Las estrellas

Another Jean Power pattern I had some fun with...

these stars are so much fun to make

Little Triangles

from Jean Power's design in a recent beading magazine

Flower Power

my finished piece -below is the story (& more pictures) of how I got here

The problem with designing for Lorelei's Jade Scott Enameled Flower Challenge is that my flower is so gorgeous I didn't want to do anything with it except look at it.  I put it in a tiny glass vial on the window sill above my kitchen sink and admired it every chance I got.  Now this doesn't mean that I didn't have a thousand ideas floating around in my head.  This precious little bloom really inspired me.  Thanks, Lorelei, for making my love affair with a tiny piece of enameled copper possible!

look at that cute number six

I decided I wanted to do something with a bunch of beads, some chain, and some bead woven components, but still keep the focus on #6.

At first I wove some tiny Russian leaves.  These were dainty and didn't detract from #6.  For a few days I played with Russian leaves and made these earrings with matte golden copper Delicas, some dicro lined 15/0s, bronze wire (from Cool Tools), some dyed stones, and sterling silver wire.  I think I wore these everyday this week.

After I got over how much I liked making Russian leaves, I started to think that perhaps trying to go too stark and simple in my planning.  I had ideas about drilling a single pebble to make a necklace version of an ikebana vase.

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I thought about tussy mussies and how I could make the bouquet holder from art clay or copper sheet.

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Finally it hit me that I was thinking too small.  I whipped up a giant Russian leaf from green Picasso 11/0 seed beads and got rolling...some ceramic beads, some wooden discs (I didn't like the original finish so I sanded them and restained), some copper chain, some waxed linen cord.  I made a beaded toggle closure, but then I started channeling Fairysteps and decided to make a copper toggle with a leather leaf "ring."

tiny Russian leaves - about the size of my index finger nail

some large red white hearts set off the red enamel

the leather and copper toggle closure - I punched each side of the slit so the leather will not split.  I got this idea from  my Muse belt.  Check them out; they are great.

Click the links below to see all the other flowers:

1. Lorelei Eurto

2.  Serena Trent

3. Susan Raber

4. Shawna Tobias

5. Lucid Moon Studio

6. K Hutchinson

7. Gigi - check out Gigi on Lorelei's Blog

8. Lois Moon** you are here

Drop dead beautiful earring giveaway from Kristi Bowman

Kristi Bowman Design is giving away a pair of amazing copper and pink jade earrings as part of her promotion for the Virtual Craft Show.

Leave a comment at Kristi's site for a chance to win.

I am number six

The fabulous Lorelei Eurto is sponsering a Jade Scott Enameled Flower Challenge and Guess Who was selected in the random drawing.  I am pretty excited.  Today my flower came (#6 above), and it is a beauty.  The light color surrounded by red is actually a very pale celadon green.  I thought Sakura, then Wasabi, as soon as I saw it.  Right now there aren't more flowers at Jade Scott on Etsy, but she announces shop updates in her blog.  Stay tuned for what I create.

We got us a panther

Last Sunday I wrote, at the end of a I Heart Macro post, about my neighbor seeing a panther.  This neighbor did put up an infrared camera, but so far she has only seen some fox, birds, and house cats.  But today I spoke to two other neighbors who have definitely seen the panther.  The kids who live on the other side were playing in the woods behind their house and saw it and their uncle saw it also while sitting on the deck behind the house.  Perhaps their will be something on film soon.

The neighbor across the street recently saw a fairly large bobcat on some property he owns on the other side of town, but he estimates it was only 45 lbs.  A Florida panther like the one on the photo below might weigh 130 lbs. and be seven feet long.   The picture shows a Georgia Wildlife Resources Division biologist with the panther shot by a deer hunter three years ago.   Here is a story in which DNA testing positively linked this panther killed and the Georgia-Alabama border to the South Florida population.

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This is a great story about Florida Panthers in South Georgia.  And here is a fact sheet with video and pictures about the Florida panther (aka, mountain lion, cougar, puma).  According to the fact sheet, we have all the panther's favorite foods in our yard, and the neighbors have two piglets - Peaches and Milkshake - for dessert.  Let's hope he doesn't like corgis.