Tuesday, July 31, 2018

Art Elements July Theme Reveal - Funky Seed Pod Jewelry

Welcome to the Art Elements Theme July Challenge Reveal from Dry Gulch.  We missed the June challenge last time, but we made sure to join the July monthly challenge!  We have enjoyed working on our project for the reveal the past few weeks in between getting ready for our summer shows this August.  We would like to send a thank you to hostess Jennifer for putting this challenge together. Don’t forget to visit all of the participating reveals, listed in the links at the end of this blog.

A selection of our late summer garden seed pods & dried berries.  We often use them as photography props.





This month, the Art Element's Theme Challenge was Seed Pods, one of our favorite things!  We tend to a flower and vegetable garden every year, and we always love seeing the different seeds our plants provide.  From the sweet little seeds we plant in the spring, to the dried husks of seed pods throughout the hot summer and cool fall, we enjoy finding inspiration in their rustic and organic shapes.  We have 2 shows that we're preparing for in August, a bead show and vintage show, so we focused on creating a pair of earrings that we could bring along.

 

This pair of earrings showcases our lampwork headpins.  We lampwork in our studio once a week and love to create funky shapes that can be used as charms or in earrings.  We named this shape Dew Pod because they look like little seed pods that have been studded with dewdrops.  In this pair, Catherine melted glass in beautiful caramel raku colors and then added soft metallic gold dewdrops.  Once the headpins were ready, Deborah then paired them with our Ancient Alchemy bead cone caps, filigree brass caps and sparkly Swarovski crystals.  We really like the juxtaposition of the shiny pod lampwork paired with the rough caps!

This pair of earrings and lots more handmade jewelry will be available at our shows in Tulsa, OK and Joplin, MO. Visit our website for more info on our Dry Gulch shows.

We would like to send another big thank you to Art Elements and Jennifer for hosting this fun challenge.  Be sure to hop around all the links below to see all of the participant challenge creations in this month’s reveal!

Guest Artists:

Art Elements Team: 


Sunday, April 29, 2018

Art Elements April Theme Reveal - Cowgirls & Horses


Welcome to the Art Elements Theme Challenge Reveal from Dry Gulch! We joined the April monthly challenge and have enjoyed working on our projects for the reveal the past few weeks. We would like to send a thank you to hostesses Jenny and Cathy for putting this challenge together. Don’t forget to visit all of the participating reveals, listed in the links at the end of this blog.

The Dry Gulch Horses - Shorty, Rusty & Lucky

This month’s theme was all about the beauty of horses. We are inspired every day by the nature around us and our own animals, horses included, so we knew we wanted to create a project featuring cowgirls and their horses. As we have a vintage show that we are preparing for in May, we aimed at making several necklaces that we could bring to the show.


We love to create unique components and then assemble them together into new collage pendants. These necklaces feature patinaed filigrees, hand stamped charms and a hand painted bay horse charm. The pendant focals feature vintage cowgirl bezels that have been poured with resin, then bordered with handmade “barbwire” lariats. We finished off these rustic necklaces with our beaded stone and crystal chains, making them perfect for wearing out.








These vintage cowgirl necklaces will be available at our vintage show in May 2018 at Branson Market Days in Missouri. Visit our website for more info on this and more Dry Gulch shows.

Be sure to visit the links below to see all of the participants in this month’s reveal!








Participants:

Alysen

Anita

Beth

Catherine







Jill

Paulette

Raven

Sarajo

Tammy


Art Element Team Member Participants:


Caroline

Claire

Jen

Laney

Lesley

Marsha

Niky

Sue

Friday, April 6, 2018

Welcome to the Bead Peeps Swap N Hop 2018 Reveal!

Welcome to the Bead Peeps Swap N Hop 2018 Reveal!  Thank you Linda Anderson for being our hostess.  This was such a fun challenge, we were paired up with Joanne Louvaine Bell of Twinkiedinky, so how could it not be fun??  Below is a picture of what our partner Joanne sent to us.


And now, the story begins...

Our first creation


"Trinkets" - a ribbon tassel necklace made with vintage Sari silk ribbons and tied onto a vintage horse tack ring.  The tassel has been adorned with Joanne's wonderful "Doof" component, a copper bezel that she created - isn't she lovely?   Our tassel is attached to a hand knotted crystal necklace with a filigree bail. 

Our next creation



The loveliest pair of whimsical wings you ever did see! ☺  They didn't need much because they're so beautiful on their own.  These resin wings by Joanne were soldered by us with a touch of filigree.  We crown thee "Princess Lilybell".

Ah, but wait...



