Author: susanmwb

Multi-passionate artist living each day as creatively as possible!!

Back in the Saddle

Time to get back in the blogging “saddle”, I’ve been out of it for awhile. A long while.

Why haven’t I been blogging? Hmmm…I can’t quite put my finger on it. I try to write then  do one of two things…write some words and hate them all. Erase, erase, erase. Or…stare blankly at the white screen…forever….and write nothing…even after hours or days of looking  at the same page space. Ugh…so frustrating!
Couple that with the meanies in my brain that say, “who is even reading this? If they were they’re not now! What’s the point?”
Recipe for disaster…
What’s the solution? Damned if I know…so I asked my son.
His advice?
“Mom…just start by posting something simple!”
Um, what? Simple? Really?
Epiphany…try something simple to get back in the “saddle,” simple…
So that’s what I’m going to do. Check in on me tomorrow…
For simple!
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My Favorite Show…(better late than never)

Bead Soup Hoppers…..you can find my bead soup here:  https://www.susansartcircus.com/bead-soup-all-at-once/

Over Mother’s Day I had my booth full of things at the Bernardo Winery in San Diego, California. It was the 37th year that this show has been going on and about 10 years that I have participated.

Peek!

The winery is a beautiful spot. Filled with antiques from the century they’ve been raising grapes on the property. Hundreds of olive trees line the walkways and buildings. Lush landscaping and flowers all around. Many small specialty shops and, of course, the wine tasting room plus they have a restaurant in the middle of everything! Needless to say it’s my favorite place and I get to be there (as long as Veronica juries me in) twice each year…Mother’s Day weekend and again the weekend a couple weeks before Halloween.

This time my whole family came on Mother’s Day. My son…

Paul

…he fell in love with my friend April’s Yorkie, Suzy. Isn’t she cute?

Ua

My daughter came all day to help out.

Goofy...

And my husband, well, let’s just say he found some new friends.

Whenever you get the chance go visit the Bernardo Winery…you won’t regret it!

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Bead Soup! All at once!

I have been a bad blogger….but I now have the perfect reason to come back strong! Its the Bead Soup reveal! Aren't you excited? I know I am! Here goes…

First, since I've been a crazy person I never allowed myself the chance to show off what i received as “soup” from my partner Susan Kelly. You can find her at midlifegreaterexpectations.blogspot.com

Fabulous carnelian, Swarovski crystals and pearls, semi precious in gorgeous fall like colors and some of my favorites. Funny, she and I sent each other focal clasps from the same artisan maker, just different colors…ha! Great minds…

Gorgeous!!

None of this soup is anything that I use or buy for my line on a regular basis. Susan hit a challenge for me right out of the gates. I laid all of this soup out on my desk from the moment it arrived. First it was visible inside bags then I laid it out on mats. I moved it around, fondled the beads, stared at it and this past week it came to me.

I hear angels singing! I love it! With the soup i used chocolate patina'd brass findings and a few charms from my stash to keep with the leaf theme. Measuring about 24″ long the necklace closes in the front showcasing the hand made glass leaf…oooh, can't wait to wear it.

And it doesn't stop here…i also made a bracelet…

Hello! Thre strands of yummy! And here's the clasp. Enamel in yellow…again, not in my normal color range but I love it! This is probably my favorite of the three pieces I made…did I say three? Um, yes…

Earrings! Long kidney wires and I saved a couple of the yellow Swarovski cubes for this. Love these too.

So what do you think? Do you love fall colors and the thoughts of falling leaves? (I realize we just came out of a crazy winter but i still love the palette that fall brings to mind)

Well this was so much fun! Thanks so much Susan! You were very generous and I still have some beads left to play with. This was my first time with Bead Soup and you made it special! Thanks so much.

