Thursday 17 April 2014

Spring Fever Design Challenge – The Reveal!

Good morning all. The day is finally here… the big reveal.

I’m so excited to visit all the blogs and see what everyone has made, but first a quick recap…
Lesley Watt, Claire Braunbarth and myself each supplied some of our goodies to put together challenge packs with a Spring Theme.



Sets were sent out to 23 participants all over the world with the challenge of creating Spring themed designs.

 I was thrilled with the set I received back after they’d all been put together, it was done blind so that none of us knew what we would be getting. As usual, I forgot to take a picture of what I got before I used it, (you think I’d have got the hang of it by now!)
There was a beautiful green ceramic focal and bead set from Lesley, as well as some small cream and rust coloured beads which you’ll see later on!

Some orange/red silk from Claire

and a bird set  by me. There was a smaller white bird and a leaf in the set, but I didn’t get round to using those!

The first piece I chose to work with was Lesley’s focal pendant. I love the green on this one. It’s not a colour I would have picked up myself to work with, but once I got going, I loved the rustic design that came through from it. The necklace is strung with leather and I created a knotted bail with the same leather and one of my lamp work urchins which matched the colours nicely. I began with a few of my ceramic beads, but seemed to have got a bit carried away as I ended up with a great big chunky statement necklace. I’m not overly sure about the sliding clasp on this one. I might change that!

Next, I chose the small ceramic beads from Lesley, and silk from Claire. I must have had a rustic mood on, as I grabbed more leather. This time it was 5mm thick. The silk was wrapped around the leather and secured with copper wire. I started out with it wound around the whole thing, but I liked the natural colour of the leather poking through.

I love the multi strand designs that are popular at the moment, so I chose some coordinating beads and attached the strands together with 5mm end caps. After trying it on, I wanted the strands to sit in a certain way, so I made a couple of large copper jump rings to hold them together and added some dangles. I am constantly fighting the urge to add everything I have to my designs, I just love beads so much! But I think the 3 added here set it off just right.

And for my final piece, I was left with my bird set. I bought some stunning flower beads from Laney (Izzybeads) at the Flame off with the intention of using them for the challenge. I played around with all sorts of designs and added bits in and ended up with most of my stash out on the worktop. This design sort of fell together out of the chaos, and is my favourite of the three.
I created a lariat with silk ribbon in three colours and 2mm leather! It was undone half a dozen times while I decided on the best placement, but I kept it simple so that the flowers were the main focus. I’m pleased with how the ribbons drape and look like tendrils sprouting from the flowers. It’s lovely and light to wear, and I think the most Spring like of the designs.
Sorry about the poor photo on this one, I went out to retake this and one of my lovely children stood on a flower and broke it :( This was the best of what I had!

I hope you’ve enjoyed looking through my designs and taking part in the challenge!

And now for my favourite part… the hop! 

Thank you to everyone who’s joined us in the challenge, we were overwhelmed by the fantastic response we got and I’m bursting to see what you’ve made!
Here are the links…
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2 comments:

  1. Lori Bowring Michaud19 April 2014 at 12:58

    Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful! Children! Mine are adults and sometimes touch and break things they shouldn't...... I really love the boho look of the bracelet, I bet it'll be fun to wear!

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  2. Becky Pancake22 April 2014 at 14:55

    Caroline all of your pieces are beautiful. I like the first one the best.

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