The Color of Dreams Blog Hop :: Reveal !

((Feel free to skip the tl;dr bullshit and go right to the pretty. I won't blame ya.))

Dreams are a bit of a... slippery subject for me, to be honest. I've struggled with self-esteem issues all my life, and am still struggling with them now. I will probably be struggling with them all my life.

Every time I have reached out for my dreams, I have failed. Sometimes a little harder than other times. It just seems that whatever I do is never good enough, and I'll never go anywhere. It's easy to wonder 'why me' and go down that slippery slope, so I try to do my best not to go there at all.

I think my dreams right now are simple - I want to be happy. Yet that seems just as unattainable as the rest of them. Maybe one day I'll get there.

Maybe.

This piece came about really quickly and basically on it's own. The cameo was tinted from blue to purple with the help of Lisa's lovely color me this line, allowing me to tint the cameo without losing too much details or staining the white. The cameo is also a reference to my mother, who has left us seven years ago now. She loved cameos very much. The bead I have gotten as part of the blog hop sits nestled safely in it's little frame, surrounded by flowers. I think that's what I want. I want to feel safe, surrounded by things that I love.

The frame and the back plate was first darkened then built up in a very subtle patina. It's a hard to see on the photo, but in real life it's quite visible.

The leaves are brass stampings that I painted with lumiere paints then sealed. And the flowers, as easily seen here, are inverted bead caps with the inside painted, wired with spectra glass beads. I've always thought these little bead caps looked like flowers. I think I've used them more as flowers than as their actual purpose !

This piece is also my entry for B'Sue April challenge, a pop of color. So don't get confused if you see it floating around a bit !

Thanks for visiting me. Please go take a look at everyone else as well~

Honorary Artist: Patricia Handschuh
Patricia's blog:            The Color of Dreams        
Patricias Etsy:             The Color of Dreams

Hostess: TJ                Jewel School Friends
Kay Thomerson           KayzKreationz
Audrey Belanger          Toki No Hourousha <=== You are here

Alicia Marinache          All the Pretty Things
Terry Carter                TappingFlamingo
Lori Schneider             Bead Addict
Jenny Kyrlach             Wonder and Whimsy
Asri Wahyuingsih         Asri's Beadwork
Dini Bruinsma              Angaza by Changes
Karla Morgan              Texas Pepper Jams
Debbie Rasmussen        A Little of This, A Little of That
Veralynne Malone          Designed by Vera
Kathy Stemke               Vintage Memories Jewelry Design
Mowse Doyle               Mowse Made This
Heather Richter             Desert Jewelry Designs
Lori Poppe                   Adventures in Creativity with LorilliJean
Jayne Capps                Mama's Got To Doodle
Andrea Glick                Zenith Jade Creations
Kathleen Breeding         99 Bottles of Beads on the Wall
Becky Pancake             Becky Pancake Bead Designs
Karin Martinez              Fairies Market
Miranda Ackerley          Mirandack
Penny Houghton           Smelly Nelly
Carolyn Lawson           Carolyn's Creations
Chris Eisenberg            Wanderware
Christie Murrow          Charis Designs Jewelry
Monique Urquhart        A Half-Baked Notion
Eve Shelby                  Raindrop Creations Jewelry by Evelyn
Cryss Thain                 Here Bead Dragons
Jasvanti Patel               Jewelry By Jasvanti
Nan Smith                   NanMade Handmade Jewelry
Sue Kennedy               SueBeads
Jean Yates                   Snap Out of It, Jean! There's Beading to be Done!
Debbie Rogers             Debbies Treasures
Marybeth Rich             A Few Words From Within the Pines
Shirley Moore              Beads and Bread
Shaia Williams             Shaiha's Ramblings
Kathy Lindemer           Bay Moon Design
Linda Anderson           From the Bead Board
Judy Turner               Silver Rains
Gloria Allen                Gloria Allen Designs
Regina Wood              Ginas-Design
Robin Reed                Artistry HCBD
Mary Goovars            MLH Jewelry Designs
Marlene Cupo             Amazing Designs
CJ Bauschka              4 His Glory Creations
Robin Showstack        The Crazy Bead Hoarder
Cynthia O'Toole          Sparkles and Sweets
Jael Thorp                 Jael's Art Jewels
Renetha Stanziano      Lamplight Crafts

A Collection Of Favorites

So, my soup is simmering nicely... Im at four pieces now ! And some of them are surprising, for me :) But I can't show those pretties, so consider this an intermission of sorts.

Keen readers of this blog might have seen me mention the B'Sue Boutique Creative Group a few times. B'Sue Boutique is the place were I buy a large amount of my supplies, ran by the lovely Brenda Sue and her son Jordan, along with her small team. The service is top notch, and I have never gotten even the slightest problem with any order I have placed.

Brenda does a lot more than sell bits and bobs, she runs a monthly challenge using her brass and components every month, she offer advice to anyone who asks in her facebook group, and she also makes a collection of free videos, usually one every friday. These videos are light hearted, uncensored, funny, and chockfull of amazing information, techniques, and ideas. I personally adore them, and the fact that she keeps her mistake in them. It kind of shatters the whole 'perfect' image most tutorials videos will show us, and it gives me the feeling that im right there beside her, watching over her shoulder.

