Saturday, December 7, 2013

The "I Love Clay" Blog Hop and a Promise of Spring

The lovely Lisa Lodge, of A Grateful Artist  fame is hosting a blog hop: the I Love Clay Blog Hop. Much as I love clay, I find it challenging to work with.  Big un-wrappable holes!  Pendants that defy bracelets!  Dimensions outside my comfort zone!

 But I cannot resist Lisa's hops.  So I signed up.

This is what Lisa sent me.


Big un-wrappable holes!  Pendants that defy bracelets!  Dimensions outside my comfort zone!  Add to that: Colors I avoid!  Czech glass that is un-wrappable!

But the pendant is really pretty.  It was created by Marla's Mud.  And the greens remind me of a distant spring.

I was still pondering when one of the cats trotted in proudly, bearing a loudly cheeping bird.  I chased the cat around the house until she dropped said bird.  It was still alive and did not seem injured.  Merely traumatized.  It would have stories to tell its feathered therapist in years to come.

But right now there was the problem of what to do with the bird, because if I set it down outside, Little Miss Predator would surely snatch it up again.  So I put it in the aviary, to give the little guy time to recover.


(He's actually much better looking than this, but he'd just suffered a harrowing experience.)  By morning he was looking far more chipper.  He almost looked as happy as my happy little birds from Beady Eyed Bunny.  And I recalled how, in Lisa's last Blog Hop (Lampwork and Clay Blog Hop), Toltec Jewels used a Beady Eyed Bunny bird in a brilliant way.  

I thought my birds would work beautifully with my beads from Lisa.  (I also thought that a Beady Eyed Bunny Bird should appear somewhere in each blog hop, kind of like Alfred Hitchcock appearing in each of his films.)

So I put my birds together with my beads and pendant and assorted bead box treasures 
for A Promise of Spring necklace.

I Heard a Bird Sing




by
Oliver Herford




I heard a bird sing
In the dark of December.


A magical thing
And sweet to remember.


"We are nearer to Spring 
Than we were in September,” 


I heard a bird sing 
In the dark of December. 


Now make like my rescued bird a hop to see what my other beady friends have created.

Our hostess:  Lisa Lodge, A Grateful Artist

Melissa Trudinger, Bead Recipes
Kathy Zeigler Lindemer, Bay Moon Design
You are here: Eleanor Burian Moore, The Charmed Life
Jo-Ann Woolverton, It's a Beadiful Creation
Chris Eisenberg, Wanderware
Carolyn Lawson, Carolyns Creations
Bonnie Coursolle, Jasper's Gems
Dolores Raml, Crafty D's Creations
Therese Frank, Therese's Treasures
Christine Stonefield, Sweet Girl Design
Carolyn Lawson, Carolyn's Creations
Mowse Doyle, Mowse Made This 
Janine Lucas, Esfera Travel Blog
Karin Grosset Grange, Ginkgo et Coquelicot
Kelli Nelson, Zenith Jade Creations
Ann Schroeder, Bead Love
Jasvanti Patel, Jewelry by Jasvanti
Candida Castleberry, Sugar Spun Beadworks
Robin Reed, Artistry HCBD
Katrina Taylor, I Wanna Go Out