Wednesday, November 30, 2016

Art Elements November Component of the Month -- Kristie Roeder Artisan Clay


In the November month of Thanksgiving, I had one extra gift to be grateful for this year -- the opportunity to participate in the Art Elements Component of the Month using a donut connector focal created by Kristie Roeder of Artisan Clay.  This is the beautiful piece I received:


The colorful, crackled depth of the glass against the chalkiness of the clay makes for quite an eye-catching focal. Having recently created several ornaments for the holidays using various art beads from my collection, I decided to do the same with this beauty.  I added some Czech glass, sparkly spacers and created three beaded beads using pink and blue pearls and crystals.  I love the way it turned out!


Until our tree goes up, I'm keeping this on our fireplace mantle ...





Thank you, Kristie, for sharing your ceramic art with me ... I am truly grateful for the opportunity!

Please check out what the other guest designers and Art Element team members created with Kristie's ceramic donuts. 

Lola♥

Guest Designers:
Sarajo Wentling
Lola Surwillo
Beti Horvath
Kate Kemp
Art Elements Team
Susan Kennedy
Lesley Watt
Claire Fabian
Jenny Davies-Reazor
Jen Cameron

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Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Art Jewelry Elements Component of the Month -- May 2016


The perfect creative storm for me consists of having to work with particular components and being given a deadline.  Imagine my delight then when I was lucky enough to be chosen to participate in the Art Jewelry Elements Component of the Month challenge for May!

The reason I enjoy working with specific components is because I find restrictions rein in the possibilities while also pushing me to try new things.  The reason I like deadlines is because I'm really super good at procrastination.  We're talking Olympic Gold Medal good. So when I found out I was chosen for this challenge, I wanted to make sure I didn't wait until the last minute to finish everything.  Instead, I waited until two days before the last minute.  This is serious commitment for me!

When I received these lovely little candyesque cabochon jewels from Sue Kennedy of Sue Beads earlier this month, I had absolutely no idea how my limited skill set was going to do these beauties justice.


So I contemplated ... and plotted ... and planned.  Finally, the idea of a polymer bracelet bar, waxed linen and a bit of macramé came to fruition.


As I was taking pictures of my new bracelet out on our deck, I realized I may have inadvertently been inspired by my flowers that hang there.  Such a happy coincidence!


I really enjoyed working with Sue's glass cabochons, and I am truly grateful to have had the opportunity to create this happy little bracelet for myself.  Thank you Sue and AJE!

Please take a moment to check out what the rest of this month's group created with their Sue Beads cabs!  Thank you!

Lola♥

Guests

Lola Surwillo {you are here}

AJE Team Members






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Sunday, January 31, 2016

Buried Treasure

Today I am participating in the Buried Treasure/use-your-stash challenge issued by the talented artists at Art Jewelry Elements. This challenge helped me reignite my creative voice – something that’s been lost for quite some time now – by not only encouraging me to unearth forgotten treasures, but by also guiding me back to the very beginning of my beady adventure.

My love affair with beads began the day I accompanied a friend to a local bead store and saw a wire crochet bracelet with beads on the cover of one of the magazines. Having crocheted more doilies than one would ever need in one’s lifetime, I was drawn to this new form of crochet. Blisters aside, I loved working with wire and beads! That is why I went back to my roots for this challenge, found a Lisa Peters Art ceramic button to use as my focal, and proceeded to create a wire crochet bracelet.




The year I scored the button from Lisa Peters at the Bead & Button show, I also scored a beautiful “create” pendant by Melanie Brooks. I decided to take Melanie’s pendant and make myself an inspiring talisman to hang in a noncreative space as a reminder to make time to play.

Thank you AJE for this wonderful challenge ... I hope to unearth even more forgotten treasures sometime very soon.

Thanks for stopping by and please be sure to check out the other unearthed treasures below!

Lola♥
AJE team:



Guests: 

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Saturday, June 06, 2015

A Time to Stitch Seven (ATTS7) Bead Embroidery


I am so excited to be participating in A Time to Stitch Seven (ATTS7) hosted by Therese & Christine! Bead embroidery has been something I've been wanting to try for a very long time, but I always felt so intimidated by it.  The bead embroidered pieces I admired were so amazing that I didn't know how to start.  So I researched ... A LOT!  I watched video after video until I could no longer avoid NOT starting. So, I began ...

I began to bezel the beautiful round cab I won that Therese created, along with two Marsha Neal ceramic components that I found at my local bead store.




I LOVE the way these three individual pieces turned out and I look forward to finishing them, maybe making a few more components, and then putting them all together to create a bracelet for myself.




Thank you so much for stopping by my blog.  Thank you Therese and Christine for pushing us outside of our creative comfort zones and expanding our technique tool boxes with your challenges!

Happy Hopping Everyone!

Lola♥

1.     Therese (Host) 
2.     Christine  (Host)
3.     Amy
4.     Lola
5.     Lori F
6.     Kim
7.     Becky Pancake
8.     Karin G.
9.     Debbie (Kepi)
10.   LizE
11.   Maryanne
12.   Paula
13.   Wendy
14.   Janet
15.   Jasvanti
16.   Ginger
17.   Alicia
18.   Bobbie
19.   Shirley
20.   Sarah
21.   Cynthia  
22.   Lizzie
23.   Samantha
24.   Sally
25.   Niki
26.   Karen W.

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Tuesday, June 17, 2014

A Time to Stitch 5


I am so delighted to be a part of A Time to Stitch 5!  The objective of this challenge was to use one bead weaving stitch to make three different bracelets ... this is where bead selection came into play.

I chose peyote as my bead weaving stitch because it was the very first stitch I taught myself and one that I have been wanting to play around with.  All three bracelets are the same six-row peyote pattern, but by changing the bead size, shape and color, you change the look of each piece.  Although I didn't have time to finish the last one, I did provide a little glimpse into what it's going to look like.




I wear the white one often, and even created another one for a friend's birthday which "technically," was my third full piece. =)  I'm looking forward to finishing the last one ... I really like the edging the triangle beads make and I think it will make a lovely finished bracelet.

Thank you so much for stopping by today.  I look forward to seeing what all the other participants created!  

And thank you Therese and Christine for hosting this awesome challenge and helping me get back into the swing of creating some jewelry ... it was the fun and gentle push I needed!


  Lola♥


Hosts:

Participants

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