More Jewelry Making

A little while ago i had a play date with some of my co-workers.  We spent the day making jewelry. Well we enjoyed ourselves so much we had a repeat event this past Saturday.  We met at my house around noon and had a lovely pot luck luncheon by the pool.

Then we got started. I worked on this piece.  I picked up the vintage rose pin at the Rose Bowl Flea market last year.  I wanted to make an asymmetrical necklace using the pin as the center piece. I had some rosary beads i wanted to incorporate - but the chain was too gold for the gunmetal of the pin.  So i made the rosary MYSELF - yeah!!

I used assorted glass, silver and vintage rhinestones - using the wire wrapping technique.

This is a crystal from a chandelier!

Next i worked on this pretty pink necklace.  I used the sterling silver wire i was "saving" until i was good enough at wire wrapping - since it is pricey.  Not sure i like it = with the right outfit it will be nice.

I used a bone carved rose as a the focal point and some vintage bits from my button box.

I had picked up some fresh water pearls in soft hues - but they didn't work with the other pink necklace - so i made this one.  More delicate - with sterling silver chain.

I love the organic softness.

I continued making necklaces on Sunday and made this one using glass beads, gunmetal chain from Michael's and more wire wrapping.

I had actually started this one about 5 years ago!  I had the glass leaves and started to make a bracelet.  I turned it into this necklace.

Here's everything i made - including the copper flower on the left i somehow forgot to photograph.

Oh - but then before i put everything away i made this with assorted green and orangey red glass beads and antique gold circle chain from Michaels.

I get into a rhythm making wire wrapped clusters and just connect them as i go.

Oh yeah - i also made a bracelet.  This was assembled with elastic thread, pretty little beads and some shell buttons.

Very soft and comfy on the wrist.

Here are pictures of the things that my friends made:

What a great way to spend the weekend.  To top it off, Saturday night we went to see a contemporary gospel choir performance. One of my co-workers is in the group.  They were fantastic!

Circus Circus - April Altered Calendar

Here are the pages i just completed in Dorothy's colourful Circus themed calendar. Each spread had a image or illustration related to circus.  Our task was to embellish the pages to create a lovely circus themesdcollage.  The first spread above had the illustration on the right.  The picture on the left came from a recent Anthropologie catalog!  Yeah - how cool is that?  It matched almost PERFECTLY.  Of course Anthro is not selling beaded and feathered costumes - i made those.  Paper dolls for grown ups!

This spread had the vintage image on the left of a daredevil tightrope walker. I went with the  black and white theme and added a similar image i found online.  I cut the edges to look like a photograph with deco edge scissors. I created a flap with silver metallic tape.  I did some journaling under the flap and added the silver heart with the phrase I "heart" danger. Some white gesso scraped on with a credit card and some silver ink spatters finish off the spread.

I had no idea what to do with this spread - which had an x-ray of a sword swallower. How creepy!  Then i happened to see the postcard on the left, sitting on my card stand in my craft room. It is an advertisement for Cirque Berzerk.  Not sure where i picked it up - but it was perfect!  I added some striped paper and tape and made another little flap.  I finished it off with a skull and crossbones silver charm.

Ok - back to the happy circus of our youth! Page on the left was in the book - page on the left - more collage courtesy of Anthropologie. I added some simple tape stripes to tie them together. Seriously.  if you don't already, sign up to get their catalogs.  Every month they are filled with luscious images.  You never know when you can use them in an altered book!

This spread was all me.  There was a circus poster of a lion tamer - but i could not figure out what to do.  Searched on-line and found this fun image instead! These lovely ladies are holding big cones of pink cotton candy. Cotton balls i dyed pink with Color Mists from Outside the Margins.  Coincidently Aileen is participating in this round robin.  Please check out her blog to see some of the colour packed pages she has done already.  Can't wait to see what she does with this book!

And finally here is the really cool sign in page Dorothy created for each artist to leave their name and a final bit of collage. What a fun theme and a joy to work in this book!