Take a deep breath...

 

There are still a lot of things on my to-do list that I just didn't manage to do in the last weeks/months. I am sorry but I am not ready to write about this here, at least not now. It will take a little bit more time to be processed by myself.

But the sun is finally out again, the temperatures are getting mild and all the plants around us are in full growth mode. It makes me feel lighter and like I am finally breathing free again.

This month's component of the month (COM) at Art Elements (AE) is a gorgeous bead made by Jennifer Cameron. She had the Northern Lights in mind while creating these beads but actually felt they rather have an ocean feeling to them. I agree and for me this is perfect.

The bead I got has a deep and clear blue that remindes me of the surreal wonderful colours of the Mediterranean sea in the summer time. The blue you can only see when the sun is on its peak of power and the skies are cerulean blue.

And it makes me smile. It brings me to the moments on Formentera in spain in the summer time when everything is just as it should be. The air is filled with the fragrance of pines, rosmarine and thyme, the light so stark at the white sand and red rocks, you can taste the salt on your lips and the ocean so powerful vibrant and clear showing all shades of blue to turquoise.

I believe we are all lost from time to time. Struggle with the world around us and even more with ourselves. Formentera always brought me back to myself. Let me take a deep breath...

So for me this bead was a wonderful inspiration and reminder. Thank you very much Jennifer!

PS: Just for the record: I used actually some wool from my stash and some cotton thread. Both were fiddled through the bead, knotted and then I wrapped the wool around the cotton thread. At the end I also added some turquoise waxed linen to add some highlights. The ceramic bead is from Grubbi ceramics by Natalie McKenna and the small ones are african glass beads.

PPS: By the way, the necklace looks great when worn with a very tribal but elegant look. They weight of the bead is perfect for this, not too much, not too light weight :)

PPPS:Please have a look at what everyone else made this month!


Guest Designers:
Sarajo Wentling
Deb Stewart

Art Elements Team:
Sue Kennedy
Laney Mead
Lesley Watt
Claire Fabian
Karen Totten
Cooky Schock
Jenny Davies-Reazor
Caroline Dewison
Cathy Spivey Mendola
Niky Sayers
Lindsay Starr
Jen Cameron

"Ancient dreams" - Component of the month at Art Elements

The start with a new piece is often the most challenging as well as the most enoyable part. My main problem actually is always "the middle". When you found your inspiration, chose and gathered all materials, have made the work halfway through, see already the end with only some minor last steps open to decide... and then I stop. Honestly, I don't now why. There are soooo many UFOs in my stash, pieces that I know I'll love as soon as they are finished.

*sighs*

But that is maybe just how my brain operates. At some time-point most projects come to an end (either way).

This is why I love and enjoy challenges. They push me and give me a tight schedule to fit in. Even more with a component you get from a fellow bead artist.... huh... the social pressure added works even better! (Not a joke, this works really for me and I like to trick myself with this behaviour ;) )

The component of the month (COM) of Art Elements (AE) came not from a member of the AE team but were gifted to AE team members as well as to AE readers by Kristi Ann from Artisan Clay. You can find more of her work here.

Back to how my brain is working... I got the gorgeous pendant from Kristi (thank you again!). As gorgeous as it is, it was way out of my comfort zone. I love circle shapes and crackled glass / glaze surfaces (you would never have guessed, mh?). But this was too big and a little bit too heavy for me (remember, not being objective here, just relative to what I normally work with).

Puh... and then I started with a necklace design where I liked all the pieces but there was not this perfect start with all elements fitting perfectly together. Time was closing and I finished it and just had to wait until I would be able to catch some rare daylight to take pictures. You need daylight to give such a stunning pendant with crackle glass credit, trust me in this.

So sitting late at the evening at the living room which is a absolute state of chaos with my "stuff" my eyes fell on one of my wrapped bracelets. I wanted to label it for our Pop-Up store in Leipzig (Malwatanderes) but it was sitting close to the necklace. Mh... the colours went nice together so I tested how the would look combined. Loved it. So I took the necklace apart, decided to make a kind of decorative art element (or ornament? tribal totem?). It was the right way. The right way since I started to love this pieces, consisting just of two "circles" at this moment, already.

The rest was easy, also close by was one of my ceramic bird skulls I made. I am in the process to test the effect of different glazes and no, originally I thought this light blue/yellow glaze is not my favorite. How wrong I was. Without the light blue accents it would not have fit to the pendant. Now it was the perfect addition. Yes, perfect! For me at least... especially with the piece of bone (that was also part of my table chaos, don't ask).

