Modified Holiday Ornament Blog Hop Post

I first met Sally Russick at ArtBliss last summer.  She had such great positive energy and a huge smile (and a glass of wine, so she knew where I could get one for myself!)  She moved over so I could smash myself down on the couch in the lobby of the Artbliss-hosting hotel next to her.  We were surrounded by a bunch of other awesome chicks showing off our Bead Soup pieces and comparing notes about workshops we were all excited about attending the next day.  It's those little relationships that happen in person for just a few hours or days that parlay themselves into fun blog-land family activities.  

Sally put together a blog hop this year to celebrate the holidays with an ornament exchange...and she's so far ahead of the game that she did it two months ago!   She paired me up with Rebecca Anderson, the artist behind Songbeads.  Well, Rebecca and I are apparently cut from similar cloth as we both waited until too late to create our ornaments and get them in the mail.  Mind you, she's in the UK, so priority mail wouldn't even alleviate our tardiness.  haaaaaaaaaaaa  But, she's wonderfully forgiving, as is Sally, so we'll be posting about our exchange later once the packages get to their final destinations.

In the meantime, though, I still wanted to share something ornamental, so I sat down at my bead table this morning for the first time in AGES and waited for some inspiration to hit.  Luckily, it didn't take long!  I have scads of paper beads that I feverishly created over the summer for no apparent reason other than to hoard them, so that's where I started.  Then, I figured, I have an even larger hoard of handcrafted art beads, so why not bust them out...seriously, I pay a fortune for these little miniature art pieces and I keep them in a drawer; that's just wrong!!!  So, I give you these little darlings:

As soon as I decided to let myself use any bead in the drawer and keep it a simple straight line, it was amazing how fast these worked up!  I used big fat aluminum wire to give them a little more heft.  The fat wire works perfect with the handcrafted beads that are usually created on a larger mandrel.

Each ornament started with one of my paper beads, and then I started hoard-shopping from there.  Since I painted the papers for the rolled beads myself, I already know I like the color combos!  haaaaaaaaaaa

I've got lots of other artisan hands represented here:
- Julianna Cannon - Julsbeads
- Heather Boardman - HMB Studios
- Kerry Bogert - Kab's Creative Concepts
- Diane Hawkey 
- Sue Kennedy - Suebeads
- Katerina - MayaHoney
- Kristie Roeder - Artisan Clay

I bet you're wondering why I didn't hang them on a Christmas tree for the pictures; well, I live in a tiny-ass apartment and can't even imagine putting a tree up in here.  I have a little tree in my office, but I'm doing my best to stay out of there this weekend, so I'm not going in there just for pictures.  :)


So, as to the real business of the day, here's a list of the folks participating in Sally's Ornament Swap for your blog hopping enjoyment:

1. Sally Russick   WireWorked Handcrafted Jewelry

2. Kim Hora   KimmyKats

3. Kathleen Lange Klik   Modern Nature

4. Susan Kennedy    Sue Beads

5. Jenny Davies-Reazor    The Art of Jennifer Davies-Reazor
6. Christine Altmiller    One Kiss Creations Beaded Jewelry
7. Jeanette Blix Ryan   Jeanette Blix Metal and Wire Jewlery
8. Holly Westfall  Silver Rose Designs ~ Handcrafted Jewelry
9. Mallory Hoffman   For the Love of Beads
10. Tamara Soper  Handcrafted Baubles by Tamara
11. Rebecca Anderson  Songbeads
12. Jen Velasquez   Jenn Judd Rocks
13. Jennifer L Justman   Souls Fire Designs
14.  Sandi Volpe  Sandi Volpe Handcrafted Jewelry
15.  Melissa Meman  Melismatic  Eclectic Art Jewelry
16. Hope Smitherman  Crafty Hope
17. Patty Gasparino  My Life Under the Bus
18.  Cindy Wimmer  Sweet Bead Studio
19. Erin Prais-Hintz  Tresures Found/ Tesori Trovati Jewelry
20.  Alice Peterson  Alice Dreaming

Thank you, Sally!

Have an extra-sparklie Saturday!