Sue Beads

It's Niky Sayers turn to host the Art Elements Component of the Month, and this month the theme is Dragons.  It's the December theme, but with the holidays and all, we're having the reveal today!  I got my cabochon from Jenny Davies-Reazor, this awesome dragon!

I wanted to incorporate the dragon scale beads within the design, but I got sick and had issues with my brain doing what I wanted it to do, so I used the dragon scales as the picot edge. I still like it a lot!
Please check out what everyone else made with DRAGONS!

It's the end of August, which means it's time for another Art Jewelry Elements challenge!  This month it was a headpin design challenge, and I am ALL OVER IT!  I have a few headpin tutorials over at the Art Jewelry Elements blog:

Flower Disc Bead Earrings

Flower Headpin Earrings

Earring Stacks with Headpins





And then I made all of these other earrings with my headpins!

These earrings used pretty filigree copper bead caps with czech beads and a size 8 seed bead.

These earrings used a gorgeous brass bead cap with a titanium hematite rondelle and a size 8 seed bead in a complementary color.

These beach inspired earrings used an ammonite headpin with titanium hematite spacers, and a gorgeous coppered aqua pumpkin bead, an indonesian bead, a wood bead, and a size 11 seed bead to capture all of the elements of the beach!

And these earrings, which are also beach themed, using an ammonite headpin, titanium hematite spacer beads, czech faceted rondelles and a titanium hematite round.

I wa…

Well, it's the end of June already, that must mean it's time for another AJE Challenge - this month it was a theme challenge, and the theme is Summer!  Here's what I made:



My favorite thing of all time really is the beach and the ocean.  On my bucket list is a trip to Fiji - hopefully one day this can happen! This cabochon by our own Diana of Suburban Girl Studio was perfect!



Please check out what everyone else made, and enjoy your summer!

Guests Rosantia Petkova
Melissa Trudinger Alice Peterson Tammy Adams Shaiha's Ramblings Betony Maiden
AJE team Jenny Davies-Reazor Niky Sayers Caroline Dewison Susan Kennedy
Lesley Watt
Jen Cameron

As another month rolls around, so does the AJE Component of the Month challenge - this month was a theme challenge and Lindsay Starr is our host - theme is EYE. 

I hope you go back and read Lindsay's original post, as it is very interesting.  I won't rehash what she already elegantly explained about the symbology of the eye.  I'll just get on with my post!  Incidentally, Michael's happened to have TONS of eye-themed components this month!  Lindsay must be right on trend!  Here are some photos I took!






I also wanted to show you the little tiny evil eye charm I picked up in Greece about 10 years ago - I was going to use it in this project, but just couldn't bring myself to use it up!  Then I wouldn't really be able to hold it and fondle it lol! I also meant to make some lampwork evil eyes, and may still, but didn't really get the chance to do that!


For my project, Kristie Roeder, a ceramist, was offering some great evil eye cabochons in the Ceramic Art Bead Ma…