Im going to present to you a few of my favorites, in order to make you, my lovely readers, discover them and fall in love in turn.

Get rid of your resin fear ! It's easy ! (And addictive.) This video also touches on iced enamels. They're easy ! (And addictive)

This one was a real eye opener for me. Cameos are a thing I did like as a base, but I hated just how much detail was usually lost in the whiteness of the carving. It never occured to me to do this ! Durr. This is also a good way to do cameo jewelry and yet make it unique, in a way.

I gotta say I've really been into tassels lately - I love the flow it adds to a piece ! There are a bunch amazing ideas in this video.

These little charm bracelets are so fun and easy to make ! You can see my takes on them here and here.

This one of a general showcasing of three of my five main tools in my colorization arsenal - Vintaj patinas (though they are more like metal paints than actual patinas), Swellegant (which is actual patina. I don't dig the dye oxides too much, personally, but the rest of the line is BOSS as hell), and gilder's paste.

This is my piece for the monthly challenge over at B'sue Boutique Creative Group. for your viewing enjoyment. :)

The challenge this month consists of taking this little tie here, or a bowtie, and make something funky with it.

I've gotten one of these in a muse box a long time ago, but had never really done anything to it. Well, late is better than ever, right ? I owned a bezel that I thought looked like a funky little flower, and a cab that fit right into it... One thing followed the other, and well...

This might have gone a bit out of hand << I do a lot of assenblage type work, but this was more involved than my usual, and honestly kind of fun ! The leaves and the tie itself were coated in ice enamels, the bezel was painted in lumiere paints. I thought the focal was involved enough that some plain ribbon would do the trick to finish :)

Counting Stars

Lately I been, I been losing sleep
Dreaming about the things that we could be
But baby, I been, I been prayin' hard
Said no more counting dollars
We'll be counting stars
Yeah, we'll be counting stars

I often take things apart. Most of the times, I put them back together in the exact same way that I've first made them, just with better wire / jump rings (I've used some junky things when I started, as we all do, first mistakes and all that.) I don't usually post these since they are simply... well, structure work, so to speak.

Sometimes you make a piece that you love, a piece that you are rather proud of. But you realize, in time, that the piece is, well, a little flawed.

 

I do adore this piece, I really do, but there were many things wrong with it for many reasons. There was just too much... stuff. The focal was very heavy, the wrap around part kept coming up to choke me from the weight of the focal... So while i did adore this piece, I rarely did wear it.

So I decided to see how I could tweak and improve it. For one, my wire wrapping skillls have evolved a lot ever since I have made this piece, and a lot of things needed to do. By the time I had unwired everything that was on it, plus the bracelet I had made at the same time that I never wore for similar reasons, this was what I had.

o.o;;; I like my things big and loaded, but... yes. Overkill. This is what I wanted to accomplish -

1. Resolve the weight issue, most of all. Neck pains while wearing necklaces is bad juju.
2. Resolve the focal pulling up, while still allowing it to be seen

So, I got to work.... And this is what I came up with :

 

There's a lot less things wired up on there, for one. I used Iced Enamels on the star tag, I used less of the titanium quartz spikes but bigger ones, and I wire wrapped them up a little more elaborately. Instead of wiring everything up. I used spare bits of chain to create volume and movement. The bookchain was a chance stroke of genius, and I am rather pleased with it.

The Secret-Seeker

This is my first cuff, inspired by the lovely cuff that Cathy Trummer Buckley made in the B'Sue Creative group. :)

The Secret-Seeker, for Febuary's challenge - such as it can be a called a challenge for me << Someone should tell me NOT to use Vintaj patinas or Lumiere paints, now that would be a challenge ! 

All components are B'Sue's beside the key, the bead caps, and the mood beads. I actually made the focal part of this last year (see second picture) but couldn't really make up my mind on how to use it - it seemed cumbersome for a necklace focal, even by my standards. Seeing Cathy's owl on that cuff was kind of the AHA moment.

The actual owl started life as brass ox, I believe, which I painted first with the nouveau silver vintaj patina, then with a layer of glazed down black to tone down the bright shiny silver a bit and have it match the silverplated wings. The very first attempt at this owl had eyes in mixed beads resin, which... in retrospect, was not the best idea ! So I filed and cracked all the beads out and made him crystal clay eyes instead.

When I picked the focal up yesterday, I knew I wanted a different feel, so I went over it with pearl white lumière paint. I thought blueish would be best for the eyes so I repainted over the crystal clay. The cuff itself was, I believe, rusty black - I went over it with emerald green lumière paint, just one layer so that some peeks of the plating underneath still showed up, then sealed it. The filigree was painted purple similarly, but split in two so that the owl would not cover it completely and I could move and overlap the two halves as needed. The flowers are simply spectra beads inside bead caps, I do believe this is a B'Sue technique that is in one of the older videos. Punched an hole in the key, strung it up with chain, glued the bead in, glued the whole thing to the cuff, and VOILA ! You have a birthday gift for your friend ! Who will probably see this and know who she is ! Ah well, can't win them all. ;)

I do live... somewhat

/feebly attempts to knocks off some dust from blog

Hi. Yes, I am still alive. I've been better, but I am still alive. A lot of things happened in the last... eight months, I do believe ? Needless to say, those things weren't jewelry. It feels like so much has changed since I was gone, but I am hoping to be able to start making more things (be it more jewelry, or other art endeavors) if only to distract myself a little. It would do me some good, I think.

