SOCIAL MEDIA

5/25/12

May Echo Creative Club Reveal

Back in this post I shared my beautiful beads from Jeannie of Jewelry By Jeannie from her "Peeled Paint" line of beads. Now I'd like to share the jewelry pieces I made with them:

The first piece is a necklace made using the Gin Blossom focal:


I haven't done a piece like this one for a while (lots of wire wrapping and dangling bell flowers), and I thought that the heavier links would give visual balance to the large focal. I used patinaed copper wire and Czech glass rounds and bell flowers, and made long bead sticks with flower groups dangling from the connectors.

The second piece I made is this leather and glass bracelet, using Jeannie's cute button for the clasp:


The flower button, available by special request from Jeannie's shop, is the focal of this fun bracelet. I have been wanting to learn how to make this type of bracelet for a while now, and found a really great free tutorial on FusionBead's website. I used green glass beads and brown leather to compliment the patina on the button.

The final piece I made with the beads Jeannie sent me is one of my favorite bangle bracelets:


The bright teal of the beads looks great with the copper beads and wire. I made a handmade clasp to close the bangle in the back.

As always, thank you Jeannie for the beautiful beads and the opportunity to participate in your club!

Take some time to check out what these other talented and creative ECC members did with their beads this month: 

Cindy Cima Edwards http://www.cindycima.com






Molly Alexander http://www.beautifullybrokenme.blogspot.com (you are here!)

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5/11/12

Echo Creative Club Beads For May

I received my May Echo Creative Club beads from Jeannie of Jewelry By Jeannie from her "Peeled Paint" line of beads: 



How beautiful are these beads?  And that button?  So sweet!  Want some of your own?  Check out Jeannie's site:  Jewelry By Jeannie.  The button is a special order item, so if you want one (or a whole bunch!), go to her site and e-mail her with your request - I'm sure she'd be happy to make you some of your very own!

Please stop back by on the 25th to see what I make with these lovelies!
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4/25/12

April Echo Creative Club Reveal

Back in this post I shared my beautiful iris colored 'Gin Blossom' from Jeannie of Jewelry By Jeannie from her "Peeled Paint" line of beads, and here is the bracelet I made with it (please excuse the photo quality - I can't get my camera to take a decent picture of the bracelet - I promise you the purple is so much prettier in real life!):


I opted for a simple 4-strand strung bracelet in different shades of purple and cream with patinaed silver and steel accents.


Purple is one of my favorite colors to design with, and I wanted to bring a vintage feel to my piece to highlight the vintage-y feel of the focal.


I'll definitely be wearing this one!

As always, thank you Jeannie for the chance to participate in your club! Take some time to check out what these other talented and creative ECC members did with their beads this month:

Jeannie K Dukic http://site.jkdjewelry.com/blog (hostess)


Birgitta Lejonklou http://lejonklou.blogspot.com/


Cindy Cima Edwards http://www.cindycima.com/













You can also see more pictures of wonderful Echo Creative Club pieces in the ECC Flickr group!
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4/11/12

Bead Table Wednesday, Echo Creative Club Goodies, Do-Over Challenge and Grateful Living

Ok...I'm just going to have to get this out of the way first...

My name is Molly and I am a bead addict:




I am also, apparently, incapable of organization...

As always, thank you Heather Powers for hosting this weekly challenge.  Check out the other Bead Table Wednesdays participants' photos on the group's flickr site.





Now that that's out of the way, I've got a couple of fun things to share:



I received my April Echo Creative Club bead from Jeannie of Jewelry By Jeannie from her "Peeled Paint" line of beads:



I LOVE the purple and already have a design in mind for this beauty! Check back on April 25th to see what I made!


I am also participating in Jeannie's "Do Over Challenge 3". Jeannie sends out an old piece of jewelry that she made and challenges us to use the components of the piece in a new piece of jewelry. Here is a photo of the necklace I received:


This necklace is made up of beautiful tiny pink coral rounds and genuine turquoise chips.  Check back on April 24th to see my new creation!



And finally, take a couple of minutes to pop over to the Grateful Living blog for tips and prompts for starting your own Gratitude Journal.

That's it for now!
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3/25/12

March 2012 Echo Creative Club Reveal

It's Echo Creative Club time again, and I can't wait to share my projects with you! Remember these lovelies?

(Because so many of you asked, the adorable "danglies" are available by special order through her website.) 

The very generous Jeannie Dukic of Jewelry By Jeannie sent these from her "Peeled Paint" line of beads for me to use this month in my Echo Creative Club piece. 

Well, she sent so many beads, I decided to make a necklace, a bracelet and some earrings. Without further ado, here is "Aztec Beauty":


I knew I wanted to use the danglies in the pendant, and that I wanted to do some significant wire wrapping with them.  I soldered a copper ring and started wrapping away, ending up with this unique focal (it has a little bit of an Aztec-y-ish vibe to it that I'll attribute to having just seen "John Carter" when I was designing the set).


