Royal Feather...Reveal Time!

It't that time again to enjoy another design challenge and blog hop hosted by the wonderful Andrew Thornton! If you are not familiar with Andrew's design challenge kits you can visit his blog here for the details. Now on to the good stuff...

I usually take pictures of the kit when I receive it but this time...OOPS! forgot that part...or if I took them, I stored them in a super secret folder on my computer. If you want to see what was in the kit you can check it out here. So I really love purples and greens so I was excited to grab this one up. I played with design possibilities for several days but in the end settle on bracelets...LOTS of them! 

They are all tied on Irish waxed linen...some have plum, some olive, and some emerald green. The plum came with the kit all other colors are from my own supply. I used brass snap clasps from my supplies and one artisan charm...I'll give you the details when we get to that picture. 

Everything else is from the kit...I love how each bracelet is beautiful alone but also look great in any combination together...makes for lot of versatility...which I love in my jewelry! Isn't the polymer crown charm fantastic? Andrew made it as our mystery component this time. It has a lovely shimmer that kind of shows in the picture although never as dazzling as it is in person.

Remember that artisan charm I mentioned earlier? I won 3rd place in the ACM Jewelry Designer Contest held in July...if you have not checked out this group on Facebook you really should...tons of beady goodness all in one great location. We've also started a marketplace to shop all these lovely bead artists. Anyway...long story, longer...HAHA! I got to choose $10 worth of goodies from one of our artists shops. I chose Linda Landig...she makes wonderful ceramic goodies. I asked her to surprise. This fantastic charm is ONE of the goodies she sent me. It is a perfect element for the dark greens of this kit! and the perfect size for a bracelet charm :)

This is the first bracelet I made ...funny it's the last I'm showing. I love this combination the luster in the green beads is perfect with the dark plum color. 

I also made earrings to match this bracelet...the picture of them alone was not loading correctly...so had to resort to just sharing the picture of the pair...

and a picture of all the bracelets together...lovely combination, don't you think? So that's it for me this time. Thank you once again to Andrew for putting together wonderful kits full of inspiration and beady goodness! I hope you will check out the other participants below and see what lovelies they created! ~Kari

Kari Asbury

Ann Schroeder

Sarajo Wentling

Christina Porter

Tammy Bowman

Tara Linda

On Andrew Thornton's blog:

Andrew Thornton

Margriet Schnabel 

Keisha Russell 

Tara Linda 

Alison Herrington 

Laurel Ross 

Marcia Gilbert 

Joanne Goldberg 

Crystal Lombardo Farrell 

Cheryl Lee Tucker

Autumn Night Sky Challenge Reveal...

I love this image Lisa of Pine Ridge Treasures has been sharing as we approach the reveal date for the Autumn Night Sky bead challenge. This is my first reveal with one of Lisa's kits ...I have at least 1 each month with her from now through December. So stay tuned for lots of fun stuff! But first...it's time to see the Autumn Night Sky...

I always to snap a picture when I receive any design kits but in this case I somehow missed doing that so this picture is after I made my pieces but shows all the types of beads I received...the kit was actually very generous with 2 strands of the pearls and 2 strands of the crystals!

I have to be honest I don't work with a lot of glass pearls ...but I knew going into these challenges that many of them will contain glass pearls...so comes the challenge for me! I have been very into stack and wrap bracelets the last several months. The style just works for me...simple or extravagant or any where in between depending on how you feel that day.

I used crystals and pearls from the kit and added plum Irish waxed linen and a silver snap clasp for this triple wrap bracelet. I love it! It also goes really nicely with several bracelets I made from my Dark Bloom challenge kit from Andrew Thornton...so kudos for coordinating pieces! It's also long enough to wear as a necklace...so the options are really endless.

I also made a pair of coordinating earrings. I don't wear a lot of earrings but I always tend to make them to coordinate with my designs, especially bracelets. All beads are from the kit and I've again used the plum Irish waxed linen. I also added a pair of my twisted copper jump rings and copper ear wires. I really love these deep rich colors and everything has just the right touch of sparkle!

I have really enjoyed my first design kit from Lisa and look forward to the coming months sharing my other kits and designs with you...most of them are done at this point...so now just waiting for time to share...the anticipation is killing me! Not all of these challenges are blog hops...several are just sharing your designs in the facebook albums on the Pine Ridge Treasure page, which you can find here. I will be blogging on each challenge as well as sharing in the albums...part of my efforts to get in the habit of blogging more regularly :)

So I hope you'll check out the Facebook album to see what everyone else created...my next reveal is Royal Feather (Andrew Thornton) on October 16...hope to see you then! ~Kari

Festival of Lights...Reveal...Better Late than Never!

A big apology to Andrew, our host and my fellow challenge participants for my late post. I hope you will all forgive me this time...it's been a crazy couple of weeks and turned out to be time with my mom and then time with my daughter later in the evening. Much fun was had but now here I am late, late, late!

I only have a couple of pieces completed this time...I ran into time crunches with a trade show and orders to fill after...but that's a good thing! :)

First up the earrings...I loved these two slightly mismatched, colorful beads. They were just meant to be earrings! They are finished off with a selection of beads from the kit and my handmade antique copper findings. Lots of color and movement in these adorable earrings!

Then there was the sunburst idea...I have to give total credit to my mom for the idea...I just executed her concept! It uses the wonderful mystery component from the kit along with a random assortment of beads from the premium blend and my handmade brass spiral headpins. This was supposed to be a complete necklace but this is where schedules got crazy and there was just no chance to get further. It sits on my desk, along with a few other ideas from this kit waiting to be finished. That's on next week's list now that show orders are shipped! 

I always try to design several things from Andrew's wonderful kits but this time a fell quite short of that goal...but sometimes that's ok, right?

