Andrew Thornton's September Challenge

A very quick post here....it's late and I have a very early start in the morning so I'm scheduling this post and then turning off the light!

Here are the list of participants:

Lorelei Eurto
Sally Russick
Tara Linda
Paula Kramer
Melinda Orr
Beth Emery
(already posted)
Tracy Stillman
Heather Goldsmith
Lori Bowring Michaud
Rebecca Anderson
Debbie Price
Patty Gasparino

(also posting today due to postal hang ups!)

First up, a knotted pearl bracelet using Andrew's Mystery Component - a beautiful hand crafted copper clay coin. I loved this so much, I wanted it to really stand out on a simple piece of jewellery - and what better way to showcase it than with pearls? I included a few beads from the Luxury Bead Mix too.

Next, I used the very cool enamel flowers from Sara of C-Koop Beads. I have a current obsession with enamelled components and so these were perfect for me! I used some of the beads from the luxury bead mix to create the knotted backdrop for the flowers, some of the lovely Swarovski crystal elements, and a very cool pewter clasp from The Little Bead Shop. The photo isn't the best, but trust me - these pewter findings are gorgeous!

My final bracelet used the Soft Flex, which I was determined to have a go with, and more of the luxury bead mix. I rarely use beading wire (unless I'm teaching Beginners' Jewellery) and I have to say, it kind of stumped me a little. This bracelet, I'm a bit 'meh' about....kind of a waste of a pretty clasp if you ask me (again from The Little Bead Shop). Any thoughts? I find it hard to think out of the box with beading wire. So I might bust this one apart. Put the beads and clasp to better use.

And now to my favourite (using the beading wire no less!). I picked these gorgeous Vintaj floral bead caps up at The Manchester Bead Shop where I teach, at the weekend. They are absolutely stunning. And I had an image of them with little stamen poking out of them, using the beading wire and (yes, you guessed it ;-)) the luxury bead mix. I am very pleased with how these came out! They are really just a combination of very cool components, but I'm still happy at how they came together.

So there you go, another challenge completed, another blog scheduled! This one turned out to be slightly more stressful than necessary because I had accidentally written down the 19th as the reveal....not the 12th....and it was only when reading Deb's blog Monday evening that I realised I had to post on Wednesday.....hence the dark, flash lit pictures. Hopefully everyone else has been more organised than me! It's not hard....

I've still got quite a lot left over - some chain, the very awesome Grow focal from SwoonDimples, Swarovski crystal, dichroic glass, a Humblebead charm, Soft Flex - even some more luxury bead mix, believe it or not! So hopefully I'll get some more purple pieces up and posted soon.

THanks so much to Andrew for organising this wonderful challenge! I've really enjoyed it. Happy Wednesday!