challenges

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Marsha Neal Studio Silk Color Palette Challenge Round 1

Hello & Happy Monday!
I was lucky enough to be included in the Silk Palette Challenge that Marsha Neal is doing. This is the first round of a few more to come.


The photo collage above was our inspiration, and we were to pick a palette from Marsha’s hand dyed silk cords.
This is my Bahama Dawn palette……


You can go to Marsha’s Blog to see all twelve palettes.  There are links there about upcoming challenges as well as links where you can purchase these cords.
Have a great creative week!
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Copper Component Blog Hop

Happy Saturday everyone!
I am participating in Kristi Bowman’s Copper Component Blog Hop Challenge. I was so excited to be a part of this because I love the focals Kristi makes from copper clay.
When I received my Sea Urchin focal I held it up to my glass rods to see which colors I should make beads from to go with it.
The pink and green jumped out at me.
I just love the opalescence of this focal. It reminds me of some real shells from the ocean.
I made one pretty huge mistake…….can you see it?
I made my headpins on fine silver wire instead of copper. I am so accustomed to using silver and copper in my work and I always make my headpins on silver.
Hope it is not too obvious. I just may have to change those.
I made a variety of pink, green and clear beads to enhance the focal.
I also added a layer of copper chain to hang next to the row of glass beads.
I wanted the beads to be pretty and stand on their without taking away from the focal and compliment the focal at the same time.
Those beads had a lot of work to do!!
This was a fun challenge!
Please be sure to go and check out what the other participants made. They are listed below. You wont be disappointed! Have a great weekend!
Kimberly Sturrup http://bahamadawn.blogspot.com/ {you are here}
Lana Kinney (will share on Kristi’s blog)
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Woodland Necklace

Hello!
Hope you are all enjoying your weekend!
Remember my post, *Coming Soon*?
I was awaiting the arrival of a copper leaf clasp from Daisy Chain Designs in England. That tiny envelope took almost 2 months to get to me!
Now that the holidays are over and my house is empty again, I had a chance to make a piece using this beautiful clasp.
There were five jewelry designers that participated in the challenge, so be sure to check out their blog posts if you didn’t already, right here.
While I was waiting the arrival of this package my lampworked owl was born, and I thought he would be perfect with this clasp.



This is the first time I have done a necklace completely out of copper wire and chain, and I really like it.



I have had this chain for quite some time and wasn’t sure what I was going to do with it.  It works perfect with this necklace.  Heavy enough to add to the design, but not so heavy that it takes away from the oak leaf clasp or the beads.
Mr Owl has a birdie friend accompanying him also.


Hope you like my Woodland Necklace!
I think I am keeping this one for myself 🙂


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Coming Soon……..

Hello!!
First of all, today I am supposed to be a part of a group of bloggers taking part in a challenge with beautiful oak leaf copper jewelry components from Jo at Daisy Chain Designs.
Unfortunately, I am stilling waiting to receive my package, with the oak leaf, that seems to be delayed in the mail.
These are the beautiful copper pieces I am waiting on…..



In the meantime, please check out the Daisy Chain blog & website, as well as all the bloggers participating in the challenge:

Jo Tinley of Daisy Chain Designs
Melissa Meman of Art, Life, Love
Niki Sayers of SilverNikNaks
Amber Boorman of Larksong Studio
Rebecca Anderson of Songbeads
As soon as my oak leaf arrives I will post my design. I have had a design idea in my head since I saw the oak leaves on Jo’s blog, so I cant wait to get started!

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Creative Project #28 ~ last day of the creative challenge.

I am kinda sad that this creative challenge is over.  It has kept me so inspired throughout this month!  Although like I told you in a previous post I joined a new group called “Creative Everyday”.  I wont be posting every single day about what I have made, instead weekly, but I still will be creating everyday!
Some days were a crunch to get something creative done, but it was well worth the effort to make the time to do it.
So today I made some more beads. I am hooked on making headpins.  Here are a few of the batch I made.  You will have to wait and see the rest when they are in a piece of jewelry.  I have lots of ideas for these little gems.
I got hooked on making these pins when Cassie Donlen, of the Glass Beadle, had a giveaway on her Facebook page for some headpins that she made.
I WON THE GIVEAWAY!!! WOOHOO!!!