Now for the rest…there are almost 500 participants in this Bead Soup Blog Party. Grab a cup of coffee, get comfortable, and take a tour of some of the best jewelry girls in the planet. Click the link below for the entire list of participants…

http://lorianderson-beadsoupblogparty.blogspot.com//2014/04/welcome-to-8th-bead-soup-blog-party.html

 

 

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Christmas with Ice and Santa!

Christmas is coming?! Really? Didn’t we just do Christmas?

I have to admit that Christmas has not been my favorite holiday over the past decade. When you’re on the road, as I am, through the holiday season Santa is more work than pleasure. Add to that 10+ years of this love/hate relationship and thinking about Christmas seems really daunting.

So, several months ago I was sent some beautiful Rue Romantique pieces from the Ice girls and asked to do something for Christmas. My first honest response in my head was, “oh no, not that!” I’ve wrestled with it ever since…until this past week.

Knowing our blog hop was fast approaching I knew I had better wrap my head around it or be totally delinquent. Out came all the pieces and more from my design team stash…ribbons, the component Rue pieces, resin, bezels, papers….all of it all over the studio. I stared at it for several days. Pushing it aside I went back to my all time favorite material, shrink plastic, and just began to play with some holiday stamps. Then it dawned on me! K.I.S.S. Stop over thinking it and keep it simple stupid!

Merry Christmas and Santa emerged…

Merry ornament

I pulled out the alcohol inks in red and green to add some holiday color to the components. Wrapped a bit of vintage ribbon to the bottom.

IMG_3104

Santa had to have some shiny, sparkly areas so out came the iridescent glitter added to some ModPodge then painted into his fur, beard, hat, and sleeves. Also some glitter was added to the component piece then resin over the top to seal.

IMG_3105

Here it is a bit closer so you can see how wonderfully the glitter falls into the component grooves then lights up under the resin. Santa and all the pieces also have a resin coating. Such a nice gloss to reflect the lights when these are hanging from the tree. The bottom crystals are also from the Connie Crystals…last blog post…beautiful, faceted teardrop shapes. They made the perfect sparkling end to the base of both.

Here’s to Christmas…a better relationship with Santa and wishing you all the meaning of the season!

Check all the fantastic Christmas projects for the hop!! Don’t miss any of them!

ICE Resin site  http://wp.me/p1MCno-2W3

Lexi Grenzer http://lexigrenzer.blogspot.com/2013/11/rue-romantique-ornament-blog-hop.html

Pamela Huntington  http://pamelahuntington.typepad.com/february_2007/2013/11/handmade-holiday-blog-hop.html

Jen Cushman  http://wp.me/p1lhEq-Gb

Until next time…

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Hop Along With The Ice Resin Team & Their Connie Crystals!!

Hello everyone! I’m baaaack!

Well, if you’ve been following the Ice® Resin Creative Team then you know we’ve all been to the Emmy’s and back again. What you didn’t know was some of the back story. Each of us was sent a huge box of goodies directly from Ice headquarters and we also received a box stuffed with crystals from Connie Crystals. There were so many that we decided to design a few more things after the dust settled.

Alice2

Alice is a favorite of mine as are all of these bezels. Pair that with these enormous cut, round Connie Crystals and I think I have a simple yet stunning bracelet. I didn’t want to overpower the images but accent them. A few smaller crystals swing with the little pewter pig at the clasp. What do you think?

And because I can’t ever do just one or anything easy AND I had more of these crystals…here is the second piece. (also an Ice® Resin piece)

Castheartwings1 Castheartwings2

 As you can see from the pictures there is an obvious range of color reflection coming from the crystals. It’s an aurora borealis coating that reflects an iridescent array of color . Aren’t they  gorgeous? And all the hanging pieces? Yes, they are cast Ice® Resin…but that’s another story.

Now here’s your chance to see what all the other gals have in store…

Today you can hop on over to…

Thespa K. Jones McLaughlin

Jen Crossley

Tomorrow the following designers will also have goodies to share!

Lexi Grenzer

Sandy Martin

Pamela Huntington

Have fun! See you again soon!

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