The Owls to Whom We Refer: Into the Forest Blog Hop

The lovely Lisa Lodge is hosting a blog hop.  It's theme: Into the Forest.

And so into the forest we go...

I started with this mix of beads from Lisa.

I added two owls...

...some sari silk... 

And a poem by Jack Prelutsky...

There's a wide-eyed owl

With a pointed nose,

He has pointed ears,

And claws for toes.

He sits in a tree

And looks at you,

The flaps his wings, and says,

"Who...who...whoo!"

                                 

An unassuming owl

Having little else to do

Remarked within the darkness

A discreet and subtle, “Whoooo!”

A self-important owl,

Puffed and pompous in the gloom,

Responded with an overblown,

And condescending, “Whoooooom!”

And the leaves?



I had to leaf them alone.

Take a trip into the forest with these other jewelry artists:

Your hostess:  Lisa Lodge, A Grateful Artist

Melissa Trudinger, Bead Recipes

Kathy Zeigler Lindemer, Bay Moon Design

Eleanor Burian Moore, The Charmed Life

Jo-Ann Woolverton, It's a Beadiful Creation

Chris Eisenberg, Wanderware

Christine Stonefield, Sweet Girl Design

Carolyn Lawson, Carolyn's Creations

Janine Lucas, Esfera Travel Blog

Jasvanti Patel, Jewelry by Jasvanti

Shaiha Williams,   Shaiha's Ramblings

Kay Thomerson, Kayz Kreationz

Karla Morgan, Texas Pepper Jams

Veralynne Malone, Designed by Vera

Toltec  Jewels, Jewel School Friends

Christie Searle Murrow, Charis Designs Jewelry

Molly Alexander, Beautifully Broken Me

Monique Urquhart, A Half-Baked Notion

Janet Bocciardi, Honey from the Bee

Dini Bruinsma, Angaza by Changes

Heather Richter, Desert Jewelry Designs

Christina Miles, Wings n Scales

Elizabeth Engriser, Bead Contagion

Alice Peterson, Alice Dreaming

Alicia Marinache, All the Pretty Things

Kay Mallery,TBD

Catherine Yvonne King, Catherine's Musings

Alice Craddick, Alice's Beads and Baubles

Ema Kilroy, Ema K Designs

It's Supposed to Be a Challenge, Right?!

When the lovely Lisa Lodge, of A Grateful Artist - Pine Ridge Treasures suggested a blog hop with her bead table de-stash, I jumped right in.  It's not like I need more beads.  I truly, truly don't (and I would show you a picture of my Bead cave but it's been officially condemned by the cats).  But Lisa always comes up with something I've never tried and I am determined to try new things.  

The theme this time was to be Sand and Sea; the beads each participant received would either be the colors of the sea or the colors of the sand.  I am very comfortable working with blues and greens.  I rarely work in earth tones.  But this was supposed to be a challenge, right?

Right. I got the sand.

Lots and lots of sand.  I finally corralled the little beadies and began to ponder.

I tend toward wire-wrapping.  I like to make sure those little guys never escape again.  But these were, for the most part, quite small and would not lend themselves well to techniques with which I am comfortable.

So I pondered some more.  This was supposed to be a challenge, right?  Finally  had it.  I would do some bead and wire crochet.  So I went looking for a tutorial.

It turns out I am tutorial-challenged.  I failed Slip Knots 101.

Then I remembered:  Hey!  I know how to crochet!  At least, I used to know how to crochet.  Hopefully it was like riding a bicycle.  Oh, wait.  I don't really remember how to do that, either.

So I found my old crochet hooks and ordered the 28 GA wire recommended in the tutorial and started just crocheting.

I crocheted and crocheted and crocheted.  It was just like old times except there were beads rolling all over the place.

The cats thought it was even better than chasing yarn... not that they remember.  They weren't around in my yarn days.  They actually only know how to chase beads.

And there were plenty of beads to chase.  They slithered right off the wire.

I persevered.

And look!  A necklace!

I also tried a new wire-wrapping technique on the focal.  I was a veritable beadie adventurer!

As long as I was going wild, I thought I'd model the necklace myself.  Do you recognize me??

What I learned in this challenge:

18 GA wire is rather delicate and can break.

It is hard to put a broken crocheted wire and bead necklace back together again.  You have to start over.

To start over you have to now un-capture all those beads you captured in the crochet stitches.

It's good to have extra beads.

The cats agree.

Here's the rest of the blog hop.  Go take a look and see what the others have created.