Cassie is an amazing glass bead maker, and has a great video out if anyone is interested.
Cassie then asked on her Facebook page how others made their glass headpins.  She made hers on the end of the mandrel then attached the wire with epoxy.  I wrote in and told her I made mine on high temp wire, but then I wanted to try her method since the wire can be tricky if it isnt completely straight.
The last couple of days I have been making them on the mandrel and kind of like that way.
Here are the awesome headpins that Cassie made, and I won….
I got to pick out the four I preferred.
I cant wait to use them with one of her toggles I bought last year.
Have a great week!

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Creative Project #27 ~ a beady kind of day

Today was a day of catching up on some rest as well as melting some glass.  I go into another zone when I make glass beads.  It is like my own little zen.
Here are a few of the batch I made today….
I also designed a new necklace to go with this ceramic pendant that I got out of the kiln on Friday…..
and have started to make some of the components.
The day ended with several rewarding hours of agility training with our agility club and my wonderful potcake, Trixi.
It has been a fun and busy weekend…..I love it!
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Creative Project #26 ~ a busy, busy day!

All week you have been hearing me talk about “Da Market” that took place today.
It was an overwhelming success all around.
I sold my handmade goods, we sold tshirts and bags for our humane society, and Amy and I practically sold out of vegan food!
We were left with one vegan cheesecake and one slice of vegan mac and *cheese*.
Here are Amy and I in our tent.
Da Market is going to take place again the last Saturday of March and I think I will be signing up again for it!
Then after lunch our dog agility group trained for 3 hours with a trainer/judge, Daniel McDonald, from Florida.
Trixi is my current agility dog and she amazes me every lesson. She was a rescue that I planned to re-home.  She turned up outside the vets office and whenever a human would approach her she would let out a blood curdling scream.  Now she runs an agility course with confidence and it makes my heart smile 🙂
After agility I came home, ate dinner and left again to attend Junkanoo, which is a street festival/parade that is native to the Bahamas.
The costumes and the music amaze me every year.
I am exhausted, but is has been a fantastic day.  I should sleep well tonight!
Good night!
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Creative Project #25 ~ da market!

As I told you yesterday, today was a day of tying up lose ends.  Gathering show supplies, packaging items, and doing all those last minute things.  I feel like I am prepared and that scares me so far in advance…..I NEVER feel this way the night before any type of show.
My friend, Amy, and I will have some vegan yummies for sale tomorrow in our tent along with our humane society shirts and bags, and I will have a small selection of my handmade things.
After I got the kiln running this morning, I started making labels for my vegan food.
“H” for Hummus!
Tags for *cheese*cakes…vegan of course 🙂
Yummies labeled and tied.  
Amy will have *N*ice Cream ~ homemade vegan ice cream which is delicious.
I also managed to get some more bags sewn.  These bags are really trying my patience.  The slippery material has a mind of its own under the presser foot!
I really like the shape and size of the dog food bags!  I’d wear the short, wide one on the left as a purse…..but that is artsy, fartsy me 🙂
Now if that kiln would hurry up and cool down I would really be ready!
Hope all of you close by will be at Da Market in the morning….9am til 1pm.
Have a great weekend!
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Creative Project #24 ~ paint, paint, paint!

I almost missed my post today!!!  WOW!  Couldn’t let that happen since I am on such a roll!
Thursdays are usually such a busy day for me anyway, and today was even crazier with Saturday’s market coming up.
Thursdays are my day to grocery shop, have lunch with friends, run errands in town, do banking, dog agility class……..
On top of all of that I baked vegan cheesecakes to sell on Saturday, made tons of hummus, and painted ceramic beads.
These babies need to go in the kiln first thing in the morning, right after my run!
Here are some of them drying….
Tomorrow I will need to get all my show goodies together and in one place, like floats, bags, display stands……just so Saturday morning there are no early morning meltdowns.
Good Night!
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Creative Project #23 ~ sewing bags while waiting

Happy Hump day all!
A really quick post today to show you a glimpse of my creative journey today.  I mentioned yesterday that Saturday I have a function to attend to raise money for Friends of Abaco Animals.  Those clay pieces I showed you yesterday I put in the kiln for their first firing.
The firing took about five hours and now I sit and wait for it to cool down.  Last time I checked the temperature was at 960!  I probably wont be able to open the kiln until tomorrow.
So in the meantime I went outside and washed out cat and dog food bags……
Hung them to dry……
Now you are really thinking I have lost my mind!!!
But……I am making bags to sell at the Humane Society stall on Saturday!
Great shopping bags that are waterproof!
Trixi and Merlin wanted to pose with the bag! hahaha!
If you are in Abaco, please come by Da Market on Saturday, from 9am – 1pm, in the parking lot of the Bahamas National Trust office.