Marcie, Margie, & Me

My first Margie & Me project.  Sure, it happened by accident, but apparently serendipity is in my creative corner lately so I'm just going to go with it!  I often wonder if things just pop out of my mind by themselves or if I picked up the ideas while wandering around and they went into little parts of my brain and even though I don't really know they're there, they appear somehow either on my worktable in wire or beads or even in my day job solving problems and doing lots of paperwork to document solving those problems...even bureaucracy benefits from creativity once in a while. 

Anyway, Marcie posted a sweet compliment yesterday and pointed out my recent bracelet and how it is perfectly in line with this month's Margie & Me challenge.  

The main color for March is yellow... 

Marcie used this Van Gogh painting to pull a palette together for inspiration:

See?  It's my glass bead festivus on memory wire!  There are other details about the challenge and the color inspirations over on this post from Marcie

Another cool thing about my blog relationship with Marcie is that this month I have a pair of earrings in the spring issue of Stringing feature a set of her beaded beads...in YELLOW!

Yeah, I know I posted about all these before, but now I'm looking around for yellows and it's just too cool to have this link with another creative mind like Marcie's!!!!  

Rockstars in the Garden

The Spring issue of Stringing came out and I was thrilled to see a few things in there that I forgot about!  Along with a ton of wonderful designs and an overall new magazine layout--which I'm still getting used to--there are a couple of pieces in there from my very own work table!


I want to share these little earrings because they feature beaded beads from my sweet friend, Marcie, at La Bella Joya.  She spends most of her time working amazing seed bead work but went through a little stint of beaded beads that I couldn't pass up.  I posted on them originally last summer.

I have lots more to say about this issue, but I have to go to work and do some analysis of how we can RIF (reduction in force) a lot of people.  It's not all that pleasant work.

La Bella Joya - Un Artista Dulce de Cuenta

Did someone order a pink lemonade?  haaaaaaaaaa

Thanks to Marcie at LaBellaJoya for these awesome yellow and pink beaded beads!  They look like tiny disco balls--perfect for a Barbie dream house!  :)  About a week ago, I saw her post about them and thought to myself, "Self, didn't you ask her to make pink and yellow beaded beads?"  Then, I answered, "Why, yes!  I must have these!"  As it turns out, she made them with me in mind but didn't want me to feel pressured to buy after my overwhelming haul at Beadfest...how awesomely thoughtful is that?!  But, of course, I got them.  And, when I showed her these pieces, I think I made her proud.  Let me quote her..."Wow! Jen! You made my beads look like rock stars! EXCELENTE!"  haaaaaaaaaaaa  For the record, she says she loved working with colors outside of her norm, so if you likey, you should go see her shop!!

I initially thought they'd all go into one project, but when I started mixing and matching around on my worktable.  Plus, I just got my Beads 2010 issue and have flipped through it so many times the corners are worn.  I highlighted (yes, with an actual yellow highlighter--I have at least three of them) some of the bead artists I already know and love and some of those who I don't yet know and love.  I'm going to try to incorporate some of my blog-world superstar friends' work.  So, the pretties ended up in two projects...

Here are what I call "Disco in the Garden" earrings...

The sparklies from LaBellaJoya are matched up with an earthy, glittery bit of bronzite and a fun plexiglass flower cutout from MyELEMENTS (which you can see in Beads 2010...including a project from Yvonne!)

Not to be left out, the pink Beadity McBeadersons decided on a bangle with a super-eclectic mix of beads.  This is where the sweet elixir comes in...it's called the Pink Lemonade bangle.

Not to be satisfied with just one artist represented in this bracelet, I included some lampwork glass rondelles in a golden-yellow with a purplish-pink band by GardanneBeads.  Then there are beans, recycled glass, resin, lemon quartz, pink wire coils, and Czech glass.  You can't even imagine what a mess my table was after picking out all these components.  :)

You can buy either of these for your very own in my etsy shop.

So, cheers to Marcie!!  If I translated my title right, it means she a "sweet bead artist!"  :)

Can You Really Hate Orange?

This morning I had a great laugh over one of my bead bud's blog. Marcie at La Bella Joya declared that orange is completely uninspiring.  Can you believe that?  haaaaaaaa  It is a great post which you should definitely check out.  But, I have to declare in response that orange is key to life!!!   I haven't been as diligent about looking for orange around my house, but I don't have to look far...especially in my studio.  I have a whole lotta orange! And, uh, have you seen my blog background?!  haaaaaaaa  So, this week's posts and my etsy shop adds are going to be part of the orange family...because orange rocks!!!

Here's the first piece...I just love the "focal coloring" tool  that I found at Picnik, so I wanted to show the sweetness of this crazy lace focal.  The orange and purple all swirled and pretty...

And here's the whole kit and caboodle in color! 

It's like when you can't choose the grape soda or the orange soda.  Both of them are wonderfully sweet and when you're on the road wandering around Italy in your convertible, the most refreshing taste at the roadside stop is a frothy, fruity Fanta.  Yes, I lived in Italy and had a convertible and drank a lot of Fanta.  haaaaaaaa

Thanks for the inspiration, Marcie!!!  haaaaaaaaaaa

Ciao,

Jen Velasquez

(yep, that's my new name!!!)