It's Do-Over Time!

A tiny bracelet becomes a necklace and some earrings. 

Several weeks ago, I received this bracelet, made with pink dyed shell buttons, seed beads, and some tiny multicolored beads including some turquoise ones. Jeannie Dukic of JKD Studios and Whee! The People sends these pieces to us so that we can change her older vision to our current vision. 

This bracelet was tiny, and I spent quite some time trying to figure out something new and different I could do with it. 

I used the pink buttons with some tear drop shaped seed beads, and the tiny cream colored seed beads from the original design.  The pendant and the tear drops came from a strange, unfinished looking necklace that I bought at a yard sale. The seed beads at the back of the necklace just happened to match very well. 

And then, there are these earrings: 

You can see the turquoise beads and the yellow beads from the ends of the bracelet, which complement the big wooden fish, from another old necklace. I beg to be forgiven for originally thinking the fish were hedgehogs. 

This was probably my hardest Do Over challenge. It was just so darn small. I could see the earrings right away, but the rest, I had to really use my brain, to avoid making the same piece over again. I hope that you all like my work as much as I do in the end. 

Here are the rest of the participants in this year's challenge:

Jeannie K Dukic

Penny Houghton

Donetta Farrington

Louise Glazier

Molly Alexander

Veralynne Malone

Becky Pancake

Shai Williams

Renetha Stanziano

Rebecca Ednie

Beti Horvath

Jewelrymaking!!

One fabulous pendant and a Do-over challenge. 

This first piece is  pendant necklace special ordered by a customer at a craft show, who wanted something to go with a new pair of hand crafted earrings she had bought elsewhere. 

This is what I came up with. 

Final piece

Full necklace before
adding the Hope charm

Closeup of original pendant

My customer thought it looked great, save for one little thing. "In a perfect world," it would include the word "hope," somewhere. 

I got in touch with Amanda from RococoRiche, and she made the lovely little charm you see in the first picture. I think it turned out to be a great addition. 

As for the Do-over, Jeannie Dukic is having her Eighth Do-over Challenge. She sends the participants a piece of jewelry she made years ago, and we play with the components to see if we can make something more pleasing. 

 This bracelet is my challenge for this round. Tiny beads and these cute pink buttons. October 18th, a completely new piece will debut here!

JKD Seventh Jewelry Do Over Challenge Reveal.

Drum Roll Please!

Jeannie Dukic is a talented artist who has a seemingly never-ending supply of older jewelry pieces that she designed years ago, and never found a market for. She sends them to her Challenge participants, and we transform them.

Here is what I received from Jeannie:

It's a sweet little charm necklace, with two charms made into dangles, but not attached to anything. The pearls are a peach color (hard to capture in a photo) and the charms, and the spacers are silver. Jeannie suggested that we include an art bead or beads in our design, but I was just not feeling that. Because what I saw when I looked at those components was a charm bracelet - but not an ordinary one. 

I used memory wire, and added some royal blue dyed shell beads and it practically made its self. I loved the two long spacer beads as ends on the new bracelet. 

The only part I did not use, because I just didn't need it, was the clasp. I like the way it turns into a sort of faux stack of bracelets. The dark blue of the shell beads really compliments the glass pearls, don't you think? 

A variation on the "Loaded Charm Bracelet."

Here are the other participants, have fun hopping!! 

Jeannie K Dukic

Dagi

Judy Campbell

Veralynne Malone

Christine Murrow

Shai Williams

Lola Surwillo

Christina Hickman

Katrina Taylor

Becky Pancake

Roxanne Mendoza

Charlene Jacka

Inge von Roos

Mary Govaars

Penny Houghton

Beti Horvath

Ginger Davis-Allman

Molly Alexander

Linda Britt

6th Do Over Challenge Reveal!

Looking for Focus on Life?  It's Here, or just scroll down.

This is my second attempt to take a piece of jewelry sent by Jeannie Dukic, and change it into something more awesome than the original. That was tough this time, because I really liked the original.  Or, originals, as Jeannie sent along earrings and a memory wire bracelet.

The originals

Green fresh water pearls...the color shows better here. 

I thought the necklace and coordinating pieces were lovely. It reminded me of something you would make for a wedding. For the brides maids to wear with their pastel dresses and dyed-to-match shoes. So I took the design and tried to feature the pearls a little more, and the crystals a little less, and I changed the metal color from silver to copper, with a little help from some Beadalon Satin Copper Color beading wire, and Miyuki cube beads in a matte metallic khaki iris finish. I did not use the round silver spacer beads, so I had to take apart the bracelet to harvest the pearls.  

What do you think? 

This single strand necklace owes a lot to the original design.

I added a pair of earrings. 

