things... and loved it. it's called, 'cardinals in winter.'

i used steel and bronze wire, crystals, coral, rainbow moonstone, wooden chain, and copper, chocolate, and gunmetal chain. i've been loving the look of these industrial clasps, and i found some at jo-ann's the other day in the purse making section. always look in unexpected places and you'll find the coolest things! the briolette crystal in the copper circle is a preciosa crystal. i'm a rather biased swarovski fan, but i thought i'd give preciosa a go, and am pleased with the quality.

i had so much fun with this challenge and look forward to participating in the upcoming months.

thank you so much, jeannie, for allowing me to join in the fun! i *love* your work, and highly recommend it to everyone.

now let's go visit everybody elses blog!

Molly Alexander http://www.beautifullybrokenme.blogspot.com

Courtney Breul http://beadsbybreul.blogspot.com

Michelle Buettner http://www.MiShelDesigns.blogspot.com

Shannon Chomanczuk http://www.formysweetdaughter.blogspot.com

Cindy Cima Edwards http://www.cindycima.com

Beth Emery http://storiesbyindigoheart.blogspot.com

Kristen Stevens http://kristen-beadjourney.blogspot.com

Jeannie K Dukic http://site.jkdjewelry.com/blog

here is jeannie's website, so you, too, can own some of her gorgeous artwork!