The assistant definitively missed being an assistant, I think.

I do not have much to offer for this post, only just a bit of word to say that yes, I am alive, no, I am not completely alright, but hopefully things will change for the better soon. I need to remember that hopefully this, too, shall pass.

I actually made my first jewelry piece in those eight months a week or so ago. I believe I shared it on facebook, but I wanted everyone who follows my blog (hopefully there are still some of you lurking about) as well. It came out a lot nicer than I expected it to, given how long I have been out of the loop.

On another note, I will be entering the Bead Soup Blog Party again this year. I am hoping some new components will be able to kickstart my brain once again, and I am hoping to reconnect with others as well. Working on my soups has been a blast, and hopefully choosing which one to send won't be too complicated. The signups start at midnight and go for all day tomorrow - February 9. This will be the only day for signups, so make sure to drop by tomorrow if you are interested.

Imaginarium

Imaginarium, a dream emporium!
Caress the tales
And they will dream you real
A storyteller's game,
Lips that intoxicate
The core of all life
Is a limitless chest of tales...

I think this is a problem every artist has, eventually. You really don't have the faintest idea what goes on in your own brain anymore !

I have cases of this everyday, but today I actually let it translate directly into jewelry. See for yourself...

What the ever loving hell is this, your ask ? Well, I... don't know either. XD It STARTED as steampunk, I can tell you this much... I was on par with the course until the flowers were put on. They wanted to go there, and who was I to deny them ?

This is mixed metal at it's finest - copper, brass and silver dancing together with the shimmery hint of ribbon and the ball chain.

I quite like the pop of purple, honestly. It brings color to the piece, just a subtle pull from all the metal tones. This started as an empty bezel, the backdrop was painted with vintaj patinas then the charms and cogs were placed in before the resin was poured, when it was topped off with the word stick. The word stick is not glued on top, it is literally bonded with the resin... And it's not falling off anytime soon !

This is a lariat, for the Creative Group's april challenge, but given that this is ball chain I had to use a clasp... But hey, I embelished it a bit, as you can see !

Well, I hope you liked that little outlook into my brain. Remember, we're all mad here... ;)

Follow the madness,
Alice you know once did...

A Dreaming Little Bird

Will the day come when the cooped bird
in the cage has a dream?
If I can stay by your side when you shed tears,
my will to stay here shall never waver.

This is my second piece for the march challenge over at B'Sue Boutique Creative Group - kitchen sink jewelry. Im glad I managed to wriggle this one in before the end of the month !

It all started with the cameo. I've always thought this cameo in perticular and wanted to use it... But how ? When ? My jewelry isn't very classical, how can I fit a cameo in this mess ?? (Ha.)

Well, my perception of cameos was drastically altered by my mother. See, my mother LOVED cameos. She had so many of them. Necklace, brooches, earrings, pins... She was in love with them, and my father brought her to many of them. They are these small, dainty little things.

Nothing like this piece, I can tell you ! This was so much fun to make. The frame was used upside down to give me more hanging opportunities. I didn't like the way it sad in the frame, so I used crystal clay and embelished it with transparent chatons. That gives it a completely different look ! The frame itself is glued on a tiny necklace stamping from B'Sue, that was wrapped with some green brass filigree that I got in a muse box.

This is my first time manipulating filigree like this, and it was easier than I thought !

The three little nests were wired by hand, and were actually my very first case of actual feline help in jewelry execution. You have to work with a lot of wire to make these, and it's too much for a cat to resist ! One nest is made with opalite round beads with copper wire, which I darkened with Swellegant afterward.  The second nest is brass wire with spectra beads (the big ones, the small ones would be better if you want tiny little nests). The third nest is copper with spectra beads, once more.

I,ve hung keys that I got from one of the muse boxes I brought from Brenda (she offer special ones to the facebook group every friday), and I glued some lovebirds on one of the keys. Make it look extra fancy, doesn't it ? :)

The word sticks were painted by hand. I think I need a little more practice, but it gives it a whole different style, doesn't it ? The 'bird' stick has a bird stamping glued on it - I simply cut the loop off neatly. I used vintaj patina on all of these pieces - the verdigris color. Hm, this is Brenda's favorite color, isn't it ? Wonder what's up with that...

The flowers are bead caps that I've had for... oh, forever and a day. I always loved them, but I never thought of using them this way before. The center are spectra beads, and they are glued on for the most part. (I know, I know, bad Audrey, kitchen sink is wiring...)

The chain is bookchain, and oh god I am IN LOVE with the stuff ! It is such amazing chain... a nice weight, feels so good in your hand. I am definitively investing in more of this when I can. The chain is wrapped with sari ribbon for texture.