Detail on the earrings. 

Now, I have to admit that last week, for this blog hop: Seed Bead and Metal Blog Hop,  I sneaked a few of the freshwater pearls to enhance my design. In a similar spirit, I used the bonus beads I received as part of that project in these earrings. 

What's this? The fresh Water Pearls show up here, too!

Here's a list of participants in the 6th Do Over Challenge! Hop on over and visit with Jeannie and the others, and see what they have made. 


Jeannie K Dukic (Challenge Host)
Penny Houghton
Susan Delaney
Becky Pancake
Therese Frank
Donetta Farrington
Molly Alexander
Mowse Doyle
Renetha Stanziano
Ginger Davis Allman
Kathy Richardson
Christie Murrow
Veralynne Malone
Shai Williams
Beti Horvath <<<---- You are here
Linda Britt
Miranda Ackerley
Mischelle Andrade
Tracy Stillman
Charlene Bausinger
Deana Hager

They're Here!

Beads and jewelry for two Blog Hops have arrived. 

This week I received the beads and jewelry I have been waiting for. 

Necklace, bracelet and earrings. 

From Jeannie Dukic I received this set of jewelry for reworking as part of her Do-over Challenge. . 

Against skin, you can see the lovley pale green of the freshwater pearls.


 

And from Sharyl, I got this set of beaded beads, made out of seed beads by Shirley, plus metal pieces made by Sharyl, and a few surprises. Sharyl and Shirley are co-sponsoring a hop featuring their components.  

Seeds and metal.

Ribbon and glass bead surprise. 

Stay tuned for the results. 

Do-Over Challenge

Butterfly Fantasy!

Jeannie Dukic sponsors a challenge from time to time, where she offers a piece of jewelry from the early part of her design career to others to "do over." Visit Jeannie's Blog.

Here is what she sent to me.

Frankly, I like the design! But the double strand is rather short,  at least on my neck! And while the butterflies are sweet,they are very insubstantial, and don't seem to interact with the lovely Swarovski crystal beads. I decided to give the whole thing a little substance and expand the color palette a little. 

I colored the butterflies with Vintaj patina. 

Then, I did the earrings too, although they were not technically part of the challenge. I added another crystal when I strung them on a pin. It just picked up the blue a little. 

And here is the finished necklace. It is long, because I used all of the original chain. I added some pink and blue flower and leaf shaped pressed glass beads. I like my butterflies a bit chunkier in the body, so you can see some of the pink crystals wired to the center of each. (And another little bit of wirework, can you see it?) 

Here you see the necklace worn by Sweet Sally Stitch. 

Join the fun by seeing what others have done with their pieces. 

Beti Horvath  http://stringingfool.blogspot.com/

Charlie Jacka  http://clay-space.com/blog

Dagi http://kokopellidesign.blogspot.com/

DiYana Alcalde http://agapecreationsjewelry.blogspot.com/
Donetta Farrinton  http://simplygorgeous-donetta.blogspot.com/

Ginger Davis Allman http://thebluebottletree.com/

Jeannie K Dukic http://site.jkdjewelry.com/blog

Kathy Lindemer  http://bay-moon-design.blogspot.com/

Lynne Bowland  http://www.islandgirlsinsights.blogspot.ca/

Molly Alexander  http://beautifullybrokenme.blogspot.com/

Mary Govaars  www.mlhjewelrydesigns.com

Mowse Doyle  http://mowsemadethis.blogspot.com/

Penny Houghton  www.smellynelly.blogspot.com

Renetha Stanziano  http://lamplightcrafts.blogspot.com/

Rita Avila http://www.jewelschoolfriends.com/

Susan Delaney  www.ladyflowersbysusan.wordpress.com

Focus On: Endless Possibilities

 Looking at someone else's work with fresh eyes

This week, Sally Russick, of The Studio Sublime has challenged us to portray "The Possibilities are Endless" in our photography. So I went out and took some pictures of the tiniest hints of spring around my neighborhood. You can see them here: Hopeful Signs. Maybe I jumped the gun, maybe I just couldn't keep these Hopeful Signs to myself.

So I looked around for another subject. And here is what I found. 

A necklace and earrings from Jeannie Dukic's past!

This month I signed up for the 5th Do Over Challenge, sponsored by Jeannie Dukic of Jeannie's Blog. I just received a piece of jewelry that Jeannie made when she was starting out, which she had no intention of offering for sale at this stage in her design career. Rather than take apart these pieces, she offers them to us to "do over!"

As you can see, the piece is made of components with a lot of potential. One might say, "Endless Possibilities!"  There are a ton of Swarovski crystals, and some cute butterflies. Check back on April 21 to see what I have come up with. 

Click here to see what others came up with.