Jewelry Artisans Network... Spring Plans & Dancing with Tangerine Tango

I try not to have any plans.. that said I signed up for a tangerine tango jewellery blog hop quite awhile ago... reveal day is today (this is actually being typed on March 10... I have two weeks to figure out what I'm doing or I can dust off my first bead soup project which I think fits both spring and tangerine tango perfectly!
(silver leaves came from Jo of Daisychain Designs in England)

My  plans for spring this year where to stay home... start a bunch of seeds...  but my mother decided that I should come/go to Edmonton for two weeks just after Easter... so there goes my poor little seeds I've left them under the care of my husbands crispy brown thumb before.....

Other spring plans that I might keep  spend less time on the computer and more time doing things that will expand my jewellery business and gallery.... well if I spent my time on the computer promoting myself and listing things on etsy instead of playing scrabble and freecell (someone suggested that you could play all the free cell games ... I believe there are 100000... I started at 1 at the beginning of the year I'm now at 371... I have won all of those... some have taken awhile; at 5 per day it will take another  56 years to finish!)  But at least both those games require my little brain cells to be engaged!

I am having fun doing the torch fired enamels... need to design a line of jewellery around my headpins... or get a potter to make me some miniature vases and just sell them as bouquets!  This boquet has sold and is now living in Texas.

Yes I did actually  make a Tangerine Tango necklace  It looked closer to the colour before I took pictures....

The 'focal' is green  afterall this is suppose to be a spring themed blog not an autumn blog...  The orange really is much closer to the 'Pantone' colour in real life!

Actually this necklace doesn't thrill me ... I think it needs a second strand.... Or it might just  be added to the pile of necklaces that I have done for various challenges over the years.. I think I may have to find a larger drawer!

And just to prove it's spring Look what I found in the garden!

Links to both blog hops will be added!
Tangerine Tango Reveal
Jewelry Artisan Net carnvial blog participants (JAC)
Bead Sophisticate
Catswire 
J3 Jewelry 
Jewelry By Dawn 
Bead up a Storm

Remember I said that I entered Eve in a Bust building contest????

Well I guess she won, because nobody else bothered to enter!  Heres' the link to the blog article!

BeadFX

& since you've all already seen pictures of Eve here's a picture of Madeline her 5 year old cousin!
For those of you who haven't met Eve... Here she is!

ALmost wordless wednesday

What could be better on an 80 degree day which also happens to be the first day of spring.... A new felted hat with matching mitts!

ABS March Challenge... 'Street Scene in Montmartre'

 Van Gough's Street Scene in Montmarte is this months inspiration for the ABS Challenge... Some months I look at the picture and nothing happens... other months I can see the focal but it never gets into the kiln....  This month I took one look at that painting and thought this will be FUN!

First off... Make a focal ....  Usually my version of the focal is a miniature of some element of the painting...

I wasn't sure about adding the french flag to the bead then thought nope... I can make an enameled French flag...  Lucky it was a French flag... most other flags would have been beyond by enamel talents!... & I couldn't resist trying to do a pinwheel to represent the windmills... I made the mistake of punching all 5 holes before I started... think it would have been much easier to bend the copper into shape &  then punch the hole... Then I had all my new headpins that I had to show off somehow... I'm really pleased with the way this necklace worked out!  With the exception of one tiny commercial copper bead wired onto the focal and the bases of the enameled beads.... this is 100'% hand made from glass rods, enamels, copper wire and copper sheet...

As I was looking for the link to add my name to the list for the blog tour I discovered that I am thisweeks designer of the week for the ABS Challenge...  Here's what Heather Powers has to say about my piece!
& If you want to do the blog tour

Seahorse Tutorial

I was asked to test a seahorse tutorial for Laurie of "glassbead" last week.

These are the first two that I did... I ran out of propane on the one on the left just before it got it's eyes... IT's also a bit on the fat side!  The one on the right needs more contrast in it's stringers!

My second two are much smaller  & I think cuter... actually they are getting smaller every time I make them... I also got lazy with my stringers and only added the ones going round the body then combed them...

She has a really interesting technique to make the tail....  I am improving  (the green glass I used in the 4th one is a really old colour called Mozaic green... in the rod it looks black...I think for  for the tail to work properly the glass should be more transparent!)

But I think these little guys are really cute...Here's a direct link to the tutorial. if you want to try it yourself.

Bead table Wednesday & almost wordless wednesday

 This is the pile of components that I've made for this months Art Bead Scene Challenge... No they won't all get used.  & a Close up of the focal.. How could I not participate this month when the painting was full of black tree skeletons?

The painting this month is Street Scene in Montmartre: Le Moulin a Poivre by Vincent Van Gogh

I'll post the painting when I upload the finished piece!

And Yes that does look a lot more like my rug than my bead board....  There's too many pieces!

It's done!

 It took long enough... but the lighting isn't great in the dinning room  and.... there were frequent obstructions....

 Someone thought that it made a really good bed and had no intention  of moving... He actually took it apart while we were in Toronto...   I was always finding pieces on the floor... I'm amazed that they were all still there!  Actually Emm is not allowed on the table and he knows it...  but you can tell by the look on his face just how worried he is!

Almost Wordless Wednesday & Bead Table Wednesday (BTW)

 My new enameled Poppy Headpins...  they might be on etsy they might not...  These ones are sold and I haven't listed a new set YET....

And this is for anyone who missed Eli-Mae's cute tummy on my face book... Gord says that the tiny black heart in the middle of the white one is the true indication of her personality!

Today is the 5th beadsoup blog hop...

 I'm hopping but have no soup on my burner....

So instead of Soup I have a work in progress.... Playing with some of my new enameled headpins!  This did not start out as a bird....  I'm still tossing around ideas on how to fill in the wing....  The piece has loops on both ends so will become part of a neckpiece....

Would love to see some creative  comments

Size just over 4 inches/ 10 cm loop to loop.