Here lies the crowning glory.  This seed bead flower of loveliness was made by Gianna.  This flower has a raspberry rivoli crystal center and is dripping with chain, Czech glass, Swarovski crystals and more fantastic resin wings from Joanne.  What beautiful, magical sprite wouldn't love this??!!?? ♥

It was so fun to be whimsical!  Joanne, you are the "Twinkiedinky" that put a sparkle in our creations.

Here is what we sent Joanne for the Swap, hop on over and see what she has created!


Also, don't forget to hop around and check all of the other fantastic bead peeps that joined this blog event.  View their creations by clicking the links below. 

Beaders
Linda Anderson http://fromthebeadboard.blogspot.com (Hostess)
 
Hope Smitherman http://CraftyHope.com 
 
Terry Jeanette Carter https://tappingflamingo.blogspot.com
 
Rosantia Petkova http://bairozan.blogspot.bg/
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Seed Beaders
 
 
 
 
 


Sunday, April 1, 2018

Bead Peeps Bead Swap Reveal Coming Soon



We're working on our designs for the big reveal this Friday, we're really having a lot of fun playing with all of the beads and handmade components our partner Joanne sent us!  Speaking of, below are a few photos of the fabulous goodies she mailed us from the UK.

Joanne owns TwinkieDinky on Etsy, and she specializes in making silk-screened butterfly wings and polymer clay leaves and many more creative components.  She sent us a collection of her wings and leaves, and Czech and pewter beads.  We love the fun ribbon and fabric she wrapped our goodies in too!


Below is our Swap we sent to Joanne.  We mailed off a collection of copper and green components with our handmade in-studio lampwork, stamped pendants, copper, Aventurine and even real Monarch butterfly wings from our Ranch (our wings only come from butterflies that have died from natural causes).  We can't wait to see what Joanne makes with her Swap components!


Be sure to check back this Friday for the big 2018 Bead Peeps Reveal and hop to all of the blogs that are participating this year.  Seeing all the different designs beaders and creators do with their swaps makes this Blog Hop one of the most inspiring Blog Hops of the year!

Have a wonderful and Happy Easter!!



Wednesday, February 28, 2018

Dry Gulch at 2 Friends & JUNK Joplin 2018


We just finished with our first show of the year in Joplin, Missouri this past weekend.  We love seeing our customers in person at our shows!  Our first show was 2 Friends & JUNK, which is a vintage style show.  We set up just like a boutique with lots of nooks and crannies stuffed full of vintage beads, components and so much more.



We also bring our newly created jewelry designs.  We love working with pinks and turquoises, always popular colors!  We also upcycled our mannequins with fabulous lace and our handmade corsages to show off our jewelry.

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We want to send EVERYONE a great big THANK YOU for coming to see us in Joplin this past weekend. We loved seeing all of our friends, we had a wonderful show and we appreciate all of you.

Our next show is in two weeks this March 9-11 at the KCI Expo Center in Kansas City, Missouri.  We're excited to come see y'all in KC for the 57th Annual Gem & Mineral Show!  Visit our website here to see more info on this show and the rest of our shows this year.  See you there!


Wednesday, February 21, 2018

Our 2018 Bead Peeps Swap N Hop Partner


Every year we join the Bead Peeps Swap N Hop, an event where bloggers and Instagramers are assigned partners, swap beads, create, and post about their experience!  This years marks our 4th year in this event which is hosted by Linda Anderson (find her blog here at FromtheBeadBoard).

This year, we were partnered with Joanne Bell of the United Kingdom.  Joanne lives in a beautiful part of the country called Durham, and owns Twinkiedinky on Etsy and Facebook.  She creates the most whimsical jewelry designs and jewelry components.  Her designs often showcase natural elements like dried plants and wings encased in clear resin and metallic copper.  You can find her magical works on her Etsy shop and on her various Facebook groups.  Don't forget to check out her blog here at JoanneTinks on WordPress, too.  Below is just a smattering of the gorgeous designs she's created - there's so much wonderful color and texture! ♥ ♥ ♥



We're really excited to be partnered with Joanne this year, she's an artist that we very much admire.

We can't show off what we sent to our partner just yet, but when we receive her swap goodies we will be posting about that.  There will be several of us at Dry Gulch creating designs from our goodies, so be sure to check back when we post the big Reveal this March 26th!

Friday, January 19, 2018

Dry Gulch Jewelry Roundup


It's been a while since we've blogged, but we're saddled up and ready to go for a big and fabulous year!  We have lots in store including new bead and craft shows, more content on our social platforms and much more.  Stay tuned as we'll be blogging more about that soon.  We started out this year with lots of de-cluttering, painting and rearranging of our pages, be sure to take a look at our newly redesigned website at www.drygulch.com and of course our new look on our blog here.  We're making a goal of really livening up our Instagram page too, which you can visit here, but we also wanted to showcase some of the jewelry we've been sharing.  Let us know what your favorite design is in the comments below!