Anchors Away Challenge

Since I accidentally deleted my pictures for the blog hop on my ipad while on vacation,   I decided that I would add a second blog post to show you the pic.  After seeing all the great designs from the other participants,  I was a little embarrassed to show mine but I didn't want you to think that I really didn't do my earrings.

As I mentioned in my previous post I loved these anchors and went to Suburban Girl Studio's etsy shop to pick up a pair so that I could participate in the challenge.  Time got away from me and I delayed making my piece until the day before I left on vacation.  I had won a kit with the same focal at Bead Fest along with yellow waxed linen, navy and white seed beads.  I decided to use them in my earrings and put together a hasty design with fringe and the cute focals.  Hopefully I have learned my lesson and in the future I get started sooner so that more thought can be put into my piece.

Beading with Friends: Beadweaving with Lentil Beads

 Beading with friends is always more fun than beading alone.  Recently I had the great fortune of going to Bead Fest in Philadelphia and meeting up with two of my good friends from our facebook group, Creative Bead Chat.  It had been a year since we had been able to see each other in person and shopping and beading with Cynthia Machata and Melinda Orr was the highlight of my trip. 

During the shopping portion of our trip, we discovered a vendor that carried some outstanding beading patterns.  Recently I had begun to play around with seed beads again and particularly the new two hole beads that are very popular right now.  A certain pattern by Bead Dreamers called Lentille using two hole lentil beads caught our eye and we decided to give the pattern a try. Getting started with this pattern was a little tricky but once the first two rows were completed, it was a snap to make.

Each of us had a different take on the pattern.  Mine are both monochromatic while Cynthia's is an elegant piece using two colors with an extra special flower clasp.  You can see Cynthia's bracelet on her blog, Antiquity Travelers.   Melinda's bracelet is still in progress but she also utilized two colors.  My clasp is a knock off of the "M" clasp that I handcrafted out of copper wire.

It really is fun to bead with friends even if it sometime is only thru the internet sharing pictures back and forth in messages.  

Anchors Aweigh Blog Hop

Toltec Jewels is sponsoring another blog hop using some really cute anchor components from Suburban Girl Studios.   I have been really inactive in the blog hop scene this year and I decided that this would be a good chance for me to rev up my creative juices and join in.  Well.... let me tell you, there probably is a good reason why I don't do more blog hops - time crunch.  I postponed using my components  until the last minute as I was getting ready for vacation (actually I should be sitting on the beach in sunny Florida as you are reading this).    I debated about just not participating but decided against doing that - there is just something about saying you are going to do something and then not following through that bothers me.  So between packing the car and checking off all of those last minute items on my list, I made a pair of earrings.  I really wanted to get more creative and I did actually do some searching for something I could make in a short time frame using nautical knots with rope or with seed beads but panic set in an I copped out for simple.  Funny thing is that I won an anchor component identical to this from Diana's bead swap at Bead Fest this year and some of the ingredients in my gift came in handle in this last minute effort.  I used the yellow waxed linen and the navy and white seed beads from the kit to do a simple fringe earring.

(Well I went into my post to update the participants list and accidentally deleted my photo on my iPad --  photo is on laptop at home and can't readd.  So much for trying to do this on time). Funny thing I didn't resave the post but lost picture anyway.   Please visit the other participants sites for a look at their creative designs:

Anchors Aweigh Participating Artists Featured & Honored Artist:        Diana Ptaszynski Diana's Shop:                           Suburban Girl Beads Diana's Blogs:                          Suburban Girl Studio                                                                                                  Art Jewelry Elements Hostess: TJ                              Jewel School Friends Bobbie Rafferty                        Beadsong Jewelry Chris Eisenberg                        Wanderware Heather Richter                         Desert Jewelry Designs Michelle McCarthy                    Firefly Design Studio Kathy Lindemer                        Bay Moon Design Dini Bruinsma                           Angaza by Changes Cynthia Machata                       Antiquity Travelers Kathleen Breeding                     99 Bottles of Beads on the Wall Linda Younkman                       Lindy's Designs Robin Reed                              Artistry HCBD Marla Gibson                            Spice Box Designs Gina Hockett                            Freestyle Elements Renetha Stanziano                     Lamplight Crafts Marianne Baxter                       Simply Seablime Jewelry            Christina Miles                         Wings N Scales Marybeth Rich                         A Few Words from Within the Pines Shai Williams                           Shaiha's Ramblings Cheri Reed                               Creative Designs by Cheri Monique Urguhart                     A Half-Baked Notion Jennifer Reno                           Musings of a Crafty Jenny Shirley Moore                           Beads and Bread Tammy Adams                         Paisley Lizard Melissa Trudinger                     Bead Recipes