Showing posts with label blog hop. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blog hop. Show all posts

Saturday, July 19, 2014

All That Glitters is Not Gold: the Gemstone and Metal Blog Hop

The lovely Lisa Lodge, of A Grateful Artist, has created a fun blog hop with plenty of eye candy.  This one's theme is Gemstones and Metal.  Lisa sent me a bag of gemstones and metal for my creations.  The gemstones were yellow turquoise; the metal was brass.  (The brass, alas, gave me hives, so I'm working in sterling silver here.)



Yellow turquoise, it seems to me, is an oxymoron.  Turquoise is a lovely glowing radiant color.




It is not yellow-y greenish gray.




And while there is such a thing as turquoise with a yellow cast, as in the bottom row on this bracelet...



...these stones are not turquoise.




According to Beadaholique, "The trade name "yellow turquoise" describes this stone that is a... mixture of serpentine, jasper and quartz. It often is found in the same mines as traditional blue/green turquoise, hence the name. From China. 

I also checked in with Szarka Carter, of Magpie Gemstones, who suggested said stones are jasper.  And there's nothing wrong with jasper.  It's a good honest stone, with some lovely healing properties.  Some of my favorite charms are made of jasper, in one form or another.







In Vogue Jewelry did a spirited rant on the topic of yellow turquoise. Check it out.


Yellow Turquoise is yet another stone by a false name, like "evening emerald" (peridot), "Indian jade" (jasper), or "Canadian lapis" (sodalite).


Some noted sellers do not even admit to it being anything but, well, yellow turquoise.  In fact, ArtBeads says "Yellow turquoise, or Chinese turquoise as it is sometimes called, is sweeping the beading world! Its popularity is beginning to rival the more traditional blue turquoise."

Um, no.

Besides, yellow turquoise makes as much sense as green ruby or black garnet or orange sapphire.


Oxymorons.


It bothers me that sellers would sell this to innocent trusting jewelry artists as a form of turquoise.  At least with pyrite, we call it fool's gold... the stuff that fooled the miners long ago.  In tribute to them, I put some "yellow turquoise" together with pyrite.  This is a Charm of Deception.


To quote Gilbert & Sullivan:


Buttercup
Things are seldom what they seem,

Skim milk masquerades as cream;
Highlows pass as patent leathers;
Jackdaws strut in peacock's feathers.



Captain. (puzzled)
Very true,
So they do.



Buttercup.
Black sheep dwell in every fold;
All that glitters is not gold;
Storks turn out to be but logs;
Bulls are but inflated frogs.




Using my "yellow turquoise," I created the charms above ans the necklace below.  
I call the collection Oxymoron Jewelery.













Any questions??




To see what the other jewelry artists created with their gemstones and metal,
follow the yellow turquoise road.  ;-)




Your hostess:  Lisa Lodge, A Grateful Artist
Kim Dworak, Cianci Blue
Karen Grosset Grange, Ginkgo et Coquelicot
Veralynne Malone, Designed by Vera
Katrina Taylor, I Wanna Go Out
Ann Schroeder, Bead Love
Kathleen Breeding, 99 Bottles of Beads on the Wall
Terri Wlaschin, Dances in Fog
Margaret Pelech, Big Margaret
Jo-Ann Woolverton, It's a Beadiful Creation
Kathy Zeigler Lindemer, Bay Moon Design
Heather Richter, Desert Jewelry Designs
Carolyn Lawson, Carolyn's Creations
Toltec  Jewels, Jewel School Friends
Melissa Trudinger, Bead Recipes
Shaiha Williams, Shaiha's Ramblings
Chris Eisenberg, Wanderware (May be delayed a few days)
Eleanor Burian Moore, The Charmed Life
Christine Stonefield, Sweet Girl Design

Robin Reed, Artistry HCBD
Laurie Vyselaar, Lefthand Jewelry
Cassi Renee Paslick, Beads: Rolling Downhill
Crystal Thain, Here Bead Dragons
Alicia Marinache, All the Pretty Things (May be delayed a few days)
Marde Lowe, FanciMarDesigns
Linda Anderson, From the Bead Board
Leithleach Alainn Seodra, Alainn Jewelry
Lisa E. Prewitt Knappenberger, LiRaysa Designs
Paige Maxim, Paige Maxim Designs

Saturday, June 14, 2014

A 15-Beader Hop (A 15-Beader Hop)

(to be sung to the tune of the "Gilligan's Island Theme Song")
(except for the part where I name the beaders of the beadie islands)



Just sit right back and you'll take a trip, 
A trip on an ocean hop


That started from my own Bead Cave 
And goes until you stop. 


The host is a mighty beading babe
With published works and such. 
She favors ocean themes and so
This hop shows Lisa's touch. 


The beads arrived by US mail, 
In color green and teal, 
With findings, fish and anchor beads
To make the beaders squeal.  (Make the beaders squeal.)


The blog set out on the shores of the uncharted blogosphere,
And Wanderware
Here on Lisa's Blog Hop


So this is the tale of beading babes,
We string and wrap and weave,
We hope you like our beadie things
Because we'll never leave. 


Please join us for this beadie hop, 
And see what we create, 


From 15 crazy beading babes, 
In our most recent spate.

Saturday, January 11, 2014

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

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