The beads are so beautiful, and I wanted to make sure they were showcased, so I incorporated them into the coiled chain:


I also wanted to add continuity to the design by focusing on the circle shape and coils, and so I created an over-sized coiled clasp to coordinate with the rest of the piece:


The bracelet is made from two 14g pieces of copper wire that are feature more coils, beads and wire wrapping, and are hinged together on either side:


This is one of my favorite styles of bracelets to make, as the size can be adjusted easily by bending the wire, and it allows me to again showcase beautiful beads.

Finally, I saved two of the danglies to use in the earrings, which incorporate circles and coils as well:


So there you have it - "Aztec Beauty":



As always, thank you Jeannie for the chance to participate in your club!  Take some time to check out what these other talented and creative ECC members did with their beads this month:

Jeannie Dukic http://www.jkdjewelry.com (hostess)

Beth Emery http://storiesbyindigoheart.blogspot.com

Birgitta Lejonklou http://lejonklou.blogspot.com

Cindy Cima Edwards http://www.cindycima.com

Courtney Breul http://beadsbybreul.blogspot.com

Erin Prais-Hintz http://treasures-found.blogspot.com

Kristen Stevens http://kristen-beadjourney.blogspot.com

Molly Alexander http://www.beautifullybrokenme.blogspot.com (you are here!)

Shannon Chomanczuk http://www.formysweetdaughter.blogspot.com

Also, these creations and more can be seen in the Echo Creative Club Flikr group:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/1908988@N22/

Thanks for stopping by!
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3/5/12

New Echo Creative Club Beads To Play With

Just a quick post to share with you what I received in the mail the other day to play with:



Aren't they fun? Jeannie of Jewelry By Jeannie sent these from her "Peeled Paint" line of beads for me to use this month in my Echo Creative Club piece. Check out those cute danglies - cool, huh?


Come back on the 25th to see what I make with them!
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2/25/12

February Echo Creative Club

It's Echo Creative Club blog hop time again, and I am excited to share my project with you:

"Asian Influence"
I received six beautiful "peeled paint" beads in black with many shades of gold and copper leaf from Jeannie of Jewelry By Jeannie this month, and knew I had the perfect complimentary beads to go with them: old black silk beads my mom got in Thailand years ago and some funky gold pearly beads and brushed copper washers, some of which I turned into bead caps.

I put them all together using a fabulous glass toggle clasp I got ages ago from Artbeads:



By using copper-colored stringing wire, I was able to tie all the components together into one funky, dangly, bold bracelet:


"Asian Influence"

Thanks so much, Jeannie Dukic , for allowing me to participate in this wonderful club!



To see what other creative club members have made, check out their blogs below:


Cindy Cima Edwards  http://www.cindycima.com

Courtney Breul  http://beadsbybreul.blogspot.com

Dagi  http://kokopellidesign.blogspot.com

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

Kristen Stevens  http://kristen-beadjourney.blogspot.com 

Lola Surwillo  http://www.beadlolabead.blogspot.com

Malin de Koning  http://beadingbymalindekoning.blogspot.com

Michelle Buettner  http://www.MiShelDesigns.blogspot.com

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

Shannon Chomanczuk  http://www.formysweetdaughter.blogspot.com


You can also go to the Echo Creative Club Flickr Group to see more photos of this month and previous month's creations! 


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1/25/12

Echo Creative Club!

As an artist, it is such a great feeling to be able to feature other artists and their artistic handiwork.  Jeannie Dukic of Jewelry By Jeannie is a very talented bead maker and jewelry artist who decided to put together a design team to feature her handmade beads, and I'm one of the fortunate ones who is in this group of artists called the "Echo Creative Club".  I am joined in this club by Jeannie herself and these very talented artists:



Why did Jeannie name it the Echo Creative Club?  In her own words:
"What does the name, Echo Creative mean?  Echo is something you put out there and it comes back.  I put my beads out there and they come back in a creative design from you."
This is the first month of participation, and I received one of Jeannie's beautiful Gin Blossom pendants to work with:


I have had this beautiful pendant on my workshop table for a few weeks now, and have been deciding how to feature it in a design.  Last week, I received these paper beads from Sweet Paper Love on etsy, and I knew I had the other piece of my design:


So I added some wire wraps to the paper beads and made some rustic handmade links:


...attached a coiled clasp and some bell flower charms:


and a piece of bougainvillea branch for a bail, and voila:


my first Echo Creative Club piece!


I was really going for a rustic and organic feel in this design, and am really pleased with the results.  Thanks so much, Jeannie, for including me in this creative venture!

To see what other creative club members have made, check out the Echo Creative Club Flickr Group!
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