Art Bead Scene Ornament Blog Hop

Welcome to the First annual ABS Ornament blog hop! Inspiration for this ornament...

I was looking around the house at all the boxes of beads that are stashed on every flat surface available.... trying to find a focal bead for the ornament... I had made a bunch of hollow beads with swirls of Clio on the top last summer... Although one or two of them are gorgeous they all still got thrown in a box, this is the wonkiest of the hollows so I thought it would be an appropriate addition to our 'Charlie Brown' tree.

But why did I make a Christmas ornament out of 'garbage'? If you have been following this blog you will know that I spent 16 days in Oct helping my parents move out of the house they had been living in for 60 years, I swore when I got home I would start cleaning up here.... & that I would quit buying more beads, wire etc unless I really needed it... This ornament is my first stab at operation cleanup!

The 'Findings' if they are still findings when you are making a Christmas ornament are all copper, (scraps I found in my 'work room') and the seed beads were chosen because their edges are too sharp to use with thread.

I will hang my assembled collection of scrap, unloved beads & misfits with pride on my tree this Christmas and every time I look at it I will remember that I promised myself that I would start to declutter... Someday!

Wishing everyone a Happy & Safe Holiday Season!

Other participating blogs

Art Bead Scene

Creative Impressions in Clay

Diva Designs

Elysian Studios

Fab Fibers

For the Love of Beads

Humblebeads

Island Girl's Insights - you are here!

Jangles

Jeannie's Blog

Lampwork Diva/Cindy Gimbrone

Mary Harding

Michelle Mach

Spirit Rattles

Wondrous Strange Designs

Almost wordless wednesday

Well I'm away... I meant to set this up before I left.... Did I NO.....! So I'm going to help myself to a bead off of my etsy site! This one is called
"Dreaming of Spring"...

Actually NB looks a lot like Spring.. Edmonton still has way too much snow to be seriously thinking spring.. and Montreal were I changed planes... it was snowing hard enough I was worried that my plane to Edmonton would be canceled!

But I can still Dream!

I thought this looked like fun!

The link to the hosting site Lori Anderson {Pretty Things}

Almost Wordless Wednesday

This is my entry in the Art Bead Scenes Monthly Challenge.... Jungle Jewels

What inspires us to create jewellery?

Over the last year I seem to spend more and more time on the computer and less and less actually making things.... One reason is trying to sell online... I've had a website fireallbeeds for five years at most my sales off of it paid the annual fees.... Then along came Etsy I joined as Islandgirl because I was buying (I'm really good at that) then last February I decided to try and sell something ... well you wouldn't believe the hours you spend taking pictures and writing text to go with the pictures and trying to promote yourself....

One of the promotion tools is flickr . Flickr has all sorts of groups... I tripped over a group called Art Bead Scene they have monthly challenges... (yep that was what my Iris necklace was for) . This months challenge was to design a piece inspired by Henri Matisse's painting "The Goldfish". I made a necklace which I thought was pretty lame except for the focal bead which I really like. So all you get to see here is the focal bead! Then I decided since my first effort was so lame that I woud try and do a peyote stitch bracelet.. the entire bracelet is the goldfish bowl and the toggle is the big one that escaped!

Oh and of course there is this blog.. it wasn't enough having a rant on my website... According to the webbies that know all one shouldn't blog on their on website, you must blog on blogger or....
And then there is twitter... I'm really not sure about it... I think I delete people as fast as I add them.. My criteria, i f you have more than 3 updates in a row that don't make sense .. you're toast!

Time to blow my own horn!

This necklace was designed for the Art Bead Scene January challenge. The January challenge was to design a piece of jewellery using the painting Irises by Vincent Van Gogh.... The necklace on the left was my entry. I was picked as designer of the week this week! Here's the blog!


I also have just joined a couple more street teams on etsy... One is the Artisan Beaders Group, one of my favorite beads is one of their feature friday picks, and last but certainly not least one of their members featured me in her blog Simply Shiny .

I'm still having fun making jellyfish beads this is my latest... I was trying to make something vaguely heart shaped and ended up with a perfect (in my opinion!) skull. So in keeping with the skull theme ... It's called Guardian of Blackbeard's Treasure. And will show up on etsy in the next couple of days! Can't you see the eyes nose and teeth ....