happy birthday to me!

it's my birthday today. i don't know how i feel about birthdays, now that i've reached adulthood. they were such big deals when we were little, and now it's like, 'ho, hum'.

maybe i'm not celebrating them right.

so today i'm going to drink a diet coke (yay!) and read 'the applause of heaven' by max lucado and steep myself in God's love for me. i'll go for a walk and notice all that nature has to offer. maybe i'll do some business related stuff, maybe not. and i'll breathe.

wish me luck.

humility

i've started a new job. i'm driving around a friend who lost her license due to a dwi. it's an... interesting job. it's most certainly a lesson in humility. and frustration. but this is where i'm supposed to be right now. i wonder what else i'm supposed to learn...

one nice thing about it is that i'm getting time to read and work on my jewelry. it's funny how much i love making jewelry. there's something so immediate about it. creating beauty i've always been drawn to, but creating something so intimate, so tangible, so beguiling... it's humbling to know someone will wear my creations. to know they will feel beautiful because of what my hands made... mmm. that's a smashing feeling. i'm helping someone feel beautiful! wow. that just feels *good*.

it was the new moon last night. i hope, wherever you are, you look up in the sky tonight and are inspired by that fickle creature; the moon. oh, how she inspires me! blessings on you, my friends.

collective creative canape reveal day!

so i showed the soup i got from cheryl foiles a few weeks ago, and now it's april 1st, the reveal day for the ccc! i'm so excited to be a part of this little group because i love love love lori anderson's bead soup blog party, but did not make the luck of the lottery draw. so keri lee sereika organized this little group for a few of us, and here we are!

let me remind you of the soup i received from cheryl.

gorgeous, right? all that ivory and brass with a touch of red. i've not worked with ivory much, so it's exciting to push beyond my boundaries. that's what these challenges are all about. exploring unexplored territory, pushing back the edges of what we do as jewelry artists. i love pushing myself. it makes me a better designer, and that's always where i want to go.

as i was looking at my soup i realized how simple it all is. simple and clean. so i decided to go with that feeling. i love nature, and that's what this soup is all about. my dad was a botanist and a rockhound, so we spent weekends in the forests of oregon, the beaches of the pacific ocean, the deserts of california, the tundra of the far north, and the wilds of interior alaska. i'm deeply inspired by the sea, the forests, trees, animals, the sky,  the desert, weather, and all that good stuff. so this soup was perfect for me in that, and reflects what i sent cheryl. go see her blog here to see what i sent her and what she made of it!

i decided to stick with simple wire wrapping and let the focus be on the lovely cleanness of the colors. i pulled only two elements; the nest and the bird, both of which i made. i also love the look of mixed metals and so i thought i'd do all the wire wrapping in silver.

the bird is pearl polymer clay with a lovely sheen. love that clay. the eggs in the nest are freshwater pearls. the two ivory rounds are fossil coral, the red is agate, the little brown guy up there above the leaf focal to the left is a seed pod, the ring is mystery stone, and the oval up at the top is petrified wood, which was my father's favorite stone, so it's especially special to me that cheryl sent it. the rosary chain on brass are glass pearls and that gorgeous clasp was made by cheryl herself. and most special of all is the ceramic diamond by elaine ray herself, which cheryl picked up from ornamentea. cheryl lives close enough to the famous store to visit often. i'm so jealous! here's a close up of the focal.

i loved getting to be a part of this little group of intrepid explorers! and this summer everybody that wants to be a part of the original bead soup blog party should join up, because lori anderson is staggering the reveal days so it's not too overwhelming to visit them all. i'm so excited! lori is the most awesome hostess on the planet!

and don't forget to visit all the blogs in the collective creative canape. here's the list. but first go visit my partner. i can't wait to see what she's got all done. thanks so much for visiting!

Keri Lee Sereika www.pinklemonade.typepad.com
Beth Emery www.storiesbyindigoheart.blogspot.com -you are here
Niki Meiners www.nikimeiners.wordpress.com
... Karan Parker www.karanskrafts.blogspot.com
Liz DeLuca www.facebook.com/pages/Creative-Arty-Facts/162737703562
Lynne Bowland www.islandgirlsinsights.blogspot.com
Judy Turner www.silver-rains.blogspot.com
Erin Grant www.Erinsjewelrycreations.blogspot.com
Bryna Lumb www.brynasbeadbox.blogspot.com
Rochelle Brisson www.acreativechelle.blogspot.com
Linda Youkman www.lindysdesigns.blogspot.com
Carmen Lau www.littlemake.blogspot.com
Cheryl Foiles www.getyourbeadon.com
Kelli Jacobson www.CreativeMoonJewelryAndThings.com
Elena Gianni www.ilmondodipucci.blogspot.com
Tania Hagen www.pelimadesign.blogspot.co.nz
Cindy Muse www.cindyshandworkcrafts.blogspot.com
Stephanie Woods www.skwds.blogspot.com
Lisa Lodge www.pineridgetreasures.blogspot.com

echo creative club march reveal day!

