REVEAL: Color of Spring Blog Hop is here!

This is my creation for Sally Russick's Color of Spring Blog Hop...and a special

THANK you to Sally for all her creativity and patience in organizing it!

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"Above all else...choose Happiness"

Color makes me happy when I feel blue...

Now sit back and enjoy a fun little color story...

that involves me, Sally, the Pantone Colors for Spring 2012,

 as well as 21 other designers!

Fate, destiny or maybe it was pure luck...but I was one of the designers that happened to be online when Sally's Colors of Spring Blog Hop was announced.  I was excited and quickly hopped on over to The Studio Sublime's Etsy Shop.  I didn't know what I was really getting into, but I loved the fact that I had some details.  The kit I purchased was the Cabaret mix featuring a beautiful 22mm Lentil, and two 12mm Rounds, along with two 11mm x 7.5mm tube beads - all ceramic based beads that Sally enameled using various shades of powder glass enamel and a MAPP gas torch to create these awesome crackle finished beads in super fun colors as you can see below...

My original design plan was to create a beautiful free-form wire wrap with 16-20 gauge Fallen Angel Black Brass Wire, a bracelet and pair of earrings.  However, February I was down most of the month with some sort of crud...and then March was extremely busy with lots of Custom ART Wood tile orders, which then put me a bit behind in a number of other areas, including getting my findings orders "in".  So, long story short...I rummaged through all my findings and supplies on hand, and wound up actually coming up with enough to create ONE design using ALL of the beads together.

A little background...my bead set has been sitting next to my computer for the past month and a half. I do that sometimes when I know I have to work with something because very often, the beads kind of whisper to me, and I have to stop and jot down some ideas or sketches (peculiar...but it has never failed me...). I even allowed them to play "dress-up" and have their own little fashion show...and I can tell you, that they had a lot of fun trying on things ~ including a selection of metals...Vintaj, Sterling Silver and Fallen Angel Brass (FAB), and many different complimentary Czech beads, my ART Tiles and of course Swarovski Crystals.  In the end, we all agreed that FAB looked FABulous on them ;) - so we were off running with the new design ideas and a few other choices.

Yesterday, (yes I said yesterday...don't judge...life has been crazy, business has been busy and there is no other rhyme or reason...so I guess all I have to say is that the important thing is that I got the job done lol)!  As you can see by the above picture, I wound up utilizing some Black Silk Ribbon knotted and strung through the 22mm Lentil focal...then loosely woven in between FAB and an organic wire wrap attached to the clasp closure to create the "base" for the bracelet.

Once this was complete, it was then time to add my beads, charms, and other things I might want "dangling"...yes - I LOVE dangles!  I thought it would be fun to coordinate some of my new mini ART wood tiles with the bracelet...and started experimenting with some that had just been completed...along with some that were "in process" - and then I decided to digitize another piece of art, then do a print run and create a couple extra tiles for this projectew extra tiles for this project.

 My first experiment was with a multi-colored watercolor art that had pinks, greens, oranges, and yellows running through it.  I liked it - but when I started adding other charms - it seemed a tad too "jumpy"...so I changed things up a a bit to reflect a more subdued version while still utilizing my mini Art Tiles shapes.

Well if you knew me - nothing stays tailored and simplistic for long...and although the design would have been fabulous with "less" and featuring just the beads and Art Tiles...I had to keep playing, and playing, and playing...until the end result was this....

and this...

To create this fullly "loaded" bracelet featuring Fallen Angel Brass findings, Sally's Enameled Beads, a selection of JLynnJewels Mini ART wood tiles (1/2" circles, squares & contemporary hearts) that were digitized and color coordinated to match the beads, along with charms and Swarovski Crystals.

And when I was finished - for some reason it reminded me of the Grease Song "Summer Nights" - so that's what I named it :)

Well if you had fun reading about my Spring Color adventure...please go visit the other lucky designers who participated as well!  I had a of fun and have to give a big thank you to Sally Russick for creating these fashion bead sets and coordinating such a fun theme and blog hop!  Have fun HOPPING!

Host: Sally Russick

Margarita

Theresa Frank
Kim Bender

Cabaret

JLynn Jewels ~ You are Here!
Christine Altmiller

Sweet Lilac

Cherrie Fick
Jenny Vidberg

Driftwood

Sabine Dittrich
Hope Smitherman

Solar Power

Nicole Rennell
Erin Fickert-Rowland

Bell Flower

Patti Vanderbloemen
Kristi Bowman

Starfish

Shannon Chomanczuk
Elisabeth Auld

Cockatoo

Alice Peterson
Donna Bradley
Sodalite Blue

Kristi Harrison
Cilla Watkins

Tangerine Tango

Lesley Watt
Maryanne Gross
Susan Kennedy
Courtney White Breul

 Have FUN!
~JLynn