Call to Create With Lisa New

I thought I blogged about this already, but apparently not...and, since I'm sitting in Dallas for about six hours, I have time to get some writing in!

During the Love My Art Jewelry (LMAJ) Call to Create for November, I submitted two pieces.  The first was one featuring the LizaJayne bead that I wrote about a week or so ago.  The other one features art glass by Lisa New as the focal piece to a bunch of pink and brown strands.  I'm not normally into multi-strand pieces, but I had just enough of these big pearls to do about six inches.  And, it turned out, I had some tourmaline chips and some brown coral to do just that length, too.  I had a bit of drama when it came to finding a cone that would fit over them and match the antiqued look of the chain.  I figured out a way to use some colored wire to create my own and they worked out perfectly!

Winter Pink Necklace available on Etsy

Apparently this inspiration bead was my lucky charm because I got randomly chosen from the entries to win a massive set of Barbara Lewis beads!  The Call to Create went out in late October with a unique color palette that included the pale pink that I decided to use.  Well, you never know what might come of an entry into something like this...at a minimum it's finding new friends and inspiration.  To actually win the giveaway takes it to a whole new level.  The prize that Barbara generously provided is a set of all the beads from her Autumn Bliss cover piece on the latest issue of Handmade Jewelry:

Now that I'm feeling lucky and have new Hawaiian beads to motivate me even more, I guess it's time to sit down and work with the LMAJ December Call to Create color palette:

Bring on the bright yellow kukui nuts!!  haaaaaaaa

Call to Create with LizaJayne

Creating Handmade with Handmade...the motto of the new (well, relatively new) Love My Art Jewelry blog.

For the month of November (which I can't believe is almost over) the editors threw down a challenge, or rather a Call to Create that's based on Pantone's color forecast for Fall. I've made a few other pieces based on this color palette, but this time I decided to focus on the pale pink.



Why pink in the fall?  Because I found this awesome lampwork focal and there's that pretty pink!  While wandering around Etsy, I searched on "murrini" because I love those little star-flower-pretties and happened upon this bead by Ms. Eliza Zelachowski, at Bead A Little Dream--her LizaJayne Etsy shop. 

 Pink is mixed with a creamy white, bright turquoise, and swirls of earthy chartreuse on this gorgeous little number.  The colors of the bead were all I needed to pull together stones and chain that match and complement it.  For me, that's the most fun part of working with handmade beads--an artist sat down and chose those colors and made them sing.  It becomes my turn to put them into a bit of a chorus, if you will, to make them sing even louder!  So, in the call to create, I used the call of Eliza's creation to be my muse.

As much as I'd like to go sit at my bead table right now and work on some matching earrings or something, instead I'm going to put on my blue polyester pants with matching itchy blue sweater and go serve my country.  I'm down to less than 100 unread emails in my inbox--and I have two days to get them to zero before I leave for vacation!  haaaaaaaaa  Oh, speaking of...I finished the wedding jewelry last night; one thing checked off my list!