Eleanor Burian-Mohr, The Charmed Life

Mary Govaars, MLH Jewelry Designs

Tanya Goodwin, A Work in Progress

Kathy Lindemer, Bay Moon Design

Toltec Jewels, Jewel School Friends

Sharyl McMillian-Nelson, Sharyl's Jewelry

Marla Gibson, Spice Box Designs

Melissa Trudinger, Bead Recipes

Dot Lewallen, Speedie Beadie

Ema Kilroy, Ema K Designs

Kim Booth, The Pink Martini Boutique

Jami Shipp, Celebrating Life

Leah Tees, My Beady Littleeyes

Christie Murrow, www.charisdesignsjewelry.blogspot.com

Monique Urquhart, A Half Baked Notion

Gloria Allen,   Gloria Allen Designs

Cindy Anderson Wilson,  It's My Sea of Dreams

Suzi Campbell, Suzi Campbell Creations

Shaiha Williams,   Shaiha's Ramblings

Annette Rivers, MamaOwl's Mess

The Mystical Magical White Cats of Ceridwen Go On a Blog Hop

My friend Lisa Lodge of Pine Ridge Treasures came up with a lovely challenge and blog hop.  You can find some of Lisa's work here and here and here.  It's the Summer Color Surprise Blog Hop, and that's because each of the participants got bags of beadie treasures in a surprise color.  The challenge?  Make something with them.  

Mine were white and clear: beads of lucite and Czech glass, snow jade, white berry beads, sparkly bits and frosted pieces and clear treasures.  I had already gone a little nuts with frosted white glass earlier this year, when I decided I could recreate snow in the bead cave, so getting bags of beads with more frosted white in it was all I needed to make... well, it's me.  I made a cat necklace and three pairs of matching earrings.

I probably should have photographed the beads before I started, but I was digging through them about 10 seconds after the box hit the front porch, so you'll have to take my word for it that they were cool beads.  And in no time at all, I got beading.  In fact, my challenge was to hang onto these pieces and not show them to everyone RIGHT AWAY!

With the white cats I added, it seemed like a good time to re-tell the story of the Mystical Magical White Cats of Ceridwen... so that is what I will do with my color surprise.

Long, long ago, as told in the Tale of Taliesin, under King Arthur there served a warrior so ugly, he was called Big Crow, or Morfran.

His mother, Ceridwen, was a beautiful goddess.

Ceridwen decided that, if she could make Morfran spectacularly wise, perhaps no one would notice that he looked like, well, a big crow.  She had a magical cauldron with which she could whip up a potion that would grant Morfran the gift of wisdom and poetic inspiration. With the help of her white cats, who carried out all her orders on earth, Ceridwen assembled the necessary ingredients.

The mixture had to be boiled for a year and a day, which was no mean feat, even for a goddess. But Ceridwen had help, even beyond her white cats.

Morda, a blind man, tended the fire beneath the cauldron.  And a young boy name Gwion Bach stirred and stirred and stirred as the cats circled around his ankles.

The first three drops of liquid from this cauldron would give wisdom.  The rest would be a fatal poison, not fit for the compost heap.

When at last the potion was ready, three hot drops from the cauldron spilled onto Gwion's thumb, burning him.   Gwion immediately put his thumb in his mouth, to numb the pain.  And instantly he gained great wisdom and knowledge.

Ceridwen was furious.  Her work had been for naught.  She chased Gwion. But, now being very clever, he turned himself into a hare.

So Ceridwen became a greyhound.

Gwion became a fish and jumped into a river.

Ceridwen turned herself into an otter and went after him.

Gwion turned into a bird...

...and so Ceridwen became a hawk.

Finally, Gwion turned himself into a single grain of corn.

Ceridwen turned herself into a hen...

...and ate him.


The white cats just watched.

When Ceridwen became pregnant, she knew it was Gwion, and she was determined to  kill the child when he was born.  But when he was born, he was so beautiful that she couldn't kill him.


Instead, she sewed the baby into a leather bag and threw him in the ocean.  He was rescued on a Welsh shore, near Aberdyfi, by a prince named Elffin ap Gwyddno.


The reborn baby, who had once been Gwion (and a kernel of corn) grew up to became the legendary bard Taliesin.


Ceridwen, meanwhile, returned to life with her cats... and a son who looked like a Big Crow.

 Their legend, as a necklace and earrings, can be found here.


And if you'l like to go on the blog hop, you just started.  Next go here.