so today is the reveal day for jeannie dukic's echo creative club's march reveal. let me remind you what she sent.

i love the color, the leaves, and the gorgeous peeled paint art beads. i have no idea how she makes these. she's brilliant! go visit her store here and get some of your own!

so i'm really inspired by nature. nature is pretty much my theme. and this collection made me think of a magical forest, so i went diving in my art beads and found the perfect focal--a fairy kissed tree!

i drilled the bottom hole and added little dangly bits of nature and those beads. love those beads.

then i focused on wire wrapping various beads in my color scheme of grey, blue, cranberry, brown, and silver. i wanted the wire to be brass, and the elements silver to reflect my silver and gold focal.

i pulled in a brown diane hawkey 'harmony' bead. i thought that would be perfect for my fairy wood. and of course i had to have a bird for my forest, so i grabbed my trusty green girl studio beads and dug in them to find this soaring birdie. yay!

i love the look of steel wire, so i wrapped a couple spots of the brass with it. love that black, steely look.

at the back i did some simple stringing.

i've got mother-of-pearl, wood, labradorite, jasper, and tiger's eye back here, all on brass beadalon. i kept the clasp simple since so much is going on in this necklace.

now, go see what the rest of the team did. and don't forget to visit jeannie's store and get your hands on some of these fabulous beads!

Beth Emery http://www.storiesbyindigoheart.blogspot.com -you are here

Birgitta Lejonklou http://www.lejonklou.blogspot.com

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

Courtney Breul http://www.beadsbybreul.blogspot.com

Erin Prais-Hintz http://www.treasures-found.blogspot.com

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

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

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

small break

so i'm going to be gone from the internet world for a little while. i have a big thing that i may or may not be able to talk about when i get back. i'm not trying to be mysterious, i just don't know how i'm going to feel when all is said and done. it's another bend in the road and i'm just not sure what the road is gonna look like when i get around that bend. little apprehensive, little nervous, little excited, little scared. okay. a lot scared. but i am never alone. no matter where i go. i am never alone.

i hope you will join me on march 25th for the echo creative club reveal and april 1st-ish for the collective creative canape. i have those posts scheduled, so never fear that i will miss those.

expect me the second week of april. that's when i'll be back. i'll miss you, beautiful internet world. you have taught me the beauty and depth of my fellow jewelry artists, which is a lovely thing.

collective creative canape bead exchange!

so lori anderson started the bead soup cafe in conjuction with her bead soup blog party this time around. i've soooo been enjoying connecting with other bead freaks and jewelry makers. for those of us who didn't make it into the party, there came the opportunity to be part of a mini-swap. there are 19 of us and keri lee sereika organized it. we're calling ourselves the collective creative canape. collective; all of us together, creative; because that's what it is, canape; because it's a small bite. ;)

my lovely partner is cheryl foiles. we both sent each other bead soups that are inspired by nature. isn't that fun? synchronicity at work. so the parcel arrived yesterday evening and i was sooooo excited! i love challenges, as you well know. the bead soup idea, organized by the amazing, famous, and sweet lori anderson, is so brilliant. we exchange a focal and some accompanying beads with a total stranger and the fun ensues! i love this challenge because it brings beaders together, helps us reach beyond what we would normally choose and create something altogether new and different. it helps me grow and expand as a designer. love love love.

so cheryl went to ornamentea (she is lucky enough to live close enough to go often) and chose gemstones and brass for me. and... wait for it... elaine ray ceramics. swoon!!!!! i've been jonesing for elaine ray ever since i came across lorelei eurto's jewelry, who often uses elaine's work in her pieces.

so here is what she sent me.

she sent petrified wood, agate, a lovely pearl rosary chain, two mystery stone rings, a clasp she made herself, that gorgeous leaf focal that i already have a myriad of ideas for, and little brass pods. oh, and the elaine ray ceramics!!! squee!!! i'm so excited!

so come back april 1st for our reveal. can't. hardly. wait!

echo creative club preview for march reveal!

oh, squeee!!!

i get to play this month in jeannie dukic's echo creative club again! i'm so thrilled to show my gorgeous beads.

jeannie is a virtuoso with polymer clay. just look at those leaves! the copper-kissed beads! oooh-ahhh.

i draw most of my inspiration from nature--seas, skies, forests, deserts, animals, mountains, stones, weather... it's all grist for the mill. so i'm thinking trees... yeah. i'm thinking trees. definitely trees... i'll leave it that for now. :)

come back on the 25th for the big reveal!

please visit jeannie's website to get your hands on your very own leaves and peeled paint art beads: http://www.jkdjewelry.com