Thanks for stopping by, below you will find a  list of links to the other participants for this hop. I do hope you will pop in and see what lovelies they created! ~Kari

Carole Carlson

Christina Porter

Karin Grosset Grange

Shaiha Williams

Christina Hickman

Kari Asbury

Ann Schroeder

Alice Peterson

Andrew Thornton, Alison Herrington, Laurel Ross, Cheryl Lee Tucker, Naama Eisenstein

Carolyn Lawson

Dark Bloom Design Challenge Kit...Reveal time!

So it's time again for another Andrew Thornton design challenge reveal! This month is Dark Bloom...a gorgeous blend of black, grey and silver to perfectly accent the rich purples and pinks...a fantastic palette!

In case, you haven't been following or aren't familiar with Andrew's design kits, I will mention just a couple of things...he is VERY generous with the contents of our kits. We get a premium blend of seed beads and assorted glass, a clasp, waxed linen, vintage glass, czech glass, crystals and the "mystery" component, a surprise until it arrives in your mailbox :)...it's a wonderful way to get inspired! So for any who follow my blog you know lately I've been creating a lot of bracelets...particularly the stacking/layering style. I love them and they allow for such versatility. I think the nature of the bead styles in these kits lends nicely to these bracelets. The sizes of the beads are well suited to lots of them being worn together and Andrew coordinates everything so nicely...it just seems right.

I don't do much designing with seed beads anymore...they tend to be stoppers or fillers for larger beads...but with this kit I decided to challenge myself to use more of the beautiful premium blend which is mostly seed beads. I'm experimenting lately with making my own jump rings, so this bracelet came together with the marrying of a personal challenge to use the seed beads and wanting to experiment with more ways I could use my handmade jump rings. Oh, and one of my first attempts at making ball headpins! I love how this turned out...simple but so stylish! All metal findings made by me, all beads are from the kit.

This bracelet shows another of my latest design favorites...Irish waxed linen. This stuff is great fun to design with comes in 30+ colors, creates durable designs this has replaced my use of flexible bead wire pretty much completely. I hate using crimps, I never feel like they are secure and even though its "flexible" beading wire still has a stiffness and lack of movement...to me anyway. Waxed linen has flexibility, movement and a boho feel that I really like for my designs. So every thing in this bracelet is from the kit except the copper snap clasp.

For this bracelet I went a simple design so the polymer charm would really be the focus. This was our "mystery" component, handmade by Andrew. I'm sure the flat black beads are some type of gemstone, but haven't had a chance to look them up. I used some of my handmade twisted jump rings, gunmetal clasp and faceted glass. Focal, beads and clasps are from the kit. All jump rings are handmade by me.

For this double wrap bracelet I used glass beads from the 4 mini strands to make the different sections, separated by acrylic chips from the premium blend and the rest of the waxed linen. Added a snap clasp and VOILA!

Earrings to coordinate with any of the bracelet designs...

and last I loved the look of my first bracelet with the seed beads and jump rings so much I thought it would make a nice necklace design too. So that's it for me...all the bracelets can be stacked together or worn separately and the earrings and necklace coordinate nicely with everything. Thanks to Andrew for another beautiful and inspiring kit! If you are interested in playing along the kits sell out fast so keep an eye out on Andrew's blog...I believe the next one is scheduled to go on sale tomorrow evening ;)

I hope you will hop around now to the other participants and see what beautiful designs they created!
~Kari

Hannah http://www.livingoutofcontext.blogspot.com/

Karin Grosset Grange http://www.ginkgoetcoquelicot.blogspot.fr/

Carolyn Lawsom http://www.carolynscreations.blogspot.com/

Holly Baldwin http://www.trickoflightstudios.com/

Jeanne Steck http://www.gemsbyjeannemarie.blogspot.com/

Ann Schroeder http://www.beadlove.wordpress.com/

Kari Asbury http://www.hippiechickdesign.blogspot.com/

Andrew Thornton, Laurel Ross, Alison Herrington, Geri Colgrove, Crystal Lombardo Farrell http://www.andrew-thornton.blogspot.com/

Busy week ahead...and a Sneak Peak at the Festival of Lights Challenge!

The coming week looks like it will be very busy for this Hippie Chick. I will be sharing my Dark Bloom Design Challenge Reveal, Thursday, August 14. I hope to complete a design for the Earrings Everyday monthly challenge...to be shared Friday, August 15. And I received my Festival of Lights Design Kit last week so time spread that out on the desk so it can properly "speak" to me :) I am also just under a month from my next trade show...and not feeling the least bit ready...YIKES! 

So let's have some pretty bead pictures to distract us from all this craziness! So this is the teaser Andrew offered on his latest design challenge. I have managed to get a kit for every challenge he has offered, except Radiant Orchid...I'm still a little sad on that one...I love purple! These challenge kits have really inspired me and it's been a wonderful summer of creativity from the challenges and it carries over into my other designs...my muse has been loving me lately so I'm just rolling with it!

Each kit is filled with goodies...glass, crystals, some vintage, all perfectly coordinated!

More glass, a generous amount of Irish waxed linen...

and what he calls the "premium blend"...this has a bit of everything...seed beads, crystals, sequins, acrylic, glass, a little of this and a little of that! And again perfectly blended to match the kit. I know you're thinking how great are all these goodies...so much stuff to get the design muse flowing...but there's more!

The "mystery" goodies...some months it's one item...other months its several! It's a mystery until the package arrives in our mailbox and always has it's own special public reveal date...if you want to see you'll have to stop back by on August 18th for the big reveal!

Other exciting things are happening and I hope to be sharing them soon! In the meantime I hope you'll stop by on Thursday, August 14th for the Dark Bloom Reveal...

~Kari