You can also find some more of my ceramic clay beads, a single czech glass bead and a lampwork bead from Kimberly Rogers (above the bird skull, such a perfect accent colour to bringt the bone, pendant and skull together).

Here you go... just loving it now! Last minute, but hey, perfect timing, no?!

So, please have a look at the other participants!

PS: Seeing the pictures now, it could be also a piece inspired by / for Prince, or not? *sighs* 2016...

PPS: I had to take the pictures at work, since it is dark when I leave home... and already dark when I come back home. So they are not my usual quality (and not my preferred background style). It was long enough winter time, I am ready for summer again! ;)


Guest Designers:
Sarajo Wentling
Lola Surwillo
Beti Horvath
Kate Kemp

Art Elements Team
Susan Kennedy
Lesley Watt
Claire Fabian (you are here right now :) )
Jenny Davies-Reazor
Jen Cameron

Urban knitting (Hauptbahnhof - Main station, Leipzig)

Okay, it was difficult to take a good picture. Still, I had to share this! It made me smile :)

All the threads... ensnare your necklace!

I love to recycle jewelery. There is something tempting to reduce something in its single parts and use them to create something new. I am always buying a lot of fashion jewelery on sale. Especially for small charms and glas beads there is nothing easier and cheaper and with a surprising diversity. I also love the challenge. Take something - disassemble - create something new. 

This is a really easy and fast project. This necklace was covered in strange neon (not good looking) nylon yarn and cheap glitter glass pieces (maybe I will use these with polymer clay / fimo otherwise I really don't know what to do with them). But below was a great metal necklace blank. 

Perfect to cover it with yarn! I already made earrings (have a look here) and after this I think I will try some bracelets :)

The end I secure by using some additional layers of yarn with a tiny drop of superglue.

This is embroidery yarn with a little bit of shine in it. Subtle but beautiful! 

Strings and loops - use your yarn for earrings

There is nothing as good as fast and easy little projects. Okay, skip the fast. They are not fast to make. But still an easy and good project to take with you. Rumpel found some cheap and furthermore discounted jewelery in our supermarket. Knowing me (or rather even knowing me? ^^) he showed me the offer. The earring loops were only 59 cent (euro cent, not us cent) so I took some with me. 

I had a lot of embroidery yarn / thread at home, chose some colour combinations I liked and just wrapped the loops with them. The open ends are wrapped under the yarn, just for the end I made a knot and secured it with some glue. 

My sister Lachafa used this technique to cover her ear plugs with yarn (have a look here). Later she gave them away to our brother because he also love them. Just wrap whatever you like, secure the end of one yarn under the wrappings of the next one.

And if you don't like it anymore: Cut it off!

The original earring loops... and yarn...

I could also image to use different colour combinations for each ear. 

By the way... the even reduced the leaftover jewelery down to 29 cent. I bought 17 earring loops, all that I could find! A lot of them are smaller loops, but I think that will also look nice with yarn... or polymer clay...?

For the readers speaking german: I linked up to frifris blog! Mh... even if you can't read german, have a look at the blog and the linked blogs. They have a topic each months playing with fabric. The topic of july was threads. Seeing a necklace at Nahtzugabe also made by wrapping something with yarn I thought my earring would fit in and asked whether I could join this month :)

Per Zufall bin ich beim Blog Nahtzugabe über frifris "Stoffspielereien im Juli: Fäden" gestossen. Bei Nahtzugabe kann man eine Kette mit "Garnumwicklungen" und ein Makramee-Armband sehen. Ich fand, daß paßt perfekt zu den Ohrringen :) Deswegen hatte ich angefragt, ob ich diesen Monat auch bei den Stoffspielereien mitmachen kann... selbst wenn es eben mit Ohrringen ist! Hier könnt ihr die anderen Spielereien sehen.

Earbuds or plugs or whatever + yarn!

This was a cute Formentera-crafting-project of my sister Lachafa! She bought some yarn in different colours. Some of it we used to wrap a strand of her hair... 

...and then she though of using the same technique with her earbuds! This had two advantages: 

• First: The earbuds were cheap ones, so the yarn stabilized the cable that it wouldn't break too easily.
• Second: It looks just great!

But there were one big disadvantage... some thing she didn't think of...

Our brother!

Who asked her with his dark eyes and a sweet smile (and the argument that his birthday would be there soon) whether he could have the earbuds! 

Needless to say that she gave in ^^